The book mentioned below is on offer at the moment on the Jiscmail "russian-lit" list at a discounted price.

It didn't seem appropriate to copy the whole message across. AJ

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A Russian Merchant’s Tale
The Life and Adventures of Ivan Alekseevich Tolchënov, Based on His Diary
By David L. Ransel, Indiana University, Bloomington

Based on the rare diary of an 18th-century Russian provincial merchant, A Russian Merchant's Tale presents a revealing portrait of Russia's little-known commercial class. By recording his daily contacts with a wide array of individuals from lords to labourers for more than 40 years, Ivan Alekseevich Tolch‘nov opened a window onto the education, work, birth, death, marriage, business, civic, holiday, and religious practices of a social group about which little has been.........