The evolution of attitudes towards female characters in Russian literature : an historical overview -- Spiritual and physical murder between man and woman : Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Chekhov -- Woman as sexual predator in Russian literary tradition : Tolstoy, Zoschenko and Trifonov -- Woman's infidelity as the cause for man's devastation : Tolstoy, Flaubert, Leskov, Turgenev, Kuprin, and Chekhov -- Anxiety about the strong woman : Turgenev, Leskov, and Bulgakov -- Surrogate for man-woman relations in post-war Soviet literature : Vasilyiev, Grossman, and Rasputin -- The eunuch as hero in late-Soviet and Perestroika literature : Dovlatov, Nagibin, and Polyakov -- Man as an object in literature by women : Shcherbakova, Rubina, Ulitskaya, Petrushevskaya, and Grekova -- Conclusion : sex as an animal act beyond comprehension.