We use a modified Library of Congress transliteration system of the Russian alphabet throughout the book, with a few exceptions. In cases where the names of classical or well-known contemporary Russian authors have been traditionally rendered in English using a different transliteration system (such as Maxim Gorky, Kornei Chukovsky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Ludmila Ulitskaya, Miriam Petrosyan, Narine Abgaryan), we use those spellings. In instances where a book has been published in English translation, we use the translated title. For all other Russian titles, we provide our own translation, or use the title suggested by the publishing house in their promotional materials. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Russian texts are ours.