In a story titled for one of these objects, a poor boy is amused by three dolls playing violins in a window, but is chased away by a bully and runs to hide behind a pile of wood where he freezes to death. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name these objects. Another story titled for one of these objects ends with the narrator thinking “then his calculations were correct” after witnessing a wealthy man marrying a 16-year-old girl.
ANSWER: Christmas trees [or Rozhdestvenskaya yolka; accept “A Christmas Tree and a Wedding” or “Yolka i svad'ba”; accept “The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree” or “The Heavenly Christmas Tree” or “Mal'chik u Khrista na yolka; prompt on trees]
[10e] This author’s relationship with Christianity is reflected in his story “The Beggar Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree.” This Russian author also wrote “White Nights” and “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man.”
ANSWER: Fyodor Dostoevsky [or Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky]
[10m] Once banned, Christmas trees were reintroduced to Russia in the 1930s, possibly because of Stalin’s love for this author’s play The Days of the Turbins, which includes a scene of a Christmas tree being decorated.
ANSWER: Mikhail Bulgakov
<S, European Literature>