Daniil Kharms (1905-42) mainly made a living writing children's books in Leningrad. He also wrote poems and absurd short stories, often published in underground magazines, after the avant-garde literary societies that Kharms was associated with were banned by the Stalin regime.

In 1931 Kharms was convicted of anti-Soviet activity and spent a year in prison and exile in Kursk. In 1937 his children's books were confiscated by the authorities, and deprived of his main source of income Kharms was often on the brink of starvation in the following years. He continued to write short, grotesque stories, which weren't published, but merely stored in Kharms' desk drawer.

In August 1941, shortly before the terrible siege of Leningrad, Kharms was arrested a second time, accused of "spreading defeatist propaganda". During the trial Kharms was declared non compos mentis and was incarcerated in a military prison. In February 1942, while Leningrad was ravaged by famine, Kharms starved to death in prison.

The following is a collection of some of Kharms' wonderfully absurd short stories that I have found in various places on the net.

• Symphony No. 2
• Blue notebook No. 10
• The thing
• Andrey Semyonovich
• A sonnet
• An unexpected drinking bout
• A knight
• The destiny of a professor's wife
• The things
• Father and daughter
• Falling old ladies
• How a man crumbled
• The connection
• The memoirs of a wise old man
• Clunk
• The hunters
• They call me Capuchin
• The dream
• An encounter
• Fedya Davidovich
• On phenomena and excistences - No. 1
• What they sell in the shops these days
• Anecdotes from the life of Pushkin
• The start of a very nice summer's day