Speaking about his short stories, read "The Overcoat"/"The Mantle" by Gogol. Dostoevsky is said to have said that "we all came out of 'the overcoat' of/by Gogol", in the sense that the tradition of deep compassion with the simple/poor in Russian literature started with this work. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36238/36238-h/36238-h.htm#Pa...

Another very good (and short one) is 'the Nose' - this one is quite surrealistic, it's a hundred years ahead of its time. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36238/36238-h/36238-h.htm#Pa...

That's a great one! Also available at SE as "Memoirs of a Madman": https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/nikolai-gogol/short-fictio...