RED SHOES DIARY, 1901-1969 BY KORNEI CHUKOVSKY, EDITED BY VICTOR ERLICH, TRANSLATED BY MICHAEL HENRY HEIM NEW HAVEN, CT: YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 630 PAGES. $45.
There's no shortage of foliage in Peredelkino, the stately Stalin-era writers' village just outside of Moscow. But one tree bears a unique kind of flower. Sprouting from its limbs are children's shoestiny fur-lined boots, patent-leather Mary Janes, and sneakers dangling by their laces. It's hard to resist plucking a pair while crossing the yard to Kornei Chukovsky's dacha, exquisitely preserved in memory of Russia's most beloved children's poet.
The tree, which sprouted its crop of children's shoes decades after …
