Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's Russian Classics of Supernatural Fiction?

Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, the nineteenth-century Russian writer known to weird fiction readers for introducing the vampire into Russian literature, should of course not be confused with Leo Tolstoy the author of War and Peace, to whom Aleksey is a second cousin (it is worth noting here that the Tolstoy family has counted so far at least six writers, all of whom are listed here: The Tolstoys in Russian literature). Aleksey has produced four often anthologized tales of the supernatural:

• The Vampire (rus. Упырь)
• Amena 
• The Family of a Vourdalak (fr. La Famille Du Vourdalak, rus. Семья вурдалака)
• Three Hundred Years On (fr. Le Rendez-Vous Dans Trois Cents Ans, rus. Встреча через триста лет)

All of these stories, collected in Vampire Stories of the Supernatural, tr. Fedor Nikanov, ed. Linda Kuehl (Hawthorn, 1969), are considered classics of Russian Gothic literature, and yet very few readers realize that the last three works were originally not produced in Russian, but in French. Let us consult S. T. Joshi's entry on this author to Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia (ed. S. T. Joshi and Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, 2005, Greenwood):

"Oupyr" is a confused and ill-proportioned tale, in which Rybarenko's long narrative occupies a disproportionate amount of space and the supernatural events are never adequately reconciled. Its poor reception apparently dissuaded Tolstoy from publishing his three other, shorter supernatural tales, written in French, only one of which — "Amena" (1846) — appeared in his lifetime. "La Famille du vourdalak" (first published in a Russian translation in 1884) is perhaps the most successful of the stories, postulating the existence of vourdalaks, or vampires who prefer to suck only the blood of close relatives and friends.

Wikipedia Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy entry provides more information on the matter (the article however incorrectly assumes that Three Hundred Years On was first written in German). 

In January 1837 Tolstoy became attached to the Russian Embassy in Frankfurt where he spent the next two years. The assignment was rather formal; it did not demand Tolstoy's presence in Germany and he spent most of his time in Saint Petersburg, leading a merry life, spending up to three thousand rubles per month, often traveling to Italy and France. It was during one of these visits that he wrote his first two "gothic" novellas – The Family of the Vourdalak and Three Hundred Years On (originally in German, later translated into Russian by Boleslav Markevich). Tolstoy showed great interest in all things macabre, influenced, again, by his late uncle who "was obsessed with mysticism in every possible form" and who, in turn, was influenced by E. T. A. Hoffmann whom he was personally acquainted with.
In late 1840 Tolstoy was transferred back to Russia to a position in the Tsar's Imperial State Chancellery 2nd Department where he continued to work for many years, slowly rising in the hierarchy. As time went by, though, he showed less and less enthusiasm, for the demands of his position had come to feel like a major hindrance to his literary aspirations. In May 1841 Tolstoy debuted with The Vampire (a novella published under the pen name of "Krasnorogsky", a reference to Krasny Rog, his residence). Complicated in structure, multi-layered and rich in counterpoints, featuring both the element of "horror" and political satire, it instantly caught the attention of Vissarion Belinsky who praised its "obviously still very young, but undoubtedly gifted author," totally unaware of the latter's real identity. Tolstoy himself saw the story as insignificant and made no attempt to include it in any of the subsequent compilations; it was only in 1900 that The Vampire was re-issued.

Russian translation by Boleslav Markovich of "La Famille du vourdalak", The Russian Messenger, 1884

It is worth noting that this first Russian translation of "La Famille du vourdalak" by Boleslav Markovich was published posthumously in 1884 in the magazine The Russian Messenger and it was not published in French until 1950, when it appeared in a French journal of Slavic studies. Both the 1969 English translation by Fedor Nikanov and Polish translation by René Śliwowski seem to be from Russian, not the original French. It can be assumed that most of the translations of these stories were, alas, done based on the Russian texts. 

From the perspective of linguistic purism, such attempts at indirect translation do remind one of the brilliant ending scene from the last segment of Mario Bava's 1963 horror film I Tre volti della paura (also known as Black Sabbath), which is based on the novella "The Family of a Vourdalak". In this scene you see a close-up of Boris Karloff riding a horse through a dark forest. The camera starts zooming out and you get to see the actual "horse". You scratch your head smiling when the end credits roll.

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REFERENCES
The Family of a Vourdalak by nzumel

FURTHER READING AND HEARING:

La Famille du Vourdalak (French) at Wikisource
Le Rendez-vous dans trois cents ans (French) at Wikisource
The Family of the Vourdalak (English) at American Literature

You can also listen to the original French versions of two of the stories narrated on the great site literatureaudio.com:

La Famille Du Vourdalak read by René Depasse or alternately here read by Lostania0

Le Rendez-Vous Dans Trois Cents Ans read by René Depasse