Russian Lit

Those reading bugs again. I remember reading a short story in which a man, for some reason I can't recall, vowed not to leave his bedroom for 20 years; no one thought he could or would do it, but he persevered, impressing those who knew him with his strong will. The day before the end of his self-imposed imprisonment, he walked out of the room, with no explanation or reason for his actions. I think it must have been a Russian work; they were known to engage in such behavior. Another such story featured a Russian man and his wife, he of course harsh and phlegmatic, she lonely and alone with no consideration from her boorish husband. Torn from what had been her home and transplanted to a vast, bleak, and deserted countryside, her only solace was a row of trees planted on the side of the house, probably as a windbreaker, maybe cypress trees. She took comfort in their presence, the only source of contentment for her. One day, in a black mood, her husband, for no reason, cut all the trees down, and broke her heart. No other point to that tale either.
POSTSCRIPT: I had to look up the first story above. It is Anton Chekhov's "The Bet." Turns out I didn't have such great recall---the self-imposed prisoner, in a debate over life in prison or the death sentence, said he thought the life term was preferable, and made a bet with a millionaire banker that if he would be locked in a sealed cottage for 15 years, the banker would pay him 2 million dollars. He did a lot of reading in his solitary time, and in the Russian mindset, came to despise all that living life entails. So 5 hours before his sentence was up, he rejected everything and left via a broken window. Good thing too, because the banker had suffered a reversal of fortune and paying the bet would have completely ruined him, so he had made plans to kill the guy on that last day. Those Russians! Now I have to see if I can find that other story, even though it was too much reading that ruined the mind of the prisoner.