We’re all about Russia these days, and not just because of the revelations that President Trump’s surrogates had still-unexplained meetings with the Russians.

The country is also on our mind because Newton native Louis C.K. (inset) has written a story about a trip he took to Russia in the 1990s. The piece, based on a tale C.K. told a few years ago on the storytelling show “The Moth,’’ appears in the new short story collection, “The Moth Presents: All These Wonders.’’

Titled “Untitled,’’ C.K.’s story is about an impromptu visit he made to Russia when he was in his twenties and working as a writer for “Late Night With Conan O’Brien.’’ The comedian, whose real name is Louis Székely, says he can’t speak a word of Russian, but took the trip because he was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.

“I had nowhere to go, and I thought, ‘I’m going to go to Russia,’ ’’ he writes. “Because when I was a kid, I used to read Russian novels, and I loved them . . . Also, somebody told me that the wall had just come down, and that Russia was a really crazy place at the time.’’

It turns out Russia was more bleak than crazy. C.K. writes about the extreme poverty he encountered.

“One thing about Russia, even still today, I think,’’ he writes, “is that no one has any money. So when you see a guy playing the violin in the subway, he’s like the first-chair violin for the Russian Symphony Orchestra, because that doesn’t pay [expletive] and at least he can get a few kopecks in the subway.’’

C.K. also encountered a group of children with dirty faces wearing men’s coats.

“They were street urchins, and the coats — you kind of knew all the men who owned those coats were dead, and at least one of these kids killed those guys,’’ C.K. writes.

All in all, it was a depressing trip.

“I realized this is why I came here — to find out how bad life gets,’’ he writes. “And that even when it’s this bad, it’s still [expletive] funny.’’