11. Andrei Bely – Petersburg (1916/1922) Bely’s Petersburg tells the story of a senator’s son looking to assassinate his father in the midst of the failed 1905 revolution, and its publication before and […]
11. Andrei Bely – Petersburg (1916/1922)
Bely’s Petersburg tells the story of a senator’s son looking to assassinate his father in the midst of the failed 1905 revolution, and its publication before and after the Bolshevik revolution became was of little surprise, as no other text could better account for the massive changes the country was undergoing. Both a contemporary account of a changing generation and a revisiting of Russian history and literature, the novel’s unique ‘ornamentalist’ style became the benchmark of Russian literature’s brief foray into literary modernism.
12. Evgeni Zamyatin – We (1920)
One of the first novels to be critical of the Bolshevik Revolution, We questioned the principles of socialism by setting the story in the distant future. Considered to be one of the first dystopian novels, its ridiculous depiction of a glass-encased city state told from the perspective of a mathematician with a number for a name would soon become an uncanny representation of a society gone mad. Banned in Russia until 1988, the novel had a profound impact on George Orwell, and would later become a major influence to his great work 1984.
13. Ivan Bunin – The Gentleman from San Francisco (1922)
Bunin’s critique of capitalist society may have been deemed ironic when he escaped Russia after the Bolshevik revolution, but his pessimistic view of technological advancement and American society became an instant hit among the angry youth in the country at the time. Set on a passenger ship heading from America to Europe, it follows the “inevitable-death” model of Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice and Lev Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Illych to evoke what he saw was the spiritual void of capitalist society.
14. Mikhail Sholokhov – Quiet Flows the Don (1928-1940)
While War and Peace was influenced in part by the glories and ironies of war, Sholokhov decided to forgo any elevation of battle and depict in all of its brutality and sorrow the decline of the Cossack civilization in this four-novel series. The novel was at first controversial for its antagonizing of the Bolshevik invaders during the revolutionary war, but Sholokhov’s emphasis on Cossack life and cosmology is as humanizing as it is painfully elegiac.
15. Vladimir Nabokov – The Gift (1937)
Nabokov is more well-known for his English masterpieces Lolita and Pale Fire, but before his success in America, he endured brief success by writing in his native Russian as an emigré in Germany. The Gift is quite fitting, considering it was his final Russian novel–closely paralleling his home country’s literary history in the 19th century, the novel tells the story of a man leaving Russia behind, and it explores various literary styles and forms while also explaining, in semi-biographical form, his own departure.
16. Boris Pasternak – Dr.Zhivago (1957)
Boris Pasternak’s sprawling epic tells the story of Yury Zhivago, an orphan turned doctor and poet during the first few decades of the 20th century. The novel is bleakly poetic but undeniably beautiful–using the turbulent events of the revolution as a backdrop, Pasternak demonstrates the protagonist’s transition from an admirer of Tolstoy to an opponent of Soviet communism. Written nearly a hundred years after the great period of large Russian novels, this work marked a resurgence of the genre, and even inspired one of the most celebrated movies of all time.
17. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn – One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)
While many Russian novelists carefully approached anything closely related to subversion during the Soviet Regime, Solzhenitsyn’s honest and brutal portrayal of a “good day” at a labor camp in the Siberian GULAG is as hopeful as it is heartbreaking. The novel’s greatness can be found in its biting irony. Men from all over the Soviet Union and abroad come together and build their own successful society within the camp, and in doing so live “free” from the tyrannical policies of this failed state.
18. Mikhail Bulgakov – The Master and Margarita (1966)
The Master and Margarita was like nothing written before it. Published posthumously more than two decades after the death of the author, this bizarre but fantastical twist of Goethe’s Faust tells the story of a figure named Woland–presumably the devil–who wreaks havoc on Soviet Moscow. Hilarious, fantastical and ridiculous, Bulgakov’s novel is still celebrated today in Russia, and is considered by some to be the founding text of magic realism.
19. Evgeny Popov – The Soul of a Patriot (1989)
As one of the first authors to emerge out of the 1986 liberalizing of Russia known as the Glasnost, Popov had free rein in criticizing the failures of the Soviet Experiment. Inspired by Gogol, Popov used this epistolary form to chronicle a generational line, as well as the end of an era. When Brezhnev died in 1982, the feeling that the USSR was perhaps coming to an end began to dawn on people, and Popov became (and remains today) one of the foremost critics of modern Russia.
20. Victor Pelevin – Omon Ra (1992)
One of the first celebrated novels to emerge out of the collapsing Soviet Union in the early 1990’s, Omon Ra tells the story of Omon Krivomazov, a former war-hero turned “cosmonaut” who believes he is undergoing training for a moon landing. Both a satire of conspiracy theory and the Soviet Union’s desperate push for modernity, the need for Omon to leave the earth to be free from the USSR is a funny but poignant commentary towards a utopian ideal that failed so many.
Hey thanks for this list. I have just developed an interest in Russian literature and realised how far off I was in the literary dominion. I have just got myself War and Peace, Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov. Hope to devour all the books on this list.
Try Aleksandr Kuprin – he is a great story teller
“…by the poetry of Evgeni Pushkin.”
All is great, but Evgeniy Pushkin? Probably u meant Evgeniy Onegin by Alexander Pushkin?
Interesting inclusion of Biggles
I can’t believe “What is to be done?’ is recommended here. It is the most boring book in the world! When we studied it at school, we usually went to bed with this book: even if you did not want to sleep, the boredom projected from this book would put you to sleep!
I’m surprised The Master and Margarita isn’t on this list.
My Mistake. It is! lol
That is odd; while I agree with you that The Master and Margarita should be on the list, I do not see it there. Perhaps this list was modified since you first saw it. But then, who would take it off the list? Too wacky to contemplate.
Oh, sorry, egg on my face. My cell-phone (supposedly a “smart-phone”) did not show the part of the page where you click on to get to the second page with novels 11-20. I only saw 1-10. Never mind my above reply.
Hi blogger, i must say you have high quality posts here.
Your page can go viral. You need initial traffic only.
How to get it? Search for: Mertiso’s tips go viral
A book about the complex relationship between man and the ghost world. A book that is designed to turn the reader’s view of the other world.
This is excellent, thank you
I agree that seeing “What Is To Be Done” on the list is a head-scratcher. Its esteem seems to arise more out of “the responses it created than as a novel in its own right,” as one reviewer puts it. While on the one hand, it was loved by those of the socialist mindset like Vladimir Lenin, it was roundly criticized by giants among novelists, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy and Nabokov. Rather, I believe that scholars today would be much more inclined to replace that title and likely even Gorky’s “Mother” on the list with “Petersburg” by Bely and “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov, or maybe with “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Solzhenitsyn or “We” by Zamyatin.
If you have already read these classics and want to try some more obscure – but still excellent – Russian novels then I suggest you have a look at this nice little list: https://tinyurl.com/y8fnmado
Many years ago I read a marvelous collection of Russian short stories that took place in tsarist Russia, before the 1917 Revolution. I remember especially one of them dealing about an encounter between an exquisite married lady and the narrator, in a room. It was winter and it was beautiful, the description of her dress, the weather, the romantic story. It was not Chejov, I lost the book in Cuba, I don’t remember the author, I read it in Spanish, but it is the same for me in English. I’m doing my research, but if any of you have any idea about it, please write to me, thank you.
That sounds very interesting, Elena. The story itself does not ring a bell for me, but I will list a few of the most prominent Russian short story writers that I am aware of, and maybe the author’s name will be familiar to you. Or you can research them on the net. Try these:
– Ivan Bunin
– Isaac Babel
– Yuri Kazakov
– Nikolai Leskov
– Alexander Serafimovich
– Viktor Yerofeyev
Also Anton Chekov! Tolstoy and Gorky also have written a good number of short stories.
I know two stories with similar setting. The one you are talking about is titled “Sunstroke” (Solnychnii Udar) by Ivan Bunin. The two characters met on a ship and then went into a hotel room. Then what you described follows. The next day the lady leaves and the narrator is left back alone. A very deep story. Nicely told. Once you read it, you can never forget the emotions you felt while reading it. By the way, your mentioning Chekov is amusing, because Bunin is often compared with Chekhov. In fact, it is said that their styles are so similar that any book written by one could as well have been written by the other.
Another similar (long) story is, of course, “Lady with the Dog” (Dama s Sobachkoy) by Anton Chekov. It describes the affair between the narrator and a married young lady. The events took place over a course of several days and at several locations.
Greetings. I believe the author of the short story of which you’re thinking was Ivan Bunin. He was the first Russian writer to win a Nobel Prize.
Sunstroke, by Ivan Bunin. It’s in a collection of his short stories.
I love Vladimir Schukschin’s short stories and think he should be much better known. The protaganists tend to be characters who are a bit eccentric and not quite at ease in the rural society in which they live and which the author knew so well. Many of them remind me of some of the older people I knew growing up in rural Ireland. I think the author was passed over by Western critics in the last century because he was never a dissident. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate him.
Oh, good to know, Brian. I’ll check him out…
Correction- that should be VASILY Shukshin. My transliteration of his surname was incorrect as well.
Ƭhey additionally present fixture in lieu of download.
Looking for some help, please. I have a set of books written in Russian by, I believe, MAPK TBEH. It’s a 12-book set, but I’m missing book #10 and would like to get it and complete the set. My son is learning some Russian and would like the books. Recommendations from anyone? Thank you.
I can’t simply go without leaving a comment. This post is a great read.
Donut Hole is a War story told by a Marine who had just survived 395 days in a war zone, but at the end of his 13 month tour, he would have to survive the 68 TET Offensive and the Donut Hole to come home alive.
I hope you can take the time to read my book as well:Donut Hole
I think Artsybashev’s Sanin really deserves to be on the list.
While I wouldn’t have left out Master & Margherita or a half dozen other titles taste is individual. On the other hand there’s nothing about translations which is a huge topic when discussing Russian novels? Garnett vs Maude vs P-V, etc? You basically just mailed this in.
Sorry, but no one will take this seriously until you have fixed a glaring mistake at the beginning: Alexander, not Evgeny Pushkin; “Eugene Onegin” is the name of Pushkin’s poem.
I’ve read Nabokov complete, including short stories, collections of non-fiction works, his major two-volume biography, everything except the Eugene Onegin translation.
It’s a nice gesture to throw The Gift onto this list but I think he really didn’t come into his own until writing in English: Pale Fire, Bend Sinister. Despite the sickening subject matter Lolita is incredibly written. I warn people off Ada but even that is intense (kind of like Buckaroo Banzai meets Anna Karenina). And yet despite the country of his birth, I’d claim these all as American or English novels, not Russian.
In lieu of The Gift I’d suggest perhaps Stalingrad: A Novel. By Vasily Grossman.
Interesting blog, it reminds me of Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment :”Ordinary men have to live in submission, have no right to transgress the law, because, don’t you see, they are ordinary. But extraordinary men have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way, just because they are extraordinary.”
I tried to write a blog abot him, hope you also like it : https://stenote.blogspot.com/2021/04/an-interview-with-fyodor.html
Qwiklit 
Hey thanks for this list. I have just developed an interest in Russian literature and realised how far off I was in the literary dominion. I have just got myself War and Peace, Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov. Hope to devour all the books on this list.
Try Aleksandr Kuprin – he is a great story teller
“…by the poetry of Evgeni Pushkin.”
All is great, but Evgeniy Pushkin? Probably u meant Evgeniy Onegin by Alexander Pushkin?
Interesting inclusion of Biggles
I can’t believe “What is to be done?’ is recommended here. It is the most boring book in the world! When we studied it at school, we usually went to bed with this book: even if you did not want to sleep, the boredom projected from this book would put you to sleep!
I’m surprised The Master and Margarita isn’t on this list.
My Mistake. It is! lol
That is odd; while I agree with you that The Master and Margarita should be on the list, I do not see it there. Perhaps this list was modified since you first saw it. But then, who would take it off the list? Too wacky to contemplate.
Oh, sorry, egg on my face. My cell-phone (supposedly a “smart-phone”) did not show the part of the page where you click on to get to the second page with novels 11-20. I only saw 1-10. Never mind my above reply.
Hi blogger, i must say you have high quality posts here.
Your page can go viral. You need initial traffic only.
How to get it? Search for: Mertiso’s tips go viral
A book about the complex relationship between man and the ghost world. A book that is designed to turn the reader’s view of the other world.
This is excellent, thank you
I agree that seeing “What Is To Be Done” on the list is a head-scratcher. Its esteem seems to arise more out of “the responses it created than as a novel in its own right,” as one reviewer puts it. While on the one hand, it was loved by those of the socialist mindset like Vladimir Lenin, it was roundly criticized by giants among novelists, Dostoyevski, Tolstoy and Nabokov. Rather, I believe that scholars today would be much more inclined to replace that title and likely even Gorky’s “Mother” on the list with “Petersburg” by Bely and “The Master and Margarita” by Bulgakov, or maybe with “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” by Solzhenitsyn or “We” by Zamyatin.
If you have already read these classics and want to try some more obscure – but still excellent – Russian novels then I suggest you have a look at this nice little list: https://tinyurl.com/y8fnmado
Many years ago I read a marvelous collection of Russian short stories that took place in tsarist Russia, before the 1917 Revolution. I remember especially one of them dealing about an encounter between an exquisite married lady and the narrator, in a room. It was winter and it was beautiful, the description of her dress, the weather, the romantic story. It was not Chejov, I lost the book in Cuba, I don’t remember the author, I read it in Spanish, but it is the same for me in English. I’m doing my research, but if any of you have any idea about it, please write to me, thank you.
That sounds very interesting, Elena. The story itself does not ring a bell for me, but I will list a few of the most prominent Russian short story writers that I am aware of, and maybe the author’s name will be familiar to you. Or you can research them on the net. Try these:
– Ivan Bunin
– Isaac Babel
– Yuri Kazakov
– Nikolai Leskov
– Alexander Serafimovich
– Viktor Yerofeyev
Also Anton Chekov! Tolstoy and Gorky also have written a good number of short stories.
I know two stories with similar setting. The one you are talking about is titled “Sunstroke” (Solnychnii Udar) by Ivan Bunin. The two characters met on a ship and then went into a hotel room. Then what you described follows. The next day the lady leaves and the narrator is left back alone. A very deep story. Nicely told. Once you read it, you can never forget the emotions you felt while reading it. By the way, your mentioning Chekov is amusing, because Bunin is often compared with Chekhov. In fact, it is said that their styles are so similar that any book written by one could as well have been written by the other.
Another similar (long) story is, of course, “Lady with the Dog” (Dama s Sobachkoy) by Anton Chekov. It describes the affair between the narrator and a married young lady. The events took place over a course of several days and at several locations.
Greetings. I believe the author of the short story of which you’re thinking was Ivan Bunin. He was the first Russian writer to win a Nobel Prize.
Sunstroke, by Ivan Bunin. It’s in a collection of his short stories.
I love Vladimir Schukschin’s short stories and think he should be much better known. The protaganists tend to be characters who are a bit eccentric and not quite at ease in the rural society in which they live and which the author knew so well. Many of them remind me of some of the older people I knew growing up in rural Ireland. I think the author was passed over by Western critics in the last century because he was never a dissident. Maybe it’s time to reevaluate him.
Oh, good to know, Brian. I’ll check him out…
Correction- that should be VASILY Shukshin. My transliteration of his surname was incorrect as well.
Ƭhey additionally present fixture in lieu of download.
Looking for some help, please. I have a set of books written in Russian by, I believe, MAPK TBEH. It’s a 12-book set, but I’m missing book #10 and would like to get it and complete the set. My son is learning some Russian and would like the books. Recommendations from anyone? Thank you.
I can’t simply go without leaving a comment. This post is a great read.
Donut Hole is a War story told by a Marine who had just survived 395 days in a war zone, but at the end of his 13 month tour, he would have to survive the 68 TET Offensive and the Donut Hole to come home alive.
I hope you can take the time to read my book as well:Donut Hole
I think Artsybashev’s Sanin really deserves to be on the list.
While I wouldn’t have left out Master & Margherita or a half dozen other titles taste is individual. On the other hand there’s nothing about translations which is a huge topic when discussing Russian novels? Garnett vs Maude vs P-V, etc? You basically just mailed this in.
Sorry, but no one will take this seriously until you have fixed a glaring mistake at the beginning: Alexander, not Evgeny Pushkin; “Eugene Onegin” is the name of Pushkin’s poem.
I’ve read Nabokov complete, including short stories, collections of non-fiction works, his major two-volume biography, everything except the Eugene Onegin translation.
It’s a nice gesture to throw The Gift onto this list but I think he really didn’t come into his own until writing in English: Pale Fire, Bend Sinister. Despite the sickening subject matter Lolita is incredibly written. I warn people off Ada but even that is intense (kind of like Buckaroo Banzai meets Anna Karenina). And yet despite the country of his birth, I’d claim these all as American or English novels, not Russian.
In lieu of The Gift I’d suggest perhaps Stalingrad: A Novel. By Vasily Grossman.
Interesting blog, it reminds me of Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Crime and Punishment :”Ordinary men have to live in submission, have no right to transgress the law, because, don’t you see, they are ordinary. But extraordinary men have a right to commit any crime and to transgress the law in any way, just because they are extraordinary.”
I tried to write a blog abot him, hope you also like it : https://stenote.blogspot.com/2021/04/an-interview-with-fyodor.html