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Russian Literature: the 20th Century.
The 20th century was quite dynamic in Russia. There were Russian-Japanese war, three revolutions, the World War 1, the war with Finland, the World War 2, the Cold War, the collapse of the USSR and the Chechen war in the end of the century. The country was either fighting or revolting, starving or collapsing. The complicated life gave birth to the new “complicated” literature. The art and literature had to sustain moral, beliefs, and traditions...
Gorky Maxim, 1868-1936
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The official writer of the Soviet State. In fact, before he obtained this unique status he had to leave Soviet Russia, new leaders didn’t want to share the popularity with him. Only when the communist power remained the only one in Russia, they invited Gorky back as the founder of Soviet literature. His favorite themes were social problems and uselessness of a money-making life. |
Recommended Books by Gorky:
Bulgakov Mikhail Afanasevich, 1891-1940
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There are several novels and plays created by Bulgakov. They are all a bit magic and very alluring. “Master and Margarita” – the magic love story with the Christ and Devil involved - his most popular text. |
Recommended Books by Bulgakov:
Mayakovsky Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1893-1930
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The style is really impressive – you feel much energy while reading him. The poem can be about anything – nature, people or feelings - you will get the energy boost anyway. Besides, his hero is a strong and smart romantic person and it is nice to associate yourself with such a man. |
Recommended Books by Mayakovsky:
Esenin Sergey Alexandrovich, 1895-1925
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He loved countryside. He was born far from big cities and although he lived in the capital his poetry remained in the country. His poems are considered to be the best Russian poems about the nature. |
Recommended Books by Esenin:
Ahmatova Anna Andreevna, 1889-1966
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The first woman in this list. She said about herself: “I taught the women how to speak”. She wrote much about love and religious feeling. However, her lyrics were prohibited for a long time in the Soviet Union, as a useless and unhealthy art. |
Recommended Books by Ahmatova:
Pasternak Boris Leonidovich, 1890-1960
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A famous poet and writer. Well, he is more popular as a writer; his genius novel “Doctor Zhivago” is a story of the whole country in the time of revolution. Pasternak was awarded the Noble prize in 1958 for literature. But he had to refuse otherwise he would be pushed out of the country by Soviet government. He gave up the world fame and money to be humiliated in his motherland (the government was about to prohibit his novel). |
Recommended Books by Pasternak:
Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1899-1977
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Perhaps, Nabokov is the most popular Russian writer abroad. He is a man who wrote “Lolita”. But he is also the author of several genius novels you absolutely must read. I like Nabokov for his unbelievable language feeling. Every time he uses the best words in the best order – this is his style, the perfect style of Nabokov. |
Recommended Books by Nabokov:
Platonov Andrey Platonovich, 1899-1951
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If you still think Soviet communism was a pretty good system, you should read his novels. Platonov is not pure anticommunist. He describes the absurd of life, and communism is the reason for much absurd and mess according to his famous ñFoundation Pitî novel. |
Recommended Books by Platonov and about Platonov:
Brodsky Joseph Aleksandrovich, 1940-1996
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The Poet. |
Recommended Books by Brodsky:
Dovlatov Sergey Donatovich, 1941-1990
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If you start reading him, you will stop only when his last novel will be read through. The smart and ironic writer describes the complex reality and you get involved in this reality very fast. There are very few people who donÍt like his easy style. |
Recommended Books by Dovlatov:
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The Compromise
A witty novel about a Soviet reporter's life in Estonia. A lot of everyday life's images, characters, relationships.
Highly recommended. |
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Inostranka: A Russian Reader: A Russian... |
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Zapovednik |
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Filial |
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Ours: a Russian Family Album |
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Chemodan
A person, who emigrated from the USSR a few years ago, finds his old briefcase (chemodan) and starts looking through the stuff remembering some little stories from the past related to them... |
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The Zone: A Prison Camp Guard's...
A sad novel full of humour. A guard at a prison camp is writing about his everyday life. The prison camp seems to be a little model of the "freedom": there's also love, hatred, happiness, sadness — just mixed in a different way, but in the same proportions. After a moment the "Zone" starts to remind the Soviet state...
Highly recommended. |
Pelevin Victor Olegovich, born in 1962
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The most popular national writer in the end of 90s. The ideas are a mix of various oriental philosophies and the plot is very dynamic, weird, and energetic – young Russians like him a lot. |
Recommended Books by Pelevin:
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The Clay Machine-Gun
The story perfected in its absurdity. The plot takes place in the beginning of 20th century, just after the 1917 revolution. Bolsheviks are riding their horses along empty Leningrad's streets and sniffing coke...
A lot of interesting historical details and ideas. |
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The Life of Insects
A tribute to Carlos Castaneda. |
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Omon Ra |
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Buddha's Little Finger |
Your Comments:
If you have something interesting to say or add, please, leave your message below and we'll post it on this page.
Comment (posted on 4/03/03): "Any
list of Russian authors should begin with Alexander Solzenitsen!!
His wonderful writing and bravery in facing the authorities make
him number one. And winning the Nobel prize was rather special wouldn't
you say."
Comment (posted on 06/01/03): " I see no writer (perhaps
Pelevin) who is writing about Russia after Communism. Are there
none? Perhaps some not of the firls rank. I'd like to see what they
have to say."
Answer: Yeah, as it was said in disclaimer, this
is not the complete list, so we omitted some writers (and we'll
add them later).
For now, I can recommend you:
1) Sorokin, Vladimir - he has a sense of language and writes
absurd novels about life. This summer he was sued by a pro-president
youth political organisation in Russia because of pornography in
his books, but it only made publicity to him, and now he's as popular
as never. Recommended reading: "Mashenka", "Norma",
"Goluboye Salo".
2) Tolstaya, Tatiana - she is a philolog, so her
language is very intricate and interesting. I don't know if she
was translated though, for the same reason.
3) Akunin, Boris - the most popular contemporary
Russian detective author.
If you have any suggestions, feel free to post a message to me.
-- Dimas / WayToRussia.Net
Comment (posted 29/03/03): "about Sergey Dovlatov-
easy style - try to write something similar-easy style
Vladimir Sorokin If you will mention his untalented books more he
will probably become the most popular writer"
Answer: I don't agree with you completely about
Sorokin. It is true that some of his books are not so interesting
to read, but what I personally like in his style is that the way
he writes is more important than the plot. For example, there's
a story called "Mashen'ka" - it is about a woman living
in the USSR of 80s, she doesn't like the system and does all the
"forbidden" things: going out to expensive restaurants,
stealing food in shops, thinking of emigration, gets with foreigners
and so on. After a while, she meets a man who is in charge of a
big factory. He's a real communist, and he explains her why. Then
make sex and she has orgasm for the first time in her life. Now
she feels very attracted to this man and tries to understand him
better. She gives up all her "dissident" activities and
even goes to try and work at the factory he is in charge of. She
meets people, who have strong communist ideology there, and then
the story starts to become weird. While reading it, you notice that
the last 10..20..50 pages were complete nonsense, madness, a flow
of propaganda you would normally see in Soviet newspapers. And the
story ends like this, with a flow of nonsense that can not be stopped,
a kind of climax as well.
You can order another book "A Queue" by V.Sorokin at Amazon.co.uk
Comment (3/05/04): #1 Solzhenitsyn...then Shalamov, Cvetaeva, Byeli,
A.A. Blokh, Hlebnikov, Ilyf & Petrov, Zamyatin, Gorky, Voznesensky,
Rozhdestvensky, Yevtushenko, Vasily Shukshin, Julian Semyonov,
Limonov...too many
to think of right now, but at least it's a good beginning, no?
RUSSIA WILL SAVE EUROPE!
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