Russian literature
Novels from Moscow
Russian literature is the body of written works produced in Russia and in the Russian language, spanning from medieval chronicles through the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky to contemporary fiction.
The term often evokes the nineteenth-century golden age—dense psychological novels, tragic heroines, philosophical weight: She's been reading Russian literature all semester.
The tradition is known for moral seriousness, spiritual questioning, and epic scope.
- Dostoevsky19th-century Russian author
- PushkinEugene Onegin author
- ChekhovRussian short-story master
- TurgenevRussian realist writer
Pasternak · Solzhenitsyn · Nabokov · Babel
Opposing states of nations
- The Cherry OrchardDrama about declining nobility
- The SeagullLandmark Russian stage work
- MotherFemale parent as title
Anna Karenina · Crime and Punishment · The Brothers Karamazov · Doctor Zhivago · Uncle Vanya
New and unusual
- short storyBrief prose fiction
- dramaTheatrical art or turmoil
- poetryMetrical literary composition
- epicImpressively grand in scope
realism · naturalism · symbolism · futurism · samizdat
Sustained experience of distress
- redemptionRecovery or moral restoration
- fatePredetermined course of events
- guiltMoral self-reproach
- moralityRight and wrong principles
soul · nihilism · alienation · despair · sacrifice · repentance · duality · absurdity
Educated, intellectual class
- serfBonded agricultural laborer
- nobilityTitled ruling class
- peasantryRural working class
- WesternizerOne who promotes adopting European customs
troika · samovar · dacha · steppe · taiga · Silver Age · Golden Age · censorship
Tolstoy
- Dostoevsky19th-century Russian author
- PushkinEugene Onegin author
- ChekhovRussian short-story master
Turgenev · Pasternak · Solzhenitsyn · Nabokov · Babel
War and Peace
Opposing states of nations
- The Cherry OrchardDrama about declining nobility
- The SeagullLandmark Russian stage work
- MotherFemale parent as title
Anna Karenina · Crime and Punishment · The Brothers Karamazov · Doctor Zhivago · Uncle Vanya
novel
New and unusual
- short storyBrief prose fiction
- dramaTheatrical art or turmoil
- poetryMetrical literary composition
epic · realism · naturalism · symbolism · futurism · samizdat
suffering
Sustained experience of distress
- redemptionRecovery or moral restoration
- fatePredetermined course of events
- guiltMoral self-reproach
morality · soul · nihilism · alienation · despair · sacrifice · repentance · duality · absurdity · fatalism
intelligentsia
Educated, intellectual class
Westernizer · troika · samovar · dacha · steppe · taiga · Silver Age · Golden Age · censorship · exile
- Russian LiteratureTolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Pushkin, Nabokov
- Slavic LiteratureDostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Pushkin, Nabokov
- Russian studiesCyrillic, Cyrillic alphabet, southern dialects
- Slavic linguisticsSlavic languages, Old Church Slavonic, Church Slavonic, Polish, Czech
- Slavic StudiesSlavic languages, Slavic mythology, Polish language, Old Church Slavonic, Church Slavonic
- book genresfiction, novels, nonfiction, mystery, thriller
Russian literatureAmerican literature
U.S. written works
French literature · English literature · Japanese literature · Latin American literature · African literature
Russian literatureP.G. Wodehouse
pulp fiction · airport novels · Japanese haiku · light verse · Jane Austen
Russian literatureoral tradition
Culture passed by speech
folk tales · oral poetry · spoken word · griots · storytelling
literature, literary, lettered, literate, illiterate, Russification, Russia, Russian, literati