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Genres › Russian Literature

Crime and Punishment
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
79 days •
ⓘ 1866 • Impoverished student Raskolnikov coolly contemplates the murder of his pawnbroker as his intellect and morals clash in this classic psychological study.
The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
152 days •
ⓘ 1880 • Enter the Karamazovs: the buffoon father, fiery Dmitri, intellectual Ivan, angelic Alexei, and sneaking Pavel. This epic tale juggles faith, reason, judgement, and murder.
The Darling
Anton Chekhov
2 days •
ⓘ 1899 • The story of Olenka , a "darling" who is engulfed by one man after the other.
The Bet
Anton Chekhov
2 days •
ⓘ 1889 • Which is worse: death or life in prison? And how far would you go to prove it if two million rubles were on the line?
The Seagull
Anton Chekhov
8 days •
ⓘ 1896 • In the words of Chekhov, this comedy has "much talk of literature, little action," and "five bushels of love."
The Gambler
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
29 days •
ⓘ 1867 • Written by Dostoyevsky to pay off his own gambling debts, this story details the descent of Alexei the tutor into a gambling addiction that threatens to ruin his career, his relationships, and his life.
The Duel
Anton Chekhov
17 days •
ⓘ 1891 • Drunk, gambling, and living with a married woman, Laevsky draws the righteous ire of scientist Von Koren, who decides killing Laevsky would benefit mankind. His hatred grows until he decides to act.
The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
100 days •
ⓘ 1869 • Prince Myshkin is so good, so pure of heart, that those around him assume he is simply an idiot. What happens when this ideally good man enters society?
The Bishop
Anton Chekhov
3 days •
ⓘ 1902 • In the final days of his life, a famous bishop is unexpectedly visited by his mother.
The Gentleman from San Francisco
Ivan Bunin
4 days •
ⓘ 1915 • A family's unfortunate trip to Europe illustrates modern society's shallowness and preoccupation with the self.
Notes from Underground
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
18 days •
ⓘ 1864 • The rambling memoirs of the isolated, bitter, Underground Man as he discusses philosophy, fantasies, and struggles to interact with others.
Dead Souls
Nikolai Gogol
55 days •
ⓘ 1842 • A man named Chichikov rolls into town with much charm, but a strange request: he's looking to purchase "dead souls" to help reinvent his life for the better.
The Mother
Maxim Gorky
49 days •
ⓘ 1906 • Russian factory worker Pelageya Nilovna Vlasova becomes drawn into a revolutionary movement through her son.
Twenty-six Men and a Girl
Maxim Gorky
2 days •
ⓘ 1899 • Looked down upon by all, twenty-six kringle makers treasure the times when sixteen-year-old Tanya visits with them. But a new baker arrives and unsettles their daily routines.
The Lady with the Dog
Anton Chekhov
3 days •
ⓘ 1899 • An adulterous affair at a summer beach town becomes something more in this classic short story, deemed by Vladimir Nabokov the greatest ever written.
The Black Monk
Anton Chekhov
5 days •
ⓘ 1894 • Russian scholar Andrey Kovrin returns to the gorgeous country where he was raised to rest. There he begins seeing a black monk - and questioning his own sanity.
The Cherry Orchard
Anton Chekhov
7 days •
ⓘ 1904 • Faced with poverty, the Gayev family is urged to slash their treasured cherry orchard and sell the land. They struggle to rise out of their poverty in this tragic comedy.
Poor Folk
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
18 days •
ⓘ 1844 • The story of a seamstress and copywriter, both with little respect and even less money, as told through a series of letters. Dostoyevsky's first novel.
The House of the Dead
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
45 days •
ⓘ 1860 • A semi-autobiographical account of Dostoyevsky's years in a horrific Siberian prison camp, thrown among hostile prisoners and barbaric guards.
The Created Legend
Fyodor Sologub
23 days •
ⓘ 1907 • Trirodov, a poet, seeks to escape a revolution-wracked society by building a tranquil school for children in the woods - a sort of utopia. The outside world is not so easily dismissed, however.
Fathers and Sons
Ivan Turgenev
24 days •
ⓘ 1862 • The Kirsanov household will soon be turned upside down by the arrival of Bazarov and his bold new ideas.
First Love
Ivan Turgenev
8 days •
ⓘ 1860 • The story of a young man who falls in love with an older woman, running through a gauntlet of emotions from joy and devotion to jealousy and despair.
Torrents of Spring
Ivan Turgenev
17 days •
ⓘ 1872 • Dimitry Sanin stops in Frankfurt on his way home to Russia, where his life is turned upside down by the beautiful Gemma Roselli.
White Nights
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
6 days •
ⓘ 1848 • A lonely man in St. Petersburg finds unexpected companionship and love over the course of four nights
We
Yevgeny Zamyatin
23 days •
ⓘ 1920 • In a dystopian world, a spacecraft engineer helping the totalitarian state conquer other worlds is pulled into a web of deceit and revolution.
Ten Days that Shook the World
John Reed
28 days •
ⓘ 1919 • A first-hand account of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia by American journalist and socialist John Reed.
My Disillusionment in Russia
Emma Goldman
26 days •
ⓘ 1923 • Originally titled "My Two Years in Russia," anarchist political activist Goldman describes the tumultuous time in Russia following the Revolution of 1917. This is a complete version containing both volumes.
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy
159 days •
ⓘ 1877 • Unhappily married Anna Karenina finds love with the handsome Count Vronsky, but also scorn and tragedy in this unforgettable story.
War and Peace
Leo Tolstoy
235 days •
ⓘ 1869 • Follow the fates and fortunes of five Russian families as they live through the violence and upheaval of Napoleon's invasion in this epic masterpiece.
The Kingdom of God Is Within You
Leo Tolstoy
42 days •
ⓘ 1894 • Deemed so powerful as to be a threat to church and state - and thus banned in Russia - Tolstoy here argues against violence of any sort as a commitment to the teachings of Jesus.
The Captain's Daughter
Alexander Pushkin
13 days •
ⓘ 1836 • A deadly revolution, love, the generosity of an empress, and an act of kindness pull at the fate of Pyotr Andreyich Grinyov with his very life on the line.
The Fatal Eggs
Mikhail Bulgakov
8 days •
ⓘ 1925 • A chance scientific discovery leads to disaster in this satirical Soviet sci-fi novel.
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Leo Tolstoy
7 days •
ⓘ 1886 • A powerful man of the world is suddenly and shockingly confronted with his own mortality in this, arguably one of the finest novellas ever written.
A Hero of Our Time
Mikhail Lermontov
20 days •
ⓘ 1840 • A tribute to the tales of Lord Byron following the antihero Pechorin - both sensitive and cynical - through adventures, seductions, and duels.
The Night Before Christmas
Nikolai Gogol
6 days •
ⓘ 1831 • On Christmas Eve, the devil plays mischief on Dikanka by stealing the moon and playing tricks on blacksmith Vakula who is trying to win the affection of the beautiful Oksana.
Demons
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
76 days •
ⓘ 1871 • A powerful allegory of ideology, murder, and nihilism in Russia as a fictional town is torn between aristocratic and Western-influenced idealism.
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