When most people are quizzed about Russian literature I think the first thing that comes to mind is long or big novels that are a pain in the keester to read. Well, I thought I would give a quick roundup of Russian literary history to better understand why it is likely unjustly feared — although I wouldn’t advise our fan Wolf reading my copy of Master and Margarita he won a while back though, as it did have an evil spell put on it at one point.
Like many cultures, Russian literature took its roots early oral traditions with folk songs and poetry. Riddles, songs, fairy tales and yarns were a big part of Russian culture – but the one form that was particularly influential was the telling of bylina – or basically the Russian counterpart of Epic Poems. These were stories of legendary heroes, or bogatyri, who protected the Russian people and defended them against those who would try to harm the unification of all Russians – these were a lot like Greek mythical heroes like Hercules or Norse heroes as they tended to have supernatural qualities. Arguably the most notable of these tales is Mikula Selyaninovich – the hero of the peasants who has been referred to as a Paul Bunyan-sort of figure and praised for his high sense for morality and right.
These lyric songs, and bylina were very Russian and lifted the people’s hearts and souls – as well as the bleakness of life in a unforgiving land – giving the country and its people an identity.
Romanticism and Pushkin
Around the 17th century however, that identity became muddled by the influence of culture from the West. Great 
writing from France particularly influenced the Russian pen, sometimes to the point of blatant copying but also, at times, these new-found styles gave rise to brilliance. Out of this era in Russian literature we see lots of drama and comedy, but ultimately it was defined by the poetry of Alexander Pushkin – who is considered to be the father of Russian literature, the “bogatyri” of poetry and prose.
Pushkin’s work was largely responsible for the advent of Romanticism in Russia – and his literary senses influenced other famous Russian writers of the era including Nikolai Gogol and Lermontov, as well as more modern authors such as Tolstoy, not to mention his work has been the playground for other creative arts like film, music, dance and opera.
Gold and Silver Shine
By the 19th century the golden era of Russian literature begins. The greatest Russian authors of the time, Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekov, and Fyodor Dostoevsky follow in Gogol and Pushkin’s footsteps and elevated Russian literature to the world’s stage.
Some of the great works of the Golden Era of Russian Literature:
- Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky
- The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
- War and Peace by Tolstoy
- Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
- Eugene Onegin by Pushkin
- The Bronze Horseman by Pushkin
- Dead Souls by Gogol
In the 20th century, poetry once again captured the attention of the Russian culture in what is known as the Silver Age. The Russian authors penning poems became famous for their use of symbolism and a return to the romanticism of Pushkin’s works. Notable pens being Alexander Block, Anna Akhmatova, Anton Chekov and Ivan Bunin, who won a Nobel Prize in Literature.
The Soviet Era
In 1917, the rise of the Soviet regime begins and literature didn’t suffer ill effects from the division of Russian authors emigrating abroad or even work under the Soviet regime and the “sovietization” of literature. Lenin and leaders who succeeded him asked only for what became known as Soviet realism or official Soviet literature. The Soviet Era saw many great authors, but also saw extreme censorship. Even in exile authors were denied Nobel Prizes in 1958 and 1965. There were writers resistant to Soviet ideology, such as Mikhail Bulgakov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Boris Pasternak, but their post-humously published masterworks (The Master and Margarita, The Gulag Archipelago, and Dr. Zhivago, respectively) are considered to be some of the most acclaimed Russian works of their time, if not all time. Their works weren’t published until the mid-1960s during what was called “Khrushchev’s Thaw” – and for that period many works were published outside of the established norms and regulations established during Stalin’s reign.
The Thaw didn’t last and in the 1970s, some authors were prosecuted and exiled – other’s emigrated to the United States just to be able to continue their work.
Post-Soviet Era
Current trends in the Post-Soviet era bend toward more mainstream tendencies and few prolific voices have emerged since the fall of the wall.
