Russian literature refers to the literature ofRussia, itsémigrés, and toRussian-language literature.[1] Major contributors to Russian literature, as well as English for instance, are authors of different ethnic origins, including bilingual writers, such as Kyrgyz novelistChinghiz Aitmatov.[1] At the same time, Russian-language literature does not include works by authors from the Russian Federation who write exclusively or primarily in the native languages of the indigenous non-Russianethnic groups in Russia, thus the famous Dagestani poetRasul Gamzatov is omitted.
The post-Soviet end of the 20th century was a difficult period for Russian literature, with few distinct voices. Among the most discussed authors of this period were novelistsVictor Pelevin andVladimir Sorokin, and the poetDmitri Prigov. In the 21st century, a new generation of Russian authors appeared, differing greatly from thepostmodernist Russian prose of the late 20th century, which led critics to speak about "new realism".
Russian authors have significantly contributed to numerous literary genres. Russia has fiveNobel Prize in Literature laureates. As of 2011, Russia was thefourth largest book producer in the world in terms of published titles.[2] A popular folk saying claims Russians are "the world's most reading nation".[3][4] As the American scholarGary Saul Morson notes, "No country has ever valued literature more than Russia."[5]
Scholars typically use the termOld Russian literature, in addition to the termsmedieval Russian literature andearly modern Russian literature,[6] orpre-Petrian literature,[7] to refer to Russian literature until the reforms ofPeter the Great, tying literary development to historical periodization. The term is generally used to refer to all forms of literary activity in what is often calledOld Russia from the 11th to 17th centuries.[8][9]
Literary works from this period were often written in the Russian recension ofChurch Slavonic with varying amounts of the Russian or more broadlyEast Slavic vernacular.[10][11] At the same time, the native Old Russian vernacular was not only language oforal literature, such as epic poems (bylina) or folksongs,[12] but it was also perfectly legitimate as written for practical purposes, such as decrees, laws (theRusskaya Pravda, the 11th–12th century, and other codes), letters (for example, the unique pre-paperbirch bark manuscripts, the 11th–15th centuries, in theOld Novgorod dialect), ambassadorial messages,[10] "in chronicles or military tales whose language is fundamentally the Russian vernacular."[10]
Old Russian "bookish" literature traces its beginnings to the introduction ofOld Church Slavonic inKievan Rus' as a liturgical language in the late 10th century followingChristianization.[13][14] TheEast Slavs soon developed their own literature, and the oldest dated manuscript of Early Russian as well all-Slavic literature that has survived to this day is theNovgorod Codex or Novgorod Psalter written c. 1000, unearthed in 2000 atVeliky Novgorod, containing four wooden tablet pages filled with wax.[15] Another earliest Russian book is theOstromir Gospels written in 1056–1057, which belongs to the set of liturgical texts that were translated from other languages.[16][17]
The discord of the princes ruined them against the Pagans. For, brother spake to brother;—"This is mine, and that is also mine." And the princes began to pronounce of a paltry thing, 'this is great'; and themselves amongst them to forge feuds; and the heathens from all sides advanced with victories against the Russian land.
In the 16th century, reflecting the political centralization and unification of the country under thetsar, chronicles were updated and codified, theRussian Orthodox Church began issuing its decrees in theStoglav, and a large compilation called theGreat Menaion Reader collected both the more modern polemical texts and the hagiographical and patristic legacy of Old Russia.[30] TheBook of Royal Degrees codified the cult of the tsar, theDomostroy laid down the rules for family life, and other texts such as theHistory of Kazan were used to justify the actions of the tsar.[31]The Tale of Peter and Fevronia were among the original tales of this period, and Russian tsarIvan IV wrote some of most original works of 16th-century Russian literature.[31] TheTime of Troubles marked a turning point in Old Russian literature as both the church and state lost control over the written word, which are reflected in the texts of writers such asAvraamy Palitsyn who developed a literary technique for representing complex characters.[32]
In the second half of the 17th century, the literature ofBaroque took shape, primarily due to the initiative of tsarAlexis of Russia, who wanted to open a court theatre in 1672. Its director and playwright was Johann Gottfried Gregorii, a German-Russian pastor, who wrote, in particular, the 10-hourplayThe Action of Artaxerxes. The poetry and dramaturgy ofSymeon of Polotsk andDemetrius of Rostov contributed to the development of the Russian version of the Baroque.[33]
In the 17th century, when bookmen from theKiev Academy arrived in Moscow, they brought with them aculture heavily influenced by the educational system of the PolishJesuits.[34] Mentioned Symeon of Polotsk created a new style which fused elements of ancient and contemporary Western European literature with traditional Russian rhetoric and the imperial ideology, which marked a key step in the Westernization of Russian literature.[35]Syllabic poetry was also brought to Russia, and the work of Simeon of Polotsk was continued bySylvester Medvedev andKarion Istomin.[35]
"Will these sufferings go on a long time, Archpriest?" And I said, "Markovna, right up to our very death." And so she sighed and answered, "Good enough, Petrovič, then let's be getting on."
—Avvakum, The Life written by Himself (1672), translated by Kenneth N. Brostrom[36]
The Life of the Archpriest Avvakum—an outstanding noveltyautobiography written by the one of leaders of the 17th-century religious dissidentsOld BelieversAvvakum—is considered masterpiece of pre-Petrian literature, which blends high Old Church Slavonic with low Russian vernacular and profanity without following literary canons.[21][37]
After taking the throne at the end of the 17th century,Peter the Great's influence on the Russian culture would extend far into the18th century. Peter's reign during the beginning of the 18th century initiated a series of modernizing changes in Russian literature. The reforms he implemented encouraged Russian artists and scientists to make innovations in their crafts and fields with the intention of creating an economy and culture comparable. Peter's example set a precedent for the remainder of the 18th century as Russian writers began to form clear ideas about the proper use and progression of the Russian language. Through their debates regarding versification of the Russian language and tone of Russian literature, the writers in the first half of the 18th century were able to lay foundation for the more poignant, topical work of the late 18th century.[38]
SatiristAntiokh Dmitrievich Kantemir, 1708–1744, was one of the earliest Russian writers not only to praise the ideals of Peter I's reforms but the ideals of the growingEnlightenment movement in Europe. Kantemir's works regularly expressed his admiration for Peter, most notably in his epic dedicated to the emperor entitledPetrida. More often, however, Kantemir indirectly praised Peter's influence through his satiric criticism of Russia's "superficiality and obscurantism", which he saw as manifestations of the backwardness Peter attempted to correct through his reforms.[39] Kantemir honored this tradition of reform not only through his support for Peter, but by initiating a decade-long debate on the proper syllabic versification using the Russian language.
Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, a poet, playwright, essayist, translator and contemporary to Antiokh Kantemir, also found himself deeply entrenched in Enlightenment conventions in his work with theRussian Academy of Sciences and his groundbreaking translations of French and classical works to the Russian language. A turning point in the course of Russian literature, his translation ofPaul Tallemant's workVoyage to the Isle of Love, was the first to use the Russian vernacular as opposed the formal and outdatedChurch-Slavonic.[40] This introduction set a precedent for secular works to be composed in the vernacular, while sacred texts would remain in Church-Slavonic. However, his work was often incredibly theoretical and scholarly, focused on promoting the versification of the language with which he spoke.
While Trediakovsky's approach to writing is often described as highly erudite, the young writer and scholarly rival to Trediakovsky,Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov, 1717–1777, was dedicated to the styles of Frenchclassicism.[38] Sumarokov's interest in the form of the17th-century French literature mirrored his devotion to the westernizing spirit of Peter the Great's age. Although he often disagreed with Trediakovsky, Sumarokov also advocated the use of simple, natural language in order to diversify the audience and make more efficient use of the Russian language. Like his colleagues and counterparts, Sumarokov extolled the legacy of Peter I, writing in his manifestoEpistle on Poetry, "The great Peter hurls his thunder from the Baltic shores, the Russian sword glitters in all corners of the universe".[41] Peter the Great's policies of westernization and displays of military prowess naturally attracted Sumarokov and his contemporaries.
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, in particular, expressed his gratitude for and dedication to Peter's legacy in his unfinishedPeter the Great, Lomonosov's works often focused on themes of the awe-inspiring, grandeur nature, and was therefore drawn to Peter because of the magnitude of his military, architectural and cultural feats. In contrast to Sumarokov's devotion to simplicity, Lomonosov favored a belief in a hierarchy of literary styles divided into high, middle and low. This style facilitated Lomonosov's grandiose, high minded writing and use of both vernacular and Church-Slavonic.[42][38]
The influence of Peter I and debates over the function and form of literature as it related to the Russian language in the first half of the 18th century set a stylistic precedent for the writers during the reign ofCatherine the Great in the second half of the century. However, the themes and scopes of the works these writers produced were often more poignant, political and controversial.Ippolit Bogdanovich's narrative poemDushenka (1778) is rare sample of theRococo style, eroticlight poetry in Russia.[43]Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev, for example, shocked the Russian public with his depictions of the socio-economic condition of theserfs. Empress Catherine II condemned this portrayal, forcing Radishchev into exile inSiberia.[44]
Others, however, picked topics less offensive to theautocrat. the historian and writerNikolay Karamzin, 1766–1826, the key figure ofliterary sentimentalism in Russia,[21][7][45] for example, is known for his advocacy of Russian writers adopting traits in the poetry and prose like a heightened sense of emotion and physical vanity, considered to be feminine at the time as well as supporting the cause of female Russian writers.[46][47][48] Karamzin's call for male writers to write with femininity was not in accordance with the Enlightenment ideals of reason and theory, considered masculine attributes. His works were thus not universally well received; however, they did reflect in some areas of society a growing respect for, or at least ambivalence toward, a female ruler in Catherine the Great. This concept heralded an era of regarding female characteristics in writing as an abstract concept linked with attributes of frivolity, vanity and pathos.
Some writers, on the other hand, were more direct in their praise for Catherine II.Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin, famous for his odes, often dedicated his poems to Empress Catherine II. In contrast to most of his contemporaries, Derzhavin was highly devoted to his state; he served in the military, before rising to various roles in Catherine II's government, including secretary to the Empress and Minister of Justice. Unlike those who took after the grand style of Mikhail Lomonosov and Alexander Sumarokov, Derzhavin was concerned with the minute details of his subjects.
Denis Fonvizin, an author primarily of comedy, approached the subject of theRussian nobility with an angle of critique. Fonvizin felt the nobility should be held to the standards they were under the reign of Peter the Great, during which the quality of devotion to the state was rewarded. His works criticized the current system for rewarding the nobility without holding them responsible for the duties they once performed. Using satire and comedy, Fonvizin supported a system of nobility in which the elite were rewarded based upon personal merit rather than the hierarchal favoritism that was rampant during Catherine the Great's reign.[49]
I lay, and heard the voice of God: "Arise, oh prophet, watch and hearken, And with my Will thy soul engird, Through lands that dim and seas that darken, Burn thou men's hearts with this, my Word."
Plants, birds, insects and children were equally joyful. Only men—grown-up men—continued cheating and tormenting themselves and each other. People saw nothing holy in this spring morning, in this beauty of God's world—a gift to all living creatures—inclining to peace, good-will and love, but worshiped their own inventions for imposing their will on each other.
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin is known for his satirical chronicleThe History of a Town (1870) and the family sagaThe Golovlyov Family (1880), which are considered his masterpieces.Nikolai Leskov is best remembered for his shorter fiction and for his (together withPavel Melnikov) uniqueskaz techniques, namely oral form of narrative stylization. Late in the centuryAnton Chekhov emerged as a master of the short story as well as a leading international dramatist.[21]
Night, street and streetlight, drug store, The purposeless, half-dim, drab light. For all the use live on a quarter century — Nothing will change. There's no way out.
You'll die — and start all over, live twice, Everything repeats itself, just as it was: Night, the canal's rippled icy surface, The drug store, the street, and streetlight.
Alexander Blok, Night, street and streetlight, drug store... (1912), translated by Alex Cigale
In 1915/16, the school ofRussian Formalism, wary of the futurists and highly influential for the global theory of literary criticism andpoetics, appeared; its programmatic articleThe Resurrection of the Word by the scholar and writerViktor Shklovsky (1893–1984) was published in 1914, and the peak of activity occurred in the post-revolutionary '20s.[66][67]
The first years of the Soviet regime after theOctober Revolution of 1917, featured a proliferation ofRussian avant-garde literary groups, andproletarian literature receive official support. TheImaginists were post-Revolution poetic movement, similar to English-languageImagists, that created poetry based on sequences of arresting and uncommon images. The major figures includeSergei Yesenin,Anatoly Marienhof, andRurik Ivnev.[70] Another important movement was theOberiu (1927–1930s), which included the most famous Russian absurdistDaniil Kharms (1905–1942),Konstantin Vaginov (1899–1934),Alexander Vvedensky (1904–1941) andNikolay Zabolotsky (1903–1958).[71][72] Other famous authors experimenting with language included the novelistsBoris Pilnyak (1894–1938),Yuri Olesha (1899–1960),Andrei Platonov (1899–1951) andArtyom Vesyoly (1899–1938), the short-story writersIsaak Babel (1894–1940) andMikhail Zoshchenko (1894–1958).[21][71] TheOPOJAZ group of literary critics, a part ofRussian formalism school, was founded in 1916 in close connection withRussian Futurism. Two of its members also produced influential literary works, namelyViktor Shklovsky, whose numerous books (A Sentimental Journey andZoo, or Letters Not About Love, both 1923) defy genre in that they present a novel mix of narration, autobiography, and aesthetic as well as social commentary, andYury Tynyanov (1893–1943), who used his knowledge of Russia's literary history to produce a set of historical novels mainly set in the Pushkin era (e.g.,Lieutenant Kijé,Pushkin in three parts, 1935–43, and others).[66]
Following the establishment ofBolshevik rule,Vladimir Mayakovsky worked on interpreting the facts of the new reality. His works, such as "Ode to the Revolution" and "Left March" (both 1918), brought innovations to poetry. In "Left March", Mayakovsky calls for a struggle against the enemies of the Russian Revolution. The poem150 000 000 (1921) discusses the leading role played by the masses in the revolution. In the poemVladimir Ilyich Lenin (1924), Mayakovsky looks at the life and work at the leader of Russia's revolution and depicts them against a broad historical background. In the poemAll Right! (1927), Mayakovsky writes aboutsocialist society as the "springtime of humanity". Mayakovsky was instrumental in producing a new type of poetry in which politics played a major part.[73]
One of the most popular Soviet poets during the 1920s wasNikolai Tikhonov (1896–1979), a future important figure of Stalinist era, well-known for hisBallad About Nails,[74] as follows:
Could nails from such people be fashioned, you’d see That no tougher nails in the world would there be.
I am an American writer, born in Russia, educated in England, where I studied French literature before moving to Germany for fifteen years. ... My head speaks English, my heart speaks Russian, and my ear speaks French.
After his return to Russia Maxim Gorky was proclaimed by the Soviet authorities as "the founder of Socialist Realism". His novelMother (1906), which Gorky himself considered one of his biggest failures, inspired proletarian writers to found the socrealist movement. Gorky defined socialist realism as the "realism of people who are rebuilding the world" and pointed out that it looks at the past "from the heights of the future's goals", although he defined it not as a strict style (which is studied inAndrei Sinyavsky's essayOn Socialist Realism), but as a label for the "union of writers of styles", who write for one purpose, to help in the development of thenew man in socialist society. Gorky became the initiator of creating the Writer's Union, a state organization, intended to unite the socrealist writers.[21][79] Despite the official reputation, Gorky's post-revolutionary works, such as the novelThe Life of Klim Samgin (1925–1936) can't be defined as socrealist, butmodernist.[80][77]
Andrei Bely (1880–1934), author ofPetersburg (1913/1922), a well-known modernist writer, also was a member of Writer's Union and tried to become a "true" socrealist by writing a series of articles and making ideological revisions to his memoirs, and he also planned to begin a study of Socialist realism. However, he continued writing with his unique techniques.[81] Although he was actively published during his lifetime, his major works would not be reissued until the end of the 1970s.
Valentin Kataev, who began publishing before the Revolution, is the author of the first Soviet "industrial novel"Time, Forward! (1932) and the classic 1946 short storyOur Father.[82]
Mikhail Sholokhov (1905–1984) was one of the most significant figures in the official Soviet literature. His main socrealist work isVirgin Soil Upturned (1935), a novel in which Sholokhov glorifies the collectivization. However, his unique for period best-known and the most significant literary achievement isQuiet Flows the Don (1928–40), an epic novel which realistically depicts the life ofDon Cossacks during the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and Russian Civil War.[59][21][83]
Nikolai Ostrovsky's novelHow the Steel Was Tempered (1932–1934) has been among the most popular and standard works of literary socrealism,[21] with tens of millions of copies printed in many languages around the world. In China, various versions of the book have sold more than 10 million copies.[84] In Russia more than 35 million copies of the book are in circulation.[85] The book is a fictionalized autobiography of Ostrovsky's life: he had a difficult working-class childhood, became aKomsomol member in July 1919 and volunteered to join theRed Army. The novel's protagonist, Pavel Korchagin, represented the "young hero" of Russian literature: he is dedicated to his political causes, which help him to overcome his tragedies.[86]Alexander Fadeyev (1901–1956) was also a well-known Socialist realism writer, the chairman of the official Writer's Union during Stalinist era.[59][78] His novelThe Rout (1927) deals with the partisan struggle inRussia's Far East during the Russian Revolution and Civil War of 1917–1922. Fadeyev described the theme of this novel as one of a revolution significantly transforming themasses.[59][78]
In the 1930s,Konstantin Paustovsky (1892–1968), an influenced byneo-Romantic works ofAlexander Grin master of landscape prose, a singer of theMeshchera Lowlands, and already in the post-Stalin years a multiple nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, joined the ranks of leading Soviet writers.fantastic.[87]
Novelist and playwrightLeonid Leonov, despite the fact that he was considered by authorities to be one of the pillars of socialist realism,[88] during the Stalin years, created a forbidden novella about emigrantsEugenua Ivanovna (1938), a play about theChekist purges,The Snowstorm (1940), briefly permitted and then also forbidden, and a novel,The Russian Forest (1953), where ecological issues were perhaps touched upon for the first time in Soviet literature. Over the course of forty years (1940–1994), he wrote a huge philosophical and mystical novel, "The Pyramid", which was finished and published in the year of the author's death.
Wait for me and I'll come back, Escaping every fate! "Just got lucky!" they will say, Those that didn't wait. They will never understand How, amidst the strife, By your waiting for me, dear, You had saved my life!
Boris Polevoy is the author of theStory About a True Man (1946), based on the life of World War II fighter pilotAleksey Maresyev, which was an immensely popular.[92]
So what is beauty? And why does the human race Keep up its worship, whether valid or misguided? Is it a vessel holding empty space, Or is it fire shimmering inside it?
After the end of World War II Nobel Prize-winningBoris Pasternak (1890–1960) wrote a novelDoctor Zhivago (1945–1955). Publication of the novel in Italy caused a scandal, as the Soviet authorities forced Pasternak to renounce his 1958 Nobel Prize and denounced as an internal White emigre and a Fascist fifth columnist. Pasternak was expelled from the Writer's Union.[21]
The majority of members of the Writers' Union (Georgi Markov,Anatoly Rybakov,Aleksandr Chakovsky,Sergey Zalygin, Anatoly Kalinin,Daniil Granin,Yuri Nagibin,Vladimir Tendryakov, Arkady Lvov (before his emigration),Chinghiz Aitmatov,Anatoly Ivanov, Pyotr Proskurin, Boris Yekimov, among many others) continued to work in the mainstream of Socialist Realism, not without criticizing certain phenomena of Soviet reality, such as showiness, mismanagement, nepotism, and widespread poaching. However, even in officially recognized literature, not entirely canonical "mutations"—the naturalLieutenant, nostalgicVillage and intellectual "Urban Prose" (Yury Trifonov), the literature of theSixtiers and "Quiet Poetry" movements appear. Since the 1960s,Valentin Kataev has been moving away from official realism, developing his own modernist style, "Mauvism" (from the French wordmauvais, "bad").
And however long the blizzard blows, whether it's three days or a week, every single day is counted as a day off, and the men are turned out to work Sunday after Sunday to make up for lost time.
Since 1985/86, thePerestroika—a period of great changes in the political and cultural life in the USSR—gave way to a wide diversity of banned previously and new writings.[103][104][105] In 1986 there was established the legal non-Realistic literary club "Poetry", among its members wereDmitry Prigov,Igor Irtenyev, Aleksandr Yeryomenko,Sergey Gandlevsky, and Yuri Arabov. Many previously suppressed works were published[21] among first, in 1986–87, anti-StalinistAlexander Bek's novelThe New Appointment (1965)[106] and Anatoly Rybakov'sChildren of the Arbat trilogy. The events of thetheater of the absurd were postmodern plays ofNina Sadur. Among the best writers of "alternative fiction," openly discussing previously taboo themes, were Mikhail Kurayev (b. 1939),Valery Popov,Tatyana Tolstaya, andViktor Yerofeyev.[21]
Some writers dared to oppose Soviet ideology, like short-story writerVarlam Shalamov (1907–1982) and Nobel Prize-winning novelistAleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008), who wrote about life in thegulag camps, orVasily Grossman (1905–1964), with his description of World War II events countering the Soviet official historiography (his epic novelLife and Fate (1959) was not published in the Soviet Union until theperestroika). Such writers, dubbed "dissidents", could not publish their major works until the 1960s.[107]
Modernist andPostmodern dissident literature[108] was related and partially coincided with theSoviet nonconformist art movement. From 1953 to 1957, theMansard Group—first unofficial poetry group—existed till its leader Leonid Chertkov (1933–2000) was imprisoned, among other members Galina Andreeva (1933–2016) and Stanislav Krasovitsky (b. 1935). Another poetry group of '50s in Leningrad was thePhilological School that included Mikhail Eremin (1936–2022), Sergey Kulle (1936–1984), Leonid Vinogradov (1936–2004) and poet and artistVladimir Uflyand (1937–2007). Some poets were both artists or participants and inspirers of art groups, such as Evgenii Kropivnitsky (1893–1979),Igor Kholin,Genrikh Sapgir,Vilen Barskyi (1930–2012), Roald Mandelstam (1932–1961), Vsevolod Nekrasov (1934–2009), Mikhail Eremin (1936–2022),Igor Sinyavin (1937–2000),Alexei Khvostenko (1940–2004),Dmitry Prigov (1940–2007), Kari Unksova (1941–1983),Ry Nikonova (1942–2014),Oleg Grigoriev (1943–1992), Valery Kholodenko (1945–1993),Serge Segay (1947–2014), andVladimir Sorokin (b. 1955).[109]
While fairy tales were relatively free from ideological oppression, the realistic children's prose of the Stalinist era was highly ideological and pursued the goal to raise children aspatriots and communists. A notable writer in this vein wasArkady Gaydar (1904–1941), himself a Red Army commander (colonel) inRussian Civil War: his stories and plays aboutTimur describe a team ofyoung pioneer volunteers who help the elderly and resisthooligans.[78] There was a genre of hero-pioneer story that bore some similarities with Christian genre ofhagiography. In the times ofKhrushchov (First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964) and ofBrezhnev (in power 1966–1982), however, the pressure lightened. Mid- and late-Soviet children's books byEduard Uspensky, Yuri Entin, Viktor Dragunsky bear no signs of propaganda. In the 1970s many of these books, as well as stories by foreign children's writers, were adapted into animation.
Space opera was less developed, since both state censors and serious writers watched it unfavorably. Nevertheless, there were moderately successful attempts to adapt space westerns to Soviet soil. The first was Alexander Kolpakov with "Griada", after cameSergey Snegov with "Men Like Gods", among others.[citation needed]
A specific branch of both science fiction and children's books appeared in mid-Soviet era: the children's science fiction. It was meant to educate children while entertaining them. The star of the genre was Bulychov, who, along with his adult books, created children's space adventure series aboutAlisa Selezneva, a teenage girl from the future. Others includeNikolay Nosov with his books about dwarfNeznayka, Evgeny Veltistov, who wrote aboutrobot boy Electronic, Vitaly Melentyev,Vladislav Krapivin,Vitaly Gubarev.
Village Prose is a genre that conveys nostalgic descriptions of rural life.Valentin Rasputin's 1976 novel,Proshchaniye s Matyoroy (Farewell to Matyora) depicted a village faced with destruction to make room for a hydroelectric plant.[97][101]
Historical fiction in the early Soviet era included a large share ofmemoirs, fictionalized or not.Valentin Katayev andLev Kassil wrote semi-autobiographic books about children's life in Tsarist Russia.Vladimir Gilyarovsky wroteMoscow and Muscovites, about life in pre-revolutionary Moscow. There were also attempts to write an epic novel about the Revolution, similar to Leo Tolstoy'sWar and Peace, based on the writers' own experience. Aleksey Tolstoy'sThe Road to Calvary (1920–1941) andMikhail Sholokhov'sAnd Quiet Flows the Don (1928–1940) depict Russia from the start of the Revolution to the end of the Civil War.The Road to Calvary demonstrates the victory of socialist ideas, whileAnd Quiet Flows the Don gives a realist and a brutal image.Maxim Gorky's andAndrei Bely's experimental novelsThe Life of Klim Samgin (1925–1936)[80] andMoscow (1926–1931) trace the relationship of Russianintelligentsia with the revolutionary movement. Mikhail Bulgakov conceived to write a trilogy about the Civil War, but wrote only the first part,The White Guard (1923).Yury Tynyanov focused on fictional biographies of the Golden Age writers:The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar (1928) andPushkin (1935–1943). The late Soviet historical fiction was dominated by World War II novels and short stories by authors such as the representatives ofLieutenant prose (such asVasil Bykov),Vasily Grossman,Konstantin Simonov,Boris Vasilyev,Viktor Astafyev, among others, based on the authors' own war experience.Vasily Yan andKonstantin Badygin are best known for their novels on Medieval Rus, andYury Tynyanov for writing on Russian Empire.Valentin Pikul wrote about many different epochs and countries in anAlexander Dumas-inspired style. In the 1970s there appeared a relatively independentVillage Prose, whose most prominent representatives wereViktor Astafyev andValentin Rasputin.
Any sort of fiction that dealt with the occult, eitherhorror, adult-oriented fantasy ormagic realism, was unwelcome in Soviet Russia.[123] Until the 1980s very few books in these genres were written, and even fewer were published, although earlier books, such as by Gogol, were not banned. Of the rare exceptions, Bulgakov inMaster and Margarita (not published in author's lifetime) and Strugatskies inMonday Begins on Saturday introduced magic and mystical creatures into contemporary Soviet reality to satirize it. Another exception was early Soviet writerAlexander Grin, who wroteneo-Romantic tales, both realistic and fantastic.[87]
The end of the 20th century proved a difficult period for Russian literature, with relatively few distinct voices. Although the limited censorship of the period ofglasnost was lifted,de facto since1989 in the Soviet Union,de jure in 1990, and writers could now freely express their thoughts, the political and economic chaos of the 1990s affected the book market and literature heavily. The book printing industry descended into crisis, the number of printed book copies dropped several times in comparison to Soviet era, and it took about a decade to revive. Some major thickliterary magazines went bankrupt.[21][124] And "writers' traditional special place in society no longer is recognised by most Russians..."[21]
My words are awkward, like farts at a funeral, but sincere, like screams during interrogations…
Vladimir Sorokin, Blue Lard (1999), translated by the Wikipedia editors
A relatively new trend in Russian literature is that female short story writers mentioned Viktoriya Tokareva and Lyudmila Petrushevskaya or Tatyana Tolstaya, and novelistsLyudmila Ulitskaya,Nina Sadur, Irina Polyanskaya (1952–2004),Dina Rubina or Valeriya Narbikova (b. 1958) have come into prominence.[129][130]
Detective stories and thrillers have proven a very successful genre of new Russian literature: in the 1990s serial detective novels byAlexandra Marinina,Polina Dashkova andDarya Dontsova were published in millions of copies. In the next decadeBoris Akunin who wrote more sophisticated popular fiction, e.g., a series of novels about the 19th century sleuthErast Fandorin, was eagerly read across the country.
Russian poetry of that period produced a number of avant-garde greats. TheMoscow Conceptualists and followers ofConcrete poetry, such as mentioned Dmitry Prigov,Lev Rubinstein,Anna Alchuk and Timur Kibirov (also novelist and literary scholarViktor Yerofeyev), and the members of the Lianosovo group ofnonconformist poets, notablyGenrikh Sapgir,Igor Kholin and Vsevolod Nekrasov, who previously chose to refrain from publication in Soviet periodicals, became very influential, especially in Moscow,[132][115] and the same goes for another masterful experimental neo-surrealistChuvash and Russian poet,Gennadiy Aygi.[132] Also popular were poets following some other poetic trends, e.g., members of "neo-Baroque" poetry school (not to be confused withneo-Baroque architecture) Ivan Zhdanov,Elena Shvarts, Aleksandr Yeryomenko andAlexei Parshchikov, Konstantin Kedrov and Elena Katsuba fromDOOS, scholar Svetlana Kekova, Sergei Nadeem and Nikolai Kononov fromSaratov clubCocoon, Vladimir Aristov,Yuri Arabov and other representatives of the 1970–80sMetarealism, who all used complex metaphors which they called meta-metaphors;[132][119] in St. Petersburg, members ofNew Leningrad Poetry School that included not only the famousJoseph Brodsky but alsoViktor Krivulin, Sergey Stratanovsky and Elena Shvarts, and such members ofPhilological School as Mikhail Eremin, Leonid Vinogradov,Vladimir Uflyand and the Russian-American scholarLev Loseff, were prominent first in the Soviet-times underground—and later in mainstream poetry;[107][132]minimalist verse was represented since 1970s by members ofList of characters group Mikhail Faynerman, Ivan Akhmetyev and later by Alexander Makarov-Krotkov; in 1992 emerged, the Meloimaginist group related to previousImaginism and included such poets and novelists as Russian-Irish bilingualAnatoly Kudryavitsky and Ludmila Vaturina; among other names, poets with nonconformist background Russian-Austrian musicolog Elizaveta Mnatsakanova, Galina Andreeva, Leonid Chertkov, Stanislav Krasovitsky,Dmitry Avaliani,Ry Nikonova, economist Yevgeny Saburov, Russian-Israeli author Elena Ignatova, Mikhail Aizenberg, Yevgeny Bunimovich and Dimitry Grigoriev, also poet and writer Nikolaĭ Baĭtov, the Russian-German scholar Sergey Biryukov with futurist and surrealist background,[132] Irina Iermakova, Vitaly Kalpidi, the unable to publish during Soviet years scholarOlga Sedakova, andBorys Khersonskyi. Notable poets of younger generation areElena Fanailova (b. 1962), German Lukomnikov (b. 1962),Vera Pavlova (b. 1963), Grigory Dashevsky (1964–2013),Sergei Kruglov (b. 1966),Dmitry Kuzmin (b. 1968), Arseniy Rovinsky (b. 1968), Asya Shneiderman (b. 1968),Maxim Amelin (b. 1970), Mikhail Gronas (b. 1970),Fyodor Svarovsky (b. 1971), Stanislav Lvovsky (b. 1972),Maria Stepanova (b. 1972), Alina Vitukhnovskaya (b. 1973),[132] Inga Kuznetsova (b. 1974),Boris Ryzhy (1974–2001), Shish Bryansky (b. 1975),Linor Goralik (b. 1975),Kirill Medvedev (b. 1975), andPolina Barskova (b. 1976).[133]
Among the debutants in prose are Eduard Kochergin (b. 1937) with his novelsAngel's Doll andBaptized with Crosses,Alexei Ivanov (b. 1969) known for his novelThe Heart of Parma, a Russian-Israeli writer and poet in the philosophical-symbolic vein Alexander Ilichevsky (b. 1970), who wroteThe Persian and theNewton's Drawing,[135][136][137] the author of novelThe LibrarianMikhail Elizarov (b. 1973), andGerman Sadulaev (b. 1973) with the bookI am a Chechen![135] In the second decade of the century, the following novelists gained fame:Eugene Vodolazkin (b. 1964) forThe Laurus (one of ten best world novels about God byThe Guardian version),[138] Sofia Sinitskaya (b. 1972), the author of the neutral novelBlack Siberia onRusso-Ukrainian War,[139] and Alexei Salnikov (b. 1978) for his hallucinatoryThe Petrovs in and Around the Flu (regarded as a rare outstanding text, see also the filmPetrov's Flu).[140] In the form of popular fiction,post-apocalyptic novels ofDmitry Glukhovsky (b. 1979) are successful.
Almost all of the authors named criticizedPutinism and have left Russia. After 2022, they have been "canceled" and their books have been withdrawn from a number of Russian booksellers.[141][142] Examples of active supporters of the political regime among eminent writers are poetYunna Morits (b. 1937)[143] and nationalistsAlexander Prokhanov (b. 1938),[144] Yurii Poliakov (b. 1954)[145] Pavel Krusanov (b. 1961)[146] andZakhar Prilepin (b. 1975).[135][147]
among the shining/(branching) still people/ to create a human being while you are not a human.
Nika Skandiaka, to create that when you do not...,[148] translated by the Wikipedia editors
The treasury of Russian poetry has been replenished with works by both senior masters, likeOleg Chukhontsev (b. 1938), and such debutants as Natalia Azarova (b. 1956), Vsevolod Emelin (b. 1959), Tatiana Grauz (b. 1964), Andrei Polyakov (b. 1968),Andrei Sen-Senkov (b. 1968), Tania Skarynkina (b. 1969), Igor Bulatovsky (b. 1971), Vlad Malenko (b. 1971), Andrei Rodionov (b. 1971), Anna Glazova (b. 1973),Victor Ivaniv (1977–2015), Eugenia Rits (b. 1977), Ekaterina Simonova (b. 1977), Pavel Goldin (b. 1978), Nika Skandiaka (b. 1978), Anna Zolotaryova (b. 1978), Roman Osminkin (b. 1979), Sergey Tenyatnikov (b. 1981), Vasily Borodin (1982–2021), Tatiana Moseeva (b. 1983), Alla Gorbunova (b. 1985),Vera Polozkova (b. 1986), Yevgenia Suslova (b. 1986), Nikita Ivanov (b. 1989),Galina Rymbu (b. 1990),Daria Serenko (b. 1993), and Maria Malinovskaya (b. 1994). The main trends of contemporary poetry are neo-surrealist fragmentation, as well as the return of plot poetry among representatives of the “New Epic” movement.[133][148]
The following is a list of international and regiinalliterary movements, those represented in Russian literature. Their notable members ordering is predominantly by precedence.
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^Offord, Derek (2005), "Denis Fonvizin and the Concept of Nobility: An Eighteenth-century Russian Echo of a Western Debate",European History Quarterly,35 (1): 10,doi:10.1177/0265691405049200,S2CID145305528
^abcdef"Introduction." InA Night in the Nabokov Hotel: 20 Contemporary Poets from Russia, introd. and trans. byAnatoly Kudryavitsky, Dublin: Dedalus Press, 2006,ISBN1-904556-55-8.
^abcd"Литературные "нулевые": место жительства и работы" [Literary "Zeros": place of residence and work],Дружба народов [Friendship of Peoples] (literary journal) (in Russian) (1):185–86, 2011,archived from the original on 2021-05-02, retrieved2024-05-11 – via Intelros
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