View source for Russian literature

{{Short description|none}} <!-- "none" is preferred when the title is sufficiently descriptive; see [[WP:SDNONE]] -->
[[File:Tolstoy and chekhov.jpg|thumb|[[Anton Chekhov|Chekhov]] and [[Leo Tolstoy|Tolstoy]], 1901]]
'''Russian literature''' refers to the literature of [[Russia]], its [[Russian diaspora|émigrés]], and to [[Russian language|Russian-language]] literature.{{sfn|Cornwell|Christian|1998|p=vii}} Major contributors to Russian literature, as well as English for instance, are authors of different ethnic origins, including bilingual writers, such as Kyrgyz novelist [[Chinghiz Aitmatov]].{{sfn|Cornwell|Christian|1998|p=vii}}  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-Russian [[ethnic groups in Russia]], thus the famous Dagestani poet [[Rasul Gamzatov]] is omitted.

The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the [[Early Middle Ages]] when [[Old Church Slavonic]] was introduced as a [[liturgical language]] and became used as a [[literary language]]. The native Russian vernacular remained the use within [[oral literature]] as well as written for decrees, laws, messages, chronicles, military tales, and so on. By the [[Age of Enlightenment]], literature had grown in importance, and from the early 1830s, Russian literature underwent an astounding "Golden Age" in poetry, prose and drama. The [[Romantic literature|Romantic]] movement contributed to a flowering of literary talent: poet [[Vasily Zhukovsky]] and later his protégé [[Alexander Pushkin]] came to the fore. [[Mikhail Lermontov]] was one of the most important poets and novelists. [[Nikolai Gogol]] and [[Ivan Turgenev]] wrote masterful short stories and novels. [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] and [[Leo Tolstoy]] became internationally renowned. Other important figures were [[Ivan Goncharov]], [[Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin]] and [[Nikolai Leskov]]. In the second half of the century [[Anton Chekhov]] excelled in short stories and became a leading dramatist. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century is sometimes called the [[Silver Age of Russian poetry]]. The poets most often associated with the "Silver Age" are [[Konstantin Balmont]], [[Valery Bryusov]], [[Alexander Blok]], [[Anna Akhmatova]], [[Nikolay Gumilyov]], [[Sergei Yesenin]], [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]], and [[Marina Tsvetaeva]]. This era produced novelists and short-story writers, such as [[Aleksandr Kuprin]], Nobel Prize winner [[Ivan Bunin]], [[Leonid Andreyev]], [[Fyodor Sologub]], [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]], [[Alexander Belyaev]], [[Andrei Bely]] and [[Maxim Gorky]].

After the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917, literature split into Soviet and [[white émigré]] parts. While the Soviet Union assured [[Likbez|universal literacy]] and a highly developed book printing industry, it also [[Censorship in the Soviet Union|established ideological censorship]]. In the 1930s [[Socialist realism]] became the predominant trend in Russia. Its leading figures were [[Nikolay Ostrovsky]], [[Alexander Fadeyev (writer)|Alexander Fadeyev]] and other writers, who laid the foundations of this style. Ostrovsky's novel ''[[How the Steel Was Tempered]]'' has been among the most popular works of Russian Socrealist literature. Some writers, such as [[Mikhail Bulgakov]], [[Andrei Platonov]] and [[Daniil Kharms]] were criticized and wrote with little or no hope of being published. Various ''émigré'' writers, such as poets [[Vladislav Khodasevich]], [[Georgy Ivanov]] and [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (poet)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]]; novelists such as [[Ivan Shmelyov]], [[Gaito Gazdanov]], [[Vladimir Nabokov]] and Bunin, continued to write in exile. Some writers dared to oppose Soviet ideology, like Nobel Prize-winning novelist [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] and [[Varlam Shalamov]], who wrote about life in the gulag camps. The [[Khrushchev Thaw]] brought some fresh wind to literature and poetry became a mass cultural phenomenon. This "thaw" did not last long; in the 1970s, some of the most prominent authors were banned from publishing and prosecuted for their anti-Soviet sentiments.

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 novelists [[Victor Pelevin]] and [[Vladimir Sorokin]], and the poet [[Dmitri Prigov]]. In the 21st century, a new generation of Russian authors appeared, differing greatly from the [[Russian postmodernism|postmodernist 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 five [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] laureates. As of 2011, Russia was the [[Books published per country per year|fourth largest book producer in the world]] in terms of published titles.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120425180933/http://academia-rossica.org/index.php?id=3107 Moscow International Book Fair]}}. Academia-rossica.org. Retrieved on 2012-06-17.</ref> A popular folk saying claims Russians are "the world's most reading nation".<ref>The Moscow Times [http://themoscownews.com/columnists/20080814/55342002.html The most reading country in the world?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510184117/http://themoscownews.com/columnists/20080814/55342002.html |date=2013-05-10}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last1 = Rivkin-Fish| first1 = Michele R. | last2 = Trubina| first2 = Elena | title = Dilemmas of Diversity After the Cold War: Analyses of "Cultural Difference" by U.S. and Russia-Based Scholars | publisher = Woodrow Wilson Center| year = 2010}}<br />"When mass illiteracy was finally liquidated in the first half of the twentieth century, the proud self-image of Russians as "the most reading nation in the world" emerged – where reading meant, and still means for many, the reading of literature".</ref> As the American scholar [[Gary Saul Morson]] notes, "No country has ever valued literature more than Russia."{{sfn|Morson|2023|p=41}}

==Medieval and early modern era==
[[File:Novgorod Codex - colour.jpg|thumb|right|upright|First page of the [[Novgorod Codex|Novgorod Psalter]] of {{circa|1000}}, the oldest survived Slavic book]]

Scholars typically use the term ''Old Russian literature'', in addition to the terms ''medieval Russian literature'' and ''early modern Russian literature'',{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|p=13}} or ''pre-Petrian literature'',<ref name="Morson">{{cite encyclopedia |surname=Morson |given=Gary Saul |authorlink=Gary Saul Morson |title=Russian literature |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Russian-literature |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] Online |access-date=2024-05-19}}</ref> to refer to Russian literature until the reforms of [[Peter 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 called ''Old Russia'' from the 11th to 17th centuries.{{sfn|Cornwell|2001|p=13}}{{sfn|Terras|1985|p=316}}

[[File:Birch bark letter N 955.jpg|thumb|right|Personal correspondence, the [[birch bark manuscript|birch bark letter]] from Matchmaker's Milusha to Marena, 12th century, [[Veliky Novgorod]]]]

Literary works from this period were often written in the Russian recension of [[Church Slavonic]] with varying amounts of the Russian or more broadly [[Old East Slavic|East Slavic]] vernacular.{{sfn|Cornwell|Christian|1998|p=5}}{{sfn|Matthews|2013|pp=128–132}} At the same time, the native Old Russian vernacular was not only language of [[oral literature]], such as epic poems (''[[bylina]]'') or folksongs,{{sfn|Cornwell|Christian|1998|pp=3–4}} but it was also perfectly legitimate as written for practical purposes, such as decrees, laws (the ''[[Russkaya Pravda]]'', the 11th–12th century, and other codes), letters (for example, the unique pre-paper [[birch bark manuscript]]s, the 11th–15th centuries, in the [[Old Novgorod dialect]]), ambassadorial messages,{{sfn|Cornwell|Christian|1998|p=5}} "in chronicles or military tales whose language is fundamentally the Russian vernacular."{{sfn|Cornwell|Christian|1998|p=5}}

Old Russian "bookish" literature traces its beginnings to the introduction of [[Old Church Slavonic]] in [[Kievan Rus']] as a liturgical language in the late 10th century following [[Christianization of Kievan Rus'|Christianization]].{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=3|loc="The Literature of Old Russia, 988–1730"}}{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=20–21}} The [[East 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 the [[Novgorod Codex]] or Novgorod Psalter written c. 1000, unearthed in 2000 at [[Veliky Novgorod]], containing four wooden tablet pages filled with wax.{{sfn|Zaliznyak|Yanin|2001}} Another earliest Russian book is the [[Ostromir Gospels]] written in 1056–1057, which belongs to the set of liturgical texts that were translated from other languages.{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=3–4}}{{sfn|Vinokur|1971|p=34}}

{{Quote box|quote=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.|source=—''[[The Tale of Igor's Campaign]]'', 2.1 ({{circa|1185}}), translated by Leonard A. Magnus<ref>{{citation |title=The Tale of the Armament of Igor. A.D. 1185. A Russian Historical Epic |others=ed. and trans. by Leonard A. Magnus |place=London |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1915 |url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/tai/index.htm |via=Sacred-texts.com}}</ref>|align=right|width=40em}}

The main type of Old Russian historical literature were chronicles, most of them anonymous.{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=27–29}} The oldest one is the ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'' or ''Tale'' of [[Nestor the Chronicler]] (c. 1115).{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|p=28}}{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} The oldest surviving manuscripts include the [[Laurentian Codex]] of 1377 and the [[Hypatian Codex]] dating to the 1420s.{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=12}} Anonymous works include ''[[The Tale of Igor's Campaign]]'' (a 12th century [[prose poem]] masterpiece){{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} and ''[[Praying of Daniel the Immured]]''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature |year=1995 |publisher=Merriam-Webster |isbn=978-0-87779-042-6 |page=580 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eKNK1YwHcQ4C}}</ref> Hagiographies ({{langx|ru|жития святых|zhitiya svyatykh|lives of the saints}}) formed a popular [[literary genre]] in Old Russian literature. The first notable hagiographer was Nestor the Chronicler, who wrote about the lives of [[Boris and Gleb]], the first saints of Kievan Rus', and the abbot [[Theodosius of Kiev|Theodosius]].{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=9}} The ''[[Life of Alexander Nevsky]]'' is a well-known example, which combines political realism and hagiographical ideals, and concentrates on the key events of [[Alexander Nevsky]]'s political career.{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=22}} The earliest account of a pilgrimage is ''The Pilgrimage of the Abbot Daniel'', which records the journey of [[Daniel the Traveller]] to the [[Holy Land]].{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=11}} Complex epic works such as ''[[The Tale of the Destruction of Ryazan]]'' recall the havoc caused by the Mongol invasions.{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=23}} Other notable Russian literary works include ''[[Zadonschina]]'',{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} ''[[Physiologist (Russian literature)|Physiologist]]'', ''[[Synopsis (Russian literature)|Synopsis]]'' and ''[[A Journey Beyond the Three Seas]]''.{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=1–44|loc="The Literature of Old Russia, 988–1730"}} Medieval Russian literature had an overwhelmingly religious character and used an adapted form of the Church Slavonic language with many South Slavic elements.{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=1–44}}

In the 16th century, reflecting the political centralization and unification of the country under the [[tsar]], chronicles were updated and codified, the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] began issuing its decrees in the ''[[Stoglav]]'', and a large compilation called the ''[[Great Menaion Reader]]'' collected both the more modern polemical texts and the hagiographical and patristic legacy of Old Russia.{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=30–31}} The ''[[Book of Royal Degrees]]'' codified the cult of the tsar, the ''[[Domostroy]]'' laid down the rules for family life, and other texts such as the ''[[Kazan Chronicle|History of Kazan]]'' were used to justify the actions of the tsar.{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=31}} ''[[The Tale of Peter and Fevronia]]'' were among the original tales of this period, and Russian tsar [[Ivan the Terrible|Ivan&nbsp;IV]] wrote some of most original works of 16th-century Russian literature.{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=31}} The [[Time 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 as [[Avraamy Palitsyn]] who developed a literary technique for representing complex characters.{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=33}}

In the second half of the 17th century, the literature of [[Baroque]] took shape, primarily due to the initiative of tsar [[Alexis 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-hour [[play (theatre)|play]] ''The Action of Artaxerxes''. The poetry and dramaturgy of [[Symeon of Polotsk]] and [[Demetrius of Rostov]] contributed to the development of the Russian version of the Baroque.{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=153—157}}

In the 17th century, when bookmen from the [[Kiev Academy]] arrived in Moscow, they brought with them a
culture heavily influenced by the educational system of the Polish [[Jesuits]].{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=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.{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=35}} [[Syllabic poetry]] was also brought to Russia, and the work of Simeon of Polotsk was continued by [[Sylvester Medvedev]] and [[Karion Istomin]].{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=35}}

{{Quote box|quote="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."|author=—[[Avvakum]]|source=''The Life written by Himself'' (1672), translated by Kenneth N. Brostrom<ref>''Archpriest Avvakum: The Life written by Himself'', trans. by Kenneth N. Brostrom, Michigan Slavic Pub., 1979. {{ISBN|0-930042-33-6}}</ref>|align=right|width=40em}}

''The Life of the Archpriest Avvakum''—an outstanding novelty [[autobiography]] written by the one of leaders of the 17th-century religious dissidents [[Old Believers]] [[Avvakum]]—is considered masterpiece of pre-Petrian literature, which blends high Old Church Slavonic with low Russian vernacular and profanity without following literary canons.{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=142–145}}

==Age of Enlightenment, 18th century==

After taking the throne at the end of the 17th century, [[Peter I of Russia|Peter the Great's]] influence on the Russian culture would extend far into the [[18th century in literature|18th 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.{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=45–91|loc="The Eighteenth Century: Neoclassicism and the Enlightenment, 1730–1790"}}

[[Satire|Satirist]] [[Antiokh 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 growing [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] movement in Europe. Kantemir's works regularly expressed his admiration for Peter, most notably in his epic dedicated to the emperor entitled ''Petrida''. 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.{{sfn|Terras|1985|pp=221–223}} 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 the [[Russian 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 of [[Paul Tallement the Younger|Paul Tallemant's]] work ''Voyage to the Isle of Love'', was the first to use the Russian vernacular as opposed the formal and outdated [[Church Slavonic language|Church-Slavonic]].{{sfn|Terras|1985|pp=474–477}} 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 Sumarokov|Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov]], 1717–1777, was dedicated to the styles of French [[classicism]].{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=45–91|loc="The Eighteenth Century: Neoclassicism and the Enlightenment, 1730–1790"}} Sumarokov's interest in the form of the [[17th-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 manifesto ''Epistle on Poetry'', "The great Peter hurls his thunder from the Baltic shores, the Russian sword glitters in all corners of the universe".{{sfn|Lang|1948|p=502}} 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 unfinished ''Peter 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.{{sfn|Lang|1948|p=500}}{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=45–91|loc="The Eighteenth Century: Neoclassicism and the Enlightenment, 1730–1790"}}

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 of [[Catherine 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 poem ''Dushenka'' (1778) is rare sample of the [[Rococo]] style, erotic [[light poetry]] in Russia.{{sfn|Moser|1992|p=83}} [[Alexander Radishchev|Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev]], for example, shocked the Russian public with his depictions of the socio-economic condition of the [[serfs]]. Empress Catherine II condemned this portrayal, forcing Radishchev into exile in [[Siberia]].{{sfn|Terras|1985|pp=365–366}}

Others, however, picked topics less offensive to the [[autocracy|autocrat]]. the historian and writer [[Nikolay Karamzin]], 1766–1826, the key figure of [[sentimentalism (literature)|literary sentimentalism]] in Russia,{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}<ref name="Morson">{{cite encyclopedia |surname=Morson |given=Gary Saul |authorlink=Gary Saul Morson |title=Russian literature |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Russian-literature |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] Online |access-date=2024-05-19}}</ref>{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=92–135|loc="The Transition to the Modern Age: Sentimentalism and Preromanticism, 1790–1820"}} 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.{{sfn|Rosenholm|Savkina|2012|pp=162–163}}{{sfn|Cornwell|Christian|1998|pp=35–40}}{{sfn|Cornwell|2001|pp=150–162}} 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 the [[Russian 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.<ref>{{citation |author=Offord, Derek |title=Denis Fonvizin and the Concept of Nobility: An Eighteenth-century Russian Echo of a Western Debate|journal= European History Quarterly |volume= 35 |issue=1 |year=2005 |page=10 |doi=10.1177/0265691405049200 |s2cid=145305528}}</ref>

==Golden Age==
{{see also|Romanticism#Russia|List of romantics#Russian Romanticism}}
[[File:Painted-portraits-of-writer.png|thumb|upright|[[Ivan Krylov|Krylov]], [[Pushkin]], [[Vasily Zhukovsky|Zhukovsky]], and [[Nikolay Gnedich|Gnedich]] in the [[Summer Garden]] by [[Grigory Chernetsov]] (1832)]]
{{Quote box|quote=<poem>
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."</poem>|author=[[Alexander Pushkin]]|source=''The Prophet'' (1826), translated by <br/> [[Babette Deutsch]] and [[Avrahm Yarmolinsky]]<ref>[[s:Modern Russian Poetry/The Prophet|''Modern Russian Poetry: An Anthology'']], Trans. by [[Babette Deutsch]] and [[Avrahm Yarmolinsky]], New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1921 — via Wikisource</ref>|align=right|width=25em}}

The [[19th century in literature|19th century]] is traditionally referred to as the "Golden Era" of Russian literature.{{sfn|Slonim|1950|pp=}}
The period of [[Romantic literature]] saw the flowering of poetic talent, in particular; the names of [[Vasily Zhukovsky]] and his protégé [[Alexander Pushkin]] came to the fore.{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=136–188|loc="The Nineteenth Century: Romanticism, 1820–1840"}} Pushkin is credited with crystallizing the literary Russian language and introducing a new level of artistry to Russian literature. His best-known work is a pre-realistic novel in verse, ''[[Eugene Onegin]]'' (1833).<ref>[[Aleksandr Pushkin]], ''Eugene Onegin: a novel in verse'', 4 vols, Trans. from Russian with a commentary by [[Vladimir Nabokov]], London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964, {{ISBN|0-691-01905-3}}</ref> Other poets important to the movement include [[Konstantin Batyushkov]], [[Pyotr Vyazemsky]], [[Yevgeny Baratynsky]], [[Fyodor Tyutchev]] and [[Dmitry Venevitinov]], along with the novelists [[Antony Pogorelsky]], [[Alexander Bestuzhev]] and "Russian Hoffmann" [[Vladimir Odoyevsky]]. Tyutchev is best known for the following verse:
{{blockquote|<poem>
''Who would grasp Russia with the mind?''
''For her no yardstick was created:''
''Her soul is of a special kind,''
''By faith alone appreciated.''
</poem>|sign=[[Fyodor Tyutchev]]|source=''Who would grasp Russia with the mind?'' (1866), translated by John Dewey<ref>{{citation |author=[[Fyodor Tyutchev]] |url=http://www.tyutchev.org.uk/Download/Tyutchev%20Selected%20Poems.pdf |title=Selected Poems |translator=John Dewey |place=Gillingham |publisher=Brimstone Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-906385-43-9}}</ref>}}

An entire new generation of Romantic poets and novelists followed in Pushkin's steps. [[Mikhail Lermontov]] wrote the narrative poem ''[[Demon (poem)|Demon]]'' in 1829–39, which chronicled the love of a Byronic Demon for a mortal woman, as well as ''[[A Hero of Our Time]]'' (1841), which is often considered to be the first Russian [[psychological fiction|psychological novel]]. [[Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy|Aleksey K. Tolstoy]] and [[Afanasy Fet]] were also significant.{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=136–188|loc="The Nineteenth Century: Romanticism, 1820–1840"}}

[[File:Russian writers by Levitsky 1856.jpg|thumb|The group picture of Russian writers, the literary magazine ''[[Sovremennik]]'' editorial board members. [[Ivan Goncharov]], [[Ivan Turgenev]], [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Dmitry Grigorovich (writer)|Dmitry Grigorovich]], [[Alexander Druzhinin]], and [[Aleksandr Ostrovsky]], 1856]]

As Romanticism came to command the stage, the Age of [[literary realism|Realism]]{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} began to flourish as well. The first great Russian rich language novel was ''[[Dead Souls]]'' (1842) by [[Nikolai Gogol]].{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}{{sfn|Strakhovsky|1953}} The realistic [[natural school]] of fiction is said to have begun with the works of [[Ivan Goncharov]], mainly remembered for his novel ''[[Oblomov]]'' (1859), as well as [[Ivan Turgenev]].{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}{{sfn|Moser|1992|pp=189–247|loc="The Nineteenth Century: The Natural School and Its Aftermath, 1840–55"}} [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]] and [[Leo Tolstoy]] soon became internationally renowned,{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} to the point that scholars, such as [[F. R. Leavis]], have frequently described them as among the greatest novelists of all time. Tolstoy's [[Christian anarchism]] can be seen in the following quote:

{{blockquote|quote=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.|sign=[[Leo Tolstoy]]|source=[[Resurrection (Tolstoy novel)|''The Resurrection'']], 1.1 (1899), translated by William E. Smith<ref>Leo Tolstoy, [[s:The Awakening: The Resurrection/Chapter 1|''The Resurrection'']], Trans. by William E. Smith (1900) — via Wikisource</ref>}}

[[Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin]] is known for his satirical chronicle ''[[The History of a Town]]'' (1870) and the family saga ''[[The Golovlyov Family]]'' (1880), which are considered his masterpieces. [[Nikolai Leskov]] is best remembered for his shorter fiction and for his (together with [[Pavel Ivanovich Melnikov|Pavel Melnikov]]) unique ''[[skaz]]'' techniques, namely oral form of narrative stylization. Late in the century [[Anton Chekhov]] emerged as a master of the short story as well as a leading international dramatist.{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}

Other important 19th-century developments included [[Sergey Aksakov]]'s semi-autobiographical writings; the father of Russian [[social realism]] and left-wing poetry school, known for the sharp epic poem ''[[Who Can Be Happy and Free in Russia?]]'' [[Nikolay Nekrasov]];{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} the fabulist [[Ivan Krylov]]; the precursor to [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]] [[Aleksey Pisemsky]]; non-fiction writers such as the critic [[Vissarion Belinsky]] and the political reformer [[Alexander Herzen]]; playwrights such as [[Aleksandr Griboyedov]], [[Aleksandr Ostrovsky]],{{sfn|Beasly|1928}} [[Alexander Sukhovo-Kobylin]] and the satirist [[Kozma Prutkov]] (a collective pen name).

==Silver Age==
{{main|Silver Age of Russian poetry}}
{{Quote box|quote=<poem>
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.</poem>|author=[[Alexander Blok]]|source=''Night, street and streetlight, drug store...'' (1912), translated by Alex Cigale|align=right|width=25em}}

The 1890s and the beginning of the 20th century ranks as the Silver Age of Russian poetry.<ref name="Morson" /> Well-known poets of the period include: [[Alexander Blok]], [[Sergei Yesenin]], [[Valery Bryusov]], [[Konstantin Balmont]], [[Mikhail Kuzmin]], [[Igor Severyanin]], [[Sasha Chorny]], [[Nikolay Gumilyov]], [[Maximilian Voloshin]], [[Innokenty Annensky]], [[Zinaida Gippius]]. The poets most often associated with the "Silver Age" are [[Anna Akhmatova]], [[Marina Tsvetaeva]], [[Osip Mandelstam]], and [[Boris Pasternak]].{{sfn|Slonim|1953|p=}}{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}

The [[Russian symbolism]] was the first Silver Age development in the 1890s. It arose enough separately from West European symbolism, emphasizing mysticism of [[Sophiology]] and [[defamiliarization]]. Its most significant figures included philosopher and poet [[Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)|Vladimir Solovyov]] (1853–1900), poets and writers [[Valery Bryusov]] (1873–1924), [[Fyodor Sologub]] (1863–1927), [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (poet)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]] (1866–1949), [[Konstantin Balmont]] (1867–1942), and figures of the new wave generation [[Alexander Blok]] (1880–1921) with [[Andrei Bely]] (1880–1934).{{sfn|Peterson|1993}}<ref name="Morson" /><ref name="symbolism">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Symbolism |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/577796/Symbolist-movement |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |access-date=2023-02-21}}</ref>

''[[New peasant poets]]'' was the conditional collective name of a group of peasant origin and country poetry trend ([[Nikolai Klyuev]], Pyotr Oreshin, Alexander Shiryaevets, [[Sergei Klychkov]], [[Sergei Yesenin]]).

[[File:Poshechina obshestvennomu vkusu.jpg|thumb|upright|Group photograph of some [[Russian Futurism|Russian Futurists]], published in their manifesto ''A Slap in the Face of Public Taste''. Left to right: [[Aleksei Kruchyonykh]], [[Vladimir Burliuk]], [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]], [[David Burliuk]], and [[Benedikt Livshits]].|alt=]]

While the Silver Age is considered to be the development of the 19th-century Russian Golden Age literature tradition, some modernist and [[Russian avant-garde|avant-garde]] poets tried to overturn it. Most prominent their movements: the [[Cubo-Futurism]] with practice of ''[[zaum]]'', the experimental visual and sound poetry ([[David Burliuk]], [[Velimir Khlebnikov]], [[Aleksei Kruchenykh]], [[Nikolai Aseyev (writer)|Nikolai Aseyev]], [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]]);{{sfn|Terras|1985|p=197}} the [[Ego-Futurism]] based on a personality cult ([[Igor Severyanin]] and [[Vasilisk Gnedov]]);{{sfn|Markov|1968|p=64}} and the [[Acmeist poetry]], a Russian modernist school, which emerged ca. 1911 and to symbols preferred direct expression through exact images ([[Anna Akhmatova]], [[Nikolay Gumilev]], [[Georgiy Ivanov]], [[Mikhail Kuzmin]], [[Osip Mandelstam]]).{{sfn|Painter|2012|pp=5–6}}{{sfn|Wachtel|2004|p=8}}

Though the Silver Age is famous mostly for its poetry, it produced some first-rate novelists and short-story writers, such as [[naturalism (literature)|naturalist]] [[Aleksandr Kuprin]], realists Nobel Prize winner [[Ivan Bunin]]{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} and [[Vikenty Veresaev]], pioneer of Russian [[expressionism#Literature|expressionism]] [[Leonid Andreyev]], symbolists [[Fyodor Sologub|Fedor Sologub]], [[Aleksey Remizov]], [[Dmitry Merezhkovsky]], [[Andrei Bely]], [[Alexander Belyaev]], and [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]], though most of them wrote poetry as well as prose.{{sfn|Slonim|1953|p=}}

In 1915/16, the school of [[Russian Formalism]], wary of the futurists and highly influential for the global theory of literary criticism and [[poetics]], appeared; its programmatic article ''The Resurrection of the Word'' by the scholar and writer [[Viktor Shklovsky]] (1893–1984) was published in 1914, and the peak of activity occurred in the post-revolutionary '20s.{{sfn|Steiner|1984|p=}}{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=532–534}}

An integral part of the literature of the Silver Age is [[Russian philosophy]], which reached its peak at this time (see works of [[Nikolai Berdyaev]], [[Pavel Florensky]], [[Semyon Frank]], [[Nikolay Lossky]], [[Vasily Rozanov]], and others).{{sfn|Lossky|1952|loc=}}

==Soviet era==
===Early post-Revolutionary era===
{{Serapion Brothers|size=300px}}
{{Quote box|quote=<poem>
Tramp squares with rebellious treading!
Up heads! As proud peaks be seen!
In the second flood we are spreading
Every city on earth will be clean.'
</poem>|author=[[Vladimir Mayakovsky]]|source=''Our March'' (1917), translation<ref>''A Book of Russian Verse'', trans. by various bands and ed. by [[Maurice Bowra|C. M. Bowra]], London: Macmillan & Co., 1943, p. 125 — via Wikiquote</ref>|align=right|width=25em}}

The first years of the Soviet regime after the [[October Revolution]] of 1917, featured a proliferation of [[Russian avant-garde]] literary groups, and [[proletarian literature]] receive official support. The [[Imaginism|Imaginists]] were post-Revolution poetic movement, similar to English-language [[Imagism|Imagists]], that created poetry based on sequences of arresting and uncommon images. The major figures include [[Sergei Yesenin]], [[Anatoly Marienhof]], and [[Rurik Ivnev]].{{sfn|Nilsson|1970}} Another important movement was the [[Oberiu]] (1927–1930s), which included the most famous Russian absurdist [[Daniil Kharms]] (1905–1942), [[Konstantin Vaginov]] (1899–1934), [[Alexander Vvedensky (poet)|Alexander Vvedensky]] (1904–1941) and [[Nikolay Zabolotsky]] (1903–1958).{{sfn|Kasack|1988|p=}}{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=621–624}} Other famous authors experimenting with language included the novelists [[Boris Pilnyak]] (1894–1938), [[Yuri Olesha]] (1899–1960), [[Andrei Platonov]] (1899–1951) and [[Artyom Vesyoly]] (1899–1938), the short-story writers [[Isaak Babel]] (1894–1940) and [[Mikhail Zoshchenko]] (1894–1958).{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}{{sfn|Kasack|1988|p=}} The [[OPOJAZ]] group of literary critics, a part of [[Russian formalism]] school, was founded in 1916 in close connection with [[Russian Futurism]]. Two of its members also produced influential literary works, namely [[Viktor Shklovsky]], whose numerous books (''A Sentimental Journey'' and ''Zoo, 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, and [[Yury 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).{{sfn|Steiner|1984|p=}}

Following the establishment of [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] 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 poem ''[[150 000 000]]'' (1921) discusses the leading role played by the masses in the revolution. In the poem ''[[Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (poem)|Vladimir 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 poem ''[[All Right!]]'' (1927), Mayakovsky writes about [[socialist]] society as the "springtime of humanity". Mayakovsky was instrumental in producing a new type of poetry in which politics played a major part.<ref>Zelinsky, K., ''Soviet literature: problems and people'' (in Russian), Moscow: Progress Pub., 1970, p. 167.</ref>

One of the most popular Soviet poets during the 1920s was [[Nikolai Tikhonov (writer)|Nikolai Tikhonov]] (1896–1979), a future important figure of Stalinist era, well-known for his ''Ballad About Nails'',{{sfn|Terras|1985|p=474}} as follows:
{{blockquote|<poem>
Could nails from such people be fashioned, you’d see
That no tougher nails in the world would there be.
</poem>|sign=[[Nikolai Tikhonov (writer)|Nikolai Tikhonov]]|source=''Ballad of the Nails'' (1919), translated by Peter Tempest<ref>[[Nikolai Tikhonov (writer)|Nikolai Tikhonov]], [https://ruverses.com/nikolay-tikhonov/ballad-of-the-nails/11838/ ''Ballad of the nails''], trans. by Peter Tempest — via Ruverses.com</ref>}}

===''Émigré'' writers===
{{Quote box|quote=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.|source=[[Vladimir Nabokov]], from the interview|align=right|width=40em}}

Usually, Russian ''émigré'' literature is understood as the works of the [[white émigré]], namely the first post-Revolutionary wave, although in the broad sense of the word, it also includes [[Soviet dissidents]] of the late years through the 1980s.{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=536–542}} Meanwhile, émigré writers, such as poets [[Georgy Ivanov]], [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (poet)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]], [[Vladislav Khodasevich]], [[surrealism|surrealist]] Boris Poplavsky (1903–1935), and members of the 1920s–50s Paris Note (French: ''Note parisienne'') Russian poetry movement ([[Georgy Adamovich]], Igor Chinnov, [[George Ivask]], [[Anatoly Shteiger]], Lidia Tcherminskaia); novelists such as [[M. Ageyev]], [[Mark Aldanov]], [[Gaito Gazdanov]], [[Pyotr Krasnov]], [[Aleksandr Kuprin]], [[Dmitry Merezhkovsky]], [[Aleksey Remizov]], [[Ivan Shmelyov]], [[George Grebenstchikoff]], [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]], [[Vladimir Nabokov]], and English-speaking [[Ayn Rand]]; and short-story [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]]-winning writer and poet [[Ivan Bunin]], continued to write in exile.{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=536–542}} During his emigration Bunin wrote his most significant works, such as his only autobiographical novel ''[[The Life of Arseniev]]'' (1927–1939) and short story cycle ''[[Dark Avenues]]'' (1937–1944). An example of long prose form is Grebenstchikoff's epic novel ''The Churaevs'' in six volumes (1922–1937) in which he described life of the [[Siberians]].{{sfn|Kasack|1988|p=}} While the realists Bunin, Shmelyov and Grebenstchikoff wrote about the pre-revolutionary Russia, life of the émigrés was depicted in modernist Nabokov's ''[[Mary (Nabokov novel)|Mary]]'' (1926)'' and [[The Gift (Nabokov novel)|The Gift]]'' (1938), Gazdanov's ''An Evening with Claire'' (1929) and ''The Specter of Alexander Wolf'' (1948) and Georgy Ivanov's novel ''Disintegration of the Atom'' (1938).{{sfn|Egorova|Fokin|Ivanova|2014|p=}}{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=536–542}}

===Stalinist era===
In the 1930s, [[Socialist realism]] became the predominant official trend in the Soviet Union. Writers like those of the [[Serapion Brothers]] group (1921–), who insisted on the right of an author to write independently of political ideology, were forced by authorities to reject their views and accept socialist realist principles. Some 1930s writers, such as [[Osip Mandelstam]], [[Daniil Kharms]], leader of [[Oberiu]], [[Leonid Dobychin]], [[Mikhail Bulgakov]], author of ''[[The White Guard]]'' (1923) and ''[[The Master and Margarita]]'' (1928–1940), and [[Andrei Platonov]], author of novels ''[[Chevengur]]'' (1928) and ''[[The Foundation Pit]]'' (1930) were attacked by the official critics as "formalists," "naturalists" and ideological enemies and wrote with little or no hope of being published. Such remarkable writers as [[Isaac Babel]], [[Boris Pilnyak]], [[Nikolai Klyuev]], [[Sergey Klychkov]], Pyotr Oreshin and [[Artyom Vesyoly]], who continued to publish their works but could not get used to the socrealist principles by the end of the 1930s, were executed on fabricated charges, and Osip Mandelstam, Daniil Kharms and [[Alexander Vvedensky (poet)|Alexander Vvedensky]] died in prison.{{sfn|Slonim|1953|p=}}{{sfn|Slonim|1977|p=}}

The return from emigration such famous authors as [[Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy|Aleksey Tolstoy]], [[Maxim Gorky]], and [[Ilya Ehrenburg]] was a major propaganda victory for the Soviets.

After his return to Russia Maxim Gorky was proclaimed by the Soviet authorities as "the founder of Socialist Realism". His novel [[Mother (novel)|''Mother'']] (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 in [[Andrei Sinyavsky]]'s essay ''On Socialist Realism''), but as a label for the "union of writers of styles", who write for one purpose, to help in the development of the [[New Soviet man|new man]] in socialist society. Gorky became the initiator of creating the Writer's Union, a state organization, intended to unite the socrealist writers.{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}<ref>Ovcharenko, A. ''Socialist realism and the modern literary process''. Moscow: Progress, 1978. p. 120.</ref> Despite the official reputation, Gorky's post-revolutionary works, such as the novel ''[[The Life of Klim Samgin]]'' (1925–1936) can't be defined as socrealist, but [[literary modernism|modernist]].{{sfn|Freeborn|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KGhGf-erYM8C&q=samgin 178]}}{{sfn|Egorova|Fokin|Ivanova|2014|p=}}

[[Andrei Bely]] (1880–1934), author of ''[[Petersburg (novel)|Petersburg]]'' (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.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Andrey Bely |url=http://www.britannica.com/biography/Andrey-Bely |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |access-date=2017-12-16}}</ref> 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! (novel)|Time, Forward!]]'' (1932) and the classic 1946 short story ''Our Father''.{{sfn|Brown|1982|pp=101–2}}

[[Mikhail Sholokhov]] (1905–1984) was one of the most significant figures in the official Soviet literature. His main socrealist work is ''Virgin Soil Upturned'' (1935), a novel in which Sholokhov glorifies the collectivization. However, his unique for period best-known and the most significant literary achievement is ''[[And Quiet Flows the Don|Quiet Flows the Don]]'' (1928–40), an epic novel which realistically depicts the life of [[Don Cossacks]] during the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and Russian Civil War.{{sfn|Slonim|1953|p=}}{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1997/03/23/caught-in-the-currents-of-history/f67fcef1-27e2-4762-8276-357c39dec759/ |title=Caught in the Currents of History |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=1997-03-23 |access-date=2021-09-07 |archive-date=2017-08-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828231516/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1997/03/23/caught-in-the-currents-of-history/f67fcef1-27e2-4762-8276-357c39dec759/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Nikolai Ostrovsky]]'s novel ''[[How the Steel Was Tempered]]'' (1932–1934) has been among the most popular and standard works of literary socrealism,{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e2008/e200804/p28.htm |title=Design Template |publisher=China Today |date=Jul 30, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120730152723/http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e2008/e200804/p28.htm|archive-date=2012-07-30}}</ref> In Russia more than 35 million copies of the book are in circulation.<ref name="compuart">{{cite web|url= http://compuart.ru/article/8496|title=Подводя итоги XX столетия: книгоиздание. Бестселлер – детище рекламы |website=compuart.ru}}</ref> The book is a fictionalized autobiography of Ostrovsky's life: he had a difficult working-class childhood, became a [[Komsomol]] member in July 1919 and volunteered to join the [[Red 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.<ref>Soviet literature: problems and people K. Zelinsky. Moscow: Progress, 1970. p. 135.</ref> [[Alexander Fadeyev (writer)|Alexander Fadeyev]] (1901–1956) was also a well-known Socialist realism writer, the chairman of the official Writer's Union during Stalinist era.{{sfn|Slonim|1953|p=}}{{sfn|Slonim|1977|p=}} His novel ''The Rout'' (1927) deals with the partisan struggle in [[Russian Far East|Russia'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 the [[commoner|masses]].{{sfn|Slonim|1953|p=}}{{sfn|Slonim|1977|p=}}

In the 1930s, [[Konstantin Paustovsky]] (1892–1968), an influenced by [[neo-romanticism|neo-Romantic]] works of [[Alexander Grin]] master of landscape prose, a singer of the [[Meshchera 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.{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=599–605|loc=Neo-Romanticism}}

Novelist and playwright [[Leonid Leonov]], despite the fact that he was considered by authorities to be one of the pillars of socialist realism,{{sfn|Jones|Miller|1998|p=13}} during the Stalin years, created a forbidden novella about emigrants ''Eugenua Ivanovna'' (1938), a play about the [[Chekism|Chekist]] 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.

{{Quote box|quote=<poem>
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! </poem>|source=—[[Konstantin Simonov]], ''[[Wait for Me (poem)|Wait for Me!]]'' (1941), translated by Mike Munford<ref>[https://smokestack-books.co.uk/book.php?book=188 ''Wait For Me: Selected poems of Konstantin Simonov''], trans. by Mike Munford, Thirsk, UK: Smokestack Books, 2020 — via Smokestack-books.co.uk</ref>|align=right|width=20em}}

The cult figures of the literature of the Second World War were the [[war poet]]s [[Konstantin Simonov]], arguably most famous for his 1941 poem ''[[Wait for Me (poem)|Wait for Me]]'',{{sfn|Geldern|Stites|1995|p=335}} and [[Aleksandr Tvardovsky]], author of the long poem "[[Vasily Terkin]]" (1941–45), chief editor of the literary magazine ''[[Novy Mir]]''.{{sfn|Geldern|Stites|1995|p=371}} Poet [[Yulia Drunina]] known for writing about women at war.

[[Boris Polevoy]] is the author of the ''Story About a True Man'' (1946), based on the life of World War II fighter pilot [[Aleksey Maresyev]], which was an immensely popular.{{sfn|Geldern|Stites|1995|pp=416–421}}

===Late Soviet era===
{{Quote box|quote=<poem>
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?
</poem>|author=[[Nikolay Zabolotsky]]|source=''A Plain Girl'' (1955), translated by Alyona Mokraya<ref>[[Nikolay Zabolotsky]], [https://ruverses.com/nikolay-zabolotsky/the-ugly-girl/2163/ ''A Plain Girl''], trans. by Alyona Mokraya — via Ruverses.com</ref>|align=right|width=25em}}

After the end of World War II Nobel Prize-winning [[Boris Pasternak]] (1890–1960) wrote a novel [[Doctor Zhivago (novel)|''Doctor 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.{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}

The majority of members of the Writers' Union ([[Georgi Markov (Soviet writer)|Georgi Markov]], [[Anatoly Rybakov]], [[Aleksandr Chakovsky]], [[Sergey Zalygin]], Anatoly Kalinin, [[Daniil Granin]], [[Yuri Nagibin]], [[Vladimir Tendryakov]], Arkady Lvov (before his emigration), [[Chinghiz Aitmatov]], [[Anatoli Ivanov (writer)|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 natural [[Lieutenant prose|Lieutenant]], nostalgic [[Village Prose|Village]] and intellectual "Urban Prose" ([[Yury Trifonov]]), the literature of the [[Sixtiers]] 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 word ''mauvais'', "bad").

{{Quote box|quote=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.|author=[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]|source=''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]'' (1962), translated by [[Harry Willetts|H. T. Willetts]]<ref>[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], [http://www.davar.net/EXTRACTS/FICTION/ONE-DAY.HTM ''One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich''], trans. by [[Harry Willetts|H. T. Willetts]], New York: Noonday; Farrar Straus Giroux, 1991 — via Davar.net</ref>|align=right|width=40em}}

The [[Khrushchev Thaw]] ({{circa|1954|1964}}) brought some fresh wind to literature (the term was coined after [[Ilya Ehrenburg]]'s 1954 novel ''[[The Thaw (Ehrenburg novel)|The Thaw]]''). Published in 1956, [[Vladimir Dudintsev]]'s novel ''[[Not by Bread Alone]]'' and [[Yury Dombrovsky]]'s ''The Keeper of Antiquities'' in 1964 became two of the main literary events of the Thaw and a milestone in the process of [[de-Stalinization]], but was soon criticized and withdrawn from circulation.{{sfn|Kasack|1988|p=}} The last years of life were fruitful for [[Nikolay Zabolotsky]], who was repressed during the Stalin years. The publication in 1962 of the philosophical novelist [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]]'s debut story ''[[One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]]'' about a political prisoner became a national and international sensation.{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} Poetry of the [[Sixtiers]] or Russian New Wave became a [[mass culture|mass-cultural]] phenomenon: [[Bella Akhmadulina]], [[Boris Slutsky]], [[Victor Sosnora]], [[Robert Rozhdestvensky]], [[Andrei Voznesensky]], and [[Yevgeny Yevtushenko]], read their poems in stadiums and attracted huge crowds, as follows:
{{blockquote|<poem>
I don’t know about the rest of you,
but I feel the cruelest
nostalgia — not for the past —
but nostalgia for the present.
</poem>|sign=[[Andrei Voznesensky]]|source=''Nostalgia for the Present'' (1976), translated by Vera Dunham and H. W. Tjalsma<ref>[[Andrei Voznesensky]], [https://ruverses.com/andrei-voznesensky/nostalgia-for-the-present/ ''Nostalgia for the present''], trans. by Vera Dunham and H. W. Tjalsma — via Ruverses.com</ref>}}

Such exponents of neo-[[Acmeist poetry]] as [[Arseny Tarkovsky]], [[Semyon Lipkin]], [[David Samoylov]], [[Alexander Kushner]] and [[Oleg Chukhontsev]],{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|p=578}} the representatives "quiet poetry" Anatoly Zhigulin, [[Stanislav Kunyaev]], [[Nikolay Rubtsov]] and Yury Kuznetsov, and also Gleb Gorbovsky, [[bard (Soviet Union)|bard]] [[Novella Matveyeva]], [[Yunna Morits]], and Gleb Semenov's lyrical poetry also stood apart from the socrealist mainstream.{{sfn|Kasack|1988|p=}}

The [[Village Prose]] was a movement in Soviet literature beginning during the Khrushchev Thaw, which included works that cultivated nostalgia of rural life.{{sfn|Parthé|1992}}{{sfn|McMillin|2000|pp=225–242}} [[Valentin Ovechkin]]'s story ''District Routine'' (1952), expose managerial inefficiency, the self-interest of party functionaries,{{sfn|Terras|1985|pp=326–327}} was the starting point of the movement.{{sfn|Parthé|1992|p=151}}{{sfn|McMillin|2000|p=225}} Its major members [[Alexander Yashin]], [[Fyodor Abramov]], [[Boris Mozhayev]], [[Viktor Astafyev]], [[Vladimir Soloukhin]], [[Vasily Shukshin]], [[Vasily Belov]], and [[Valentin Rasputin]] clustered in the traditionalist and nationalist ''[[Nash Sovremennik]]'' literary magazine.{{sfn|Cosgrove|2004|p=151}}

Since 1985/86, the ''[[Perestroika]]''—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.{{sfn|McMillin|2000|p=2}}{{sfn|Epstein|Genis|Vladiv-Glover|2016|p=151}}{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=560}} In 1986 there was established the legal non-Realistic literary club "Poetry", among its members were [[Dmitry Prigov]], [[Igor Irtenyev]], Aleksandr Yeryomenko, [[Sergey Gandlevsky]], and Yuri Arabov. Many previously suppressed works were published{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} among first, in 1986–87, anti-Stalinist [[Alexander Bek]]'s novel ''The New Appointment'' (1965){{sfn|Terras|1985|p=43}} and Anatoly Rybakov's ''[[Children of the Arbat]]'' trilogy. The events of the [[theater of the absurd]] were postmodern plays of [[Nina Sadur]]. Among the best writers of "alternative fiction," openly discussing previously taboo themes, were Mikhail Kurayev (b. 1939), [[Valery Popov (writer)|Valery Popov]], [[Tatyana Tolstaya]], and [[Viktor Yerofeyev]].{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}

====Soviet nonconformism====
{{See also|Soviet nonconformist art}}

Some writers dared to oppose Soviet ideology, like short-story writer [[Varlam Shalamov]] (1907–1982) and Nobel Prize-winning novelist [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] (1918–2008), who wrote about life in the [[gulag]] camps, or [[Vasily Grossman]] (1905–1964), with his description of World War II events countering the Soviet official historiography (his epic novel ''[[Life and Fate]]'' (1959) was not published in the Soviet Union until the ''[[perestroika]]''). Such writers, dubbed "[[dissidents]]", could not publish their major works until the 1960s.<ref name="accursed">[https://smokestack-books.co.uk/book.php?book=189 ''Accursed Poets: Dissident Poetry from Soviet Russia 1960–80''], ed. and trans. by [[Anatoly Kudryavitsky]], Thirsk, UK: Smokestack Books, 2020, {{ISBN|978-1-9161-3929-9}}.</ref>

Modernist and [[Postmodern literature|Postmodern]] dissident literature{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=688–694}} was related and partially coincided with the [[Soviet nonconformist art]] movement. From 1953 to 1957, the ''Mansard 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 the ''Philological School'' that included Mikhail Eremin (1936–2022), Sergey Kulle (1936–1984), Leonid Vinogradov (1936–2004) and poet and artist [[Vladimir 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), [[Dmitri Prigov|Dmitry Prigov]] (1940–2007), Kari Unksova (1941–1983), [[Ry Nikonova]] (1942–2014), [[Oleg Grigoriev]] (1943–1992), Valery Kholodenko (1945–1993), [[Serge Segay]] (1947–2014), and [[Vladimir Sorokin]] (b. 1955).{{sfn|Rosenfeld|Dodge|1995}}

But the late 1950s thaw did not last long. In the 1970s, some of the most prominent authors were not only banned from publishing but were also prosecuted for their anti-Soviet sentiments, or for [[parasitism]], thus writers [[Yuli Daniel]] (1925–1988) and [[Leonid Borodin]] (1938–2011) was imprisoned. Solzhenitsyn and Nobel Prize–winning poet [[Joseph Brodsky]] (1940–1996) were expelled from the country.{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}} Others, such as writers and poets David Dar (1910–1980), [[Viktor Nekrasov]] (1911–1987), [[Lev Kopelev]] (1912–1997), [[Alexander Galich (writer)|Aleksandr Galich]] (1918–1977), [[Arkadiy Belinkov]] (1921–2019), Elizaveta Mnatsakanova (1922–2006), [[Alexander Zinoviev]] (1922–2006), [[Naum Korzhavin]] (1925–2018), [[Andrei Sinyavsky]] (1925–1997), Arkady Lvov (1927–2020), [[Yuz Aleshkovsky]] (1929–2022), [[Anatoly Kuznetsov]] (1929–1979), Vilen Barskyi, [[Vladimir Maksimov (writer)|Vladimir Maksimov]] (1930–1995), [[Yuri Mamleev]] (1931–2015), [[Georgi Vladimov]] (1931–2003), [[Vasily Aksyonov]] (1932–2009), [[Vladimir Voinovich]] (1932–2018), Leonid Chertkov, [[Anatoly Gladilin]] (1935–2018), [[Anri Volokhonsky]] (1936–2017), [[Andrei Bitov]] (1937–2018), Igor Sinyavin, Alexei Khvostenko, [[Sergei Dovlatov]] (1941–1990), [[Eduard Limonov]] (1943–2020), and [[Sasha Sokolov]] (b. 1943), had to emigrate to the West,{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=536–542}} while Oleg Grigoriev and [[Venedict Yerofeyev|Venedikt Yerofeyev]] (1938–1990) "emigrated" to alcoholism, and repressed still in Stalinist years poet Yury Aikhenvald (1928–1993) with some others to translations, and Kari Unksova and [[Yury Dombrovsky]] (1909–1978) were murdered, Dombrovsky shortly after publishing his novel ''[[The Faculty of Useless Knowledge]]'' (1975). Their books were not published officially until the ''perestroika'' period of the 1980s, although fans continued to reprint them manually in a manner called "''[[samizdat]]''" (self-publishing).{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=554–557}}

In 1960s arose unofficial Soviet [[second Russian avant-garde]] and [[Russian postmodernism]]. In 1965–72, at Leningrad existed the avantgardist [[Absurdist fiction|Absurdist]] poetic and writing group "Khelenkuts", which included Vladimir Erl and Aleksandr Mironov, among others. Andrei Bitov was Postmodernism first proponent. In 1970, Venedikt Erofeyev's [[surrealism|surrealist]] postmodern prose poem ''[[Moscow-Petushki]]'' was published via ''samizdat''.{{sfn|Epstein|Genis|Vladiv-Glover|2016|p=95}}{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=693–694}} The Soviet emigrant Sasha Sokolov wrote surrealist ''[[A School for Fools]]'' in 1973 and the completely postmodern novel ''Between Dog and Wolf'' in 1980.{{sfn|McMillin|2000|p=218}}
Other remarkable postmodern novels were Eduard Limonov's ''[[It's Me, Eddie]]'', Vladimir Voinovich's ''[[The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Private Ivan Chonkin]]'', Vasily Aksyonov's ''The Island of Crimea'' and [[Vladimir Sorokin]]'s ''The Norm''. Sergei Dovlatov, [[Valery Popov (writer)|Valery Popov]], and [[Yevgeni Anatolyevich Popov|Yevgeni Popov]] predominantly wrote short stories. Since '70s there were such postmodern unofficial movements as [[Moscow Conceptualists]] with elements of [[concrete poetry]]{{sfn|Rosenfeld|Dodge|1995|p=332|loc="A View from Moscow"}}{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=631–635}} (Vsevolod Nekrasov, Dmitry Prigov, writer and literary scholar [[Viktor Yerofeyev]], [[Lev Rubinstein]], Timur Kibirov, early Vladimir Sorokin) and [[Metarealism]], namely metaphysical realism, used complex metaphors which they called meta-metaphors (Konstantin Kedrov, [[Viktor Krivulin]], Elena Katsyuba, Ivan Zhdanov, [[Elena Shvarts]],{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=593–599}} Vladimir Aristov, Aleksandr Yeryomenko, scholar Svetlana Kekova, [[Yuri Arabov]], [[Alexei Parshchikov]], Sergei Nadeem and Nikolai Kononov).{{sfn|Johnson|Ashby|1992|pp=10, 53, 184}}{{sfn|Epstein|Genis|Vladiv-Glover|2016|pp=169–176|loc=[http://www.emory.edu/INTELNET/e.pm.concept.metareal.html Theses on Metarealism and Conceptualism]}}{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=639–641}} [[Arkadii Dragomoshchenko]] is considered the foremost representative of the [[language poets|Language Poets]] in Russian literature.<ref>{{citation |surname = Watten |given = Barrett |authorlink = Barrett Watten |title = Post-Soviet subjectivity in Arkadii Dragomoshchenko and Ilya Kabakov |journal = [[Postmodern Culture]] |volume = 3 |issue = 2 |pages = |date = January 1993 |doi=10.1353/pmc.1993.0018 |s2cid = 144239001}}</ref> In [[Yeysk]], there was the "Transfurist" group of mixing verbal, [[sound poetry|sound]] and [[visual poetry]] (Ry Nikonova and Serge Segay, among others). As mentioned Leonid Vinogradov, as well as members of ''List of characters'' group Mikhail Faynerman and Ivan Akhmetyev were exponents of [[Minimalism#Literature|Minimalist]] verse. The banned from publishing [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]] and Russian poet [[Gennadiy Aygi]] had been creating experimental surrealist verses<ref name="accursed" /> as follows:

{{blockquote|<poem>
And we utter a few words — simply because
we’re scared of silence
and deem any movement dangerous
</poem>|sign=[[Gennadiy Aygi]]|source=''Our Way'', translated by [[Anatoly Kudryavitsky]]<ref name="accursed" />}}

Among other underground poets and writers were the exponent of [[stream of consciousness]] prose [[Pavel Ulitin]], [[Dmitry Avaliani]], [[Yevgeny Kharitonov (poet)|Yevgeny Kharitonov]], economist and poet Yevgeny Saburov, Elena Ignatova, Mikhail Aizenberg and [[Yevgeny Bunimovich]], as well partially banned [[Vladimir Dudintsev]], [[Fazil Iskander]] and [[Olga Sedakova (poet)|Olga Sedakova]].

===Popular Soviet genres===
[[File:Корней Чуковский с детьми.jpg|thumb|right|[[Korney Chukovsky]] and children, 1959]]

Children's literature in the Soviet Union counted as a major genre because of its educational role. A large share of early-Soviet children's books were poems: [[Korney Chukovsky]] (1882–1969), [[Samuil Marshak]] (1887–1964) and [[Agniya Barto|Agnia Barto]] (1906–1981) were among the most read poets. "Adult" poets, such as Mayakovsky and [[Sergey Mikhalkov]] (1913–2009), contributed to the genre as well. Some of the early Soviet children's prose consisted of loose adaptations of foreign [[fairy-tale]]s unknown in contemporary Russia. [[Alexey Nikolaevich Tolstoy|Alexey N. Tolstoy]] (1882–1945) wrote ''[[Buratino]]'', a light-hearted and shortened adaptation of [[Carlo Collodi]]'s ''[[Pinocchio]]''. [[Alexander Melentyevich Volkov|Alexander Volkov]] (1891–1977) introduced [[fantasy fiction]] to Soviet children with his loose translation of [[L. Frank Baum]]'s ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'', published as ''[[The Wizard of the Emerald City]]'' in 1939, and then wrote a series of five sequels, unrelated to Baum. Other notable authors include [[Nikolay Nosov]] (1908–1976), [[Lazar Lagin]] (1903–1979), [[Vitaly Bianki]] (1894–1959) and [[Vladimir Suteev]] (1903–1993).{{sfn|Slonim|1977|p=}}

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 as [[Soviet patriotism|patriot]]s and communists. A notable writer in this vein was [[Arkady Gaydar]] (1904–1941), himself a Red Army commander (colonel) in [[Russian Civil War]]: his stories and plays about [[Timur Gaidar|Timur]] describe a team of [[Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union|young pioneer]] volunteers who help the elderly and resist [[Hooliganism|hooligan]]s.{{sfn|Slonim|1977|p=}} There was a genre of hero-pioneer story that bore some similarities with Christian genre of [[hagiography]]. In the times of [[Nikita Khrushchev|Khrushchov]] ([[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] from 1953 to 1964) and of [[Leonid Brezhnev|Brezhnev]] (in power 1966–1982), however, the pressure lightened. Mid- and late-Soviet children's books by [[Eduard 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.

The famous and widely popular [[satire|satirists]] were [[Mikhail Zoshchenko]], [[Valentin Kataev]] and the writing tandem [[Ilf and Petrov]], described problems of post-Revolutionary Soviet society.{{sfn|Slonim|1977|p=}}

Soviet [[Science fiction]], inspired by scientistic revolution, industrialisation, and the country's [[Soviet space program|space pioneering]], was flourishing, albeit in the limits allowed by censors. Early science fiction authors, such as [[Alexander Belyaev]], [[Grigory Adamov]], [[Vladimir Obruchev]], [[Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy]], stuck to [[hard science fiction]] and regarded [[H. G. Wells]] and [[Jules Verne]] as examples to follow. Two notable exceptions to this trend were early [[Soviet dissidents]] [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]], author of [[utopian and dystopian fiction|dystopian novel]] ''[[We (novel)|We]]'', and [[Mikhail Bulgakov]], who used science fiction in ''[[Heart of a Dog]]'', ''[[The Fatal Eggs]]'' and ''[[Ivan Vasilyevich: Back to the Future|Ivan Vasilyevich]]'' to satirize Communist ideology vs. what it is actual practice. Like the dissident writers of the future, Zamyatin and Bulgakov had serious problems with publishing their books due to [[censorship in the Soviet Union]].{{sfn|Slonim|1977|p=}}

Since the [[Khrushchev thaw]] in the 1950s, Soviet science fiction began to form its own style. Philosophy, [[ethics]], [[utopia]]n and [[dystopia]]n ideas became its core, and [[Social science fiction]] was the most popular subgenre.{{sfn|Slonim|1977|p=}}<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Science fiction |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/528857/science-fiction/235713/The-evolution-of-science-fiction |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online |access-date=2017-12-16}}</ref> Although the view of Earth's future as that of utopian communist society was the only view that was welcome, the liberties of genre still offered a loophole for free expression. Books of brothers [[Arkady and Boris Strugatsky]], and [[Kir Bulychev]], among others, are reminiscent of social problems and often include satire of contemporary Soviet society. [[Ivan Yefremov]], on the contrary, arose to fame with his [[utopia]]n views on future as well as on [[Ancient Greece]] in his [[historical novels]]. The Strugatskies are also credited for the Soviet's first [[science fantasy]], the [[Monday Begins on Saturday]] trilogy. Other notable science fiction writers included [[Volodymyr Ivanovych Savchenko|Vladimir Savchenko]], Georgy Gurevich, [[Alexander Kazantsev]], Georgy Martynov, [[Yeremey Parnov]].

[[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 came [[Sergey Snegov]] with "Men Like Gods", among others.{{cn|date=December 2024}}

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 about [[Alisa Selezneva]], a teenage girl from the future. Others include [[Nikolay Nosov]] with his books about dwarf [[Neznayka]], Evgeny Veltistov, who wrote about [[The Adventures of the Elektronic|robot boy Electronic]], Vitaly Melentyev, [[Vladislav Krapivin]], [[Vitaly Gubarev]].

[[Mystery fiction|Mystery]] was another popular genre. [[Detective fiction|Detectives]] by [[Vayner Brothers]] and [[Spy fiction|spy novels]] by [[Yulian Semyonov]] were best-selling,<ref name="Khagi">[https://web.archive.org/web/20060525212244/http://www.utoronto.ca/tsq/13/khagi13.shtml Sofya Khagi: Boris Akunin and Retro Mode in Contemporary Russian Culture], [[Toronto Slavic Quarterly]].</ref> and many of them were adapted into film or TV in the 1970s and 1980s.

[[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.{{sfn|Parthé|1992}}{{sfn|McMillin|2000|p=225}}

[[Historical fiction]] in the early Soviet era included a large share of [[memoirs]], fictionalized or not. [[Valentin Katayev]] and [[Lev Kassil]] wrote semi-autobiographic books about children's life in Tsarist Russia. [[Vladimir Gilyarovsky]] wrote ''Moscow and Muscovites'', about life in pre-revolutionary Moscow. There were also attempts to write an epic novel about the Revolution, similar to Leo Tolstoy's ''War and Peace'', based on the writers' own experience. Aleksey Tolstoy's ''[[The Road to Calvary]]'' (1920–1941) and [[Mikhail Sholokhov]]'s ''[[And 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, while ''And Quiet Flows the Don'' gives a realist and a brutal image. [[Maxim Gorky]]'s and [[Andrei Bely]]'s experimental novels ''[[The Life of Klim Samgin]]'' (1925–1936){{sfn|Freeborn|1982|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=KGhGf-erYM8C&q=samgin 178]}} and ''Moscow'' (1926–1931) trace the relationship of Russian ''[[intelligentsia]]'' 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) and ''Pushkin'' (1935–1943). The late Soviet historical fiction was dominated by World War II novels and short stories by authors such as the representatives of [[Lieutenant prose]] (such as [[Vasil Bykov]]), [[Vasily Grossman]], [[Konstantin Simonov]], [[Boris Vasilyev (writer)|Boris Vasilyev]], [[Viktor Astafyev]], among others, based on the authors' own war experience. [[Vasily Yan]] and [[Konstantin Badygin]] are best known for their novels on Medieval Rus, and [[Yury Tynyanov]] for writing on Russian Empire. [[Valentin Pikul]] wrote about many different epochs and countries in an [[Alexander Dumas]]-inspired style. In the 1970s there appeared a relatively independent [[Village Prose]], whose most prominent representatives were [[Viktor Astafyev]] and [[Valentin Rasputin]].

Any sort of fiction that dealt with the occult, either [[horror fiction|horror]], adult-oriented fantasy or [[magic realism]], was unwelcome in Soviet Russia.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv62hh3f |title=Literature and Chemistry |date=2013 |publisher=Aarhus University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctv62hh3f |jstor=j.ctv62hh3f |isbn=978-87-7124-174-7}}</ref> 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 in ''[[Master and Margarita]]'' (not published in author's lifetime) and Strugatskies in ''[[Monday Begins on Saturday]]'' introduced magic and mystical creatures into contemporary Soviet reality to satirize it. Another exception was early Soviet writer [[Alexander Grin]], who wrote [[neo-romanticism|neo-Romantic]] tales, both realistic and fantastic.{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=599–605|loc=Neo-Romanticism}}

==Bronze Age==

===Post-Soviet 1990s===
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 of ''[[glasnost]]'' was lifted, ''de facto'' since [[1989 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 thick [[literary magazine]]s went bankrupt.{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}{{sfn|Dobrenko|Lipovetsky|2015|p=}} And "writers' traditional special place in society no longer is recognised by most Russians..."{{sfn|Curtis|Leighton|1998}}

{{Quote box|quote=My words are awkward, like farts at a funeral, but sincere, like screams during interrogations…|author=Vladimir Sorokin|source=''[[Blue Lard]]'' (1999), translated by the Wikipedia editors|align=right|width=30em}}

Among the most discussed figures of this period were authors [[Victor Pelevin]] (b. 1962), disputably related to [[Russian postmodernism|postmodernism]]{{sfn|Khagi|2021|p=8}} and the [[New sincerity|New Sincerity]] movement,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Пелевин, Виктор Олегович |trans-title=Victor Pelevin |author= |lang=ru |year=2018 |encyclopedia=Большая российская энциклопедия/[[Great Russian Encyclopedia]] Online |url=https://bigenc.ru/literature/text/2709581 |access-date=2021-03-08 |archive-date=2021-02-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224204049/https://bigenc.ru/literature/text/2709581 |url-status=live}}</ref> who is author of the [[Zen]]-inspired ''[[Chapayev and Void|Chapayev and the Void]]'', "the first novel which takes place in an absolute vacuum," postmodernist{{sfn|Khagi|2021|p=7}} novelist and playwright [[Vladimir Sorokin]] (b. 1955, the novels ''Their Four Hearts'' and ''[[Blue Lard]]''), who started an underground writing career still in the early 80s,{{sfn|McMillin|2000|pp=299–310}} and the [[Moscow Conceptualists|conceptualist]]{{sfn|Khagi|2021|p=7}} poet [[Dmitri Prigov|Dmitry Prigov]] (1940–2007). Among other significant Postmodern works are [[Lyudmila Petrushevskaya]]'s novella ''[[The Time: Night]]'', Anatoly Korolyov's novel ''Eron'', [[Yevgeni Anatolyevich Popov|Yevgeni Popov]]'s novel ''The Real Story of the "Green musicians"'', [[Tatyana Tolstaya]]'s novel ''The Stynx'', [[Vladimir Sharov]]'s [[philosophy of history|historiosophical]] prose as well the Israeli literary scholar and later novelist [[Alexander Goldstein (writer)|Alexander Goldstein]]'s variable essays.{{sfn|Dobrenko|Lipovetsky|2015|p=}}

The tradition of the classic Russian realistic novel with [[Literary modernism|modernist]], [[magic realism]] and new "postrealism" elements continues with such authors as: (1) the living Soviet classics [[Leonid Leonov]], [[Viktor Astafyev]], Yury Davydov (novel ''The Bestseller''), [[Valentin Rasputin]], [[Viktoriya Tokareva]] and [[Vladimir Makanin]]; (2) the Soviet nonconformists [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], [[Georgi Vladimov]] (a novel ''The General and His Army'') and [[Vasily Aksyonov]] (the trilogy ''[[Generations of Winter]]''); (3) "new wave" of playwright and theatre director [[Nikolay Kolyada]] (b. 1957), Aleksey Varlamov (b. 1963), Pavel Krusanov (b. 1961) and [[Mikhail Shishkin (writer)|Mikhail Shishkin]] (b. 1961). Short stories of [[Sergei Dovlatov]] who emigrated to the US in 1979 and died in 1990 became very popular in Russia posthumously.

A relatively new trend in Russian literature is that female short story writers mentioned Viktoriya Tokareva and Lyudmila Petrushevskaya or Tatyana Tolstaya, and novelists [[Lyudmila Ulitskaya]], [[Nina Sadur]], Irina Polyanskaya (1952–2004), [[Dina Rubina]] or Valeriya Narbikova (b. 1958) have come into prominence.{{sfn|Ledkovsky|Rosenthal|Zirin|1994}}{{sfn|Goscilo|1996|p=}}

Detective stories and thrillers have proven a very successful genre of new Russian literature: in the 1990s serial detective novels by [[Alexandra Marinina]], [[Polina Dashkova]] and [[Darya Dontsova]] were published in millions of copies. In the next decade [[Boris Akunin]] who wrote more sophisticated popular fiction, e.g., a series of novels about the 19th century sleuth [[Erast Fandorin]], was eagerly read across the country.

Science fiction was always well selling, albeit second to [[fantasy]], that was relatively new to Russian readers. These genres boomed in the late 1990s, with authors like [[Sergey Lukyanenko]], [[Nick Perumov]], [[Maria Semenova]], [[Vera Kamsha]], Alexey Pekhov, [[Tony Vilgotsky|Anton Vilgotsky]] and [[Vadim Panov]]. A good share of modern Russian science fiction and fantasy is written in [[Ukraine]], especially in [[Kharkiv]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ukrainetravel.co/index.php/kharkiv|title=Kharkov Ukraine|website=Ukrainetravel.com|access-date=2017-12-16}}</ref> home to [[H. L. Oldie]], [[Alexander Zorich]], [[Yuri Nikitin (author)|Yuri Nikitin]] and [[Andrey Valentinov]]. Many others hail from Kyiv, including [[Marina and Sergey Dyachenko]] and [[Vladimir Arenev]]. Significant contribution to Russian horror literature has been done by Ukrainians [[Andrey Dashkov]] and Alexander Vargo.

Russian poetry of that period produced a number of avant-garde greats. The [[Moscow Conceptualists]] and followers of [[Concrete poetry]], such as mentioned Dmitry Prigov, [[Lev Rubinstein]], [[Anna Alchuk]] and Timur Kibirov (also novelist and literary scholar [[Viktor Yerofeyev]]), and the members of the Lianosovo group of [[Soviet nonconformist art|nonconformist]] poets, notably [[Genrikh Sapgir]], [[Igor Kholin]] and Vsevolod Nekrasov, who previously chose to refrain from publication in Soviet periodicals, became very influential, especially in Moscow,<ref name="20poets">"Introduction." In ''A Night in the Nabokov Hotel: 20 Contemporary Poets from Russia'', introd. and trans. by [[Anatoly Kudryavitsky]], Dublin: Dedalus Press, 2006, {{ISBN|1-904556-55-8}}.</ref>{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=631–635}} and the same goes for another masterful experimental neo-[[surrealism|surrealist]] [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]] and Russian poet, [[Gennadiy Aygi]].<ref name="20poets" /> Also popular were poets following some other poetic trends, e.g., members of "neo-Baroque" poetry school (not to be confused with [[Baroque Revival architecture|neo-Baroque architecture]]) Ivan Zhdanov, [[Elena Shvarts]], Aleksandr Yeryomenko and [[Alexei Parshchikov]], Konstantin Kedrov and Elena Katsuba from ''DOOS'', scholar Svetlana Kekova, Sergei Nadeem and Nikolai Kononov from [[Saratov]] club ''Cocoon'', Vladimir Aristov, [[Yuri Arabov]] and other representatives of the 1970–80s [[Metarealism]], who all used complex metaphors which they called meta-metaphors;<ref name="20poets" />{{sfn|Kahn|Lipovetsky|Reyfman|Sandler|2018|pp=639–641}} in St. Petersburg, members of ''New Leningrad Poetry School'' that included not only the famous [[Joseph Brodsky]] but also [[Viktor Krivulin]], Sergey Stratanovsky and Elena Shvarts, and such members of ''Philological School'' as Mikhail Eremin, Leonid Vinogradov, [[Vladimir Uflyand]] and the Russian-American scholar [[Lev Loseff]], were prominent first in the Soviet-times underground—and later in mainstream poetry;<ref name="accursed" /><ref name="20poets" /> [[Minimalism#Literature|minimalist]] verse was represented since 1970s by members of ''List of characters'' group Mikhail Faynerman, Ivan Akhmetyev and later by Alexander Makarov-Krotkov; in 1992 emerged, the Meloimaginist group related to previous [[Imaginism]] and included such poets and novelists as Russian-Irish bilingual [[Anatoly 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,<ref name="20poets" /> Irina Iermakova, Vitaly Kalpidi, the unable to publish during Soviet years scholar [[Olga Sedakova (poet)|Olga Sedakova]], and [[Borys Khersonskyi]]. Notable poets of younger generation are [[Elena Fanailova]] (b. 1962), German Lukomnikov (b. 1962), [[Vera Pavlova]] (b. 1963), Grigory Dashevsky (1964–2013), [[Sergei Kruglov (poet)|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 (poet)|Maria Stepanova]] (b. 1972), Alina Vitukhnovskaya (b. 1973),<ref name="20poets" /> Inga Kuznetsova (b. 1974), [[Boris Ryzhy]] (1974–2001), Shish Bryansky (b. 1975), [[Linor Goralik]] (b. 1975), [[Kirill Medvedev]] (b. 1975), and [[Polina Barskova]] (b. 1976).{{sfn|Sandler|2024|pp=}}

===21st century===
{{Quote box|quote=—Why has our planet been selected?<br/>—It has not been selected. It was created as a prison from the start.|author=Victor Pelevin|source=''[[Empire V]]'' (2006){{sfn|Khagi|2021|p=3}}|align=right|width=35em}}
[[File:Vladimir Sorokin (cropped).jpg|right|thumb|upright|Vladimir Sorokin reading in 2022 at Literaturhaus Zürich, Germany]]

At the beginning of the 21st century, [[Victor Pelevin]] and [[Vladimir Sorokin]] remained the leading and prolific Russian writers.<ref name="Aslanyan">{{cite web |last=Aslanyan |first=Anna |title=Revolutions and resurrections: How has Russia's literature changed? |work=[[The Independent]] |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/revolutions-and-resurrections-how-has-russias-literature-changed-2264690.html |date=April 8, 2011 |access-date=2024-05-18}}</ref><ref name="intelros">{{citation |title=Литературные "нулевые": место жительства и работы |trans-title=Literary "Zeros": place of residence and work |journal=Дружба народов [Friendship of Peoples] |type=literary journal |date=2011 |number=1 |pages=185–86 |language=ru |via=Intelros |url= http://www.intelros.ru/readroom/druzhba-narodov/druzhba-narodov-1-2011/10250-literaturnye-nulevye-mesto-zhitelstva-i-raboty.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502195052/http://www.intelros.ru/readroom/druzhba-narodov/druzhba-narodov-1-2011/10250-literaturnye-nulevye-mesto-zhitelstva-i-raboty.html |archive-date=2021-05-02 |url-status=live |access-date=2024-05-11}}</ref> Pelevin became the most extensively translated one into English.{{sfn|Khagi|2021|p=3}} Also significant are the new works of [[Boris Akunin]] ([[adventure fiction]]), [[Lyudmila Ulitskaya]] (the ''Daniel Stein, Interpreter'', a novel about the [[Holocaust]] and interreligious relations), and [[Mikhail Shishkin (writer)|Mikhali Shishkin]] (the novel ''Maidenhair'').<ref name="Aslanyan" /><ref name="intelros" />

Among the debutants in prose are Eduard Kochergin (b. 1937) with his novels ''Angel's Doll'' and ''Baptized with Crosses'', [[Alexei Ivanov (writer)|Alexei Ivanov]] (b. 1969) known for his novel ''The Heart of Parma'', a Russian-Israeli writer and poet in the philosophical-symbolic vein Alexander Ilichevsky (b. 1970), who wrote ''The Persian'' and the ''Newton's Drawing'',<ref name="Aslanyan" /><ref name="intelros" />{{sfn|Katsman|Shrayer|2023|loc="Russian-Israeli Prose in the Second Decade of the Twenty-First Century"}} the author of novel ''The Librarian'' [[Mikhail Elizarov]] (b. 1973), and [[German Sadulaev]] (b. 1973) with the book ''I am a Chechen!''<ref name="Aslanyan" /> In the second decade of the century, the following novelists gained fame: [[Eugene Vodolazkin]] (b. 1964) for ''[[Laurus (book)|The Laurus]]'' (one of ten best world novels about God by ''[[The Guardian]]'' version),<ref>{{cite web |surname=Griffiths |given=Neil |authorlink=Neil Griffiths (novelist) |title=Top 10 novels about God |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=December 6, 2017 |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/06/top-10-novels-about-god |access-date= 2024-05-31 |archive-date=2017-12-08 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171208025424/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/06/top-10-novels-about-god |url-status=live}}</ref> Sofia Sinitskaya (b. 1972), the author of the neutral novel ''Black Siberia'' on [[Russo-Ukrainian War]],<ref>{{cite news |surname=Filimonov |given=Andrei |title="Победа Майдана породила Русскую весну на юго-востоке моей души". В России издан непатриотичный роман об украинской войне |trans-title="The victory of Maidan gave birth to the Russian Spring in the South-East of my soul." An Unpatriotic Novel About the Ukrainian War Has Been Published in Russia |publisher=Siberia.Realities—[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Liberty]] |language=ru |date=December 14, 2023 |access-date=2024-06-15 |url= https://www.sibreal.org/a/v-rossii-izdan-nepatriotichnyy-roman-ob-ukrainskoy-voyne/32723553.html}}</ref> and Alexei Salnikov (b. 1978) for his hallucinatory ''The Petrovs in and Around the Flu'' (regarded as a rare outstanding text, see also the film ''[[Petrov's Flu]]'').<ref>{{cite web |surname=Yuzefovich |given=Galina |authorlink=Galina Yuzefovich |title=Безумие и норма, реальность и бред. В трех русских (отличных!) романах «Петровы в гриппе и вокруг него», «Учитель Дымов», «Принц Инкогнито» |trans-title=Madness and normality, reality and delirium. In three Russian (excellent!) novels “Petrovs in and Around the Flu”, “Teacher Dymov”, “Prince Incognito” |language=ru |publisher=[[Meduza]] |date=September 9, 2017 |access-date =2024-05-31 |url= https://meduza.io/feature/2017/09/09/bezumie-i-norma-realnost-i-bred-v-treh-russkih-otlichnyh-romanah |archive-date=2020-04-16 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200416235808/https://meduza.io/feature/2017/09/09/bezumie-i-norma-realnost-i-bred-v-treh-russkih-otlichnyh-romanah |url-status=live}}</ref> In the form of popular fiction, [[apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|post-apocalyptic novels]] of [[Dmitry Glukhovsky]] (b. 1979) are successful.

Almost all of the authors named criticized [[Putinism]] and have left Russia. After 2022, they have been "[[cancel culture|canceled]]" and their books have been withdrawn from a number of Russian booksellers.<ref>{{cite news |last=Radziwinowicz |first=Wacław |date=January 28, 2024 |title=Moskiewska rewolucja kulturalna. Ścigany Akunin, Sorokin i inni |publisher=[[Gazeta Wyborcza|Wyborcza]] |url=https://wyborcza.pl/7,75399,30639582,moskiewska-rewolucja-kulturalna-scigany-akunin-sorokin-i-inni.html |language=pl |access-date=2024-01-29}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Ramal, Кarl |title=Русская весна на книжном рынке |trans-title=Russian Spring at the Book Market |publisher=[[Novaya Gazeta]] |date=June 5, 2025 |language=ru |url=https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2025/06/05/russkaia-vesna-na-knizhnom-rynke |access-date=2025-06-11}}</ref> Examples of active supporters of the political regime among eminent writers are poet [[Yunna Morits]] (b. 1937)<ref>{{cite news |surname=Filimonov |given=Andrei |title="За нами Путин и Сталинград". Как российские поэты воспевают войну в Украине |trans-title="Putin and Stalingrad are behind us." How Russian poets sing of the war in Ukraine |publisher=Siberia.Realities—[[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|Radio Liberty]] |language=ru |date=September 3, 2022 |url=https://www.sibreal.org/a/za-nami-putin-i-stalingrad/32010860.html |access-date=2023-07-25 |archive-date=2023-07-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230722112500/https://www.sibreal.org/a/za-nami-putin-i-stalingrad/32010860.html |url-status=live}}</ref> and nationalists [[Alexander Prokhanov]] (b. 1938),<ref>{{cite book |surname=Snyder |given=Timothy |authorlink=Timothy Snyder |title=[[The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America]] |year=2018 |place=New York |publisher=Tim Duggan Books |isbn=978-0-52557446-0 |pages=91–92}} [https://willzuzak.ca/cl/bookreview/Snyder2018RoadToUnfreedom.pdf PDF], [https://web.archive.org/web/20220314174459/https://willzuzak.ca/cl/bookreview/Snyder2018RoadToUnfreedom.pdf Archived]</ref> Yurii Poliakov (b. 1954)<ref>{{cite news |last=Kuzmina |first=Olga |date=June 4, 2022 |title=«А говорят, на рубежах бои...»: писатель Юрий Поляков — о русофобии, патриотах и либералах |trans-title="And they say there are battles on the borders...": writer Yuri Poliakov on Russophobia, patriots and liberals |publisher=Evening Moscow |url=https://vm.ru/society/971807-a-govoryat-na-rubezhah-boi-pisatel-yurij-polyakov-o-rusofobii-patriotah-i-liberalah |language=ru |access-date=2024-07-14}}</ref> Pavel Krusanov (b. 1961)<ref>{{cite news |title="Если ты просто тихо млеющий "нетвойнист", то в сложившихся обстоятельствах ты идиот" |trans-title="If you're just a quietly languishing "non-warrior", then under the circumstances you're an idiot" |publisher=Ваши новости [Your News] |date=June 8, 2023 |url=https://vnnews.ru/esli-ty-prosto-tikho-mleyushhiy-netvoyni/ |language=ru |access-date=2024-07-14}}</ref> and [[Zakhar Prilepin]] (b. 1975).<ref name="Aslanyan" /><ref>{{citation |surname=Fedor |given=Julie |title=Spinning Russia's 21st Century Wars |date=November 2, 2018 |journal=The RUSI Journal |volume=163 |issue=6 |pages=18–27 |issn=0307-1847 |doi=10.1080/03071847.2018.1562015 |url= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03071847.2018.1562015 |archive-date=2023-02-07 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230207032711/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03071847.2018.1562015 |url-status=live |hdl=11343/220657 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>

A new generation of Russian authors appeared, differing greatly from the [[Russian postmodernism|postmodernist Russian]] prose of the late 20th century, which led critics to speak about "new realism" as one of several contemporary literary trends ([[Pavel Basinsky]] (b. 1961), Aleksey Varlamov (b. 1963), [[Alexei Ivanov (writer)|Alexei Ivanov]], Andrei Rubanov (b. 1969), [[Oleg Pavlov]] (1970–2018), [[Andrei Ivanov (writer)|Andrei Ivanov]] (b. 1971), [[Roman Senchin]] (b. 1971), [[German Sadulaev]], [[Zakhar Prilepin]], and others).

{{Quote box|quote=<poem>
among the shining/(branching) still people/
to create a human being while you are not
:::::::::::::::a human.</poem>|author=Nika Skandiaka|source=''to create that when you do not...'',<ref name="Kukulin" /> translated by the Wikipedia editors|align=right|width=30em}}

The treasury of Russian poetry has been replenished with works by both senior masters, like [[Oleg 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.{{sfn|Sandler|2024|pp=}}<ref name="Kukulin">{{citation |surname=Kukulin |given=Ilia |title=«Создать человека, пока ты не человек…» Заметки о русской поэзии 2000-х |trans-title=“To create a human being while you are not a human…” Notes on Russian poetry of the 2000s |journal=[[Novy Mir]] |date=2010 |number=1 |language=ru |url=https://magazines.gorky.media/novyi_mi/2010/1/sozdat-cheloveka-poka-ty-ne-chelovek.html |archive-date=2020-06-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614133341/https://magazines.gorky.media/novyi_mi/2010/1/sozdat-cheloveka-poka-ty-ne-chelovek.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Two new literary prizes were established and became influential: the [[Big Book (award)|Big Book]] and the [[National Bestseller Literary Prize|National Bestseller]].<ref name="intelros" />

==List of movements==
<!-- No groups or clubs -->
The following is a list of international and regiinal [[list of literary movements|literary movements]], those represented in Russian literature. Their notable members ordering is predominantly by precedence.

{| class = "wikitable" style = "text-align:center; width:100%"
|-
!Movement
!Key members
|-
|[[Baroque]]
|Johann Gottfried Gregorii, [[Symeon of Polotsk]], [[Demetrius of Rostov]], [[Theophan Prokopovich]]
|-
|[[Classicism]]
|[[Vasily Trediakovsky]], [[Antiochus Kantemir]], [[Mikhail Lomonosov]], [[Alexander Sumarokov]], Mikhail Sobakin, [[Vasily Maykov]], [[Mikhail Kheraskov]], [[Gavrila Derzhavin]], [[Denis Fonvizin]], [[Ivan Krylov]]
|-
|[[Rococo#Literature|Rococo]]
|[[Ippolit Bogdanovich]]
|-
|[[Sentimentalism (literature)|Sentimentalism]]
|[[Alexander Radishchev]], [[Yury Neledinsky-Meletsky]], [[Ivan Dmitriev]], [[Nikolay Karamzin]]. [[Vladislav Ozerov]]
|-
|[[Romantic literature|Romanticism]]
|[[Alexander Pushkin]], [[Mikhail Lermontov]], [[Vasily Zhukovsky]], [[Konstantin Batyushkov]], [[Alexander Bestuzhev]], [[Yevgeny Baratynsky]], [[Vladimir Odoyevsky]], [[Fyodor Tyutchev]]
|-
|[[Literary realism|Realism]]
|[[Nikolai Gogol]], [[Ivan Goncharov]], [[Ivan Turgenev]], [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[Nikolai Leskov]], [[Anton Chekhov]], [[Ivan Bunin]], [[Mikhail Bulgakov]]
|-
|[[Natural school]],<br/>[[Social realism]]
|[[Nikolay Nekrasov]], [[Ivan Goncharov]], [[Ivan Turgenev]], [[Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin]], [[Nikolay Chernyshevsky]], [[Vikenty Veresaev]], [[Maxim Gorky]], [[Aleksandr Tvardovsky]]
|-
|[[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]]
|[[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]], [[Aleksey Pisemsky]], [[Aleksandr I. Kuprin|Aleksandr Kuprin]], [[Mikhail Artsybashev]], [[Nikolay Kolyada]]
|-
|[[Neo-romanticism]]
|early [[Maxim Gorky]], [[Alexander Grin]], [[Konstantin Paustovsky]]
|-
|[[Russian symbolism|Symbolism]]
|[[Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)|Vladimir Solovyov]], [[Valery Bryusov]], [[Vyacheslav Ivanov (poet)|Vyacheslav Ivanov]], [[Fyodor Sologub]], [[Dmitry Merezhkovsky]], [[Zinaida Gippius]], [[Alexander Blok]], [[Andrei Bely]]
|-
|[[Literary modernism|Modernism]]
|[[Andrei Bely]], [[Aleksey Remizov]], [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]], [[Boris Pasternak]], [[Vladimir Nabokov]], ''others''
|-
|[[New peasant poets]]
|[[Nikolai Klyuev]], [[Sergei Klychkov]], [[Sergei Yesenin]]
|-
|[[Cubo-Futurism]]
|[[David Burliuk]], [[Velimir Khlebnikov]], [[Aleksei Kruchenykh]], [[Nikolai Aseyev (writer)|Nikolai Aseyev]], [[Vladimir Mayakovsky]]
|-
|[[Ego-Futurism]]
|[[Igor Severyanin]], [[Vasilisk Gnedov]]
|-
|[[Acmeist poetry|Acmeism]]
|[[Anna Akhmatova]], [[Nikolay Gumilev]], [[Georgiy Ivanov]], [[Mikhail Kuzmin]], [[Osip Mandelstam]]
|-
|[[Expressionism#Literature|Expressionism]]
|[[Leonid Andreyev]], [[Aleksey Remizov]], [[Artyom Vesyoly]]
|-
|[[Russian formalism]]
|[[Viktor Shklovsky]], [[Yury Tynyanov]]
|-
|[[Imaginism]]
|[[Sergei Yesenin]], [[Anatoly Marienhof]], [[Rurik Ivnev]]
|-
|[[Oberiu]]
|[[Daniil Kharms]], [[Konstantin Vaginov]], [[Alexander Vvedensky (poet)|Alexander Vvedensky]], [[Nikolay Zabolotsky]]
|-
|Paris Note
|[[Georgy Adamovich]], Igor Chinnov, [[George Ivask]], [[Anatoly Shteiger]], Lidia Tcherminskaia
|-
|[[Socialist realism]]
|[[Maxim Gorky]], [[Valentin Kataev]], [[Leonid Leonov]], [[Alexander Fadeyev (writer)|Alexander Fadeyev]], [[Nikolai Ostrovsky]], [[Mikhail Sholokhov]], [[Boris Polevoy]], [[Sergey Zalygin]], [[Konstantin Simonov]], [[Yuri Nagibin]], [[Vladimir Tendryakov]], [[Yury Trifonov]], [[Chinghiz Aitmatov]]
|-
|[[Lieutenant prose]]
|[[Viktor Nekrasov]], [[Konstantin Vorobyov (writer)|Konstantin Vorobyov]], [[Grigory Baklanov]], [[Yuri Bondarev]], [[Boris Vasilyev (writer)|Boris Vasilyev]]
|-
|[[Village prose]]
|[[Valentin Ovechkin]], [[Alexander Yashin]], [[Fyodor Abramov]], [[Boris Mozhayev]], [[Viktor Astafyev]], [[Vladimir Soloukhin]], [[Vasily Shukshin]], [[Vasily Belov]], [[Valentin Rasputin]]
|-
|Neo-[[Acmeist poetry|Acmeism]]
|[[Arseny Tarkovsky]], [[Semyon Lipkin]], [[David Samoylov]], [[Alexander Kushner]], [[Bella Akhmadulina]], [[Oleg Chukhontsev]]
|-
|[[Sixtiers|The Sixtiers]]
|[[Robert Rozhdestvensky]], [[Andrei Voznesensky]], [[Yevgeny Yevtushenko]], [[Victor Sosnora]], [[Bella Akhmadulina]], [[Alexander Vampilov]]
|-
|[[Soviet nonconformist art|Soviet nonconformism]]
|[[Vasily Grossman]], [[Varlam Shalamov]], [[Yury Dombrovsky]], [[Viktor Nekrasov]], [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], [[Pavel Ulitin]], [[Alexander Zinoviev]], [[Andrei Sinyavsky]], [[Vasily Aksyonov]], [[Vladimir Voinovich]], [[Andrei Bitov]], [[Venedikt Yerofeyev]], [[Joseph Brodsky]], [[Dmitri Prigov|Dmitry Prigov]], [[Sergei Dovlatov]], [[Yevgeny Kharitonov (poet)|Yevgeny Kharitonov]], [[Sasha Sokolov]], [[Lev Rubinstein]]
|-
|[[Stream of consciousness]]
|[[Pavel Ulitin]]
|-
|[[Russian postmodernism|Postmodernism]]
|[[Vladimir Nabokov]], [[Andrei Bitov]], [[Genrikh Sapgir]], [[Vladimir Voinovich]], [[Venedikt Yerofeyev]], [[Lyudmila Petrushevskaya]], [[Valery Popov (writer)|Valery Popov]], [[Sergei Dovlatov]], [[Eduard Limonov]], [[Sasha Sokolov]], Anatoly Korolyov, [[Yevgeni Anatolyevich Popov|Yevgeni Popov]], [[Nina Sadur]], [[Tatyana Tolstaya]], [[Vladimir Sorokin]], [[Victor Pelevin]]
|-
|[[Moscow Conceptualists|Moscow Conceptualism]]
|Vsevolod Nekrasov, [[Dmitri Prigov|Dmitry Prigov]], [[Viktor Yerofeyev]], [[Lev Rubinstein]], [[Anna Alchuk]], Timur Kibirov, [[Vladimir Sorokin]], [[Julia Kissina]]
|-
|[[Metarealism]]
|Konstantin Kedrov, [[Viktor Krivulin]], Elena Katsyuba, Ivan Zhdanov, [[Elena Shvarts]], Vladimir Aristov, Aleksandr Yeryomenko, [[Yuri Arabov]], [[Alexei Parshchikov]]
|-
|[[Language poets|Language poetry]]
|[[Arkadii Dragomoshchenko]]
|-
|[[Performance poetry]]
|[[Dmitri Prigov|Dmitry Prigov]], [[Ry Nikonova]], [[Serge Segay]], Andrei Rodionov, Roman Osminkin
|-
|(Neo)[[surrealism]]
|Boris Poplavsky, [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]], [[Daniil Kharms]], [[Gennadiy Aygi]], [[Venedikt Yerofeyev]], Sergey Biryukov, [[Anatoly Kudryavitsky]], Dmitry Grigoriev, Sergey Tenyatnikov, Tatyana Graus, Anna Glazova, Inga Kuznetsova
|-
|[[Magic realism]]
|[[Andrei Sinyavsky]], [[Nina Sadur]], [[Olga Slavnikova]], Pavel Krusanov, [[Pavel Pepperstein]], Lora Beloivan
|-
|[[Minimalism#Literature|Minimalism]]
|Leonid Vinogradov, Mikhail Faynerman, Ivan Akhmetyev, Alexander Makarov-Krotkov
|-
|[[Postpostmodernism]], [[new sincerity]]
|Anatoly Korolyov, [[Alexander Goldstein (writer)|Alexander Goldstein]], [[Victor Pelevin]]
|-
|New Epic
|[[Elena Fanailova]], [[Fyodor Svarovsky]], [[Maria Stepanova (poet)|Maria Stepanova]], [[Linor Goralik]]
|}

==Russian Nobel laureates in literature==
{{Further|List of Nobel laureates in Literature}}
{{prose|section|date=February 2017}}

{{columns-list|colwidth=20em|
# [[Ivan Bunin]] (1933)
# [[Boris Pasternak]] (1958)
# [[Mikhail Sholokhov]] (1965)
# [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]] (1970)
# [[Joseph Brodsky]] (1987)
# [[Svetlana Alexievich]] (2015)
}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Literature}}
{{columns-list|colwidth=20em|
* [[List of Russian-language novelists]]
* [[List of Russian-language playwrights]]
* [[List of Russian-language poets]]
* [[List of Russian-language writers]]
* [[List of Russian philosophers]]
* [[Russian fairy tale]]
* [[Russian science fiction and fantasy]]
* [[Russian literature of Ukraine]]
* [[Pushkin House]]
* [[Anti-Booker prize]]
* [[Russian Booker Prize]]
* [[Geographical distribution of Russian speakers]]
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
{{See also|Bibliography of Russian history}}

===Works cited===
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{cite journal |surname=Beasly |given=Ina |title=The Dramatic Art of Ostrovsky (Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, 1823–86) |journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]] |volume=6 |number=18 |date=1928 |pages=603–617 |jstor=4202212}}
* {{cite book |surname=Brown |given=Edward J. |authorlink=Edward J. Brown (academic) |title=Russian Literature Since the Revolution |edition=Rev. |place=Cambridge, Ma; London |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1982 |orig-year=1963 |url={{Google books|id=0Q-hEasj-tkC|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=0-674-78203-8}}
* {{cite book |editor-surname=Cornwell |editor-given=Neil |title=The Routledge Companion to Russian Literature |year=2001 |place=London; New York  |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-23365-8 |url={{Google books|id=mqGBAgAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}}}}
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* {{cite book |surname=Curtis |given=Glenn E. |surname2=Leighton |given2=Marian |chapter=Literature |editor=Curtis, Glenn E. |title=Russia: A Country Study |series=Area handbook series |others=Library of Congress, Federal Research Division |edition=1st |place=Washington, DC |publisher=[[U.S. Government Printing Office]] |year=1998 |pages=222–228 |isbn=0-8444-0866-2 |chapter-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210509052100/http://countrystudies.us/russia/43.htm |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/97007563/ |archive-date=2021-07-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709182042/http://countrystudies.us/russia/43.htm |url-status=live}} | via [https://archive.org/details/russiacountrystu00curt/page/n14/mode/1up Archive.org]
* {{cite book |editor-surname=Dobrenko |editor-given=Evgeny |editor-surname2=Lipovetsky |editor-given2=Mark |editor-link2=Mark Lipovetsky |title=Russian Literature since 1991 |year=2015 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url={{Google books|id=ctfECgAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=978-1-107-06851-3}}
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* {{cite book |surname1=Epstein |given1=Mikhail |authorlink1=Mikhail Epstein |surname2=Genis |given2=Alexander |surname3=Vladiv-Glover |given3=Slobodanka |translator=Slobodanka Vladiv-Glover |title=Russian Postmodernism: New Perspectives on Post-Soviet Culture |edition=Rev. |place=New York; Oxford |publisher=Berghahn Books |year=2016 |orig-year=1999 |url={{Google books|id=vc8tDwAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=978-1-78238-864-7}}
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* {{cite encyclopedia |surname=Kasack |given=Wolfgang |year=1988 |orig-year=1976 |authorlink=Wolfgang Kasack |title=Dictionary of Russian literature Since 1917 |translator=Maria Carlson and Jane T. Hedges |place=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-2310-5242-1}}
* {{cite book |editor-surname=Katsman |editor-given=Roman |editor2-surname=Shrayer |editor-given2=Maxim D. |editor-link=Roman Katsman |editor2-link=Maxim D. Shrayer |title=Studies in the History of Russian-Israeli Literature |place=Brookline, Ma |year=2023 |publisher=Academic Studies Press |url={{Google books|id=OUK5EAAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=9798887191850}}
* {{cite book |surname=Khagi |given=Sofya |year=2021 |title=Pelevin and Unfreedom: Poetics, Politics, Metaphisics |series=Studies in Russian Literature and Theory |place=Evanston, Il |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=9780810143036 |url=https://ru.scribd.com/document/551846745/Pelevin-and-Unfreedom-Poetics-Politics-Metaphysics-by-Sofya-Khagi}}
* {{cite journal |surname=Lang |given=D. M. |title=Boileau and Sumarokov: The Manifesto of Russian Classicism |journal=The Modern Language Review |date=1948 |volume=43 |number=4 |pages=500–506 |doi=10.2307/3717923 |jstor=3717923}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |editor-surname=Ledkovsky |editor-given=Mariana Astman |editor2-surname=Rosenthal |editor2-given=Charlott |editor3-surname=Zirin |editor3-given=Mary F. |title=Dictionary of Russian Women Writers |year=1994 |place=London |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |url= |isbn=9780313262654}}
* {{cite book |surname=Lossky |given=N. O. |authorlink=Nikolai Lossky |title=History of Russian Philosophy |year=1952 |orig-year=1951 |place=London |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.90432/page/n5/mode/1up}}
* {{cite book |surname=Markov |given=Vladimir |title=Russian Futurism: a History |place=Berkeley; Los Angeles, Ca |year=1968 |publisher=University of California Press |url=https://archive.org/details/russianfuturismh0000mark/page/3/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |surname=Matthews |given=William Kleesman |title=The Structure and Development of Russian |year=2013 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-61939-5 |url={{Google books|id=yW4oAAAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}}}}
* {{cite book |year=2000 |editor-surname=McMillin |editor-given=Arnold |editor-link=Arnold McMillin |title=Reconstructing the Canon: Russian Writing in the 1980s |series=Studies in Russian and European literature, 3 |place=Amsterdam |publisher=Harwood Academic Pub. |url={{Google books|id=Lam4MvOQVMEC|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=90-5702-593-0}}
* {{cite book |surname=Morson |given=Gary Saul |authorlink=Gary Saul Morson |year=2023 |title=Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter |place=Harvard, Ma |publisher=Harvard University Press |url={{Google books|id=5XytEAAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=978-0-674-97180-6}}
* {{cite book |editor-surname=Moser |editor-given=Charles A. |title=The Cambridge History of Russian Literature |edition=Rev. |year=1992 |orig-year=1989 |format=2008 Online Version |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521415545 |isbn=0-521-42567-0 |url-access=registration |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-russian-literature/9DD154A091E3AFEEDE05A0EA98C7307E}}
* {{cite book |surname=Nilsson |given=N. |title=The Russian imaginists |year=1970 |place=Ann Arbor, Mi |publisher=Almgvist and Wiksell}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |surname=Painter |given=K. |editor-surname=Greene |editor-given=Roland |editor-link=Roland Greene |display-editors=etal |entry=Acmeism |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |edition=4th rev. |year=2012 |pages=5–6 |entry-url={{Google books|id=uKiC6IeFR2UC|plainurl=y|page=5|keywords=|text=}} |url={{Google books|id=uKiC6IeFR2UC|plainurl=y}} |place=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15491-6}}
* {{cite book |surname=Parthé |given=Kathleen F. |title=Russian Village Prose: the Radiant Past |place=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-691-06889-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/russianvillagepr0000part/page/n9/mode/1up}}
* {{cite book |surname=Peterson |given=Ronald E. |year=1993 |title=A History of Russian Symbolism |place=Amsterdam; Philadelphia, Pa |publisher=John Benjamins Pub. |url={{Google books|id=WURAAAAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=90-272-1534-0}}
* {{cite book |year=1995 |editor-surname=Rosenfeld |editor-given=Alla |editor2-surname=Dodge |editor2-given=Norton T. |title=Nonconformist Art: The Soviet Experience 1956–1986 |place=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |isbn=0-500-23709-3}}
* {{cite book |surname1=Rosenholm |given1=Arja |surname2=Savkina |given2=Irina |chapter=How Women Should Write’: Russian Women’s Writing in the Nineteenth Century |title=Women in Nineteenth-Century Russia |year=2012 |publisher=Open Book Pub. |isbn=978-1-906924-66-9 |jstor=j.ctt5vjszk.12}}
* {{cite book |surname=Sandler |given=Stephanie |title=The Freest Speech in Russia: Poetry Unbound, 1989–2022 |place=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2024 |isbn=9780691261898}}
* {{cite book |surname=Slonim |given=Marc |authorlink=Mark Slonim |title=Modern Russian Literature: From Chekhov to the present |year=1953 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book |surname=Slonim |given=Marc |authorlink= |title=Soviet Russian Literature: Writers and Problems |year=1977 |orig-year=1964 |edition=Rev. |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book |surname=Slonim |given=Marc |authorlink= |title=The Epic of Russian Literature: From its Origins Through Tolstoy |year=1950 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book |surname=Steiner |given=Peter |title=Russian Formalism: A Metapoetics |publisher=Cornell University Press |place=Ithaca, NY |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-8014-1710-8 |ol=23135008M }}
* {{cite journal |surname=Strakhovsky |given=Leonid I. |title=The Historianism of Gogol |volume=12 |number=3 |date=October 1953 |journal=The American Slavic and East European Review (Slavic Review) |publisher=[[Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies]] |jstor=2491790 |doi=10.2307/2491790 |pages=360–370 }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |editor-surname=Terras |editor-given=Victor |year=1985 |title=Handbook of Russian Literature |place=New Haven, Conn; London |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-04868-8 |url= https://archive.org/details/handbookofrussia0000vict/page/n5/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |surname=Vinokur |given=Grigory |title=The Russian Language: A Brief History |year=1971 |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-07944-0 |url={{Google books|id=qi232E66QbQC|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}}}}
* {{cite book |surname=Wachtel |given=Michael |title=The Cambridge Introduction to Russian Poetry |series=Cambridge Introductions to Literature |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=0-521-00493-4 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-introduction-to-russian-poetry/723947054543E2008A58BC019D2F9CC1 |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite journal |surname1=Zaliznyak |given1=Andrey |authorlink1=Andrey Zaliznyak |surname2=Yanin |given2=Valentin |authorlink2=Valentin Yanin |title=Новгородская псалтырь начала XI века — древнейшая книга Руси |trans-title=The Novgorod Psalter of the early 11th century—the oldest book of Rus' |journal=[[Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences]] |date=2001 |volume=71 |number=3 |pages=202–209 |language=ru |url= http://vivovoco.astronet.ru/VV/JOURNAL/VRAN/BOOK/BOOK.HTM}}
{{Refend}}

===Further reading===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |surname=Alexandrova |given=Vera |authorlink=Vera Aleksandrova |translator=Mirra Ginsburg |year=1963 |title=A History of Soviet Literature |place=Garden City, NY |publisher=Doubleday & Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofsovietl0000unse/page/n6/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |surname=Baring |given=Maurice |authorlink=Maurice Baring |title=An Outline of Russian Literature |year=1914–15 |place=London |publisher=Williams and Norgate |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33005}}
* {{cite book |editor-surname=Bartlett |editor-given=Rosamund |editor2-surname=Benn |editor2-given=Anna |editor-link=Rosamund Bartlett |year=1997 |title=Literary Russia. A Guide |place=London |publisher=Picador |isbn=0-333-71197-1}}
* Brunson, M. (2016). ''[http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv177td37 Russian Realisms: Literature and Painting, 1840–1890]''. NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. DeKalb, Il: Northern Illinois University Press.
* {{cite book |surname=Garrard |given=John and Carol |title=Inside the Soviet Writers' Union |year=1990 |place=New York |publisher=Free Press |isbn=0-02-911320-2}}
* {{cite journal |surname=Gasparov |given=Mikhail L. |authorlink=Mikhail Gasparov |date=2019 |title=The evolution of Russian rhyme |journal=Journal of Literary Theory |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=77–115 |doi=10.1515/jlt-2019-0003 |s2cid=151001595}}
* {{cite journal |surname=Gorlin |given=Mikhail |title=The interrelation of painting and literature in Russia |url=https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.185585/2015.185585.The-Slavonic-Reviewvol64#page/n133/mode/2up |journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]] |date=November 1946 |volume=2 |issue=64}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |editor-surname=Greene |editor-given=Roland |editor-link=Roland Greene |display-editors=etal |entry=Poetry of Russia |title=The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics |edition=4th rev. |year=2012 |url={{Google books|id=uKiC6IeFR2UC|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |place=Princeton, NJ |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15491-6}}
* Grigoryan, B. (2018). ''[http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv177tbp2 Noble Subjects: The Russian Novel and the Gentry, 1762–1861]''. NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. DeKalb, Il: Northern Illinois University Press.
* {{cite book |surname=Hare |given=Richard |title=Russian Literature from Pushkin to the Present Day |series=Home Study Books |place=London |year=1947 |publisher=Methuen & Co. |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.112537/mode/1up}} [{{Google books|id=f8cqEAAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}}  Reprint]: Routledge, 2021.
* {{cite encyclopedia |surname=Harkins |given=William E. |title=Dictionary of Russian Literature |year=1956 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofruss00hark |place=New York |publisher=Philosophical Library Pub.}} Reprint: Routledge, 2021.
* {{cite book |year=2007 |editor-surname=Holmgren |editor-given=Beth |editor-link=Beth Holmgren |title=The Russian Memoir: History and Literature |series=Studies in Russian Literature and Theory|place=Evanston, Il |publisher=Northwestern University Press |isbn=978-0-8101-2428-8}}
* {{cite book |surname=Kelly |given=Catriona |authorlink=Catriona Kelly |year=1994 |title=A History of Russian Women's Writing, 1820–1992 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198159643}}
* {{cite book |surname=Kelly |given=Catriona |authorlink= |year=2001 |title=Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |url={{Google books|id=kFXnnZ-wSHMC|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=9780192801449}}
* {{cite book |surname=Lavrin |given=Janko |authorlink=Janko Lavrin |year=1948 |title=From Pushkin to Mayakovsky, a study in the evolution of a literature |place=London |publisher=Sylvan Press}}
* {{cite journal |surname=McLean |given=Hugh |title=The Development of Modern Russian Literature |journal=[[Slavic Review]] |volume=21 |number=3 |pages=389–410 |date=September 1962 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.2307/3000442 |jstor=3000442 |s2cid=163341589}}
* {{cite book |surname=Mirsky |given=D. S. |authorlink=D. S. Mirsky |year=1926 |title=Contemporary Russian Literature, 1881–1925 |place=New York |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015000668403&view=1up&seq=138 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211001133853/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015000668403&view=1up&seq=138 |archive-date=2021-10-01}} Via [{{Google books|id=69RgAAAAMAAJ|plainurl=y}} Google Books].
* {{cite book |surname=Mirsky |given=D. S. |authorlink=D. S. Mirsky |year=1927 |title=A History of Russian Literature: From the Earliest Times to the Death of Dostoyevsky (1881) |place=New York |publisher=Alfred A. Knopf |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106006142100}}
* {{cite book |editor-surname=Nilsson |editor-given=Nils Åke |title=Studies in 20th Century Russian Prose |series=Stockholm Studies in Russian Literature, 14 |place=Stocholm |year=1982 |publisher=Almqvist & Wiksell International |isbn=91-22-00587-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/studiesin20thcen0000unse |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |surname=Porter |given=Robert |title=Russia's Alternative Prose |place=Oxford; Providence, Ri |year=1994 |publisher=Berg Pub. |isbn=0-85496-935-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/russiasalternati0000port/page/n10/mode/1up}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |surname=Senelick |given=Laurence |authorlink=Laurence Senelick |title=Historical Dictionary of Russian Theatre |edition=2nd |year=2015 |orig-year=2007 |place=Lanham, Md |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |url={{Google books|id=mx5lCgAAQBAJ|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=978-1-4422-4926-4}}
* {{cite book |surname=Slonim |given=Marc |authorlink=Mark Slonim |title=An Outline of Russian Literature |year=1958 |place=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{cite book |surname=Terras |given=Victor |year=1991 |title=A History of Russian Literature |place=New Haven, Conn; London |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-04971-4 |url= https://archive.org/details/historyofrussian0000terr/page/n6/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |surname=Wachtel |given=Michael |title=The Development of Russian Verse: Meter and Its Meanings |place=Cambridge |year=1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press  |url={{Google books|id=EPuAI-tHo48C|plainurl=y|page=|keywords=|text=}} |isbn=0-521-62078-3}}
* {{cite book |surname=Waegemans |given=E. |title=History of Russian Literature Since Peter the Great, 1700–2000 |edition=Rev. |year=2016 |place=Antwerp |publisher=Vrijdag |isbn=}}
* {{cite book |surname=Zenkovsky |given=Serge A. |authorlink=Serge Aleksandrovich Zenkovsky |year=1963 |title=Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles and Tales |place=New York |publisher=}}
* {{cite book |surname1=Zenkovsky |given1=Serge A. |authorlink1=Serge Aleksandrovich Zenkovsky |surname2=Armbruster |given2=David L. |title=A Guide to the Bibliographies of Russian Literature |place=Nashville, Tenn |publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-8265-1160-7 |url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_0826511600/page/n4/mode/1up |url-access=registration}}
* {{cite book |surname=Ziolkowski |given=Margaret |title=Literary Exorcisms of Stalinism: Russian Writers and the Soviet Past |place=Columbia, Sc |year=1998 |publisher=Camden House |isbn=1-57113-179-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/literaryexorcism0000ziol/page/n213/mode/1up}}
{{refend}}

==Anthologies==
{{refbegin|30em}}
* [https://smokestack-books.co.uk/book.php?book=189 ''Accursed Poets: Dissident Poetry from Soviet Russia 1960–80'']. Ed. and trans. by [[Anatoly Kudryavitsky]]. Thirsk, UK: Smokestack Books, 2020. {{ISBN|978-1-9161-3929-9}}.
* [{{Google books|id=8a392rarhCsC|plainurl=y}} ''An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry, 1801–2001'']. 2 vols. Ed., selec., and cotrans. with introd. essays by [[Maxim D. Shrayer]]. Armonk, NY; London: M.E. Sharpe, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-7656-0521-4}}.
* [https://archive.org/details/anthologyofrussi0001unse/mode/1up ''Anthology of Russian Short Stories from Classical to Modern'']. Comp. by Galina Bazhanova. Trans. from the Russian. 2 vols. Moscow: Raduga Pub.; London & Wellingborough: Collets, 1985. {{ISBN|5-05-000009-2}}. | [https://archive.org/details/anthologyofrussi0001unse/mode/1up Vol. 1] | [https://archive.org/details/anthologyofrussi0002unse/page/n4/mode/1up Vol. 2].
* ''An Anthology of Russian Women's Writing, 1777–1992''. Ed. by [[Catriona Kelly]]. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. {{ISBN|9780198715054}}.
* [https://archive.org/details/bilingualcollect00frie/page/n3/mode/1up ''A Bilingual Collection of Russian Short Stories'']. Ed. with introd. by Maurice Friedberg. 2 vols. New York: Random House, 1964–65.
* [https://kkk-bluelagoon.ru/ ''The Blue Lagoon Anthology of Modern Russian Poetry''], Ed. by [[Konstantin Kuzminsky|Konstantin K. Kuzminsky]] and Gregory L. Kovalev; Institute of Modern Russian Culture at Blue Lagoon, Texas. [5 vols., 9 books.] Newtonville, Ma: Oriental Research Partners, 1980–1986.
* [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/20980 A Survey of Russian Literature, with Selections by Isabel Florence Hapgood]
* ''The Literature of Eighteenth-Century Russia: An Anthology of Russian Literary Materials of the Age of Classicism and the Enlightenment from the Reign of Peter the Great, 1689–1725, to the Reign of Alexander I, 1801–1825''. 2 vols. Ed. and trans. by [[Harold B. Segel]]. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1967.
* [{{Google books|id=3DPTNtJn9nYC|plainurl=y}} ''Mass Culture in Soviet Russia: Tales, Poems, Songs, Movies, Plays, and Folklore, 1917–1953'']. Ed. by James von Geldern and [[Richard Stites]]. Bloomington, In.: Indiana University Press, 1995. {{ISBN|0-253-20969-2}}.
* [https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.29218/page/n5/mode/1up ''Masterpieces of the Russian drama'']. Selec. and ed. with introd. by [[George Rapall Noyes (Slavic scholar)|George Rapall Noyes]]. 2 vols. New York: Dover Pub., 1960–1961 [1933]. [https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.29218/page/n5/mode/1up Vol. 1] | [https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.29219/page/n10/mode/1up Vol. 2].
* [https://archive.org/details/medievalrussiase00zenk/page/n3/mode/1up ''Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales'']. Ed., trans. with introd. by Serge A. Zenkovsky. Rev. ed. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1974 [1963].
* ''A Night in the Nabokov Hotel: 20 Contemporary Poets from Russia''. Introd. and trans. by [[Anatoly Kudryavitsky]]. Dublin: Dedalus Press, 2006. {{ISBN|1-904556-55-8}}.
* ''The Penguin Book of Russian Verse''. Introd. and ed. by [[Dimitri Obolensky]]. Rev. ed. London: Penguin Books, 1965 [1962].
* ''Post-war Russian Poetry''. Ed. with introd. by Daniel Weissbort. London: Penguin Books, 1974. {{ISBN|0-14-042183-1}}.
* [https://archive.org/details/russianpoetryund0000raff ''Russian Poetry under the Tsars: An Anthology'']. Comp. and trans. by Burton Raffel. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1971. {{ISBN|978-0-8739-5070-1}}.
* [https://works.swarthmore.edu/fac-russian/160 ''Russian Silver Age Poetry: Texts And Contexts'']. Ed. by Sibelan E. S. Forrester and Martha M. F. Kelly. Boston, Mi: Academic Studies Press, 2015. {{ISBN|978-1-6181-1370-2}}.
* ''The Silver Age of Russian Culture: An Anthology''. Ed. by Carl and Ellendea Proffer. Ann Arbor, Mi: Ardis, 1975. {{ISBN|978-0-8823-3171-3}}.
* [{{Google books|id=czhO4m4yjZUC|plainurl=y}} Third Wave: The New Russian Poetry]. Ed. by Kent Johnson and Stephen M. Ashby. Introd. by Andrew Wachtel and [[Alexei Parshchikov]]. Afterword by [[Mikhail Epstein]]. Ann Arbor, Mi: University of Michigan Press, 1992. {{ISBN|0-472-06415-0}}.
* ''Two Centuries of Russian Verse: An Anthology from Lomonosov to Voznesensky''. Ed. with introd. by [[Avrahm Yarmolinsky]]. Trans. from Russian by [[Babette Deutsch]]. New York: Random House, 1966.
* ''Unknown Russian Theater: An Anthology''. Ed. and trans. by Michael Green and Jerome Katsell. Vol. 1. Ann Arbor, Mi: Ardis, 1991. {{ISBN|978-0-8823-3554-4}}.
* ''Utopias: Russian Modernist Texts, 1905—1940''. Ed. and trans. by [[Catriona Kelly]]. London: Penguin Books, 1999.
* ''War & Peace: Contemporary Russian Prose''. Glas New Russian Writing, 40. Moscow: Glas, 2006. Ed. by Natasha Perova and Joanne Turnbull. Trans. by Joanne Turnbull. {{ISBN|978-5-7172-0074-5}}.
* [{{Google books|id=Jc2XDwAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}} ''Worlds Apart: An Anthology of Russian Fantasy and Science Fiction'']. Ed. and comm. by Alexander Levitsky. Trans. by Alexander Levitsky and Martha T. Kitchen. New York: Duckworth Overlook, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-5856-7819-8}}.
* ''Во Весь Голос [In a Loud Voice]: Soviet Poetry'' [in Russian with English Notes & Voc]. Ed. by Vladimir Ognev. Moscow: Progress Pub., 1965.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wikisource|Portal:Russian literature}}
{{Commons|Category:Literature of Russia}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |surname=Morson |given=Gary Saul |authorlink=Gary Saul Morson |title=Russian literature |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Russian-literature |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] Online}}
* {{CathEncy|wstitle=Russian Language and Literature}}
* [http://feb-web.ru/indexen.htm Fundamental Digital Library of Russian Literature and Folklore] (in English and Russian)
* {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20150330053402/http://readrussia.org/ Read Russia]}} — site on Translations and Publications of Russian literature
* [https://ruverses.com/ Russian Poetry in Translations] at Reverses.com
* [http://www.sovlit.net Soviet Literature Resource] at SovLit.net (in English)
* [http://www.staroeradio.ru/collection National Audio Fund] — a huge collection of radio plays and literary readings of past years at Old Radio (in Russian)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081118102409/http://www.library.uiuc.edu/spx/webct/SubjectResources/SubSourRus/ruslitbib2.htm Russian Literary Resources] by the Slavic Reference Service
* [http://www.bookle.ru/ Search Russian Books] at Bookle.ru (in Russian)
* [http://ruthenia.ru/tiutcheviana/search/en/drevnerus.html Philology in Runet. A special search through the sites devoted to the Old Russian literature.]
* {{cite web |last=Gorski |first=Bradley |title=Russia's Heirs to Tolstoyevsky |url=https://imrussia.org/en/nation/2428-russias-heirs-to-tolstoyevsky |publisher=Institute of Modern Russia |date=28 September 2015}}
* [https://www.rvb.ru Russian Virtual Library] (in Russian)
* [http://www.lib.ru/ Maxim Moshkov's E-library of Russian literature] (in Russian)

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[[Category:Russian literature| ]]