Classical Literature (Russian). Russian classical literature: a list of the best works

Are you here: Holiday scenarios

According to the ranking of the Internet database Index Translationum UNESCO, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov are the most frequently translated Russian writers in the world! These authors are ranked second, third and fourth respectively. But Russian literature is also rich in other names who have made a huge contribution to the development of both Russian and world culture.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Not only a writer, but also a historian and playwright, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Russian writer who made his name in the post-Stalin era and the debunking of the cult of personality.

In some way, Solzhenitsyn is considered the successor of Leo Tolstoy, since he was also a great truth-seeker and wrote large-scale works about people's lives and social processes that took place in society. Solzhenitsyn's works were based on a combination of autobiographical and documentary.

His most famous works are The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. With the help of these works, Solzhenitsyn tried to draw the attention of readers to the horrors of totalitarianism, which modern writers have not yet written about so openly. Russian writers that period; wanted to tell about the fate of thousands of people who were subjected to political repression, were sent to camps innocent and were forced to live there in conditions that can hardly be called human.

Ivan Turgenev

Turgenev's early work reveals the writer as a romantic who felt nature very subtly. And the literary image of the “Turgenev girl”, which has long been presented as a romantic, bright and vulnerable image, is now something of a household name. At the first stage of his work, he wrote poems, poems, dramatic works and, of course, prose.

The second stage of Turgenev's work brought the author the most fame - thanks to the creation of the "Notes of a Hunter". For the first time, he honestly portrayed the landowners, revealed the theme of the peasantry, after which he was arrested by the authorities, who did not like such work, and sent into exile to the family estate.

Later, the writer's work is filled with complex and multifaceted characters - the most mature period of the author's work. Turgenev tried to reveal such philosophical themes as love, duty, death. At the same time, Turgenev wrote his most famous work, both here and abroad, called "Fathers and Sons" about the difficulties and problems of relations between different generations.

Vladimir Nabokov

Creativity Nabokov completely runs counter to the traditions of classical Russian literature. Most important for Nabokov was the play of the imagination, his work was part of the transition from realism to modernism. In the author's works, one can distinguish the type of a characteristic Nabokov's hero - a lonely, persecuted, suffering, misunderstood person with a touch of genius.

In Russian, Nabokov managed to write numerous stories, seven novels (Mashenka, The King, the Queen, the Jack, Despair, and others) and two plays before leaving for the United States. From that moment on, the birth of an English-language author takes place, Nabokov completely abandons the pseudonym Vladimir Sirin, with which he signed his Russian books. Nabokov will work with the Russian language only once more - when he will translate his novel Lolita, which was originally written in English, for Russian-speaking readers.

It was this novel that became the most popular and even notorious work of Nabokov - not too surprising, because it tells about the love of a mature forty-year-old man for a teenage girl of twelve years. The book is considered quite shocking even in our free-thinking age, but if there are still disputes about the ethical side of the novel, then it is perhaps simply impossible to deny Nabokov's verbal skill.

Michael Bulgakov

Bulgakov's creative path was not at all easy. Deciding to become a writer, he abandons his career as a doctor. He writes his first works, "Fatal Eggs" and "Diaboliad", having settled down to work as a journalist. The first story evokes rather resonant responses, since it resembled a mockery of the revolution. Bulgakov's story "The Heart of a Dog", which denounces the authorities, was generally refused to be published and, moreover, the manuscript was taken away from the writer.

But Bulgakov continues to write - and creates the novel "The White Guard", which is based on a play called "Days of the Turbins". The success did not last long - in connection with another scandal over the works, all performances based on Bulgakov were removed from shows. The same fate would later befall Bulgakov's latest play, Batum.

The name of Mikhail Bulgakov is invariably associated with The Master and Margarita. Perhaps it was this novel that became the work of a lifetime, although it did not bring him recognition. But now, after the death of the writer, this work is also a success with foreign audiences.

This piece is like nothing else. We agreed to designate that this is a novel, but which one: satirical, fantastic, love-lyrical? The images presented in this work amaze and impress with their uniqueness. A novel about good and evil, about hatred and love, about hypocrisy, money-grubbing, sin and holiness. At the same time, during the life of Bulgakov, the work was not published.

It is not easy to recall another author who could so deftly and aptly expose all the falsity and dirt of the bourgeoisie, the current government and the bureaucratic system. That is why Bulgakov was subjected to constant attacks, criticism and bans from the ruling circles.

Alexander Pushkin

Despite the fact that not all foreigners associate Pushkin with Russian literature, unlike most Russian readers, it is simply impossible to deny his legacy.

The talent of this poet and writer truly knew no bounds: Pushkin is famous for his amazing poems, but at the same time he wrote excellent prose and plays. Pushkin's work has received recognition not only now; his talent was recognized by others Russian writers and the poets of his contemporaries.

The theme of Pushkin's work is directly related to his biography - the events and experiences that he went through in his life. Tsarskoye Selo, Petersburg, time in exile, Mikhailovskoye, Caucasus; ideals, disappointments, love and affection - everything is present in the works of Pushkin. And the most famous was the novel "Eugene Onegin".

Ivan Bunin

Ivan Bunin is the first writer from Russia to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The work of this author can be divided into two periods: before emigration and after.

Bunin was very close to the peasantry, the life of the common people, which had a great influence on the author's work. Therefore, among it, the so-called village prose is singled out, for example, “Dry Valley”, “Village”, which became one of the most popular works.

Nature also plays a significant role in Bunin's work, which inspired many great Russian writers. Bunin believed: she is the main source of strength and inspiration, spiritual harmony, that every person is inextricably linked with her, and in her lies the key to unraveling the mystery of being. Nature and love have become the main themes of the philosophical part of Bunin's work, which is mainly represented by poetry, as well as novels and short stories, for example, "Ida", "Mitina's Love", "Late Hour" and others.

Nikolay Gogol

After graduating from the Nizhyn Gymnasium, Nikolai Gogol's first literary experience was the poem "Hans Küchelgarten", which was not very successful. However, this did not bother the writer, and he soon began working on the play "Marriage", which was published only ten years later. This witty, colorful and lively work smashes modern society to smithereens, which has made prestige, money, power its main values, and left love somewhere in the background.

Gogol was deeply impressed by the death of Alexander Pushkin, which affected others as well. Russian writers and artists. Shortly before this, Gogol showed Pushkin the plot of a new work called "Dead Souls", so now he believed that this work was a "sacred testament" to the great Russian poet.

Dead Souls has become an excellent satire on Russian bureaucracy, serfdom and social ranks, and this book is especially popular among readers abroad.

Anton Chekhov

Chekhov began his creative activity by writing short essays, but very bright and expressive. Chekhov is best known for his humorous stories, although he wrote both tragicomic and dramatic works. And most often foreigners read Chekhov's play called "Uncle Vanya", the stories "The Lady with the Dog" and "Kashtanka".

Perhaps the most basic and famous hero of Chekhov's works is the "little man", whose figure is familiar to many readers even after the "Station Master" by Alexander Pushkin. This is not a single character, but rather a collective image.

Nevertheless, Chekhov’s little people are not the same: one wants to sympathize, to laugh at others (“The Man in the Case”, “Death of an Official”, “Chameleon”, “Scumbag” and others). The main problem of this writer's work is the problem of justice ("Name Day", "Steppe", "Leshy").

Fedor Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky is best known for his works Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. Each of these works is famous for its deep psychology - indeed, Dostoevsky is considered one of the best psychologists in the history of literature.

He analyzed the nature of human emotions, such as humiliation, self-destruction, murderous rage, as well as states that lead to insanity, suicide, and murder. Psychology and philosophy are closely linked in Dostoyevsky's portrayal of his characters, intellectuals who "feel ideas" in the depths of their souls.

Thus, "Crime and Punishment" reflects on freedom and inner strength, suffering and madness, illness and fate, the pressure of the modern urban world on the human soul, and raises the question of whether people can ignore their own moral code. Dostoevsky, together with Leo Tolstoy, are the most famous Russian writers in the whole world, and Crime and Punishment is the most popular of the author's works.

Lev Tolstoy

With whom do foreigners associate famous Russian writers So it is with Leo Tolstoy. He is one of the undeniable titans of world fiction, a great artist and person. Tolstoy's name is known all over the world.

There is something Homeric in the epic scope with which he wrote War and Peace, but unlike Homer, he depicted war as a senseless massacre, the result of the vanity and stupidity of the leaders of the nation. The work "War and Peace" became, as it were, a kind of result of everything that Russian society experienced during the period of the 19th century.

But the most famous all over the world is Tolstoy's novel called "Anna Karenina". It is readily read both here and abroad, and readers are invariably captured by the story of the forbidden love of Anna and Count Vronsky, which leads to tragic consequences. Tolstoy dilutes the narrative with a second storyline - the story of Levin, who devotes his life to his marriage to Kitty, housekeeping and God. Thus the writer shows us the contrast between Anna's sin and Levin's virtue.

And you can watch a video about famous Russian writers of the 19th century here:

Take it, tell your friends!

Great Russian writers and poets

A well-known fact that has been proven by historians and literary critics: the best works of Russian classics were written during the Golden and Silver Ages.

The names of Russian writers and poets, who are among the world classics, are known to everyone. Their work has forever remained in world history as an important element.

The work of Russian poets and writers of the "Golden Age" is the dawn in Russian literature. Many poets and prose writers developed new directions, which subsequently became increasingly used in the future. Russian writers and poets, the list of which can be called endless, wrote about nature and love, about light and unshakable, about freedom and choice. The literature of the Golden Age, as well as later of the Silver Age, reflects the attitudes of not only writers to historical events, but also of the whole people as a whole.

And today, looking through the thickness of the centuries at the portraits of Russian writers and poets, every progressive reader understands how bright and prophetic their works were, written more than a dozen years ago.

Literature is divided into many topics that formed the basis of the works. Russian writers and poets spoke about war, about love, about peace, opening up completely to every reader.

"Golden Age" in Literature

The "golden age" in Russian literature begins in the nineteenth century. The main representative of this period in literature, and specifically in poetry, was Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, thanks to whom not only Russian literature, but the entire Russian culture as a whole acquired its special charm. Pushkin's work contains not only poetic works, but prose stories.

Poetry of the "Golden Age": Vasily Zhukovsky

The beginning of this time was laid by Vasily Zhukovsky, who became a teacher for Pushkin. Zhukovsky opened such a direction for Russian literature as romanticism. Developing this direction, Zhukovsky wrote odes, which were widely known for their romantic images, metaphors and personifications, the lightness of which was not in the directions used in Russian literature of the past.

Mikhail Lermontov

Another great writer and poet for the "Golden Age" of Russian literature was Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov. His prose work “A Hero of Our Time” gained great fame at one time, because it described Russian society as it was in that period of time, which Mikhail Yuryevich writes about. But all readers of Lermontov's poems fell in love even more: sad and sad lines, gloomy and sometimes terrible images - the poet managed to write all this so sensitively that every reader is still able to feel what worried Mikhail Yuryevich.

Prose of the Golden Age

Russian writers and poets have always been distinguished not only by their extraordinary poetry, but also by their prose.

Lev Tolstoy

One of the most significant writers of the "Golden Age" was Leo Tolstoy. His great epic novel "War and Peace" became known to the whole world and is included not only in the lists of Russian classics, but also of the world. Describing the life of Russian secular society during the Patriotic War of 1812, Tolstoy was able to show all the subtleties and features of the behavior of St. Petersburg society, which for a long time since the beginning of the war seemed not to have participated in the all-Russian tragedy and struggle.

Another novel by Tolstoy, which is still read both abroad and in the homeland of the writer, was the work "Anna Karenina". The story of a woman who fell in love with a man with all her heart and went through unprecedented difficulties for the sake of love, and soon suffered betrayal, fell in love with the whole world. A touching story about love, which can sometimes drive you crazy. The sad end became a unique feature for the novel - it was one of the first works in which the lyrical hero not only dies, but deliberately interrupts his life.

Fedor Dostoevsky

In addition to Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky also became a significant writer. His book "Crime and Punishment" has become not just a "Bible" of a highly moral person with a conscience, but also a kind of "teacher" for someone who has to make a difficult choice, foreseeing all the outcomes of events. The lyrical hero of the work not only made the wrong decision that ruined him, he took on a lot of torment that haunted him day and night.

In the work of Dostoevsky there is also the work "Humiliated and Insulted", which accurately reflects the whole essence of human nature. Despite the fact that a lot of time has passed since the moment of writing, those problems of mankind, which Fedor Mikhailovich described, are still relevant today. The protagonist, seeing all the insignificance of the human "darling", begins to feel disgust for people, for everything that people of the rich strata are proud of, which are of great importance for society.

Ivan Turgenev

Another great writer of Russian literature was Ivan Turgenev. Writing not only about love, he touched upon the most important problems of the world around him. His novel "Fathers and Sons" clearly describes the relationship between children and parents, which remains exactly the same today. Misunderstanding between the older generation and the younger is an age-old problem of family relations.

Russian Writers and Poets: The Silver Age of Literature

The Silver Age in Russian literature is considered to be the beginning of the twentieth century. It is the poets and writers of the Silver Age that acquire special love from readers. Perhaps this phenomenon is due to the fact that the lifetime of writers is closer to our time, while Russian writers and poets of the "Golden Age" wrote their works, living on completely different moral and spiritual principles.

Poetry of the Silver Age

The bright personalities that distinguish this literary period were, undoubtedly, poets. Many directions and currents of poetry appeared, which were created as a result of the division of opinions about the actions of the Russian authorities.

Alexander Blok

The gloomy and sad work of Alexander Blok was the first to appear at this stage of literature. All Blok's poems are permeated with longing for something extraordinary, something bright and bright. The most famous poem is “Night. The outside. Flashlight. Pharmacy” perfectly describes Blok’s worldview.

Sergey Yesenin

One of the brightest figures of the Silver Age was Sergei Yesenin. Poems about nature, love, the transience of time, one's "sins" - all this can be found in the poet's work. Today there is not a single person who would not find a poem by Yesenin that can please and describe the state of mind.

Vladimir Mayakovsky

If we talk about Yesenin, then I immediately want to mention Vladimir Mayakovsky. Sharp, loud, self-confident - that was exactly what the poet was. The words that came out from under the pen of Mayakovsky, and today amaze with their power - Vladimir Vladimirovich perceived everything so emotionally. In addition to harshness, in the work of Mayakovsky, who did not go well in his personal life, there is also love poetry. The story of the poet and Lily Brik is known throughout the world. It was Brik who discovered in him all the most tender and sensual, and Mayakovsky, in return for this, seemed to idealize and deify her in his love lyrics.

Marina Tsvetaeva

The personality of Marina Tsvetaeva is also known to the whole world. The poetess herself had peculiar character traits, which is immediately evident from her poems. Perceiving herself as a deity, she even in her love lyrics made it clear to everyone that she was not one of those women who are able to offend themselves. However, in her poem “How many of them have fallen into this abyss,” she showed how unhappy she had been for many, many years.

Prose of the Silver Age: Leonid Andreev

A great contribution to fiction was made by Leonid Andreev, who became the author of the story "Judas Iscariot". In his work, he presented the biblical story of the betrayal of Jesus a little differently, exposing Judas not just as a traitor, but as a person suffering from his envy of people who were loved by everyone. Lonely and strange Judas, who found rapture in his tales and tales, always received only ridicule in his face. The story tells about how easy it is to break a person’s spirit and push him to any meanness if he has neither support nor close people.

Maksim Gorky

For the literary prose of the Silver Age, the contribution of Maxim Gorky is also important. The writer in each of his works hid a certain essence, having understood which, the reader realizes the full depth of what worried the writer. One of these works was the short story "Old Woman Izergil", which is divided into three small parts. Three components, three life problems, three types of loneliness - all this was carefully veiled by the writer. A proud eagle thrown into the abyss of loneliness; noble Danko, who gave his heart to selfish people; an old woman who has been looking for happiness and love all her life, but never found it - all this can be found in a short, but extremely vital story.

Another important work in Gorky's work was the play "At the Bottom". The life of people who are below the poverty line - that's what became the basis of the play. The descriptions that Maxim Gorky gave in his work show how much even very poor people, who basically do not need anything, just want to be happy. But the happiness of each of the characters is in different things. Each of the characters in the play has its own values. In addition, Maxim Gorky wrote about the "three truths" of life that can be applied in modern life. Lies for good; no pity for the person; the truth necessary for man - three views on life, three opinions. The conflict, which remains unresolved, leaves each character, as well as each reader, to make his own choice.

Anna Karenina. Lev Tolstoy

The greatest love story of all time. A story that has not left the stage, filmed countless times - and still has not lost the boundless charm of passion - a destructive, destructive, blind passion - but all the more bewitching with its grandeur.