Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of
Russia or its
émigrés, and to the
Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the
Soviet Union. With the break up of the USSR different countries and cultures may lay claim to various ex-Soviet writers who wrote in Russian on the basis of birth or of ethnic or cultural associations.
Old
Russian literature consists of several sparse masterpieces written in the
Old Russian language (not to be confused with the contemporaneous
Church Slavonic). Anonymous works of this nature include
The Tale of Igor's Campaign (Слово о Полку Игореве, Slovo o Polku Igoreve) and the
Praying of Daniel the Immured (Моление "аниила Заточника, or Moleniye Daniila Zatochnika). The so-called
жития святых (zhitiya svyatikh,
lives of the saints) formed a popular
genre of the Old Russian literature. The
Life of Alexander Nevsky (Житие Александра Невского, or Zhitiye Aleksandra Nevskogo) offers a well-known example. Other Russian literary monuments include
Zadonschina,
Physiologist,
Synopsis and
A Journey Beyond the Three Seas.
Bylinas fused Christian and pagan traditions. Medieval Russian literature had an overwhelmingly religious character and used an adapted form of the
Church Slavonic language with many South Slavic elements. The first work in colloquial
Russian, the autobiography of archpriest
Avvakum, emerged only in the mid-
17th century.
Links
*
Philology in Runet. A special search through the sites devoted to the Old Russian literature.The "Westernization" of
Russia, commonly associated with
Peter the Great and
Catherine the Great, coincided with a reform of the Russian alphabet and increased tolerance of the idea of employing the popular language for general literary purposes. Authors like
Antioch Kantemir,
Vasily Trediakovsky, and
Mikhail Lomonosov in the earlier
18th century paved the way for poets like
Derzhavin, playwrights like
Sumarokov and
Fonvizin, and prose writers like
Karamzin and
Radishchev.
The 19th century is traditionally referred to as the "Golden Age" of Russian literature.
Romanticism permitted a flowering of especially poetic talent: the names of
Zhukovsky and
Aleksandr Pushkin came to the fore, followed by
Mikhail Lermontov and
Fyodor Tyutchev.
Nineteenth-century developments included
Ivan Krylov the fabulist; non-fiction writers such as
Belinsky and
Herzen; playwrights such as
Griboedov and
Ostrovsky; poets such as
Evgeny Baratynsky,
Konstantin Batyushkov,
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov,
Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy,
Fyodor Tyutchev, and
Afanasij Fet;
Kozma Prutkov (a collective pen name) the satirist; and a group of widely-recognised novelists such as
Nikolai Gogol,
Leo Tolstoy,
Fyodor Dostoevsky,
Leskov,
Ivan Turgenev,
Saltykov-Shchedrin and
Goncharov.
Other genres came to the fore with the approach of the 20th century.
Anton Chekhov excelled in writing short stories and drama, and
Anna Akhmatova represented innovative lyricists.
The beginning of the 20th century ranks as the Silver Age of Russian poetry. Well-known writers of the period include:
Anna Akhmatova,
Innokenty Annensky,
Andrei Bely,
Alexander Blok,
Valery Bryusov,
Marina Tsvetaeva,
Sergei Esenin,
Nikolay Gumilyov,
Daniil Kharms,
Velimir Khlebnikov,
Dmitry Merezhkovsky,
Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Zinaida Gippius,
Fedor Sologub and
Maximilian Voloshin.
Sovietization of Russia affected literature after 1917.
Maxim Gorky,
Nobel Prize winner
Mikhail Sholokhov,
Valentin Kataev,
Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi,
Vladimir Mayakovsky,
Ilf and Petrov came to prominence as part of
Soviet literature. Whilst
Socialist realism gained official support in the
Soviet Union, some of the writers secretly continued the classical tradition of Russian literature, writing "under the table", with no hope of publishing such works until after their deaths. The
Serapion Brothers insisted on the right to create a literature independent of political ideology: this brought them into conflict with the government. Nor did the authorities tolerate the experimental art of the
Oberiuts. Meanwhile,
émigré writers such as Nobel Prize winner
Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin,
Alexander Kuprin,
Andrey Bely,
Marina Tsvetaeva and
Vladimir Nabokov continued to flourish in exile.
In post-
Stalin Russia,
Socialist realism remained the only permitted style; writers like Nobel Prize winner
Alexandr Solzhenitsyn (who built his works on the legacy of the
gulag camps) or
Venedikt Erofeev continued the tradition of clandestine literature. In addition, Soviet authorities put pressure on the
Nobel Prize committee to deny
Konstantin Poustovsky the Literature Prize in 1965. The prize was awarded instead to Mikhail Sholokhov as more loyal to the Soviet regime. Post-Communist Russia saw most of these works published and become a part of mainstream culture. However, even before the decay of the Soviet Union, tolerance to non-mainstream art had slowly started to grow, especially during the
Khrushchev Thaw. Some works of Bulgakov, Solzhenitsyn and
Varlam Shalamov were published in the 1960s. Social criticism, as in the
science fiction of the
Strugatsky brothers and the literature of the
Mitkis became popular. As another post-Stalin development,
bard poetry developed.
In the late Soviet era émigré authors like Nobel prize winner
Joseph Brodsky and short story writer
Sergei Dovlatov became successful in the West, but remained known in the Soviet Union only in
samizdat.
The end of the 20th century and the early 21st century has proven a difficult period for Russian literature, with relatively few writers raising above the mass of pulp fiction, such as
Victor Pelevin or
Vladimir Sorokin. Of course, only history will reveal the final worth of this period.
In the early 21st century the reading public in Russia has shown considerable interest in new quality literature. Many new authors have emerged, along with new publishing companies, new brands and new literature series. Traditional Russian prose remains popular, and distinctive work has come out of the Russian provinces: for example
Nina Gorlanova from Perm has written stories about the everyday problems and joys of the provincial intelligentsia.
Widely popular in teen and early-twenty's audience gained a humoristic fantasy, sci-fi or mixed literature, mostly known for
Andrey Belyanin's books. However the overall plot and humor are widely criticized by some, mostly calling it plain dumb.
Detective stories and thrillers have proven a very successful genre of new Russian literature: note the interesting phenomenon of the huge interest in ironic detective stories by
Darya Dontsova. She has written about 50 novels, and her books have appeared published in millions of copies and even translated in Europe.
Generations of winter ( in Russian:
Moskovskaya saga ), a novel by the Russian writer
Vasily Aksyonov, has appeared in the USA. Many critics have praised this novel as a new
Doctor Zhivago large-scale Russian novel, which tells the story of the Russian Gradov family struggling to survive in the Stalin era.
Several Russian writers have become rather popular in the West, such as
Tatyana Tolstaya and (especially)
Lyudmila Ulitskaya. Detective-story writer
Boris Akunin, with his series about the 19th century sleuth
Erast Fandorin, publishes in Europe and in the USA.
Alexandra Marinina, the most popular female detective-story writer in Russia, has succeeded in publishing her books around Europe, especially in Germany.
The 2003
Frankfurt Book Fair selected Russia as its special guest of the year.
See
List of Russians and
List of Russian authors for more names.
*
Bylina*
List of Russian language poets*
Russian Formalism*
Russian language*
Skazka*
Encyclopedia of Soviet Writers*
Classic and other e-texts of literature in Russian*
Information and Critique on Russian Literature
