Russian books I need to read in order to be incredibly pretentions and expand my understanding of world literature.
created by FfiFfi
last updated February, 2026

Feel free to give me more recommendations!
Technically Soviet literature, not Russian (but you've included M&M and Lolita, and it was written in Russian, so I assume it's fine), but Vasily Grossman's Stalingrad was pretty incredible - I really enjoyed it. Life and Fate (the second book) is more well known, and is meant to also be very good (and less censored!) but I've not read it yet.
second this! i’m actually in the middle of Life and Fate right now, and i think it’s safe to say i enjoyed it even more than Stalingrad!
Great books, as recommendation i would say The Nose by Nikolai Gogol or his other work maybe even A hero of our time by Mikhail Lermontov?