Curated playlist
19th-century novelists from the Russian Empire
- Fyodor DostoevskyFyodor Dostoevsky stood before a firing squad in 1849, and a letter from the tsar arrived.
- Leo TolstoyLeo Tolstoy spent his last hours on a train, preaching non-violence to strangers.
- Ivan TurgenevIvan Turgenev wrote an obituary for Nikolai Gogol and was jailed for a month. Censors had banned it in Saint Petersburg.
- Mikhail LermontovLermontov wrote a poem about Pushkin's death and was banished to the Caucasus. It made him famous as Pushkin's heir.
- Maxim GorkyWriter Maxim Gorky visited a Soviet labor camp that had been staged for him, and he did not notice.
- Alexander HerzenFor three years, Alexander Herzen's Russian press in London did not sell a single copy.
- Nikolai LeskovRussian writer Nikolai Leskov ordered no speeches at his funeral. His 1892 will said he did not deserve praise.
- Leonid AndreyevLeonid Andreyev sold a quarter-million copies of his first book in 1901. The Russian writer died poor in Finland at 48.
- Nikolay KaramzinNikolay Karamzin spent years writing a 12-volume history of Russia. He died before finishing it.
- Mikhail Saltykov-ShchedrinLenin used a character from Saltykov-Shchedrin's novel The Golovlyov Family to insult Trotsky.
- Nikolay NekrasovPoet Nikolay Nekrasov's funeral turned into a political rally. Four thousand people followed his coffin in 1878.