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Curated playlist

20th-century Russian male writers

  • Alexander BlokAlexander Blok wrote a poem likening Bolshevik soldiers to the Twelve Apostles of Christ.
  • Bulat OkudzhavaBulat Okudzhava claimed to know only seven chords, yet he wrote about 200 songs.
  • Andrei TarkovskyIngmar Bergman called Andrei Tarkovsky the greatest of all filmmakers. Tarkovsky directed only seven feature films.
  • Aleksandr SolzhenitsynAleksandr Solzhenitsyn watched Moscow's victory fireworks from a prison cell. He was a decorated Red Army captain.
  • Andrei BelyIn Andrei Bely's novel Petersburg, a young man is assigned to kill his own father. The target is a government official.
  • Eldar RyazanovEldar Ryazanov first refused to direct a comedy. He wanted to make serious films, but Carnival Night was a hit.
  • Mikhail BulgakovStalin phoned banned playwright Mikhail Bulgakov in 1930 and asked if he wanted to leave.
  • Peter KropotkinAnarchist thinker Peter Kropotkin refused a cabinet seat in Russia's Provisional Government.
  • Vladimir MayakovskyPoet Vladimir Mayakovsky once threw tea at his audiences. He later wrote propaganda posters for the Communist Party.
  • Sergei YeseninPoet Sergei Yesenin wrote his farewell poem in his own blood. He was found dead in a Leningrad hotel room at thirty.
  • Nikolay LosskyIn 1922, philosopher Nikolay Lossky was exiled from the Soviet Union on the Philosophers' Ship.
  • Boris PasternakBoris Pasternak won the 1958 Nobel Prize in Literature, then his government forced him to decline it.
  • Maxim GorkyWriter Maxim Gorky visited a Soviet labor camp that had been staged for him, and he did not notice.
  • Leonid AndreyevLeonid Andreyev sold a quarter-million copies of his first book in 1901. The Russian writer died poor in Finland at 48.
  • Victor PelevinSome people have seriously suggested Russian novelist Victor Pelevin is really a computer. He rarely appears in public.
  • Sergey MikhalkovSergey Mikhalkov wrote a friendly giant policeman for children, then anthems for two countries.
  • Ivan BuninExiled in France, Ivan Bunin became the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
  • Vladimir SorokinRussian writer Vladimir Sorokin trained as an engineer, not a writer. His books were banned in the Soviet era.
  • Konstantin BalmontPoet Konstantin Balmont burned every leftover copy of his own first book after it flopped.

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