Curated playlist
Russian male novelists
- Fyodor DostoevskyFyodor Dostoevsky stood before a firing squad in 1849, and a letter from the tsar arrived.
- Anton ChekhovAnton Chekhov's body traveled to Moscow in a railway car meant for oysters. The detail offended his friend Maxim Gorky.
- Leo TolstoyLeo Tolstoy spent his last hours on a train, preaching non-violence to strangers.
- Nikolai GogolNikolai Gogol burned his manuscript for Dead Souls, part two, in 1852. He blamed the Devil and died nine days later.
- Bulat OkudzhavaBulat Okudzhava claimed to know only seven chords, yet he wrote about 200 songs.
- Vladimir NabokovNovelist Vladimir Nabokov also named butterfly species, and later genetic research backed his theory.
- 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.
- Fyodor RostopchinFyodor Rostopchin left Moscow in 1812 after ordering his own house burned to the ground.
- Alexander PushkinAlexander Pushkin could not speak Russian well until he was ten years old. He grew up speaking mostly French.
- Mikhail BulgakovStalin phoned banned playwright Mikhail Bulgakov in 1930 and asked if he wanted to leave.
- Maxim GorkyWriter Maxim Gorky visited a Soviet labor camp that had been staged for him, and he did not notice.
- Nikolai LeskovRussian writer Nikolai Leskov ordered no speeches at his funeral. His 1892 will said he did not deserve praise.
- Victor PelevinSome people have seriously suggested Russian novelist Victor Pelevin is really a computer. He rarely appears in public.
- Yevgeny ZamyatinYevgeny Zamyatin smuggled his banned novel We out of the Soviet Union. He wrote to Stalin and left in 1931.
- Mikhail Saltykov-ShchedrinLenin used a character from Saltykov-Shchedrin's novel The Golovlyov Family to insult Trotsky.
- Vladimir SorokinRussian writer Vladimir Sorokin trained as an engineer, not a writer. His books were banned in the Soviet era.