The current generation now sees everything clearly, marvels at the errors, laughs at the foolishness of its ancestors, it is not in vain that this chronicle is inscribed with heavenly fire, that every letter in it screams, that a piercing finger is directed from everywhere at it, at it, at the current generation; but the current generation laughs and arrogantly, proudly begins a series of new errors, which posterity will also laugh at later. "Dead souls"

Nestor Vasilievich Kukolnik (1809 - 1868)
Why? It's like inspiration
Love the given subject!
Like a true poet
Sell ​​your imagination!
I am a slave, a day laborer, I am a tradesman!
I owe you, sinner, for gold,
For your worthless piece of silver
Pay with divine payment!
"Improvisation I"

Literature is a language that expresses everything a country thinks, wants, knows, wants and needs to know.

In the hearts of simple people, the feeling of the beauty and grandeur of nature is stronger, a hundred times more vivid, than in us, enthusiastic storytellers in words and on paper."Hero of Our Time"

And everywhere there is sound, and everywhere there is light,
And all the worlds have one beginning,
And there is nothing in nature
Whatever breathes love.

In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fate of my homeland, you alone are my support and support, oh great, powerful, truthful and free Russian language! Without you, how can one not fall into despair at the sight of everything that is happening at home? But one cannot believe that such a language was not given to a great people!
Poems in prose, "Russian language"

So, I complete my dissolute escape,
Prickly snow flies from the naked fields,
Driven by an early, violent snowstorm,
And, stopping in the wilderness of the forest,
Gathers in silver silence
A deep and cold bed.

Listen: shame on you!
It's time to get up! You know yourself
What time has come;
In whom the sense of duty has not cooled,
Who is incorruptibly straight in heart,
Who has talent, strength, accuracy,
Tom shouldn't sleep now...
"Poet and Citizen"

Is it really possible that even here they will not and will not allow the Russian organism to develop nationally, with its organic strength, and certainly impersonally, servilely imitating Europe? But what should one do with the Russian organism then? Do these gentlemen understand what an organism is? Separation, “disengagement” from their country leads to hatred, these people hate Russia, so to speak, naturally, physically: for the climate, for the fields, for the forests, for the order, for the liberation of the peasant, for Russian history, in a word, for everything, They hate me for everything.

Spring! the first frame is exposed -
And noise burst into the room,
And the good news of the nearby temple,
And the talk of the people, and the sound of the wheel...

Well, what are you afraid of, pray tell! Now every grass, every flower is rejoicing, but we are hiding, afraid, as if some kind of misfortune is coming! The thunderstorm will kill! This is not a thunderstorm, but grace! Yes, grace! It's all stormy! The northern lights will light up, you should admire and marvel at the wisdom: “from the midnight lands the dawn rises”! And you are horrified and come up with ideas: this means war or pestilence. Is there a comet coming? I wouldn’t look away! Beauty! The stars have already taken a closer look, they are all the same, but this is a new thing; Well, I should have looked and admired it! And you are afraid to even look at the sky, you are trembling! Out of everything, you have created a scare for yourself. Eh, people! "Storm"

There is no more enlightening, soul-cleansing feeling than that which a person feels when acquainted with a great work of art.

We know that loaded guns must be handled with care. But we don’t want to know that we must treat words in the same way. The word can kill and make evil worse than death.

There is a well-known trick by an American journalist who, in order to increase subscriptions to his magazine, began to publish in other publications the most harsh, arrogant attacks on himself from fictitious persons: some in print exposed him as a swindler and perjurer, others as a thief and murderer, and still others as a debauchee on a colossal scale. He didn’t skimp on paying for such friendly advertisements until everyone started thinking - it’s obvious he’s a curious and remarkable person when everyone is shouting about him like that! - and they began to buy up his own newspaper.
"Life in a Hundred Years"

Nikolai Semenovich Leskov (1831 - 1895)
I... think that I know the Russian person to his very depths, and I do not take any credit for this. I didn’t study the people from conversations with St. Petersburg cab drivers, but I grew up among the people, on the Gostomel pasture, with a cauldron in my hand, I slept with it on the dewy grass of the night, under a warm sheepskin coat, and on Panin’s fancy crowd behind the circles of dusty habits...

Between these two clashing titans - science and theology - there is a stunned public, quickly losing faith in the immortality of man and in any deity, quickly descending to the level of a purely animal existence. Such is the picture of the hour illuminated by the brilliant noonday sun of the Christian and scientific era!
"Isis Unveiled"

Sit down, I'm glad to see you. Throw away all fear
And you can keep yourself free
I give you permission. You know, the other day
I was elected king by everyone,
But it doesn't matter. They confuse my thoughts
All these honors, greetings, bows...
"Crazy"

Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky (1843 - 1902)
- What do you want abroad? - I asked him while in his room, with the help of the servants, his things were being laid out and packed for sending to the Warsaw station.
- Yes, just... to feel it! - he said confusedly and with a kind of dull expression on his face.
"Letters from the Road"

Is the point to get through life in such a way as not to offend anyone? This is not happiness. Touch, break, break, so that life boils. I am not afraid of any accusations, but I am a hundred times more afraid of colorlessness than death.

Poetry is the same music, only combined with words, and it also requires a natural ear, a sense of harmony and rhythm.

You experience a strange feeling when, with a light pressure of your hand, you force such a mass to rise and fall at will. When such a mass obeys you, you feel the power of man...
"Meeting"

Vasily Vasilievich Rozanov (1856 - 1919)
The feeling of the Motherland should be strict, restrained in words, not eloquent, not talkative, not “waving your arms” and not running forward (to show yourself). The feeling of the Motherland should be a great ardent silence.
"Secluded"

And what is the secret of beauty, what is the secret and charm of art: in the conscious, inspired victory over torment or in unconscious melancholy human spirit, who sees no way out of the circle of vulgarity, squalor or thoughtlessness and is tragically condemned to appear smug or hopelessly false.
"Sentimental Memory"

Since birth I have lived in Moscow, but by God I don’t know where Moscow came from, what it is for, why, what it needs. In the Duma, at meetings, I, together with others, talk about the city economy, but I don’t know how many miles there are in Moscow, how many people there are, how many are born and die, how much we receive and spend, how much and with whom we trade... Which city is richer: Moscow or London? If London is richer, why? And the jester knows him! And when some issue is raised in the Duma, I shudder and be the first to start shouting: “Pass it over to the commission!” To the commission!

Everything new in an old way:
From a modern poet
In a metaphorical outfit
The speech is poetic.

But others are not an example to me,
And my charter is simple and strict.
My verse is a pioneer boy,
Lightly dressed, barefoot.
1926

Under the influence of Dostoevsky, as well as foreign literature, Baudelaire and Edgar Allan Poe, my fascination began not with decadence, but with symbolism (even then I already understood their difference). I entitled the collection of poems, published at the very beginning of the 90s, “Symbols”. It seems that I was the first to use this word in Russian literature.

Vyacheslav Ivanovich Ivanov (1866 - 1949)
The running of changeable phenomena,
Past the howling ones, speed up:
Merge the sunset of achievements into one
With the first shine of tender dawns.
From the lower reaches of life to the origins
In a moment, a single overview:
In one face with a smart eye
Collect your doubles.
Unchanging and wonderful
Gift of the Blessed Muse:
In the spirit the form of harmonious songs,
There is life and heat in the heart of the songs.
"Thoughts on Poetry"

I have a lot of news. And all are good. I'm "lucky". It's written to me. I want to live, live, live forever. If you only knew how many new poems I wrote! More than a hundred. It was crazy, a fairy tale, new. I am publishing a new book, completely different from the previous ones. She will surprise many. I changed my understanding of the world. No matter how funny my phrase may sound, I will say: I understand the world. For many years, perhaps forever.
K. Balmont - L. Vilkina

Man - that's the truth! Everything is in man, everything is for man! Only man exists, everything else is the work of his hands and his brain! Human! This is great! It sounds... proud!

"At the Bottom"

I feel sorry for creating something useless and no one needs right now. A collection, a book of poems at this time is the most useless, unnecessary thing... I do not want to say that poetry is not needed. On the contrary, I maintain that poetry is necessary, even necessary, natural and eternal. There was a time when everyone seemed to need entire books of poetry, when they were read in bulk, understood and accepted by everyone. This time is the past, not ours. The modern reader does not need a collection of poems!

Language is the history of a people. Language is the path of civilization and culture. That is why studying and preserving the Russian language is not an idle activity because there is nothing to do, but an urgent necessity.

What nationalists and patriots these internationalists become when they need it! And with what arrogance they mock the “frightened intellectuals” - as if there is absolutely no reason to be afraid - or at the “frightened ordinary people”, as if they have some great advantages over the “philistines”. And who, exactly, are these ordinary people, the “prosperous townsfolk”? And who and what do revolutionaries care about, in general, if they so despise the average person and his well-being?
"Cursed Days"

In the struggle for their ideal, which is “liberty, equality and fraternity,” citizens must use means that do not contradict this ideal.
"Governor"

“Let your soul be whole or split, let your worldview be mystical, realistic, skeptical, or even idealistic (if you are so unhappy), let creative techniques be impressionistic, realistic, naturalistic, let the content be lyrical or fabulistic, let there be a mood, an impression - whatever you want, but I beg you, be logical - may this cry of the heart be forgiven me! – are logical in concept, in the structure of the work, in syntax.”
Art is born in homelessness. I wrote letters and stories addressed to a distant, unknown friend, but when the friend came, art gave way to life. I'm talking, of course, not about home comfort, but about life, which means more than art.
"You and I. Love Diary"

An artist can do no more than open his soul to others. You cannot present him with pre-made rules. It is a still unknown world, where everything is new. We must forget what captivated others; here it is different. Otherwise, you will listen and not hear, you will look without understanding.
From Valery Bryusov's treatise "On Art"

Alexey Mikhailovich Remizov (1877 - 1957)
Well, let her rest, she was exhausted - they tormented her, alarmed her. And as soon as it’s light, the shopkeeper gets up, starts folding her goods, grabs a blanket, goes and pulls out this soft bedding from under the old woman: wakes the old woman up, gets her on her feet: it’s not dawn, please get up. There's nothing you can do about it. In the meantime - grandmother, our Kostroma, our mother, Russia! "

"Whirlwind Rus'"

Art never addresses the crowd, the masses, it speaks to the individual, in the deep and hidden recesses of his soul.

Mikhail Andreevich Osorgin (Ilyin) (1878 - 1942)
How strange /.../ There are so many cheerful and cheerful books, so many brilliant and witty philosophical truths - but there is nothing more comforting than Ecclesiastes.

Babkin was brave, read Seneca
And, whistling carcasses,
Took it to the library
Noting in the margin: “Nonsense!”
Babkin, friend, is a harsh critic,
Have you ever thought
What a legless paralytic
A light chamois is not a decree?..
"Reader"

The critic's word about the poet must be objectively concrete and creative; the critic, while remaining a scientist, is a poet.

"Poetry of the Word"

Only great things should be thought about, only great tasks should a writer set himself; put it boldly, without being embarrassed by your personal small strengths.

Boris Konstantinovich Zaitsev (1881 - 1972)
“It’s true that there are goblins and water creatures here,” I thought, looking in front of me, “and maybe some other spirit lives here... A powerful, northern spirit that enjoys this wildness; maybe real northern fauns and healthy, blond women wander in these forests, eat cloudberries and lingonberries, laugh and chase each other.”
"North"

You need to be able to close a boring book...leave a bad movie...and part with people who don't value you!

Out of modesty, I will be careful not to point out the fact that on my birthday the bells were rung and there was general popular rejoicing. Evil tongues connected this rejoicing with some great holiday that coincided with the day of my birth, but I still don’t understand what another holiday has to do with it?

That was the time when love, good and healthy feelings were considered vulgarity and a relic; no one loved, but everyone thirsted and, as if poisoned, fell for everything sharp, tearing apart the insides.
"Walking through torment"

Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky (Nikolai Vasilievich Korneychukov) (1882 - 1969)
“Well, what’s wrong,” I say to myself, “at least in a short word for now?” After all, exactly the same form of saying goodbye to friends exists in other languages, and there it does not shock anyone. Great poet Walt Whitman, shortly before his death, said goodbye to his readers with a touching poem “So long!”, which means in English - “Bye!”. The French a bientot has the same meaning. There is no rudeness here. On the contrary, this form is filled with the most gracious courtesy, because the following (approximately) meaning is compressed here: be prosperous and happy until we see each other again.
"Alive as Life"

Switzerland? This is a mountain pasture for tourists. I myself have traveled all over the world, but I hate these ruminant bipeds with Badaker for a tail. They devoured all the beauties of nature with their eyes.
"Island of Lost Ships"

Everything that I have written and will write, I consider only mental rubbish and I do not consider my merits as a writer at all. I’m surprised and perplexed why apparently smart people find some meaning and value in my poems. Thousands of poems, whether mine or those of the poets I know in Russia, are not worth one singer from my bright mother.

I am afraid that Russian literature has only one future: its past.
Article "I'm afraid"

We have been looking for a long time for a task similar to a lentil, so that the connected rays of the work of artists and the work of thinkers, directed by it to a common point, would meet in general work and could ignite and turn even the cold substance of ice into a fire. Now such a task - the lentil that guides together your stormy courage and the cold mind of thinkers - has been found. This goal is to create a common written language...
"Artists of the World"

He adored poetry and tried to be impartial in his judgments. He was surprisingly young at heart, and perhaps also in mind. He always seemed like a child to me. There was something childish in his buzz cut head, in his bearing, more like a gymnasium than a military one. He liked to pretend to be an adult, like all children. He loved to play “master”, the literary superiors of his “gumilets,” that is, the little poets and poetesses who surrounded him. The poetic children loved him very much.
Khodasevich, "Necropolis"

Me, me, me. What a wild word!
Is that guy over there really me?
Did mom love someone like that?
Yellow-gray, half-gray
And all-knowing, like a snake?
You have lost your Russia.
Did you resist the elements?
Good elements of dark evil?
No? So shut up: you took me away
You are destined for a reason
To the edges of an unkind foreign land.
What's the use of moaning and groaning -
Russia must be earned!
"What you need to know"

I didn't stop writing poetry. For me, they contain my connection with time, with new life my people. When I wrote them, I lived by the rhythms that sounded in the heroic history of my country. I am happy that I lived during these years and saw events that had no equal.

All the people sent to us are our reflection. And they were sent so that we, looking at these people, correct our mistakes, and when we correct them, these people either change too or leave our lives.

In the wide field of Russian literature in the USSR, I was the only one literary wolf. I was advised to dye the skin. Ridiculous advice. Whether a wolf is dyed or shorn, it still does not look like a poodle. They treated me like a wolf. And for several years they persecuted me according to the rules of a literary cage in a fenced yard. I have no malice, but I am very tired...
From a letter from M.A. Bulgakov to I.V. Stalin, May 30, 1931.

When I die, my descendants will ask my contemporaries: “Did you understand Mandelstam’s poems?” - “No, we didn’t understand his poems.” “Did you feed Mandelstam, did you give him shelter?” - “Yes, we fed Mandelstam, we gave him shelter.” - “Then you are forgiven.”

Ilya Grigorievich Erenburg (Eliyahu Gershevich) (1891 - 1967)
Maybe go to the House of Press - there is one sandwich with chum caviar and a debate - “about the proletarian choral reading”, or to the Polytechnic Museum - there are no sandwiches there, but twenty-six young poets read their poems about the “locomotive mass”. No, I will sit on the stairs, shiver from the cold and dream that all this is not in vain, that, sitting here on the step, I am preparing the distant sunrise of the Renaissance. I dreamed both simply and in verse, and the results turned out to be rather boring iambics.
"The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito and His Students"

“Russian literature is the only unhindered guide in the West’s desire to understand the secrets of the Russian soul, its culture and identity. No restrictions or prohibitions, political hostility or sanctions for you. I bought a volume of a Russian classic and you get to know yourself quietly, dosing it - sitting, lying down, standing, in the subway, at home... Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov... Be careful with Chekhov - you can go on a drinking binge...”

Abroad began to become thoroughly acquainted with Russian literature through the writer Ivan Turgenev, who settled in Baden-Baden in 1863. Having become close to the most famous Western writers, cultural and artistic figures, with the intelligentsia and politicians of that time, Turgenev very quickly became the most famous and most read Russian author in Europe. It was with the works of Turgenev that the Western reader began to comprehend the full depth and richness of the Russian language.

In 1878, at the international literary congress in Paris, the writer was elected vice-president; in 1879 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. Chancellor of the German Empire Clovis Hohenlohe called Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev the best candidate for the post of Prime Minister of Russia. He wrote about Turgenev: “Today I spoke with the most smart person Russia."

But Ivan Turgenev’s main merit is propaganda. Throughout his entire life abroad, he tirelessly “promoted” Russian literature as the most undervalued within Russia itself. Thus, Europe met Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol...

They say that people become interested in the literature of a particular country when they show interest in the country itself. This is partly true. In relation to Russia, this interest on the part of the West never ceased and reached its peak in the 21st century. It is noteworthy that once having discovered Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov and many other prolific masters of Russian literature, the West never ceases to associate Russian literature and Russia itself with these great names. Of course, in this regard, modern writers have a hard time, and oddly enough, Russian writers of the 21st century have to compete with Russian classics of the 19th century. After all, there is still a huge demand for the export of Russian classics. The facts speak about this:

The film adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” speaks of the popularity of the Russian classic abroad - there are more than 7 different versions of the film. Another example is “Anna Karenina” - in different countries it has been filmed about 18 times.

Chekhov still remains the leader in the number of foreign film adaptations of Russian classics - his works became the basis for film/television versions about 200 times. He is one of the 3 most screened writers in the world.

“In the galaxy of great European playwrights... the name of Chekhov shines like a star of the first magnitude,” wrote George Bernard Shaw at the beginning of the 20th century.

However, if Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in the West are known more from books, then Chekhov is rather not read, but “watched”: the writer is little known as the author of humorous stories, but is rightfully considered a playwright of the first magnitude along with Shakespeare, Shaw and Wilde. His plays are some of the most popular in the world. But Chekhov himself did not foresee his future fame. He told his friend Tatyana Shchepkina-Kupernik: “They will read me for seven, seven and a half years, and then they will forget.”

One more thing is surprising. Fame in a writing career directly depends on its “promotion”. Writing with talent or genius is not enough. You need to invest in advertising and self-PR. And the best PR is a scandal. Take, for example, Nabokov’s world fame, having written the scandalous “Lolita,” he might not have written anything else. The scandalous plot itself, and all the attempts to ban the publication of the novel, made its publication an event and provided the book with huge circulations. Solzhenitsyn talentedly made his name “in politics” and the propaganda machine helped him.

Now it’s already difficult to play politics. It is almost impossible to implement a political intrigue on which you can “take off.” There is money left.

Nowadays, few Russian names are noticeable in the West - of course, primarily due to the language barrier. In pre-revolutionary Russia there was not much difference between the bearers of Russian culture and European culture. All educated people in Russia they spoke English, French, and German well. Tolstoy almost got first Nobel Prize in literature, Turgenev was absolutely recognized in Paris as a writer, Dostoevsky had a huge influence on Freud and many others. Then there was a single multilingual culture. Now it’s the other way around: globalization has led to a situation where English alone dominates. So it turns out that cultures are different, but all writers have the same language. At the same time, it cannot be said that bearers of Russian culture became victims of some kind of special discrimination. There is simply one dominant culture and it is English-speaking.

But we digress.

And yet, which Russian writers, by modern standards, are the most famous abroad?

Leo Tolstoy - “War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”;
Fyodor Dostoevsky - “Crime and Punishment”, “The Idiot”, “The Brothers Karamazov”;
Anton Chekhov - “Uncle Vanya”, “Lady with a Dog”, “Kashtanka”;
Alexander Pushkin - “Eugene Onegin”;
Nikolai Gogol - “Dead Souls”;
Ivan Turgenev - “Fathers and Sons”;
Mikhail Bulgakov - " Fatal eggs", "The Master and Margarita";
Vladimir Nabokov - “Lolita”;
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - “The Gulag Archipelago”, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich”;
Ivan Bunin - “Sukhodol”, “Village”;
Alexander Griboyedov - “Woe from Wit”;
Mikhail Lermontov - “Hero of Our Time”, “Demon”;
Boris Pasternak - Doctor Zhivago.

With modern Russian literature everything is much more complicated. Nevertheless, quite popular: Polina Dashkova, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Zakhar Prilepin, Mikhail Shishkin, Victor Pelevin, Sergei Lukyanenko, Boris Akunin.

In the 90s, the only modern Russian author whose books could be easily obtained in English was Pelevin - despite the fact that this was still a specific reading. Over the past ten years, however, some things have changed, others have been translated - Boris Akunin has had the greatest success: in England his detective stories still sell well... In the West they like a Russian writer to be bearded and serious.

In England it’s clear, but what about in the USA? According to the famous publicist Owen Matthews(Owen Matthews), "literature modern Russia cannot offer the American reader, brought up on the philosophical novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, anything that can return them to the “magical land” open to them in the books of the classics.” That is why the percentage of Russian literature in modern America does not exceed 1-3%.

Deputy Head of Rospechat Vladimir Grigoriev believes:

“That of our writers in lately“If they don’t make stars, it has a lot to do with extra-literary moments.” Remember the growing popularity of Mikhail Shishkin in Western European countries after he spoke out against the Kremlin’s policies... And vice versa - as soon as Zakhar Prilepin, who was quite successfully translated and published in English-speaking countries, began to speak out in support of the so-called Novorossiya, we began to experience certain difficulties in its promotion."

We've really gone backwards. First, sport turned into a tool of political pressure, now literature. You look and Bolshoi Theater will stop touring the world. Perhaps the excitement for Russian painting will even subside. But nothing. But we began to export twice as much gas, oil, tanks and Kalash rifles...

According to the UNESCO Index Translationum online database ranking, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov are the most frequently translated Russian writers in the world! These authors occupy second, third and fourth places in it, respectively. But Russian literature is also rich in other names that have made a huge contribution to the development of both Russian and world culture.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Not only a writer, but also a historian and playwright, Alexander Solzhenitsyn was a Russian writer who made his mark in the period after the death of Stalin and the debunking of the cult of personality.

In some ways, Solzhenitsyn is considered the successor of Leo Tolstoy, since he was also a great lover of truth and wrote large-scale works about the lives of people and social processes that took place in society. Solzhenitsyn's works were based on a combination of autobiographical and documentary.

His most famous works- “The Gulag Archipelago” and “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.” With the help of these works, Solzhenitsyn tried to draw the attention of readers to the horrors of totalitarianism, which modern writers have never written about so openly. Russian writers that period; I wanted to talk about the fate of thousands of people who were subjected to political repression, were sent to innocent camps and were forced to live there in conditions that can hardly be called human.

Ivan Turgenev

Turgenev's early work reveals the writer as a romantic who had a very subtle sense of nature. Yes and literary image“Turgenev’s girl,” which has long been presented as a romantic, bright and vulnerable image, is now something of a household name. At the first stage of his creativity, he wrote poems, poems, dramatic works and, of course, prose.

The second stage of Turgenev’s work brought the author the most fame - thanks to the creation of “Notes of a Hunter”. For the first time, he honestly portrayed landowners, revealed the theme of the peasantry, after which he was arrested by the authorities, who did not like such work, and sent into exile to the family estate.

Later, the writer’s work is filled with complex and multifaceted characters - the most mature period of the author’s work. Turgenev tried to reveal such philosophical themes like love, duty, death. At the same time, Turgenev wrote his most famous work both here and abroad, entitled “Fathers and Sons,” about the difficulties and problems of relations between different generations.

Vladimir Nabokov

Nabokov's work completely goes against the traditions of classical Russian literature. The most important thing for Nabokov was the play of imagination; his work became part of the transition from realism to modernism. In the author's works one can identify a typical Nabokovian type of hero - a lonely, persecuted, suffering, misunderstood person with a touch of genius.

In Russian, Nabokov managed to write numerous stories, seven novels (“Mashenka”, “King, Queen, Jack”, “Despair” and others) and two plays before leaving for the USA. From that moment on, the birth of an English-language author took place; Nabokov completely abandoned the pseudonym Vladimir Sirin, with which he signed his Russian books. Nabokov will work with the Russian language only once more - when he translates his novel Lolita, which was originally written in English, for Russian-speaking readers.

It was this novel that became Nabokov’s most popular and even scandalous work - not too surprising, since it tells the story of the love of a mature forty-year-old man for a twelve-year-old teenage girl. The book is considered quite shocking even in our free-thinking age, but if there are still debates about the ethical side of the novel, then it is perhaps simply impossible to deny Nabokov’s verbal mastery.

Mikhail Bulgakov

Bulgakov's creative path was not at all easy. Having decided to become a writer, he abandons his career as a doctor. He writes his first works, “Fatal Eggs” and “Diaboliada”, getting a job as a journalist. The first story evokes quite resonant responses, since it resembled a mockery of the revolution. Bulgakov's story " Heart of a Dog”, denouncing the authorities, refused to publish it at all and, moreover, took the manuscript from the writer.

But Bulgakov continues to write - and creates the novel “ White Guard”, on which they staged a play called “Days of the Turbins”. The success did not last long - due to another scandal due to the works, all performances based on Bulgakov were withdrawn from showings. The same fate would later befall Bulgakov’s latest play, Batum.

The name of Mikhail Bulgakov is invariably associated with The Master and Margarita. Perhaps this particular novel became the work of his whole life, although it did not bring him recognition. But now, after the death of the writer, this work is also popular with foreign audiences.

This piece is like nothing else. We agreed to indicate that this is a novel, but what kind: satirical, fantastic, love-lyrical? The images presented in this work are striking and impressive in their uniqueness. A novel about good and evil, about hatred and love, about hypocrisy, money-grubbing, sin and holiness. At the same time, the work was not published during Bulgakov’s lifetime.

It is not easy to remember another author who could so deftly and accurately expose all the falsehood and dirt of the philistinism, the current government and the bureaucratic system. That is why Bulgakov was subjected to constant attacks, criticism and bans from the ruling circles.

Alexander Pushkin

Despite the fact that not all foreigners associate Pushkin with Russian literature, unlike most Russian readers, it is simply impossible to deny his legacy.

The talent of this poet and writer truly had no boundaries: Pushkin is famous for his amazing poems, but at the same time he wrote beautiful prose and plays. Pushkin’s work has received recognition not only now; his talent was recognized by others Russian writers and poets are his contemporaries.

The themes of Pushkin's work are directly related to his biography - the events and experiences that he went through during his life. Tsarskoe Selo, St. Petersburg, time in exile, Mikhailovskoe, Caucasus; ideals, disappointments, love and affection - everything is present in Pushkin’s works. And the most famous was the novel “Eugene Onegin”.

Ivan Bunin

Ivan Bunin is the first writer from Russia to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. The work of this author can be divided into two periods: before emigration and after.

Bunin was very close to the peasantry, the life of the common people, which had a great influence on the author’s work. Therefore, so-called village prose is distinguished among it, for example, “Sukhodol”, “Village”, which have become one of the most popular works.

Nature also plays a significant role in Bunin’s work, which inspired many great Russian writers. Bunin believed: she is the main source of strength and inspiration, spiritual harmony, that every person is inextricably linked with her, and in her lies the key to unraveling the mystery of existence. Nature and love became the main themes of the philosophical part of Bunin’s work, which is mainly represented by poetry, as well as novellas and short stories, for example, “Ida”, “Mitya’s Love”, “Late Hour” and others.

Nikolai Gogol

After graduating from the Nizhyn gymnasium, Nikolai Gogol’s first literary experience was the poem “Hans Küchelgarten,” which turned out to be not very successful. However, this did not bother the writer, and he soon began working on the play “Marriage,” which was published only ten years later. This witty, colorful and lively work shatters modern society, which has made prestige, money, power its main values, and left love somewhere in the background.

Gogol was left with an indelible impression by the death of Alexander Pushkin, which also affected others. Russian writers and artists. Not long before this, Gogol showed Pushkin the plot of a new work called “Dead Souls,” so now he believed that this work was a “sacred testament” to the great Russian poet.

“Dead Souls” became a magnificent satire on Russian bureaucracy, serfdom and social ranks, and this particular book is especially popular among readers abroad.

Anton Chekhov

Chekhov began his creative activity from writing short essays, but very bright and expressive. Chekhov is best known for his humorous stories, although he wrote both tragicomic and dramatic works. And most often, foreigners read Chekhov’s play “Uncle Vanya”, the stories “The Lady with the Dog” and “Kashtanka”.

Perhaps the most basic and famous hero of Chekhov’s works is the “little man,” whose figure is familiar to many readers even after “The Station Agent” by Alexander Pushkin. This is not a separate character, but rather a collective image.

Nevertheless, Chekhov’s little people are not the same: some want to sympathize with others, to laugh at others (“The Man in a Case”, “Death of an Official”, “Chameleon”, “The Weasel” and others). The main problem of this writer’s work is the problem of justice (“Name Day”, “Steppe”, “Leshy”).

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky is best known for his works Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. Each of these works is famous for its deep psychology - indeed, Dostoevsky is considered one of the best psychologists in the history of literature.

He analyzed the nature of human emotions, such as humiliation, self-destruction, murderous rage, as well as conditions leading to insanity, suicide, and murder. Psychology and philosophy are closely related to each other in Dostoevsky's portrayal of his characters, intellectuals who "feel ideas" in the depths of their souls.

Thus, “Crime and Punishment” reflects on freedom and inner strength, suffering and madness, illness and fate, the pressure of the modern urban world on the human soul, and raises the question of whether people can ignore their own moral code. Dostoevsky, along with Leo Tolstoy, are the most famous Russian writers around the world, and Crime and Punishment is the author's most popular work.

Leo Tolstoy

Who do foreigners associate with famous people? Russian writers, so this is with Leo Tolstoy. He is one of the undisputed titans of world fiction, a great artist and man. The name of Tolstoy is known all over the world.

There is something Homeric about the epic scope with which he wrote War and Peace, but unlike Homer, he portrayed war as a senseless massacre, the result of the vanity and stupidity of the nation's leaders. The work “War and Peace” seemed to be a kind of summation of everything that Russian society experienced during the 19th century.

But the most famous throughout the world is Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina. It is eagerly read both here and abroad, and readers are invariably captivated by the story of the forbidden love of Anna and Count Vronsky, which leads to tragic consequences. Tolstoy dilutes the narrative with the second storyline- the story of Levin, who devotes his life to his marriage to Kitty, housekeeping and God. This is how the writer shows us the contrast between Anna’s sin and Levin’s virtue.

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The list is not complete yet, since it only includes questions from tickets for secondary school or basic level (and were not included, respectively, in-depth study or profile level and national school).

"The Life of Boris and Gleb" end XI - beginning. XII century

"The Tale of Igor's Host" late 12th century.

W. Shakespeare – (1564 – 1616)

"Romeo and Juliet" 1592

J-B. Moliere – (1622 – 1673)

"The tradesman among the nobility" 1670

M.V. Lomonosov – (1711 – 1765)

DI. Fonvizin - (1745 – 1792)

"Undergrowth" 1782

A.N. Radishchev – (1749 – 1802)

G.R. Derzhavin – (1743 – 1816)

N.M. Karamzin – (1766 – 1826)

"Poor Liza" 1792

J. G. Byron – (1788 – 1824)

I.A. Krylov – (1769 – 1844)

"Wolf in the kennel" 1812

V.A. Zhukovsky – (1783 – 1852)

"Svetlana" 1812

A.S. Griboedov – (1795 – 1829)

"Woe from Wit" 1824

A.S. Pushkin – (1799 – 1837)

"Belkin's Tales" 1829-1830

"Shot" 1829

"Stationmaster" 1829

"Dubrovsky" 1833

"The Bronze Horseman" 1833

"Eugene Onegin" 1823-1838

"The Captain's Daughter" 1836

A.V. Koltsov – (1808 – 1842)

M.Yu. Lermontov – (1814 – 1841)

"A song about Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich, the young guardsman and the daring merchant Kalashnikov." 1837

"Borodino" 1837

"Mtsyri" 1839

"Hero of Our Time" 1840

"Farewell, unwashed Russia" 1841

"Motherland" 1841

N.V. Gogol – (1809 – 1852)

"Evenings on a farm near Dikanka" 1829-1832

"The Inspector General" 1836

"Overcoat" 1839

"Taras Bulba" 1833-1842

"Dead Souls" 1842

I.S. Nikitin – (1824 – 1861)

F.I. Tyutchev – (1803 – 1873)

"There is in the primordial autumn..." 1857

I.A. Goncharov – (1812 – 1891)

"Oblomov" 1859

I.S. Turgenev – (1818 – 1883)

"Bezhin Meadow" 1851

"Asya" 1857

"Fathers and Sons" 1862

"Shchi" 1878

N.A. Nekrasov – (1821 – 1878)

"Railroad" 1864

"Who Lives Well in Rus'" 1873-76

F.M. Dostoevsky – (1821 – 1881)

"Crime and Punishment" 1866

"The Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree" 1876

A.N. Ostrovsky – (1823 – 1886)

"Our people - we'll be numbered!" 1849

"Thunderstorm" 1860

A.A. Fet – (1820 – 1892)

M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin – (1826-1889)

"Wild Landowner" 1869

"The story of how one man fed two generals" 1869

"The Wise Minnow" 1883

"Bear in the Voivodeship" 1884

N.S. Leskov – (1831 – 1895)

"Lefty" 1881

L.N. Tolstoy – (1828 – 1910)

"War and Peace" 1867-1869

"After the Ball" 1903

A.P. Chekhov – (1860 – 1904)

"Death of an Official" 1883

"Ionych" 1898

"The Cherry Orchard" 1903

M. Gorky – (1868 – 1936)

"Makar Chudra" 1892

"Chelkash" 1894

"Old Woman Izergil" 1895

"At the Bottom" 1902

A.A. Blok – (1880 – 1921)

"Poems about a beautiful lady" 1904

"Russia" 1908

cycle "Motherland" 1907-1916

"Twelve" 1918

S.A. Yesenin – (1895 – 1925)

“I don’t regret, I don’t call, I don’t cry...” 1921

V.V. Mayakovsky (1893 – 1930)

"Good Treatment for Horses" 1918

A.S. Green – (1880 – 1932)

A.I.Kuprin – (1870 – 1938)

I.A. Bunin – (1879 – 1953)

O.E. Mandelstam – (1891 – 1938)

M.A. Bulgakov – (1891 – 1940)

"White Guard" 1922-1924

"Heart of a Dog" 1925

"The Master and Margarita" 1928-1940

M.I. Tsvetaeva – (1892 – 1941)

A.P. Platonov – (1899 – 1951)

B.L. Pasternak – (1890-1960)

"Doctor Zhivago" 1955

A.A. Akhmatova – (1889 – 1966)

"Requiem" 1935-40

K.G. Paustovsky – (1892 – 1968)

"Telegram" 1946

M.A. Sholokhov – (1905 – 1984)

"Quiet Don" 1927-28

"Virgin Soil Upturned" t1-1932, t2-1959)

"The Fate of Man" 1956

A.T. Tvardovsky – (1910 – 1971)

"Vasily Terkin" 1941-1945

V.M. Shukshin – (1929 – 1974)

V.P. Astafiev – (1924 – 2001)

A.I. Solzhenitsyn – (born 1918)

"Matrenin's Dvor" 1961

V.G. Rasputin – (born 1937)

The idea of ​​protecting the Russian land in works of oral folk art (fairy tales, epics, songs).

The work of one of the poets of the Silver Age.

Originality art world one of the poets of the Silver Age (using the example of 2-3 poems of the examinee’s choice).

The Great Patriotic War in Russian prose. (Using the example of one work.)

The feat of man in war. (Based on one of the works about the Great Patriotic War.)

Great Theme Patriotic War in the prose of the twentieth century. (Using the example of one work.)

Military theme in modern literature. (Using the example of one or two works.)

Your favorite poet in Russian literature of the 20th century. Reading his poem by heart.

Russian poets of the 20th century about the spiritual beauty of man. Reading one poem by heart.

Features of the work of one of the modern Russian poets of the second half of the twentieth century. (at the choice of the examinee).

Your favorite poems modern poets. Reading one poem by heart.

Your favorite poet. Reading one of the poems by heart.

The theme of love in modern poetry. Reading one poem by heart.

Man and nature in Russian prose of the 20th century. (Using the example of one work.)

Man and nature in modern literature. (Using the example of one or two works.)

Man and nature in Russian poetry of the 20th century. Reading one poem by heart.

Your favorite literary character.

Review of the book modern writer: impressions and assessment.

One of the works of modern literature: impressions and assessment.

A book by a modern writer that you have read. Your impressions and assessment.

Your contemporary in modern literature. (For one or more works.)

Yours favorite piece modern literature.

Moral issues of modern Russian prose (using the example of a work of the examinee’s choice).

The main themes and ideas of modern journalism. (Using the example of one or two works.)

Heroes and problems of one of the works of modern national dramaturgy second half of the twentieth century. (at the choice of the examinee).