The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Russia

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
10 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1877 Russian Russian
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
12 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 1869 Russian Russian
18 The Brothers Karamazov Fyodor Dostoevsky 1880 Russian Russian
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
57 The Idiot Fyodor Dostoevsky 1869 Russian Russian
71 Hamlet William Shakespeare 1600 British English
94 Demons Fyodor Dostoevsky 1872 Russian Russian
104 Dead Souls Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
128 The Stories of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1900 Russian Russian
129 First Folio William Shakespeare 1623 British English
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
179 Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenev 1862 Russian Russian
194 Oblomov Ivan Goncharov 1859 Russian Russian
206 The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1973 Russian Russian
214 Life and Fate Vasily Grossman 1980 Russian Russian
249 A Hero of Our Time Mikhail Lermontov 1840 Russian Russian
343 The Sonnets William Shakespeare 1609 British English
349 The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy 1886 Russian Russian
365 Eugene Onegin Alexander Pushkin 1833 Russian Russian
375 Kolyma Stories Varlam Shalamov 1954 Russian Russian
440 The Origins of Totalitarianism Hannah Arendt 1951 German English
514 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
555 The Lady with the Dog Anton Chekhov 1899 Russian Russian
571 And Quiet Flows The Don Mikhail Sholokhov 1928 Russian Russian
572 Three Sisters Anton Chekhov 1901 Russian Russian
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
730 Petersburg Andrei Bely 1913 Russian Russian
744 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
763 The Case of Comrade Tulayev Victor Serge 1949 French French
764 Mother Maxim Gorky 1906 Russian Russian
798 The Life Of Arseniev Ivan Bunin 1930 Russian Russian
877 The Cherry Orchard Anton Chekhov 1904 Russian Russian
955 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
983 A Study In Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 British English
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
1035 Uncle Vanya Anton Chekhov 1897 Russian Russian
1048 The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy 1984 American English
1061 First Love Ivan Turgenev 1860 Russian Russian
1090 The Kreutzer Sonata Leo Tolstoy 1889 Russian Russian
1094 Gorky Park Martin Cruz Smith 1981 American English
1106 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1138 The Unwomanly Face Of War Svetlana Alexievich 1985 Russian Russian
1149 A Sportsman's Notebook Ivan Turgenev 1852 Russian Russian
1161 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1164 The Nose Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1205 The Enchanted Wanderer Nikolai Leskov 1873 Russian Russian
1226 What Is To Be Done? Vladimir Il’ich Lenin 1902 Russian Russian
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1402 The Seagull Anton Chekhov 1896 Russian Russian
1407 The Golovlyov Family Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1880 Russian Russian
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1481 The Little Golden Calf Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1931 Russian Russian
1492 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov 1941 Russian English
1522 Cancer Ward Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1967 Russian Russian
1579 The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel Isaac Babel 1934 Russian Russian
1667 The Poetry of Alexander Pushkin Alexander Pushkin 1836 Russian Russian
1683 The Life Written By Himself the Archpriest Avvakum 1666 Russian Russian
1689 Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk Nikolai Leskov 1865 Russian Russian
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1732 The Government Inspector Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1733 My Childhood Maxim Gorky 1913 Russian Russian
1738 The Bedbug And Selected Poetry Vladimir Mayakovsky 1920 Russian Russian
1749 First Circle Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1968 Russian Russian
1764 Tales Of The Hasidim Martin Buber 1949 German German
1794 My Past And Thoughts Alexander Herzen 1861 Russian Russian
1856 Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad 1911 British English
1872 To the Finland Station Edmund Wilson 1940 American English
1926 Stories of Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol 1831 Russian Russian
1927 Ten Days That Shook the World John Reed 1919 American English
1962 The Prose Of The Trans Siberian Blaise Cendrars 1913 French French
1993 The Queen Of Spades Alexander Pushkin 1834 Russian Russian
2008 Job Joseph Roth 1930 Austrian German
2031 Cosmos Alexander von Humboldt 1845 German German
2031 Gedanken Und Erinnerungen Otto von Bismarck 1898 German German
2078 The Major Plays Anton Chekhov 1964 Russian Russian
2099 From Russia with Love Ian Fleming 1957 British English
2112 House On The Embankment Yuri Trifonov 1976 Russian Russian
2134 Farewell To Matyora Valentin Rasputin 1976 Russian Russian
2159 Soul and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1999 Russian Russian
2193 Envy Yury Olesha 1927 Russian Russian
2202 The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell 2006 French French
2229 A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles 2016 American English
2230 The Cathedral Folk Nikolai Leskov 1872 Russian Russian
2233 Resurrection Leo Tolstoy 1899 Russian Russian
2277 The Twelve Alexander Blok 1918 Russian Russian
2281 Boris Godunov Alexander Pushkin 1831 Russian Russian
2358 August 1914 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1971 Russian Russian
2439 Poems Of Anna Akhmatova Anna Akhmatova 1912 Russian Russian
2535 The Way of a Pilgrim Unknown 1884 Russian Russian
2541 The Artamonov Business Maxim Gorky 1925 Russian Russian
2625 The Captain's Daughter Alexander Pushkin 1836 Russian Russian
2681 The Czar's Madman Jaan Kross 1978 Estonian Estonian
2729 Overcoat Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
2750 Decisive Moments in History Stefan Zweig 1927 Austrian German
2787 A Cultural History Of The Modern Age Egon Friedell 1927 Austrian English
2815 The Belkin Tales Alexander Pushkin 1831 Russian Russian
2839 Ashenden, Or, The British Agent W. Somerset Maugham 1928 British English
2887 Hadji Murat Leo Tolstoy 1912 Russian Russian
2950 Nevsky Prospekt Nikolai Gogol 1835 Russian Russian
2957 The Lower Depths Maxim Gorky 1902 Russian Russian
2958 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2969 The Steppe Anton Chekhov 1888 Russian Russian
2977 The Demon Mikhail Lermontov 1829 Russian Russian
2995 Childhood Leo Tolstoy 1852 Russian Russian
2997 A Cloud In Trousers Vladimir Mayakovsky 1915 Russian Russian
2998 Poor Folk Fyodor Dostoevsky 1846 Russian Russian
3038 Baron Munchausen's Narrative Of His Marvelous Travels And Campaigns In Russia Rudolf Erich Raspe 1785 German German
3131 The Man Who Loved Dogs Leonardo Padura 2009 Cuban Spanish
3143 Poems Hayyim Nahman Bialik 1901 Israeli Hebrew
3201 The Pillar And Ground Of The Truth Pavel Florensky 1914 Russian Russian
3205 The Prize Daniel Yergin 1991 American English
3223 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3324 King Lear of the Steppes Ivan Turgenev 1870 Russian Russian
3324 Torrents of Spring Ivan Turgenev 1872 Russian Russian
3391 Napoleon Emil Ludwig 1926 German German
3421 The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein 2007 Canadian English