The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Soviet Union

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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.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
206 The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1973 Russian Russian
212 Darkness at Noon Arthur Koestler 1940 British German
375 Kolyma Stories Varlam Shalamov 1954 Russian Russian
379 The Second World War Winston Churchill 1948 British English
535 Red Cavalry Isaac Babel 1926 Russian Russian
571 And Quiet Flows The Don Mikhail Sholokhov 1928 Russian Russian
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
959 A Tomb for Boris Davidovich Danilo Kiš 1976 Serbian Serbo-croatian
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
1048 The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy 1984 American English
1138 The Unwomanly Face Of War Svetlana Alexievich 1985 Russian Russian
1161 The Twelve Chairs Ilya Ilf, Evgeniy Petrov 1928 Russian Russian
1454 Pushkin House Andrey Bitov 1978 Russian Russian
1522 Cancer Ward Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1967 Russian Russian
1579 The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel Isaac Babel 1934 Russian Russian
1605 The Foundation Pit Andrey Platonov 1930 Russian Russian
1683 The Life Written By Himself the Archpriest Avvakum 1666 Russian Russian
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1738 The Bedbug And Selected Poetry Vladimir Mayakovsky 1920 Russian Russian
1749 First Circle Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1968 Russian Russian
1927 Ten Days That Shook the World John Reed 1919 American English
2193 Envy Yury Olesha 1927 Russian Russian
3191 The Aesthetics Of Resistance Peter Weiss 1975 German German
3222 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3636 Goat Song Konstantin Vaginov 1927 Russian Russian
3637 The Return and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1946 Russian Russian
3637 The White Ship Chinghiz Aitmatov 1970 Kyrgyz Russian
3637 Child Of The Revolution Wolfgang Leonhard 1955 German German
3637 Stalingrad Theodor Plievier 1948 German German
3821 Lenin's Tomb David Remnick 1993 American English
4069 The Great Terror Robert Conquest 1968 British English
4166 Vasili Tyorkin Alexander Tvardovsky 1943 Russian Russian
4272 The Noise Of Time Osip Mandelstam 1925 Russian Russian
4273 The Blue Book Mikhail Zoshchenko 1923 Russian Russian
4580 Antiworlds Andrey Voznesensky 1964 Russian Russian
4580 The Zone Sergei Dovlatov 1982 Russian Russian
4613 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American English
4766 The Yiddish Policemen's Union Michael Chabon 2007 American English
5327 Pushkin Hills Sergei Dovlatov 1983 Russian Russian
5445 The Burn Vassily Aksyonov 1975 Russian Russian
5445 Imperium Ryszard Kapuscinski 1993 Polish Polish
5456 Forgotten Ally Rana Mitter 2013 British English
5463 Child 44 Tom Rob Smith 2008 Russian English
5522 Mao's China And After Maurice Meisner 1977 American English
5610 Zuleikha Guzel Yakhina 2015 Russian Russian
5780 The Sergeant In The Snow Mario Rigoni Stern 1953 Italian Italian
6086 The End Of The World News Anthony Burgess 1982 British English
6359 Во сне ты горько плакал Yuri Kazakov 1995 Russian Russian
6379 Literature And Revolution Leon Trotsky 1924 Russian Russian
6399 The Last Inch James Aldridge 1958 British English
6451 News from Tartary Peter Fleming 1936 British English
6476 Second World War John Keegan 1989 British English
6602 I Wonder As I Wander Langston Hughes 1956 American English
6609 The Russian Revolution Richard Pipes 1990 American English
6716 My Life Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
6747 The Silent Steppe Mukhamet Shayakhmetov 2006 Kazakh English
6969 Six Studies In Communism Arthur Koestler, Richard Crossman 1960 Multiple English
7040 Hope Against Hope Nadezhda Mandelstam 1970 Russian Russian
7086 Klotsvog Margarita Khemlin 2009 Russian Russian
7110 Journey Into The Whirlwind Eugenia Ginzburg 1967 Russian Russian
7205 Flight From The Ussr Dato Turashvili 2010 Georgian Georgian
7215 Nervous People And Other Satires Mikhail Zoshchenko 1927 Russian Russian
7992 A World Apart Gustaw Herling 1951 Polish Polish
7994 We The Living Ayn Rand 1936 American English
8031 The Muses Are Heard Truman Capote 1956 American English
8099 The Gates Of Europe Serhii Plokhy 2015 Ukrainian English
8441 The Diary Of A Gulag Prison Guard 1935 6 Ivan Chistyakov 2016 Russian Russian
8461 The Gun C. J. Chivers 2010 American English
8705 Journey To The Land Of Flies And Other Travels Aldo Buzzi 1996 Italian Italian
8888 Midnight In Chernobyl Adam Higginbotham 2024 British English
9131 The Dream Life Of Sukhanov Olga Grushin 2005 Russian English
9609 Ascent Jed Mercurio 2007 British English
9653 Terror Y Utopía Karl Schlögel 2018 German German
9715 The Crucible Arthur Miller 1953 American English
9730 Europe Central William T. Vollmann 2005 American English
9753 The Dead Hand David Hoffman 2009 American English
10303 Film Form Sergei Eisenstein 1949 Russian Russian
10303 History Of The Russian Revolution Leon Trotsky 1930 Russian Russian
10782 Peter the Great Robert K. Massie 1980 American English
10920 Fear No Evil Natan Sharansky 1988 Israeli English
10971 Stalin's Meteorologist Olivier Rolin 2014 French French
11660 An Arrow In The Wall Andrey Voznesensky 1987 Russian Russian
11888 Whittaker Chambers Sam Tanenhaus 1997 American English
11899 Grey Is The Colour Of Hope Irina Ratushinskaya 1988 Russian Russian
11939 Khrushchev William Taubman 2003 American English
11939 George F. Kennan John Lewis Gaddis 2011 American English
12140 Yellow Blue Tibia Adam Roberts 2009 British English
12324 Stalin And The Bomb David Holloway 1994 American English
13029 The Illegals Shaun Walker 2025 British English
13583 A People's Tragedy Orlando Figes 1996 British English
14434 The Age Of Extremes Eric Hobsbawm 1994 British English
14787 Eastern Approaches Fitzroy Maclean 1949 British English
14961 The Origins of the Second World War A. J. P. Taylor 1961 British English
14983 The Jonah Kit Ian Watson 1975 British English
14983 Hitler And Stalin Alan Bullock 1991 British English
14983 Stalingrad Antony Beevor 1998 British English
14983 Hitler Ian Kershaw 1998 British English
14983 The Battle For Spain Antony Beevor 2006 British English
15831 Bodyguard Of Lies Anthony Cave Brown 1975 British English
15897 The Collected Short Stories of Maxim Gorky Maxim Gorky 1899 Russian Russian
15897 Physics For Entertainment Yakov Perelman 1913 Russian Russian
15897 The Gathering Storm Winston Churchill 1948 British English
17114 The Heavens and the Earth Walter A. McDougall 1985 American English
17114 Tlooth Harry Mathews 1966 American English
16759 The Suicide Nikolai Erdman 1928 Russian Russian
17114 Black Bolshevik Harry Haywood 1978 American English
17114 Iron Curtain Anne Applebaum 2012 American English
17114 Zinky Boys Svetlana Alexievich 1989 Belarusian Russian
17114 Red Storm Rising Tom Clancy 1986 American English
17114 Omon Ra Victor Pelevin 1992 Russian Russian
17114 Engineers Of Victory Paul Kennedy 2013 British English
17114 Chernobyl Serhii Plokhy 2018 Ukrainian English
17114 The Third Reich Michael Burleigh 2000 British English
17114 Domestic Service In The Soviet Union Alissa Klots 2024 Unknown English
17114 The Invention Of Russia Aleksandr Ostrovsky 2016 Unknown English
17114 Alexander Solzhenitsyn D. M. Thomas 1998 Unknown English
17114 The Baltic Revolution Anatol Lieven 1993 British English
17114 The Wages Of Destruction Adam Tooze 2006 British English