Works of classical literature, undoubtedly, are the key to understanding culture, history and philosophy of those people about which authors narrated. It is no secret that literary work is a favorite material in teaching Russian as a foreign language. Many teachers of Russian are tempted to use literary texts in the Russian learning process. This is partly due to the huge role played by fiction in Russian culture and in every Russian’s life, and partly to the fact that a fiction text is the richest material that can be used for various training tasks in leraning the Russian language.
Russian literature takes an important place in a niche of the world classical literature, since a significant part of literature masterpieces are translated into dozens of languages and are highly appreciated abroad. Therefore, we would like to present you the most remarkable pieces of Russian literature that had already established their names internationally.
Leo Tolstoy “War and Peace”
The epic four-volume novel by Tolstoy describes life of the Russian society in the period of Patriotic war with Napoleon. Scenes of peaceful life replace scenes of war where hundreds of acting heroes disclose their character, sincere qualities and vital values.
Even those who are not familiar with this novel know the most remarkable characters, Pierre Bezoukhov and Andrey Bolkonsky.
Fyodor Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”
This psychological novel depicts the story of a poor student Rodion Raskolnikov who decides to commit an act of murder and theft upon the old woman.
The problem of poverty and the idea of belief in pure feelings, love, forgiveness, and religion are combined in this piece.
Short Stories by Anton Chekhov
Anton Checkov is known as the master of short stories. He wrote the set of stories, both ridiculous, and tragic. The main character of Chekhov’s story is an ordinary man buried in his own everyday problems who depicts human vices such as greed, fear, deception.
Pieces including “Rothschild’s Violin”, “Chamber No. 6”, “The man in a Case”, and others, prove that Chekhov, like nobody else, could understand the so-called Russian soul.
Mikhail Bulgakov “Master and Margarita”
The main perspective of the novel is search of the truth, personal value and the point in life. It contains several storylines and binds in itself such genres of literature as fantasy, satire and philosophy.
One of the main ideas is the fight between the good and evil, which affects all heroes of the novel. Although the novel was published during Soviet period, it instantly became the unconditional classical work of Russian literature.
Alexander Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”
The most famous verse novel narrates about an unusual love story between the main character, Eugene Onegin and Tatyana, who do not fall in love with each other at the same time.
Apart from the main story line, Pushkin raises other important issues such as, for example, social, household and cultural way of all Russian society in the beginning of the 19th century.
