Score

I have only read the top 2 books and thought they both sucked. Also have life and fate on my shelf, looking forward to reading that.

Killthepopular wrote: "I have only read the top 2 books and thought they both sucked. Also have life and fate on my shelf, looking forward to reading that."

you have no soul

I think Makine would object to being on this list. He only started to write -- and publish -- AFTER having emigrated from Russa ... and he consistently writes in French, the language of his new home country of choice!

This list is entitled "Best Post WWII Soviet Lit," but "The Master and Margarita" and "The White Guard" are pre-WWII works.

Manray9 wrote: "This list is entitled "Best Post WWII Soviet Lit," but "The Master and Margarita" and "The White Guard" are pre-WWII works."

Bulgakov started to work on both of these books before the beginning of WWII, but neither work was fully published at the time. He was, in fact, still in the process of revising The Master and Margarita at the time of his death in 1940. That book was first published in 1967, based on a version proofread by a publisher in 1940. -- Similarly, although a number of early chapters of The White Guard had been serialized in 1926, the complete novel was in fact first published almost 50 years after Bulgakov's death, in 2008 (after parts of it had been published by Bulgakov's widow in 1966 and 1973, respectively).

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_a... and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Whit...

So I guess the real question is: Is this a list for books written or published after WWII?

I think post-war literature is, by definition, written after the war. Bulgakov died in 1940 and, therefore, cannot be considered a post-war writer.

Actually, my question was directed to the list's creator, as it is the list creator's intentions that tend to take precedence in these matters. And I note that he did place The Master and Margarita on this list himself ...

Surely stuff like Shishkin, Makanin, Pelevin is POST Soviet. Not that I'm against that, but that's not what the list puports to be about.

I agree Mark. I have not voted for Pelevin or Kurkov, both of whom I admire, simply because they do not fit the term Soviet.