Around the World in 80 Books discussion

Post any books set in Russia here.

Books set in Russia:



Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin
Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (aka "Devils" and "The Possessed")
Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko (1st book in series)
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean
Oblomov by Ivan Goncharov
A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov
The Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
Gulag by Anne Applebaum
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
First Love by Ivan Turgenev
The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin (1st book in series)
The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie
A Lifelong Passion by Andrei Maylunas
The Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
Invitation to a Beheading by Vladimir Nabokov
Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The House of the Dead by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Overcoat And Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov
Peter the Great His Life and World by Robert K. Massie
In the First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Petersburg by Andrei Bely
The Master of Petersburg by J.M. Coetzee
Envy by Yury Olesha
Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes
Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
12 Chairs by Ilya Ilf
The Nose by Nikolai Gogol
The Seagull by Anton Chekhov
There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby
The Lady With the Little Dog and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov
The "Queen of Spades" and Other Stories by Alexander Pushkin
The Double: A Petersburg Poem by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons (1st book in series)
The Bronze Horseman: Selected Poems of Alexander Pushkin by Alexander Pushkin
Russia under Western Eyes by Martin Malia
Russka: The Novel of Russia by Edward Rutherfurd
Despair by Vladimir Nabokov
The Possessed: Adventures With Russian Books by Elif Batuman
The Adolescent by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry
The Romanov Bride: A Novel by Robert Alexander
The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie
Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith (1st book in series)
Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier
Mary by Vladimir Nabokov
The Russian Debutante's Handbook by Gary Shteyngart
Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov
The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya
Moscow to the End of the Line by Venedikt Erofeev
The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova
The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin
Dreams Of My Russian Summers: A Novel by Andreï Makine
Buddha's Little Finger by Victor Pelevin (aka The Clay Machine-Gun)
The Fatal Eggs by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Foundation Pit by Andrei Platonov
Stray Dog Winter by David Francis
Molotov's Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History by Rachel Polonsky
The Archivist's Story by Travis Holland
Pravda by Edward Docx (aka "Self Help")
When They Come for Us We'll Be Gone by Gal Beckerman
Death of a Dissident by Stuart M. Kaminsky (1st book in a series)
The Gentle Axe by R.N. Morris (1st book in a series)
The Inspector-General by Nikolai Gogol (aka "the Government Inspector")
Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire by David Remnick
The Insulted and Injured by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (aka "The Insulted and Humiliated")
Memories of the Future by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
White Nights by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Rasputin's Daughter by Robert Alexander
Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Victor Serge
Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943 by Antony Beevor
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival by John Vaillant
We the Living by Ayn Rand
Spring Torrents by Ivan Turgenev
Novel with Cocaine by M. Ageyev
The Life of Insects by Victor Pelevin
Journey into the Whirlwind by Evgenia Ginzburg
Mother by Maxim Gorky
The Jewel of St. Petersburg by Kate Furnivall

More books set in Russia:


The Book of Happiness by Nina Berberova
Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie
Catherine the Great by Henri Troyat
Catherine: The Great Journey, Russia, 1743 by Kristiana Gregory
Great Catherine: The Life of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia by Carolly Erickson
Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power by Virginia Rounding
The Line by Olga Grushin (AKA "The Concert Ticket")
The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Hautzig
Everything Flows by Vasily Grossman (AKA "Forever Flowing")
Monday Starts on Saturday by Arkady Strugatsky
Hadji Murad by Leo Tolstoy
The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky
The House of Special Purpose by John Boyne
In the Land of White Death by Valerian Albanov
The Last Station: A Novel of Tolstoy's Last Year by Jay Parini
The living and the dead: A novel by Konstantin Simonov
Death of a Dissident by Stuart M. Kaminsky
A Mountain of Crumbs: A Memoir by Elena Gorokhova
Snowdrops by A.D. Miller
Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories by Sholem Aleichem
Young Stalin by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore
The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia by Orlando Figes
The Stalin Epigram by Robert Littell
The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin by Adam Hochschild
Stalin's Children: Three Generations of Love and War by Owen Matthews
A Writer at War: Vasily Grossman with the Red Army by Vasily Grossman
The White Russian: A Novel by Tom Bradby
White Walls: Collected Stories by Tatyana Tolstaya
Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography by Alexandra Popoff
The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy by Sofia Tolstoy
Soul and Other Stories by Andrei Platonov

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Stray Dog Winter

Travels in Siberia

Molotov's Magic Lantern: A Journey in Russian History

The Archivist's Story

Pravda

When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry

Gorky Park

Death of a Dissident

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956

Gorky Park is the first in the detective series with Arkady Renko, and Death of a Dissident is the first in the detective series with Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov.

One more detective series- The Gentle Axe

City of Thieves

The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean

Growing Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood by Cathy Young is a memoir that focuses on the experiences of growing up in the Soviet capital in the 1960's and 1970's. It focuses on the sorts of details that gives a good picture of what Moscow at that time was like for a child and adolescent.

Or Arctic?

The Chukchi Bible by Yuri Rytkheu

A Dream in Polar Fog byYuri Rytkheu

The Red Passport by Katherine Shonk

The Black Russian by Vladimir Alexandrov

Uri Norwich
Hi everyone,
I came to this group at someone’s suggestion at another forum I participate at Goodreads, thinking that I could introduce some unusual angle to your discussions.
Although my new novel “Russian Jews Don’t Cry” is not a travel book, don’t be fooled by its title. I was torn at the beginning where to put this thread, and finally decided that it would rightfully belong to two places: “Books Set In Europe – Italy” and “In Russia.”
The story is written as told by a young man in his twenties bouncing as a loose boat around the world, trying to find his place in it. He hits the biggest jackpot of his life and lets it go away so easy.
The events are taking place in mid-70s-80s when the United States managed to trade hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews for grain. Although half of the book (688 pages) takes place in Italy, the protagonist is undergoing through many transformations on the way, influenced by events and places surrounding him. And yet, his own memories and his family's past in Russia constantly intertwine with reality.
I speak decent Italian and Russian. That helped me to get deep into describing many places and people which protagonist encounters on his journey. If you’d like to discover untraveled corners of Russia, and get on the way some taste of Israel, Turkey, China and Japan, it might be worth your time to explore this book.
Respectfully, Uri Norwich

Radical Gratitude and other life lessons learned in Siberia by Andrew Bienkowski

The Accidental Anarchist by Bryna Kranzler

Hotel Moscow: A Novel by Talia Carner

Compartment No 6 Rosa Liksom

A Woman Loved: A Novel by Andreï Makine

Wake in Winter by Nadezhda Belenkaya.

Check out Vodka Shot, Pickle Chaser -set in both the Soviet Union and Russia....yes, the same country but during the collapse
of the USSR!

The Year of the Comet by Sergei Lebedev

Radiant Terminus by Antoine Volodine

Twelve Stories of Russia: A Novel I Guess by A.J. Perry

Mikhail and Margarita by Julie Lekstrom Himes

Diane wrote: "Post any books set in Russia here."

Vodka Shot, Pickle Chaser

The Big Green Tent

Aetherial Worlds: Stories by Tatyana Tolstaya

More books set in Russia:


2017 by Olga Slavnikova
The 25th Hour by Katarina Madovčik
33 Moments of Happiness: St. Petersburg Stories by Ingo Schulze
4 by Pelevin by Victor Pelevin
The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad by Harrison E. Salisbury
The Accompanist by Nina Berberova
Ace of Spies: The True Story of Sidney Reilly by Andrew Cook
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle by Vladimir Nabokov
Adopting Alyosha: A Single Man Finds a Son in Russia by Robert Klose
The Age of Ice by J.M. Sidorova
Aleph by Paulo Coelho
Alexander II: The Last Great Tsar by Edvard Radzinsky
Alexandra: The Last Tsarina by Carolly Erickson
Alix and Nicky: The Passion of the Last Tsar and Tsarina by Virginia Rounding
All That Is Solid Melts into Air by Darragh McKeon
Altar of Bones by Philip Carter
The Amber Keeper by Freda Lightfoot
Anastasia: The Last Grand Duchess, Russia, 1914 by Carolyn Meyer
Angel of Vengeance by Ana Siljak
Anna Akhmatova by Anna Akhmatova
An Anthology Of Chuvash Poetry by Gennady Aygi
An Anthology of Contemporary Russian Women Poets by Valentina Polukhina
The Anti-Soviet Soviet Union by Vladimir Voinovich
Archangel by Robert Harris
Archangel by Gerald Seymour
The Arctic Incident by Eoin Colfer (2nd book in Artemis Fowl series)
The Art of Waiting by Christopher Jory
The Artamanovs by Maxim Gorky
As Far as My Feet Will Carry Me by Josef M. Bauer
As It Turned Out by Dmitri Golynko
Asya by Ivan Turgenev
Asystole: A Novel by Oleg Pavlov
August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Autobiography of a Corpse by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky
The Aviator by Evgenij Vodolazkin
Backbone Flute: Selected Poetry by Vladimir Mayakovsky
Batman Apollo by Victor Pelevin
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (1st book in Winternight Trilogy)
Before and During by Vladimir Sharov
Before I Croak by Anna Babiashkina
The Music Lovers: The Story of Tchaikowsky & Nadejda von Meck
Bequest by A.K. Shevchenko
Besieged Leningrad: Aesthetic Responses to Urban Disaster by Polina Barskova
The Best Short Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Between Love and Honor by Alexandra Lapierre
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys
Beyond Siberia by Christina Dodwell
Beyond Siberia: Two Years in a Forgotten Place by Sharon Dirlam
Beyond the Pale by Elana Dykewomon
The Big Green Tent by Lyudmila Ulitskaya
The Big Red Train Ride by Eric Newby
Bitter Waters: Life And Work In Stalin's Russia by Gennady Andreev-Khomiakov
Black Iceberg by Gennady Kuznetsov
Black Snow by Mikhail Bulgakov
Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl
Black Widow, Volume 1: The Finely Woven Thread by Nathan Edmondson
Black Woman's Odyssey Through Russia and Jamaica
Bleak Morning by Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin
Blonde Bombshell by Tom Holt
Blood Promise by Richelle Mead (4th book in Vampire Academy series)
Blood Red, Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick
The Blood Stiller by Minerva Taylor (1st book in the Russian Trilogy)
A Bloody Storm by Richard Castle (3rd book in Derrick Storm series)
The Bloody White Baron by James Palmer
The Blue Lantern: And Other Stories by Victor Pelevin
The Bodyguard by Leena Lehtolainen (1st book in The Bodyguard Trilogy)
Borders by Roy Jacobsen
The Bourne Sanction by Eric Van Lustbader (6th book in Jason Bourne series)
Boyhood by Leo Tolstoy
Breakfast at Midnight by Valentins Jakobsons
Breaking Stalin's Nose by Eugene Yelchin
Bride and Groom by Alisa Ganieva
Bride of Ice: New Selected Poems by Marina Tsvetaeva
The Bridge Over the Neroch: And Other Works by Leonid Tsypkin
Brief Loves That Live Forever by Andreï Makine
The Burn by Vasily Aksyonov
Bury Me Behind the Baseboard by Pavel Sanayev
By Means of Mutual Correspondence by Vladimir Voinovich

More books set in Russia:


Calligraphy Lesson: The Collected Stories by Mikhail Shishkin
Camping with the Communists: The Adventures of an American Family in the Soviet Union
Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Cannibal Island: Death in a Siberian Gulag by Jan Tomasz Gross
The Captain's Daughter by Alexander Pushkin
A Captive of the Caucasus by Andrei Bitov
The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht
Chains of Ice by Christina Dodd (3rd book in The Chosen Ones series)
The Charm School by Nelson DeMille
Chevengur by Andrei Platonov
Child-and-Rose by Gennady Aygi
Childhood by Leo Tolstoy
Childhood, Zip & Other Stories by Andrei Bitov
Children of the Sun by Maxim Gorky
The Chorus Girl and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov
The Chosen Maiden by Eva Stachniak
Chuck and Geck by Arkady Gaydar
Cinzano by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya
Citizen Komarova Finds Love by Ekaterina Sedia
A Cloud in Trousers by Vladimir Mayakovsky
The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
Cold Blood: A Novel by James Fleming
Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry by Alexander Pushkin
The Collected Poems by Sergei Yesenin
The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel
The Collected Stories by Alexander Pushkin
Collected Works by Andrei Platonov
Commodore Hornblower by C.S. Forester
Compartment No. 6 by Rosa Liksom
The Complete Plays by Yury Olesha
Complete Prose Fiction by Alexander Pushkin
The Complete Short Novels by Anton Chekhov
A Confession by Leo Tolstoy
Confessions of a Fallen Standard-Bearer by Andreï Makine
Confessions of a Hooligan by Sergei Yesenin
The Conspiracy of Feelings by Yury Olesha
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
The Cossacks by Leo Tolstoy
A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Courilof Affair by Irène Némirovsky
Cycling Home From Siberia by Rob Lilwall
Cynics by Anatoly Mariengof
The Dacha Husband: A Novel by Ivan Shcheglov
Dancer by Colum McCann
Dancer, Daughter, Traitor, Spy by Elizabeth Kiem (1st book in Dukovskaya series)
Daniel Stein, Interpreter by Lyudmila Ulitskaya
Dark Elderberry Branch: Poems of Marina Tsvetaeva by Marina Tsvetaeva
The Darkest Evening by William Durbin
Day of the Oprichnik by Vladimir Sorokin
Day Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Days of the Turbins by Mikhail Bulgakov
Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident
The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Arkady Strugatsky
Deadlock by Iris Johansen
Deep Lie by Stuart Woods (3rd book in Will Lee series)
Defeat: Napoleon's Russian Campaign by Philippe-Paul de Ségur
The Defender by Nicholas Kalashnikoff
Definitely Maybe by Arkady Strugatsky
The Demon: A Poem by Mikhail Lermontov
A Desperate Character and Other Stories by Ivan Turgenev
Despite The Falling Snow by Shamim Sarif
Diaboliad by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Diamond Secret: A Retelling of Anastasia by Suzanne Weyn
The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter
Diary of a Superfluous Man by Ivan Turgenev
The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky by Vaslav Nijinsky
The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia by Richard Overy
Disappearance by Yury Trifonov
A Displaced Person by Vladimir Voinovich
The Diving Bell by Elena Ignatova
Dog Boy by Eva Hornung
Don't Die Before You're Dead by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
The Doomed City by Arkady Strugatsky
The Dream Life of Sukhanov by Olga Grushin
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Dubrovsky by Alexander Pushkin
The Duel by Anton Chekhov
Dyatlov Pass by Alan K. Baker
The Dyatlov Pass Incident by Alexander Popoff
Dyatlov Pass Keeps Its Secret by Irina Lobatcheva

One Night in Winter by Simon Sebag Montefiore

Almost any book from him.

Have to give a really strong recommendation on this historical memoir, “Wind of Change: an American Journey in Post Soviet Russia.” Set in the early 1990’s, shortly after the USSR collapsed, the author describes his travels in Russia trying to do business and find investments. It’s the Wild West, with free wheeling managers, leaders who cannot conceive of a market economy, and exKGB trying to get ahead. Anything goes, and this one young American is hopeful for positive change. His journey reminds us of the short spark of hope that existed for just an instant in time. 5/5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

For a lighter read: Destiny by Design- Leah's Journey

Becoming Malka

(All Siberia non-fiction)
The Shaman's Coat: A Native History of Siberia by Anna Reid.

Siberian Dream by Irina Pantaeva.

White Fever: A Journey to the Frozen Heart of Siberia by Jacek Huge-Bader.

The Reindeer People: Living with Animals and Spirits in Siberia by Piers Vitebsky.

In Siberia by Colin Thubron.

Soul Hunters: Hunting, Animism, and Personhood among the Siberian Yukaghirs by Rane Villerslev.

On the Run in Siberia by Rane Villerslev.

Narrating the Future in Siberia: Childhood, Adolescence and Autobiography among the Eveny by Olga Ulturgasheva.

The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts.

Barbed Wire Babushkas : A River Odyssey Across Siberia by Paul Grogan.

The Village at the Edge of Noon by Darya Bobyleva.

The Incredible Events in Women's Cell Number Three by Kira Yarmysh.

Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev (non-fiction)

Lost Cosmonaut: Observations of an Anti-Tourist by Daniel Kalder (non-fiction)

Playing a Part