Russian Literature

depends what, novels ? poems ? theater ?
"lit" is very general , you might love novels but hate theater .

Anyways, Pushkin is a must, Chekhkov is based, then you have Turgenev , Nabokov and Gorky .

>>9223096
A Sportsmans Sketches
Dead Souls
Oblomov
A Hero of Our Time
Life and Fate
The Master and Margarita
The Foundation Pit
Chekov's short stories

>>9223096
Gogol

>>9223096

Gogol baby, best short stories ever written are in the St. Petersburg Tales. Especially The Overcoat. Dead Souls is among the greatest of all time as well, and The Squabble is one of the best novellas I've ever read.

Pushkin, Lermontov, Chekhov, Nabokov and Tarkovsky (he's a film maker, but very literary, with all the quotes of his father's poetry).

>>9223096
Read them again about four hundred times

A Hero of Our Time is approaching meme level

I won't just give you a laundry list OP. Here are a select few that I consider my favorites:

Petersburg - Bely
The shorts of Gogol
The Master and Margarita
The shorts of Chekhov
Fathers and Sons
Roadside Picnic

Master and Margarita and Dead Souls (Gogol's short stories are very worthwhile reading)

>>9223096
Nikolai Leskov might be my favorite after the big names are out of the way.

Don't bother much with Pushkin. His poetry and use of language are out of this world, but obviously you would only be able to appreciate it in Russian. Onegin, Bronze Horseman and Ruslan&Ludmila are probably worth it for the plot alone, otherwise save yourself the time. From Romantics Lermontov is your best bet, Karamzin is also absolutely fantastic, though I'm not aware if and how well his works are translated.

Turgenev is really the final piece in main triad of greatest ever together with Dosto and Tolstoy. Not memed as much, because /lit/ is full of filthy plebs.

Gogol and Chekhov are short story goat of goats.

Twentieth century is very rich for talent, so I'm not going to bother - pretty much just google and read nearly anything up until the late 80s and 90s. I don't think that blatant Soviet prop trash is going to be translated, so you're in the clear.

>>9223402
Pushkin wrote a lot of great prose too. Queen of Spades is one of my favourites

The Village by Ivan Bunin. Some of his short stories are mint too.

First Circle, Cancer Ward, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and Gulag Archipelago (in 3 vols, not abridged) by Solzhenitsyn.

>>9223430
Eh. His prose is not bad, but not outstanding in my opinion. Queen of Spades is basically as good as it gets. Short stories are fine if you like sentimentality, but Captain's Daughter is a dreadful bore. He's rightfully more celebrated as a poet. Plus his fairytales are of course the heart and soul of Russia.

Today I Wrote Nothing by Daniil Kharms is an interesting read.