For those admirers of the Russian literary canon, not yet quite ready to embark on the monumental 1,400-page journey of the likes of Tolstoy's War and Peace, fear not! I have compiled a selection of shorter novels that certainly still manage to pack quite the literary punch – simply without the daunting page count.
All the novels listed are below 300 pages.
- Fathers and Sons / Отцы и Дети by Ivan Turgenev (256 pages):
Fathers and Sons stands as a pivotal work in Russian literature, capturing the essence of a nation, which finds itself at a crossroads of political and social upheaval, as the Russian Empire underwent a turbulent transition into modernity and industrialisation. Published in 1862, following the Emancipation Reform of 1861, though set in 1859, the novel is set in a time of Russian history characterised by profound change and the promise of reform and explores the ensuing ideological chasm between generations. The particular focus of these conflicting ideologies is centred on the development of Nihilism and Slavophilism amongst the youth of the Russian intelligentsia. It is this Emancipation Reform of 1861, which declared the abolition of serfdom (крепостное право) in Russia, that serves as the driving source of these conflicting attitudes towards modernisation and social change. Turgenev’s own support for this social movement is believed to have stemmed from his childhood, having received the harsh treatment of his mother who ruled her children just as she ruled her serfs: with great severity. The novel also depicts the themes of the value of literature and the superficiality of intellectualism, while also delivering an interesting, almost parodical, interpretation of the typical representation of romance. Thus, the novel portrays the human complexity of 1860s Russia – a world where no one’s views were simply black and white in the face of the looming presence of rapid societal and economic change.
- Day of the Oprichnik / День опричника by Vladimir Sorokin (210–220 pages):
Seen as one of the greatest Russian novels of the modern era, Day of the Oprichnik, published in 2006, offers a darkly satirical vision of a future Russia where a revived form of the Oprichniks (опричники), a secret police force established by Ivan the Terrible in 1565 to enforce his policy of Oprichnina (опричнина), exerts brutal control over society. The novel follows a day in the life of an Oprichnik, called Komiaga, as he murders, rapes, extorts, and commits arson in the name of his country. In this dystopian world, Russia, in 2028, has sealed itself off from the outside world with a Great Wall to help purify the Motherland; within this “Holy Rus” the people are ruled over by a tsar. Through this sharp critique of authoritarianism and corruption in modern Russia, Sorokin is able to reflect the frustration of Russia’s current slide back toward its past, thus making it an important book to read to better understand modern Russia.
- Notes from Underground / Записки из подполья by Fyodor Dostoevsky (approximately 140 pages):
Notes from Underground, written in 1864, is considered one of the earliest existentialist novels. The novella is narrated by an unnamed protagonist, generally referred to as the “Underground Man”, who shares his rambling and often contradictory thoughts on society, consciousness, and free will. Through the Underground Man's musings, Dostoevsky explores the themes of alienation, existential angst, and the nature of human existence. The novella is divided into two parts: “Underground” and “À Propos of the Wet Snow”, and these parts are further divided into sections. Through the Underground Man’s rambling thoughts, and the minimal action of the plot, Dostoevsky interestingly sparks the debate of “thought vs action”. The Underground Man describes himself as a person of “overly acute consciousness,” and this excessive intelligence paralyses him. He over-analyses and questions everything, unable to identify a “primary cause” that would guide him toward decisive action. In “Notes from Underground”, the Underground Man’s narrative is filled with references to the political and ideological debates of his era. Dostoevsky uses this fictional character to confront and critique the dominant ideologies of his time, particularly nihilism and rational egoism.
- One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich / Один день Ивана Денисовича by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (220–230 pages):
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the 1970 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, wrote this novel in 1962 and had it first published in the Soviet literary magazine Новый Мир/Novy Mir (New World). The story is set in a Soviet labour camp in the early 1950s and follows a day in the life of prisoner Ivan Denisovich Shukhov. Through Shukhov's perspective, Solzhenitsyn offers a powerful and moving portrayal of the harsh conditions and dehumanising treatment endured by prisoners in the Gulag. Solzhenitsyn drew upon his own personal experiences as a prisoner in the Soviet Gulag system, having been imprisoned from 1945 to 1953 for writing comments in letters to friends about Stalin’s actions in the war, whom he referred to as "the master" and "the boss". It was one of the first Soviet novels to shed light on the realities of Stalinist repression. The most recent translation by H. T. Willets is generally seen as the best to read and is the only translation to have been approved by Solzhenitsyn himself, as it is the only one based on the original Russian text, with the earlier translators having used the censored texts.
- We / Мы by Mikhail Zamyatin (approximately 250 pages):
We, written in 1920, depicts a striking imagination of a techno-socialist paradise and the dangers of an authoritarian (or rather totalitarian) state. It is regarded as the seminal work of dystopian fiction, having influenced George Orwell in his writing of 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (though he contested this). It is set in a dystopian future society, called the OneState, where individuality is suppressed with all “numbers’” (people’s) names being composed of either a vowel or consonant – depending on their gender - and a number, such as the citizens D-503 and I-330. This world is ruled by the Benefactor and presided over by the Guardians, who carefully observe and monitor the citizens’ activity to weed out the slightest trace of dissent and disobedience. Trust in the system is absolute, however the novel’s main character D-503 challenges these paradigms of conformity and devotion to the state, as we bear witness, through his personal diary accounts, to his transition from a devout cog in the system to a dissident who considers the fundamental flaws of the state’s indoctrination. Zamyatin explores these themes of totalitarianism, utopianism, and the dehumanising effects of a regimented society in a way that truly stirs internal debate, all while still supplying genuinely comedic moments. We was initially prohibited by the Soviet government due to its subversive content and was first fully published in English in 1924. In Russian, the novel was published for the first time in 1927 by the Prague journal Воля России / Volya Rossii (The Will of Russia) – without Zamyatin’s knowledge аnd in an abridged version, which had itself been translated from Czech. The Chekhov Publishing House published the full Russian version in 1952, and in the USSR it was published only in 1988 in the journal Знамя / Znamya (The Standard).
- A Hero of Our Time / Герой нашего времени by Mikhail Lermontov (240 pages):
Mikhail Lermontov, a prominent Russian Romantic poet and novelist, wrote A Hero of Our Time in 1839, influenced by the Romantic literary movement and his own experiences as a military officer. The novel is structured as a series of interconnected stories narrated by various characters, centred around the enigmatic and cynical protagonist Pechorin. Set against the backdrop of the Caucasus Mountains, the novel explores the themes of love, honour, and the pursuit of meaning and purpose in a world marked by moral ambiguity. Its psychologically insightful depiction of a disillusioned 19th-century aristocrat, combined with its fragmented narrative style, had a significant influence on the Russian writers to come, such as Tolstoy. Lermontov is also credited with the popularisation of the literary anti-hero in his complex portrayal of Pechorin as a Byronic character.
