Russian Literature Flashcards
Bulgakov novel in which Satan, disguised as “Professor Woland,” visits state atheist Soviet Russia. One story within the story features Jesus Christ’s interrogation by Pontius Pilate and his eventual crucifixion. This novel is a stark critique of Soviet society.
The title refers to the nicknames of two contemporary Soviet citizens, a man and his muse.
“In the times of state atheism in the USSR many people could not read the Gospels and they imagined Jesus as Jeshua from Bulgakov’s novel.”
The Master and Margarita
Novel in which a professor and his student Bormenthal try to make the dog Sharik a human, with a lot of unintended consequences. It’s generally considered to be an allegory of the consequences of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Heart of a Dog
Author of The Master and Margarita and Heart of a Dog who also wrote The Fatal Eggs and The White Guard, the latter of which was adapted into the play Days of the Turbins.
Mikhail Bulgakov
In this Chekhov play, Konstantin shoots the title animal to impress Nina, but she loves Trigorin.
The Seagull
In this Chekhov play, both the title character and Astrov try to seduce Yelena, the wife of the Professor whose estate they are working on.
Uncle Vanya
Author of The Cherry Orchard where the serf Lopakhin cuts down the orchard of the Ranevskaya family and The Three Sisters about Irina, Olga, and Masha Prozorov. His lesser known works include Ward No. 6.
Anton Chekhov
Dostoevsky novel in which Fyodor and his son Dmitri K. fight over the woman Grushenka and the inheritance while Ivan K. and Alyosha K. with Father Zosima try to to settle the issue.
The Brothers Karamazov
Russian author of The Idiot, about Prince Myshkin and his love for Nastasya Flippovna, who is loved and later killed by Rogozhin. He also wrote Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Pioneer of Russian Literature who wrote The Overcoat about the copy clerk Akaky Akakievich who saves up for the title object which he later loses, The Nose about the title organ of Major Kovalyov getting lost in a loaf of bread and later developing anthropomorphic qualities (tf?).
He is also known for Dead Souls about how Chichikov trails across Russia trying to get rich by purchasing the land of dead serfs still on the census.
Lesser known works include Diary of a Madman, Nevsky Prospekt, and The Inspector General.
Nikolai Gogol
Author of Lolita and Pale Fire, a novel mostly centering around a 999 word poem by John Shade, and Pnin about the title immigrant from Russia to America who teaches Russian at Waindell College. Lesser known works include his memoir, Speak, Memory, and Invitation to a Beheading about the death-row inmate Cincinnatus C.
Vladimir Nabokov
Russian author of The Bronze Horseman, in which Evgenii’s lover Parasha dies in a flood, causing Evgenii to curse a statue which shockingly comes alive and kills him. He wrote Boris Gudonov about the namesake historical figure who usurped Dmitri. He is also known for his tragedy plays such as The Stone Guest (inspired by Don Juan) and Mozart and Salieri, as well as his poetry such as his long poem Ruslan and Ludmilla and his famed love poem to Anna Kern.
Alexander Pushkin
Pushkin novel in verse about the title arrogant, selfish, cynic, who codescendingly and coldly rejects Tatyana, the sister of his young and shy neighbor Vladimir Lensky’s wife (Olga). Lensky feels bound by his honor to challenge the title character to a duel, but he loses and dies.
The title character considered the basis for the model archetypal hero called the “Superfluous Man,” aristocratic men born into wealth who are selfish, cynical and existentially bored
Eugene Onegin
Pushkin novel in which Officer Hermann becomes obsessed with a secret way to win at cards. He kills the countess who supposedly knows the secret before going insane.
Queen of Spades
Author of the War and Peace, in which Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky fight against Napoleon and over Natasha Rostov. In his Anna Karenina, the title character is so ashamed of her affair with Count Vronsky that she throws herself in front of a train. In his the Death of Ivan Ilyich, the title magistrate meditates on death before starting to scream madly and eventually dies of a fall wound while hanging curtains.
Lesser known works include Hadji Murat about the title Avar rebel, the controversial The Kreuzer Sonata (Teddy Roosevelt called the author a sexual moral pervert for writing it) What is Art and How Much Land Does A Man Need (answer - 6 feet for a grave).
Leo Tolstoy
Soviet later Russian author and political dissident who wrote about the daily routine of a resident of the Soviet gulags in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and collected eyewitness testimonies about the gulags in his nonfiction work The Gulag Archipelago. He wrote about Oleg Kostoglotov’s experiences in the title institution in Cancer Ward.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
