Russian stories with bleak storylines

I struggle with fiction in general because of my distaste of descriptions in general. I can't tell if it's inexperience or different inclinations. My point being I would generally prefer books that kept things moving.

I randomly decided upon Russian because well I rather love Soviet composers. Evidently, even pre Soviet, artists still had dour tendencies much like Weinberg, Shostakovich, etc.

A few random books I saw –
1. The Master and Margarita
2. Father and Children
3. Chekhov – Complete Novellas (Everyman – not morose perhaps but just sticking to Russian writers)

Of course the complexity of the writing itself might preclude attempting to try them.

Side question – All languages grow and I'm sure that's true for German and Russian. What I truly don't understand is why does a translation of Goethe's Faust have to sound archaic? The translation happened in the 1950s or 2010. Why don't writers just write in modern language? It is not more faithful to Schiller to write in anachronistic English. I recently looked up Die Ideale which is why I cite that as example.

Of course, could just be me…