April 2026
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    One of my goals is to read more International books.

    What is a good first Russian novel to start with?

    by Ok_Flight_1238

    7 Comments

    1. Shadowmereshooves on

      Depends on your preferred genre, but since it has elements of almost every genre I’d say Master and Margarita by Bulgakov

    2. It depends on whether you want to start with a giant doorstep classic Russian novel or some thing more… dare I say accessible? Russian science fiction is not a bad place to start, under the Soviet system it was almost always full of buried critique and satire of the system— the Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic is a brilliant read, and the length of a regular book.

      We by Zemyatin is a great book, and the ‘inspiration’ for 1984 (Orwell was *heavily* inspired…) It was written in the early 20s and is an amazing early critique of the emerging Soviet system. It also takes less time to read than some of Dostoevsky’s sentences! /s

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