In life — with advancing age — one starts to understand the power of a person, who is constantly thinking. It is an enormous overmastering power. Everything perishes: youth, charms, passions — everything grows old and ruins. The thought doesn't perish and beautiful is a person who bears it throughout one’s life. (Vasily Shukshin)

If I were the tsar, I would publish the law stating that if a writer uses a word, the meaning of which he cannot explain, he is then devoid of the right to write and gets a hundred blows with a rod. (Leo Tolstoi)

Literature is believed to be the most complete and expressive manifestation of the Russian creative genius. Great Russian poets and writers have always been the voice of this people's conscience and soul, and had to suffer for it.

The priority of literature in the cultural life of the Russian people can be explained by its origin and the meaning it got from the moment of its appearance. Written language and literature were introduced to Russia along with Christianity. Yet, one should not forget about the riches of folk creativity, a lively source of primordial knowledge. So, literature in this country developed as a blending of folklore and church scriptures, reflecting the mixture of pagan and Christian traits in Russian cultural tradition.

Russian Folk Poetry
The language and spirit of folk poetry in the form of songs, fairy tales, epics, etc. introduced genuine life and imagery to Russian literature.

Church Influence and Old Russian Literature
The book appeared in Russia in the form of a sacred scripture; later the Russian scribes provided a theoretical foundation for the idea of the unity of the Russian land. Thus, the Russian literature marked its connection with the development of the nation and the state.

Search for National Identity - Russian Literature of the 18th Century
From the late 17th century Russian culture was invaded with West European values. The writers of that time waver between sheer imitation of the French specimen and looking for their own subjects, language and style.

Golden Age of Russian Poetry
The early 19th century was the time of great creative effort; the time when Russian writers experienced joy of independent creation, original and authentically national in spirit and style. The highest expression of it is certainly the creative legacy of Alexander Pushkin, who finally shaped the Russian language as it is.

Romanticism in 19th Century Literature
From the 1840s literature experienced the growth of moral and metaphysical anxiety that found theoretical expression in romanticism. The theme of 'a needless man' arises in literature.

Great Reforms and 19th Century Literature of Realism
The 'great reforms' epoch of the 1860s - 1870s drew the attention of literature towards social issues. Along with that, the prevalence of philosophic topics and deep psychological study in literature conditioned the hey-day of Russian realistic novel.

Silver Age of Russian Poetry
A new blossom of Russian poetry started in the 1890s, literature reacquiring its vital significance. In a contradictive mixture of rebel and fatigue, poets strived to go beyond good and evil, to transcend the ethics with aesthetics. The epoch gave rise to the artistic movements of symbolism, acmeism and futurism.

Post-Revolutionary Literature in Russia
The revolution of 1917 brought about an artificial division of Russian literature into domestic and emigrant literature, with the most outstanding writers finding a safer place abroad. However, literature retained relative unity, based on its belonging to the traditions of classical Russian culture.

Russian Literature under Stalinist Regime
Stalin’s strengthening of his dictatorship in the early 1930s predetermined total submission of literature and art.

Russian Literature during Thaw and Stagnation (1960s-1970s)
In the early 1960s the demand for greater freedom of artistic expression in literature and arts manifested itself with new power, especially by efforts of the so-called “angry young men”.

Literature in Post-Soviet Time
Mikhail Gorbachev’s assumption of office in 1985 and the following epoch of glasnost (i.e. publicity) in Soviet mass media, including press, brought about sweeping changes in Russian literature.

Russian Books for Children
One cannot imagine Russian literature without the riches of children's literature, which is rooted in the depths of national folk literature. Researchers assume that Russian folk literature and children's literature existed much earlier, but only later written materials have come down to us.