Who is the best known russian writer on your country?

33 comments

1. Uff. I’m pretty much a casual reader, so not what is considered “higher literature”.

   But I’d say the most famous russian writer in Germany would be Tolstoy.

2. Tolstoy. That’s the only one I can think of off the top of my head.

3. Dostojevski, Tolstoy, Pushkin, Gogol , Checkov and Solsjenitsyn..

   TV renditions/series of war and peace or anna karenina is from time to time shown on tv here.. Probably the only type of russian litterature that has gotten some foothold.. can’t name a single russian writer of nowadaways.. Don’t know wether it is the language. There are probably 1000 translators of english, german, french, spanish etc pr. translator of russian.

   Dostovjevskys crime and punishment is kind of unofficial learning for law students here.. From time to time hear lawyers mention the book..

   Otherwise have to mention [Eduard Uspensky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduard_Uspensky). Not that anyone here recognize him by his name. But the [Cherubaska](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheburashka) -character and the crocodile was shown on norwegian childrens tv during the 80ies.. So a whole generation has grown up with his character here… which firstly was a character from the soviet literature of the 1960ies. Among few russian writers( post 1800s) who has an wik-article in norwegian. Is indeed at bit weird in retrospect to think of cherubashka and that crocodile as the first encounter with russian culture.

   Many people has heard the name of gogol, tolstoj, dostovjevski etc.. but never read anything of them.. but a whole lot has probably seen Cherubashka and that Crocodile.. but no idea about the writer/author.. It’s strange how childrens literature often get underrated.

4. I’d say Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy are the most famous. Then Chekov, Turgenev, and Solzhenitsyn. I’m sure there are more, but those were the first to come to mind.

5. First name that came to my mind was Dostoyevski. But personally I like Dmitry Glukhovsky 😉

6. Dostojewski, Puszkin, Tołstoj, Bułhakow.

   Sorry, I am too lazy to check for English spelling.

   Edit: a never Russian book I loved about 15 or so years ago was Irina Dienieżkina “Give me! Songs for lovers.”

7. Tolstoi and Dostojevski are the most famous, I think Dostojevski is actually read more, but Tolstois name came to mind first. They might be followed by Bulgakov, as everyone knows Master an Margarita.

8. Like everyone else so far, I’d say Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky come to mind first.

9. So I’ve got Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Pushkin, Gogol and Solzhenitsyn.

   No I haven’t read anything by them.

10. Definitely Tolstoy, followed by Chekhov, Dostoyevsky and Solzhenitsyn in no particular order – although Chekhov is probably mostly famous for “Checkhov’s gun” rather than his actual work.

11. Alexander Puschkin maybe, because there are dozens of streets and places named after him.

12. It’s a toss-up between Tolstoj and Dostoevskij. Those names are known also by those who are not into Russian literature (or those who are not much into literature at large, for that matter).

    If I were asked, the first name that comes to mind would be Tolstoj because I’m reading “Anna Karenina” (well, actually it has been collecting dust on my nightstand for quite a while now).

    ^edit: ^add ^a ^sentence

13. I would say in Denmark it would be Dostojevski. He is quite popular here and often referred to.

    A lot of people will have War and Peace too – but is rarer to hear people talk about Tolstoy I think.

14. They aren’t the most famous but Ilf and Petrov deserve a mention!

15. Here in Belgium Lev Tolstoj from war and peace.

    But I’m reading metro 2034 from Dmitri Gloechovski now.

16. Tolstoy is the only one I personally read. I think Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky are the two most famous ones in Switzerland. If you’d ask people on the street, I think most would name one or both of these two.

17. Tolstoi was the first that came to mind as I’m reading him [currently](https://imgur.com/a/tUka9LE), but after scrolling through some comments I’m pretty sure Dostojevski and Puschkin are also fairly well known.

    On a side note: Can someone illuminate me on why there’s different spellings for Russian names in different languages? Is it because there’s no standard transliteration from Cyrillic?

18. Tolstoj and Dostojevski, followed by Puškin and Bulgakov.

19. Tolstoy will be the best known, then it’s probably Dostoyevsky and Chekov.

20. [removed]

21. Tolstoy is probably the one most Irish people know.

22. Me personally Lev Tolstoj or Fyodor Dostoevskij, and I think the average Italian would answer the same way. I don’t think Pushkin, Čechov or Achmatova are much known in Italy, since we usually don’t study them at school, unfortunately.

23. Tolstoï came to mind first, though Dostoïevski is just as obvious. Pouchkine would be a distant third.

    ETA: Looking at the thread, Tchekhov is also very well-known (more than Pouchkine I’d say), but because he wrote plays he didn’t come to mind, even though that’s obviously literature too.

24. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol and Mayakovsky are among the most known

25. I have too say Dmitrij Muratov for his efforts (and sacrifice) for free speech in todays Russia. Hence more russian writers will be known in the future…

26. Tolstoy as well. I’m sure a better educated person or someone with a better memory could list more but Tolstoy is the only one I remember from school.

27. I’d say Tolstoi and Dostojevski too. I’ve never personally read either, but from time to time you hear references to both. And no other Russian writers come to my mind, on a quick think.

28. Oh my!

    Dostojewski, Lew Tołstoj, Aleksy Tołstoj, Puszkin, Lermontow, Dierżawin, Turgieniew, Czechow, Gogol, Majakowski, Brodski, Pasternak, Bułhakow, Jesienin, Achmatowa, Mandelsztam, Błok, Limonow, Sorokin, Akunin, Jerofiejew, Pielewin, Strugaccy, Głuchowski, Szołochow, Gorki

    These are the ones I remember. Who is the most well known?

    Probably Dostojewski, Lew Tołstoj, Bułhakow and Puszkin.

    (All names and surnames are in Polish transcription of Russian language.)

    Edit: I forgot about Sołżenicyn. You may also count Sołowjow, Czernyszewski, Danilewski, Bierdiajew, Szestow, Lenin, Plechanow, Kropotkin, Bakunin, if we count philosophers too.

29. Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky. Bulgakov should be a lot more popular tho, he’s amazing.

30. Would argue that Alexey Pajitnov is more well known for his work in the states being the lead program writer for tetris, though not sure that counts lol. The only other one I could think of are Asmiov, and Lennin.

31. Dmitry Glukhovsky

    I don’t read, but I’ve played all the Metro games.

32. definitely dostoyevsky but I might be biased because I finished school half a year ago

33. Huh, I have nothing to add to the best known ones, I guess all writers have already been mentioned -so I will add my own personal favorites, Ivan Goncharov and Yevgeny Zamyatin.

    Russian literature is crazy popular in Turkey, by the way. I grew up with it, and I love it.