Famous 20th Century Russian Writers

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 1 
Leo Tolstoy
(One of the Greatest Authors of All Time)
Leo Tolstoy
23
Birthdate: September 9, 1828
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Yasnaya Polyana, Russia
Died: November 20, 1910

Russian writer, Leo Tolstoy, is widely considered as one of the greatest authors ever. After experiencing a profound moral crisis in the 1870s, Tolstoy went through a phase of spiritual awakening, which had a great impact on his subsequent works that incorporated ideas on nonviolent resistance. These works influenced personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, thereby effectively changing the course of history.

 2 
Vladimir Nabokov
(Best Known For His Novels 'Lolita' and 'Pale Fire')
Vladimir Nabokov
6
Birthdate: April 23, 1899
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: July 2, 1977
Russian author Vladimir Nabokov, also known by his pen name, Vladimir Sirin, is best remembered for his controversial novel Lolita. His other works include the novel Pale Fire and his memoir, Speak, Memory. He was also an entomologist, specializing in lepidoptery. He also liked composing chess problems.
 3 
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
(Novelist & Writer Best Known for His Work 'The Gulag Archipelago')
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
11
Birthdate: December 11, 1918
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Kislovodsk, Russia
Died: August 3, 2008

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a Russian novelist, philosopher, historian, and political prisoner. An outspoken critic of Communism and the Soviet Union, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn helped raise awareness of the Gulag, a government agency that oversaw forced labor camps set up in accordance with Vladimir Lenin's order. His non-fiction text The Gulag Archipelago was a highly influential work and sold millions of copies.

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 4 
Maxim Gorky
(Russian Writer Best Known for His Works 'The Lower Depths', 'Mother', 'Chelkash' and 'Children of the Sun')
Maxim Gorky
5
Birthdate: March 28, 1868
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Died: June 18, 1936

Maxim Gorky was a writer and political activist. He is best remembered for founding the socialist realism literary method. Gorky, who was nominated for the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature on five occasions, published several novels that were later adapted into plays, films, and operas. In 1938, Valery Zhelobinsky adapted Gorky's novel Mother into an opera.

 5 
Peter Kropotkin
(Anarchist, Socialist & Historian)
Peter Kropotkin
4
Birthdate: December 9, 1842
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
Died: February 8, 1921

Russian philosopher Peter Kropotkin was a passionate advocate of anarcho-communism. He was also an activist, revolutionary, economist, and sociologist. He was arrested and imprisoned for his activism in 1874. However, he managed to escape and lived in exile for over 40 years in different countries across Europe. He returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution in 1917. 

 6 
Boris Pasternak
(Russian Poet & Novelist Who Won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958)
Boris Pasternak
6
Birthdate: February 10, 1890
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
Died: May 30, 1960

Son of an artist father and a pianist mother, Boris Pasternak initially wished to become a musician. He is best known for his novel Doctor Zhivago, set against backdrop of the Russian Revolution. The Soviet Communists forced him to decline the Nobel Prize, which his descendants later accepted.

 7 
Mikhail Bulgakov
(Novelist and Playwright Best Known for His Novel 'The Master and Margarita')
Mikhail Bulgakov
4
Birthdate: May 15, 1891
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Kyiv, Ukraine
Died: March 10, 1940

Mikhail Bulgakov was a Russian writer, playwright, and medical doctor best remembered for his work The Master and Margarita, a novel which has been acclaimed as one of the 20th century's masterpieces. Over the years, his works have inspired several other personalities, including Salman Rushdie and Mick Jagger.    

 8 
Vladimir Mayakovsky
(Russian Poet and Playwright Who was a Prominent Figure of the Russian Futurist Movement)
Vladimir Mayakovsky
3
Birthdate: July 19, 1893
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Baghdati, Georgia
Died: April 14, 1930

Vladimir Mayakovsky was a Russian and Soviet playwright, poet, artist, and actor. He was a prominent figure of the Russian Futurist movement in the pre-Revolution period leading to 1917. He produced a large and diverse body of work during his career. He admired Vladimir Lenin and supported the ideology of the Bolsheviks. He was popular outside Russia as well. 

 9 
Anna Akhmatova
(One of the Most Significant Russian Poets of 20th Century)
Anna Akhmatova
4
Birthdate: June 23, 1889
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Odessa, Ukraine
Died: March 5, 1966

One of the greatest Russian women poets, Anna Akhmatova had started writing poems at age 11. She was part of the Acmeists, who laid down their own style, Acmeism. Poema bez geroya and Requiem remain two of her finest works. She later wrote about the horrors of the Stalinist regime.

 10 
Joseph Brodsky
(Poet, Essayist and Winner of 1987 Nobel Prize in Literature)
Joseph Brodsky
6
Birthdate: May 24, 1940
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: January 28, 1996
Nobel Prize-winning Russian-American poet Joseph Brodsky is remembered for his elegiac and lyric poems. While he had started writing poems soon after leaving school, he was sentenced to hard labor by the Soviets for his irregular work record. He later moved to the U.S., where he taught at various universities.
 11 
Sergei Yesenin
(One of the Most Popular Russian Lyric Poets of the 20th Century)
Sergei Yesenin
3
Birthdate: October 3, 1895
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Konstantinovo, Russia
Died: December 28, 1925

Born into a peasant family, Russian lyrical poet Sergei Yesenin was a significant figure of Imaginism. Known as "the last poet of wooden Russia," Yesenin soared to fame with works such as Radunitsa. He later committed suicide in a hotel, having written his last poem in his own blood.

 12 
Eduard Limonov
(Writer and Founder of 'National Bolshevik Party')
Eduard Limonov
4
Birthdate: February 22, 1943
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Dzerzhinsk, Russia
Died: March 17, 2020

The firebrand National Bolshevik Party leader Eduard Limonov gained fame with his first novel, It's Me, Eddie, which contained explicit sexual imagery and obscene language, and was written while he was in literary exile in New York. He was also part of The Other Russia, a group of Putin opposers.

 13 
Boris Strugatsky
(Authors)
Boris Strugatsky
3
Birthdate: April 14, 1933
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: November 19, 2012
 14 
Masha Gessen
(Journalist)
Masha Gessen
5
Birthdate: January 13, 1967
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia

Russian-American journalist and The New Yorker staff writer Masha Gessen is known for his sharp criticism of political figures such as Donald Trump. The renowned author of the internationally popular books such as The Man Without a Face and The Future Is History, he identifies as nonbinary and trans.

 15 
Lou Andreas-Salomé
(Russian Novelist, Essayist and Psychoanalyst)
Lou Andreas-Salomé
4
Birthdate: February 12, 1861
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: February 5, 1937

Russian-born German author Lou Andreas-Salomé apparently rejected renowned philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s marriage proposal and then married a professor instead. A skilled psychoanalyst, she was also close to Rainer Maria Rilke and Sigmund Freud. She was one of the first to offer a psychoanalytic perspective to female sexuality.

 16 
Sophia Tolstaya
(Writer)
Sophia Tolstaya
3
Birthdate: August 22, 1844
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Northwestern Administrative Okrug, Russia
Died: November 4, 1919
 17 
Ivan Bunin
(The First Russian Writer to Receive the Nobel Prize for Literature)
Ivan Bunin
3
Birthdate: October 22, 1870
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Voronezh, Russia
Died: November 8, 1953

Ivan Bunin was a Russian writer whose stories and poems are regarded as one of the richest collection of works in the Russian language. In 1933, Ivan Bunin became the first Russian writer to be honored with the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature. Subsequently, he donated 100,000 francs to a charity fund.

 18 
Isaac Babel
(Russian Author and Journalist Who Is Remembered for His Iconic Short Story Collections)
Isaac Babel
3
Birthdate: July 13, 1894
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Odesa, Ukraine
Died: January 27, 1940

Russian author Isaac Babel was a reporter before plunging into full-time writing. He is remembered for his short story collections Red Cavalry and Odessa Stories. One of his most popular stories was The Story of My Dovecote. He was part of the Soviet 1st Cavalry Army as Kiril Lyutov and documented the Polish-Soviet War.

 19 
Prince Dimitri Romanov
(Author)
Prince Dimitri Romanov
3
Birthdate: May 17, 1926
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Cap d'Antibes, France
Died: December 31, 2016
 20 
Vladimir Propp
(Folklorist)
Vladimir Propp
4
Birthdate: April 29, 1895
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: August 22, 1970
 21 
P. D. Ouspensky
(Philosopher, Writer)
P. D. Ouspensky
3
Birthdate: March 5, 1878
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Kharkiv, Ukraine
Died: October 2, 1947
 22 
Vladimir Bukovsky
(Russian-Born British Human Rights Activist and Writer)
Vladimir Bukovsky
3
Birthdate: December 30, 1942
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Belebey, Russia
Died: October 27, 2019

Vladimir Bukovsky was a Russian-born British writer and human rights activist. An important member of the Soviet dissident movement, Bukovsky spent 12 years in prisons, psychiatric prison-hospitals, and labor camps of the Soviet Union. A neurophysiologist, Bukovsky is celebrated for his efforts to expose Soviet Union's political abuse of psychiatry. In 2001, he was awarded the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom.

 23 
Vasily Grossman
(Writer)
Vasily Grossman
4
Birthdate: December 12, 1905
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Berdychiv, Ukraine
Died: September 14, 1964

Russian author and journalist, Vasily Grossman, by training a chemical engineer, began writing fulltime at the age of twenty-five, eventually publishing several short stories and novels, including Life and Fate and Forever Flowing. Considered a threat, these works were later censured. A war correspondent during WWII, he was also one of the first journalists to write on Treblinka extermination camp.

 24 
Alexandra Kollontai
(Russian Revolutionary and Diplomat & First Woman in History to Become an Official Member of a Governing Cabinet)
Alexandra Kollontai
4
Birthdate: March 31, 1872
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: March 9, 1952

Alexandra Kollontai was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and diplomat. She served as the People's Commissar for Welfare in Lenin’s government. A powerful figure, she became the first woman in history to become an official member of a governing cabinet. She was also one of the few women to play a prominent role during the Russian Revolution. 

 25 
Ilya Ehrenburg
(Poet)
Ilya Ehrenburg
4
Birthdate: January 26, 1891
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Kyiv, Ukraine
Died: August 31, 1967
 26 
Victor Pelevin
(One of the Most Interesting Writers to Have Come Out of Contemporary Russia)
Victor Pelevin
3
Birthdate: November 22, 1962
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia

Russian Little Booker Prize-winning author Victor Pelevin is known for his unique style of mingling pop culture and science fiction in his works. A qualified engineer, he worked as a journalist and a copywriter before he began writing. His works such as Omon Ra mirror the despair of the Russian youth.

 27 
Osip Mandelstam
(Poet)
Osip Mandelstam
3
Birthdate: January 14, 1891
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Warsaw, Poland
Died: December 27, 1938
 28 
Marina Tsvetaeva
(Russian Poet Who Lived during the Russian Revolution)
Marina Tsvetaeva
3
Birthdate: October 8, 1892
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
Died: August 31, 1941

Remembered as one of the greatest Russian literary figures of the 20th century, Marina Tsvetaeva was an integral part of Russian symbolism. She faced the Russian Revolution and lost her youngest daughter to the famine that followed. After her husband’s execution under espionage accusations, she committed suicide at age 48.

 29 
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
(Writer Best Known for 'Babiyy Yar', a Political Poem)
Yevgeny Yevtushenko
3
Birthdate: July 18, 1932
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Nizhneudinsk, Russia
Died: April 1, 2017

Russian author Yevgeny Yevtushenko, known for works such as Wild Berries and Bratsk Station, is also remembered for his advocacy of artistic freedom in Russian literature rather than a reliance on political overtones. Following the death of Stalin, he focused on using unadulterated language and lyrics with a personal touch.

 30 
Boris Akunin
(Writer of detective and historical fiction)
Boris Akunin
4
Birthdate: May 20, 1956
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Zestafoni, Georgia
 31 
Mikhail Sholokhov
(Novelist)
Mikhail Sholokhov
4
Birthdate: May 24, 1905
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Veshenskaya, Russia
Died: February 21, 1984
 32 
Yevgeny Zamyatin
(Novelist)
Yevgeny Zamyatin
3
Birthdate: February 1, 1884
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Lebedyan, Russia
Died: March 10, 1937
 33 
Viktor Suvorov
(Former Soviet GRU officer who is the author of non-fiction books about World War II)
Viktor Suvorov
3
Birthdate: April 20, 1947
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Barabash, Russia
 34 
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia
(Grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, and a poet)
Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich of Russia
4
Birthdate: August 22, 1858
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Strelna, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: June 15, 1915
 35 
Sergei Dovlatov
(Writer, Journalist)
Sergei Dovlatov
3
Birthdate: September 3, 1941
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Ufa, Russia
Died: August 24, 1990
Height: 6'4" (193 cm)
 36 
Hayim Nahman Bialik
(Russian-Jewish Author and a Pioneer of Modern Hebrew Poetry)
Hayim Nahman Bialik
4
Birthdate: January 9, 1873
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Ivnytsia, Volhynian, Ukraine
Died: July 4, 1934

Russian-Jewish author and poet Hayim Nahman Bialik was one of the leading figures behind the development of modern Hebrew poetry. He grew up amid poverty and worked briefly as a lumber merchant, before becoming a teacher. Apart from expressing the anguish of the Jewish people through his works, he also translated many classics.

 37 
Varlam Shalamov
(Writer)
Varlam Shalamov
3
Birthdate: June 18, 1907
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Vologda, Russia
Died: January 17, 1982
 38 
Viktor Shklovsky
(Novelist)
Viktor Shklovsky
4
Birthdate: January 24, 1893
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: December 6, 1984
 39 
Igor Gouzenko
(Cipher clerk known for exposing Joseph Stalin's efforts to steal nuclear secrets)
Igor Gouzenko
2
Birthdate: January 26, 1919
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Dmitrov, Russia
Died: June 25, 1982
 40 
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
(Writer Who Specialized in Science Fiction and Historical Novels)
Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy
3
Birthdate: January 10, 1883
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Pugachyov, Russia
Died: February 23, 1945

Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, also known as Comrade Count, initially tasted fame with the novel Nikita’s Childhood and then redefined the science-fiction, thriller, and historical novel genres. As part of the Extraordinary State Commission, he was the first to ascertain that the Nazis had used gas vans during World War II.

 41 
Lyubov Dostoevskaya
(Writer)
Lyubov Dostoevskaya
2
Birthdate: September 14, 1869
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Dresden, Germany
Died: November 10, 1926

Lyubov Dostoevskaya was a Russian memoirist and writer. The daughter of popular Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky and his wife Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina, Lyubov Dostoevskaya is best remembered for her work, Dostoyevsky as Portrayed by His Daughter. Many of her memoirs, which were written in French, were translated into other European languages.

 42 
Sergei Bodrov
(Film director, screenwriter, and producer)
Sergei Bodrov
4
Birthdate: June 28, 1948
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Khabarovsk, Russia
Height: 5'9" (175 cm)
 43 
Constance Garnett
(English translator)
Constance Garnett
2
Birthdate: December 19, 1861
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Brighton, England
Died: December 17, 1946
 44 
Vasily Nikitich Mitrokhin
(Archivist)
Vasily Nikitich Mitrokhin
4
Birthdate: March 3, 1922
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Ryazan Oblast, Russia
Died: January 23, 2004

Best known as the coauthor of a collection of works, entitled Mitrokhin Archives, Vasily Nikitich Mitrokhin was the First Chief Directorate of the KGB before his defection to the United Kingdom. The 25,000 pages of files he had handed over became the basis of these books, the most significant of them being The KGB in Europe and the West.

 45 
Daniil Kharms
(Soviet Author Who Specialized in Surrealist and Absurdist Writings)
Daniil Kharms
4
Birthdate: December 17, 1905
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: February 2, 1942

A co-founder of the avant-garde association OBERIU, Daniil Kharms was a Soviet author who was a major figure of surrealism and absurdism. Known for his works such as The Old Woman, he made a huge contribution to children’s literature. He was later arrested and exiled for writing anti-Soviet works.

 46 
Sergei Lukyanenko
(Science Fiction & Fantasy Author)
Sergei Lukyanenko
2
Birthdate: April 11, 1968
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Karatau, Kazakhstan

Author Sergei Lukyanenko is also a qualified psychotherapist and child psychiatrist, though he has premanently quit medicine for writing. Known for his gripping science-fiction and fantasy books such as Labyrinth of Reflections, he also redefined the genre of urban fantasy with the Night Watch series, which inspired a hit film.

 47 
Andrei Platonov
(Writer)
Andrei Platonov
2
Birthdate: August 28, 1899
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Voronezh, Russia
Died: January 5, 1951
 48 
Yevgenia Ginzburg
(Writer)
Yevgenia Ginzburg
3
Birthdate: December 20, 1904
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Moscow, Russian Empire
Died: May 25, 1977
 49 
Alexander Sokurov
(Film director, Screenwriter, Writer)
Alexander Sokurov
4
Birthdate: June 14, 1951
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Irkutsk Oblast
 50 
Sergey Mikhalkov
(Russian Children's Author and the Writer of the Soviet and Russian National Anthems)
Sergey Mikhalkov
4
Birthdate: March 13, 1913
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
Died: August 27, 2009

Russian children’s author Sergey Mikhalkov is remembered for writing the lyrics of the national anthems of Russia and the Soviet Union. He created the popular children’s character Uncle Styopa. He was also the father of filmmakers Nikita Mikhalkov and Andrei Konchalovsky. A 3-time Stalin Prize winner, he also mastered the satirical fable genre.