The 6 essential characteristics of Russian literature

All those who are lovers of books will know authors such as Lev Tolstoi, Fédor Dostoevsky or Nikolai Gogol. Russian literature has profoundly marked the path of letters, and since his (re) birth (in that Russian Golden Age that was the XIX) his poetry, his novels and his short stories have become universal.

But what is it that makes Russian literature so universal? And, above all, what is Russian literature, beyond its geographical context?

The most important characteristics of Russian literature

In this article we will try to unravel the 6 essential characteristics of Russian literature, which are shared, to a greater or lesser extent, by all its authors.

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1. Russian literature as a social complaint

Many years before the October revolutionaries put their finger on the wound and denounced the miseries and oppressions in which the country was submerged, the writers of the nineteenth century had already reflected this reality in the literature.

The first writer to make a social denunciation (and also the first great writer, with capital letters, of the Russian homeland), was Alexander Pushkin. Recognized by his people as the "father of Russian literature", Pushkin denounced tyranny in verse form, lies and oppression, as well as the hypocrisy and frivolities of the Peterburg aristocracy and Muscovite.

In his most important work, Eugene Onegin, offers us the portrait, satirical and tragic at the same time, of a Russian nobleman who lives devoted to a dissipated life, without taking into account the pain of those that he drags in his path.

A worthy continuator of Pushkin's work, Nikolai Gogol established himself in the field of Russian literature a few years after the disappearance of his predecessor, dead, by the way, because of an absurd duel, in the purest style Romantic.

Like Pushkin, Gogol imbues his realism with a magical and poetic breath, which can be perfectly traced in his masterpiece, Dead souls, for many, the starting gun of the social criticism of Russian literature.

On Dead souls, Gogol performs a scathing satire of rural Russia, in which estate serfs could still be bought and sold like animals. This sarcastic aspect remained linked to Russian literature from now on and it was the vehicle through which the authors questioned the world around them.

After Pushkin and Gogol, all, absolutely all Russian writers put their grain of sand in social denunciation, in one way or another. Whether it was Dostoevsky with his Crime and Punishment or their Underground stories; Maxim Gorky with The underworld (where he portrays life in a homeless shelter) or, more recently, Vassili Grossman with Everything flows, where he leaves us the crude testimony of the life and suffering of the prisoners of the Siberian labor camps.

2. Search for the truths of life

In order to fully understand Russian literature, it is necessary that we join in their musings. Russians don't just tell a story: they question themselves, they ask themselves questions. Every Russian novel is a vital quest: first, on the meaning of the individual's life; second, on the role of this individual in the universal gear.

Shostakovski said that Russian literature thirsts for divine and human justice. And so it is. In a sense, we can consider the entire rosary of his writers as a kind of "messiah" of truth. And through his feathers, the characters pick up this witness. Andréi Volkonsky, from the colossal War and peace, wonders about the meaning of life and the reason for death. When he, seriously wounded, he lies down on the battlefield and looks up to the sky, he tells himself that he does not wish to die.

In the same way, Iván Ílich, from the also Tolstonian The death of Ivan Ilyich, prostrate on his deathbed, he raises, in a terrible interior monologue, about the meaning of his existence. And Oblomov, the protagonist of the homonymous novel by Ivan Goncharov, spends his days lying in the couch of his house, without any vital purpose, until the meaning of the existence...

It is impossible, we repeat, to understand Russian literature without bearing in mind this very Slavic need to search through the mysteries of life and death.. For this reason, Russian works, especially those of the 19th century, are monuments to the soul and human suffering, in which we can all feel reflected.

3. The satire

The search for the truth is not an obstacle for the Russians to deploy, in their literature, all their humorous artillery. In fact, as we have already seen in the first section, it is common for them to use satire and sarcasm as a vehicle for social denunciation.

In one of the greatest works that Russian literature has given (in this case, from the Soviet era), The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov, the author uses mockery and humor lavishly to construct a devastating critique of Stalin's USSR. This, of course, earned him ostracism and oblivion. His novel was not published until the 1960s, in full political opening (and profusely censored); that is, more than 20 years after his death.

In argument of The Master and Margarita has tints of a fantastic story. The Devil, posing as a Professor Voland, arrives in Moscow and sets about twisting everything and uncovering the most lurid secrets of the Communist Party and its people. In his messianic work, we even like the Devil because, in addition, he is pleasant and attractive.

Bulgakov's style, fresh and modern, caused a real sensation among Russians of the years sixties, accustomed to the typecast and monotonous Soviet literature of the years of the dictatorship Stalinian.

4. The epic

All Russian short stories, however short, they are infused with an epic feeling that makes them huge, cosmic, timeless. And that is because, as we have already seen, their views go beyond the social and geographical context and become universal.

No need to read War and peace to come face to face with the epic of Russian literature. It is not the context of war, or of revolution (as in the case of Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak) which makes Russian literature comparable to Homer's Iliad.

It is that indelible mark of human worldview, of universal suffering. Russian literature does not speak of Russians, despite being confined to Moscow, Saint Petersburg, the Ural Mountains or the Siberian steppes. Russian literature speaks of the whole humanity.

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5. Pessimism

It is a shadow that always hangs over Russian texts. He cannot help but glimpse himself in the wretches portrayed by Dostoevsky, Gorky or Grossman. In the endless interior monologues of the characters, there is always an aura of regret, melancholy, that moves us and shakes us inside.

However, Russian pessimism is far from being Émile Zola's pessimism. The naturalistic writer portrays the miseries of his native France, but his vision is stark, naked. Instead, the Russian writer (a Tolstoy, a Dostoevsky), transcends that miserable reality and elevates it to poetry.

Russians see life as it is (they are experts in suffering because of their own history), but there is always that longing for beauty in them, of light, of transcendence. And it is this desire for transcendence that brings us to the sixth and final characteristic.

6. Spirituality

I have saved this point for the end precisely because I believe it is the most important when it comes to delving into Russian letters.

All Russian literature is steeped in spirituality. Absolutely all. Precisely because of their search for human and divine (and therefore, universal) truths, the stories and their characters build a bridge towards the transcendent.

One of the greatest examples of this is found in the character of Raskolnikov, the protagonist of the colossal Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov is a young student who lives in a shantytown in Saint Petersburg and who murders an old usurer who is a neighbor of his.

The crime, in principle, is committed to steal jewelry and money. However, little by little the rotten residue that hides in Raskolnikov's soul is coming to the surface, leaving in evidence that the act is rather the result of a disorder "of the soul", of a deep disappointment with life and its meaning.

The novel is a true song of forgiveness and redemption. First we witness the fall of the protagonist, and gradually we witness the slow rise of him (and with many ups and downs) towards his atonement, by the hand of Sonya, the young prostitute, who plays the role of angel liberating.

We find something similar in one of the last works of Lev Tolstoy, Resurrection, where the title itself is quite eloquent and expressive. In this novel, Nekhliudov, an aristocrat who in his youth seduces and abandons a girl of his hacienda, embarks on her own path to forgiveness, defending her, years later, from a crime that has not task...

Entering the world of Russian literature is a tough and fascinating undertaking at the same time. A path that is sometimes a bit stony (like the Raskolnikov or Nekhliúdov path), but which, with the appropriate reading guidelines, can become a wonderful pilgrimage to the depths of our soul.

Bibliographic references:

• Tolstoi, L. (2010). War and peace. Barcelona: Austral.
• Gogol, N. (2013). Dead souls. Barcelona: Austral.
• Bulgakov, M. (2018). The teacher and margarita. Barcelona: Debolsillo.
• Nabokov, V. (2016) Russian literature course. Barcelona: Editorial B.
• Pikouch, N. (2011). Five essays on contemporary Russian literature. Mexico D.F.: Century of man.