Editing Russia (section)

=== Literature and philosophy ===
{{Main|Russian literature|Russian philosophy}}
[[Russian literature]] is among the world's most influential and developed.{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}}<ref name="McLean-1962"/> It can be traced to the [[Middle Ages]], when epics and chronicles in [[Old East Slavic]] were composed.<ref>{{cite book |surname=Zenkovsky |given=Serge A. |authorlink=Serge Aleksandrovich Zenkovsky |year=1963 |title=Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles and Tales |place=New York |publisher=}}</ref> By the [[Age of Enlightenment]], literature had grown in importance, with works from [[Mikhail Lomonosov]], [[Denis Fonvizin]], [[Gavrila Derzhavin]], and [[Nikolay Karamzin]].{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}} From the early 1830s, during the [[Golden Age of Russian Poetry]], literature underwent an astounding golden age in poetry, prose and drama.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Prose |first1=Francine |last2=Moser |first2=Benjamin |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/30/books/review/what-makes-the-russian-literature-of-the-19th-century-so-distinctive.html |title=What Makes the Russian Literature of the 19th Century So Distinctive? |work=The New York Times |date=25 November 2014 |access-date=19 July 2021|url-access=limited}}</ref> [[Romantic literature]] permitted a flowering of poetic talent: [[Vasily Zhukovsky]] and later his protégé [[Alexander Pushkin]] came to the fore.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Emerson |first=Caryl |jstor=20057504 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |volume=29 |number=4 |year=1998 |pages=653–672 |journal= [[New Literary History]] |title=Pushkin, Literary Criticism, and Creativity in Closed Places |doi=10.1353/nlh.1998.0040 |s2cid=144165201}}</ref> Following Pushkin's footsteps, a new generation of poets were born, including [[Mikhail Lermontov]], [[Nikolay Nekrasov]], [[Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy]], [[Fyodor Tyutchev]] and [[Afanasy Fet]].{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}}

The first great Russian novelist was [[Nikolai Gogol]].{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Strakhovsky |first=Leonid I. |title=The Historianism of Gogol |jstor=2491790 |doi=10.2307/2491790 |volume=12 |number=3 |date=October 1953 |pages=360–370 |journal=The American Slavic and East European Review (Slavic Review) |publisher=[[Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies]]}}</ref> Then, during the Age of [[Literary realism|Realism]],{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}} came [[Ivan Turgenev]], who mastered both short stories and novels.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Henry Chamberlin |first=William |title=Turgenev: The Eternal Romantic |jstor=125154 |publisher=Wiley |doi=10.2307/125154 |volume=5 |number=2 |pages=10–23 |journal=[[The Russian Review]]|year=1946 }}</ref> [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky|Fyodor Dostoevsky]] and [[Leo Tolstoy]] soon became internationally renowned.{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}} [[Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin]] wrote prose [[satire]],{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Neuhäuser |first=Rudolf |title=The Early Prose of Saltykov-Shchedrin and Dostoevskii: Parallels and Echoes |journal=[[Canadian Slavonic Papers]] |jstor=40867755 |volume=22 |number=3 |year=1980 |pages=372–387 |doi=10.1080/00085006.1980.11091635}}</ref> while [[Nikolai Leskov]] is best remembered for his shorter fiction.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Muckle |first=James |title=Nikolay Leskov: educational journalist and imaginative writer |publisher=Australia and New Zealand Slavists' Association |year=1984 |pages=81–110 |journal=New Zealand Slavonic Journal |jstor=40921231}}</ref> In the second half of the century [[Anton Chekhov]] excelled in short stories and became a leading dramatist.{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/03/classics |title=A Chekhov lexicon |last=Boyd |first=William |date=3 July 2004 |access-date=15 January 2022 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> Other important 19th-century developments included the fabulist [[Ivan Krylov]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pirie |first1=Gordon |last2=Chandler |first2=Robert |title=Eight Tales from Ivan Krylov |journal=[[Translation and Literature]] |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |jstor=40340118 |volume=18 |number=1 |year=2009 |pages=64–85 |doi=10.3366/E096813610800037X}}</ref> non-fiction writers such as the critic [[Vissarion Belinsky]],{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gifford |first=Henry |title=Belinsky: One Aspect |journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]] |jstor=4204011 |volume=27 |number=68 |year=1948 |pages=250–258}}</ref> and playwrights such as [[Aleksandr Griboyedov]] and [[Aleksandr Ostrovsky]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Brintlinger |first=Angela |title=The Persian Frontier: Griboedov as Orientalist and Literary Hero |journal=[[Canadian Slavonic Papers]] |jstor=40870888 |volume=45 |number=3/4 |year=2003 |pages=371–393 |doi=10.1080/00085006.2003.11092333 |s2cid=191370504}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Beasly |first=Ina |title=The Dramatic Art of Ostrovsky. (Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, 1823–86) |journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]] |jstor=4202212 |volume=6 |number=18 |year=1928 |pages=603–617}}</ref> The beginning of the 20th century ranks as the [[Silver Age of Russian Poetry]].{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}} This era had poets such as [[Alexander Blok]], [[Anna Akhmatova]], [[Boris Pasternak]], and [[Konstantin Balmont]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Markov |first=Vladimir |title=Balmont: A Reappraisal |jstor=2493225 |journal=[[Slavic Review]] |volume=28 |number=2 |year=1969 |pages=221–264 |doi=10.2307/2493225|s2cid=163456732 }}</ref> It also produced some first-rate novelists and short-story writers, such as [[Aleksandr Kuprin]], Nobel Prize winner [[Ivan Bunin]], [[Leonid Andreyev]], [[Yevgeny Zamyatin]], [[Dmitry Merezhkovsky]] and [[Andrei Bely]].{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}}

{{multiple image
| perrow            = 2
| total_width       = 300
| image_style       = border:none;
| caption_align     = center
| align             = right
| image1            = Ilya Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) - Portrait of Leo Tolstoy (1887).jpg
| caption1          = {{font|size=100%|text=[[Leo Tolstoy]] (1828–1910) is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time, with works such as ''[[War and Peace]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Thirlwell |first=Adam |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/oct/08/classics.leonikolaevichtolstoy |title=A masterpiece in miniature |work=The Guardian |date=8 October 2005 |access-date=25 July 2021}}</ref>}}
| image2            = Vasily Perov - Портрет Ф.М.Достоевского - Google Art Project.jpg
| caption2          = {{font|size=100%|text=[[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] (1821–1881), one of the great novelists of all time, whose masterpieces include ''[[Crime and Punishment]]''<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dahlkvist |first=Tobias |date=October 2015 |title=The Epileptic Genius: The Use of Dostoevsky as Example in the Medical Debate over the Pathology of Genius |jstor=43948762 |journal=[[Journal of the History of Ideas]] |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |volume=76|number=4 |pages=587–608 |doi=10.1353/jhi.2015.0028 |pmid=26522713 |s2cid=37817118 |issn=0022-5037}}</ref>}}
}}

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russian literature split into Soviet and [[white émigré]] parts. In the 1930s, [[Socialist realism]] became the predominant trend in Russia.{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}} Its leading figure was [[Maxim Gorky]], who laid the foundations of this style.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Tikhonov |first=Nikolay |author-link=Nikolai Tikhonov (writer)|title=Gorky and Soviet Literature |date=November 1946 |pages=28–38 |volume=25 |number=64 |publisher=[[Modern Humanities Research Association]] |jstor=4203794 |journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]]}}</ref> [[Mikhail Bulgakov]] was one of the leading writers of the Soviet era.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=4212557 |last=Lovell |first=Stephen |title=Bulgakov as Soviet Culture |volume=76 |number=1 |pages=28–48 |journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]] |year=1998 |publisher=[[Modern Humanities Research Association]]}}</ref> [[Nikolay Ostrovsky]]'s novel [[How the Steel Was Tempered]] has been among the most successful works of Russian literature.{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}} Influential émigré writers include [[Vladimir Nabokov]]<ref>{{cite journal |last=Grosshans |first=Henry |title=Vladimir Nabokov and the Dream of Old Russia |jstor=40753878 |publisher=University of Texas Press |pages=401–409 |year=1966 |journal=[[Texas Studies in Literature and Language]] |volume=7 |number=4}}</ref> and [[Isaac Asimov]], who was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers.<ref>{{cite book |last=Freedman |first=Carl |title=Critical Theory and Science Fiction |author-link=Carl Freedman (writer) |date=2000 |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |page=71 |isbn=978-0-819-56399-6}}</ref> Some writers dared to oppose Soviet ideology, such as Nobel Prize-winning novelist [[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn]], who wrote about life in the Gulag camps.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rowley |first=David G. |title=Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Russian Nationalism |journal=[[Journal of Contemporary History]] |jstor=260964 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing]] |pages=321–337 |volume=32 |number=3 |date=July 1997|doi=10.1177/002200949703200303 |s2cid=161761611}}</ref>

During the post-Soviet 1990s writers are already not recognised as very special guides by most Russians.{{sfn|Curtis|1998|pp=222–228|loc=Literature}} At the beginning of the 21st century, the most discussed figures, [[Russian postmodernism|postmodernists]] [[Victor Pelevin]] and [[Vladimir Sorokin]] remained the leading Russian writers.<ref>{{cite web |last=Aslanyan |first=Anna |title=Revolutions and resurrections: How has Russia's literature changed? |publisher=The Independent |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/revolutions-and-resurrections-how-has-russias-literature-changed-2264690.html |date=April 8, 2011 |access-date=2024-05-18}}</ref>

[[Russian philosophy]] has been influential. Religious and spiritual philosophy is represented by works of [[Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)|Vladimir Solovyov]], [[Nikolai Berdyaev]], [[Pavel Florensky]], [[Semyon Frank]], [[Nikolay Lossky]], [[Vasily Rozanov]], and others.<ref>{{cite book |surname=Lossky |given=N. O. |authorlink=Nikolai Lossky |title=History of Russian Philosophy |year=1952 |orig-year=1951 |place=London |publisher=George Allen & Unwin |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.90432/page/n5/mode/1up}}</ref> [[Helena Blavatsky]] gained international following as the leading theoretician of [[Theosophy]], and co-founded the [[Theosophical Society]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bevir |first=Mark |title=The West Turns Eastward: Madame Blavatsky and the Transformation of the Occult Tradition |jstor=1465212 |pages=747–767 |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=62 |number=3 |journal=[[Journal of the American Academy of Religion]] |date=1994|doi=10.1093/jaarel/LXII.3.747}}</ref>

[[Alexander Herzen]] is known as one of the fathers of [[Agrarianism|agrarian]] [[populism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kelly |first=Aileen |title=The Destruction of Idols: Alexander Herzen and Francis Bacon |jstor=2709278 |doi=10.2307/2709278 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |journal=[[Journal of the History of Ideas]] |year=1980 |volume=41 |number=4 |pages=635–662}}</ref> [[Mikhail Bakunin]] is referred to as the father of [[anarchism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rezneck |first=Samuel |title=The Political and Social Theory of Michael Bakunin |jstor=1945179 |doi=10.2307/1945179 |pages=270–296 |volume=21 |number=2 |journal=[[The American Political Science Review]] |year=1927 |publisher=[[American Political Science Association]]|s2cid=147141998 }}</ref> [[Peter Kropotkin]] was the most important theorist of [[anarcho-communism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Adams |first=Matthew S. |title=Rejecting the American Model: Peter Kropotkin's Radical Communalism |jstor=26227268 |pages=147–173 |volume=35 |number=1 |journal=[[History of Political Thought]] |publisher=Imprint Academic |year=2014}}</ref> [[Mikhail Bakhtin]]'s writings have significantly inspired scholars.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schuster |first=Charles I. |title=Mikhail Bakhtin as Rhetorical Theorist |jstor=377158 |doi=10.2307/377158 |volume=47 |number=6 |pages=594–607 |journal=[[College English]] |year=1985 |publisher=[[National Council of Teachers of English]]|s2cid=141332657 }}</ref>  [[Vladimir Lenin]], a major revolutionary, developed a variant of communism known as [[Leninism]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Brinkley |first=George |year=1998 |editor-last=Harding |editor-first=Neil |editor2-last=Pipes |editor2-first=Richard |title=Leninism: What It Was and What It Was Not |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1408333 |journal=The Review of Politics |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=151–164 |doi=10.1017/S0034670500043965 |jstor=1408333 |s2cid=144930608 |issn=0034-6705}}</ref> [[Leon Trotsky]], on the other hand, founded [[Trotskyism]].<ref>{{citation |title=The myth of Trotskyism |year=1973 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/leon-trotsky-and-the-politics-of-economic-isolation/myth-of-trotskyism/95EE597BFA047615C393337F30CF63AF |work=Leon Trotsky and the Politics of Economic Isolation |pages=3–16 |editor-last=Day |editor-first=Richard B. |series=Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511524028.002 |isbn=978-0-521-52436-0 |access-date=14 March 2022}}</ref> [[Alexander Zinoviev]] was a prominent philosopher and writer in the second half of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Brom |first=Libor |title=Dialectical Identity and Destiny: A General Introduction to Alexander Zinoviev's Theory of the Soviet Man |jstor=1347433 |doi=10.2307/1347433 |volume=42 |number=1/2 |year=1988 |pages=15–27 |publisher=Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association |journal=Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature|s2cid=146768452}}</ref> [[Aleksandr Dugin]], known for his [[fascist]] views, has been regarded as the "guru of geopolitics".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Rutland|first=Peter|date=December 2016|title=Geopolitics and the Roots of Putin's Foreign Policy|journal=[[Russian History (Brill journal)|Russian History]]|publisher=Brill Publishers|volume=43|issue=3–4|pages=425–436|doi=10.1163/18763316-04304009|jstor=26549593}}</ref>