The Rise of Bulgakov Diplomacy

The Kremlin is backing an ambitious effort to make the B-sides of the Russian literary canon more accessible to a global audience. Is it a boon for cultural understanding -- or propaganda?

BY LIESL SCHILLINGER-AUGUST 31, 2015

The Russian classics occupy an unassailable position on every passionate reader’s shelves. They’re the books you reread — Chekhov’s plays and short stories, Anna Karenina, The Brothers Karamazov,The Master and Margarita — and of course, no library is complete withoutWar and Peace. But which contemporary authors do Russians read? Do you know? And have you read any Russian authors besides Tolstoy or Dostoevsky — or anyone who has been alive and writing fiction in Russia for the past 40 years? Would you know where to start, if you wanted to?

The Rise of Bulgakov Diplomacy by Thavam Ratna