 | Eugene Onegin (Penguin Classics) by Alexander Pushkin
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £2.75 the best novel in verse by the Russian Shakespeare Alexander Pushkin.
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 | Memoirs from the House of the Dead (Oxford World's Classics) by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Buy new: £5.39 / Used from: £3.46 Dostoevsky is my favourite writer. I would recommend all his books, but for variety's sake I will list only three. "Memoirs..." is an almost autobiographical account of the author's exile in Siberia.
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 | Devils (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature) by F.M. Dostoevsky
Buy used from: £3.99 Devils is a great novel. Full of psychological depth, irony and prophetic insight. My absolute favourite book of all time.
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 | The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
Buy new: £6.46 / Used from: £6.24 Gogol's "gift for comedy, absurdity and fabulism" is second to none. "The Portrait" and "The Overcoat" are among my favourite Gogol stories.
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 | The Brothers Karamazov (Everyman's Library classics) by F.M. Dostoevsky
Buy new: £11.69 Dostoevsky's last and perhaps his greatest novel.
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 | A Hero of Our Time (Penguin Classics) by Mikhail Lermontov
Buy new: £6.39 / Used from: £5.75 brilliant novel about a young officer Pechorin. If you like this novel you might also enjoy Pushkin's Tales of Belkin (ISBN-10: 0140446753).
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 | Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida by Robert Chandler
Buy new: £7.13 / Used from: £4.84 Some of the short stories in this book are really good (I would recommend stories by Leskov, Zoshchenko, Shalamov).
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 | Selected Stories (Wordsworth Classics) by A.P. Chekhov
Buy new: £1.99 / Used from: £0.01 Chekhov is one of the best short-story writers. Read Ward No.6, The Bishop, The Black Monk and I think you'll agree with this statement.
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 | Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy (Perennial Classics) by L.N. Tolstoy
Buy new: £5.71 / Used from: £8.08 Many people know Tolstoy's major works such as "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina", but his short fiction is also a joy to read.
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 | Oblomov (Penguin Classics) by Ivan Goncharov
Buy new: £7.39 / Used from: £5.49 Goncharov's best novel about an extremely inert Russian aristocrat. I also like his "Obyknovennaia istoriya" (The Common Tale).
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 | The Foundation Pit (European Classics) by Andreai Platonovich Platonov
Buy used from: £10.15 Anti-utopian, strange, nightmarish, difficult to understand, but still great. I also like The Locks of Epiphan and Juvenile Sea by the same author.
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 | Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Classics) by N.S. Leskov
Buy used from: £5.30 good stories, especially Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
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 | Sketches from a Hunter's Album (Classics) by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev
Buy new: £5.97 / Used from: £2.82 I am not very keen on Turgenev's major novels, but this collection of short stories/sketches is simply great.
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 | The Twelve Chairs (European Classics) by Evgeni I Petrov
Buy used from: £8.47 The funniest book I have ever read. The Golden Calf by the same authors is just as funny.
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 | Woe from Wit (Russian Texts) by A.S. Griboedov
Buy new: £10.99 / Used from: £7.00 Famous Russian play written in the first half of the 19th century. Brilliant comedy in verse. For those who enjoy reading plays, I'd recommend getting books by Alexander Ostrovsky. His plays are great
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 | And Quiet Flows the Don (Vintage International) by Mikhail Aleksan Sholokhov
Buy used from: £13.08 Probably the most popular Soviet novel. Written in an epic (almost a la Tolstoy) style. Those who find this book interesting may want to check out The Gloomy River by Shishkov.
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 | The Suitcase by Sergei Dovlatov
Buy used from: £21.95 If you want to know about life in USSR in the 70s, this book will tell you about it in a way that is funny, original and almost Chekhovian.
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 | The Compromise by Sergei Dovlatov
Buy used from: £22.78 In this book Dovlatov (died in 1990) tells about his experience as a journalist in the Soviet Republic of Estonia. Another great book by one of the best observers of life in modern Russian literature.
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 | A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov
Buy new: £6.99 / Used from: £3.29 A wonderful book. Bulgakov at his best. Set Master and Margarita aside and read this one. It won't disappoint.
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 | The Heart of a Dog (Vintage Classics) by Mikhail Bulgakov
Buy used from: £3.30 a bit surreal and absurd, but so clever and interesting. There is a brilliant Russian film based on this story (director: Vladimir Bortko).
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 | Childhood, Boyhood, Youth (Classics) by Leo Tolstoy
Buy new: £6.63 / Used from: £0.01 Excellent semi-autobiographical account of Tolstoy's early days.
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| Stikhotvoreniia by Ivan Savvich Nikitin
I don't know if any books by Ivan Savvich Nikitin have ever been translated into English. I love his poems. They show deep sympathy for the sufferings of the poor and true love of homeland.
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 | Collected Narrative and Lyrical Poetry by Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin
Buy new: £13.49 / Used from: £10.72 No other poet has ever created anything more beautiful in the Russian language. I am proud of being able to read his works in the original. Very good translation, by the way.
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 | The Bracelet of Garnets: And Other Stories by Alexander Kuprin
Buy new: £12.99 / Used from: £16.84 Not as good as Chekhov, but still a great writer.
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 | The Little Demon (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) by Fedor Sologub
Buy used from: £10.00 This book is not very well-known, which is a pity. "The hero of this story, Peredonov, is as comical as he is disgusting: a victim, a monster, a hypocrite and a sadistic dullard" (amazon.co.uk).
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