5 English translations of Russian literature in 2026
Among new Dostoevsky and WWII-period pieces, several poetic collections were also published.
1. Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The Friend of the Family or, The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants
Translated by Ignat Avsey
A comic novel, inspired by Molière's ‘Tartuffe’, is left a little in the shadow of Dostoevsky’s other great novels. It depicts life in a rural manor, which is a kind of model of the whole Russia.
According to the plot, the main character is a widower named Yegor Rostanev. He is a kind, gentle and slightly weak man, who falls under the influence and even pressure of his own mother and a parasitic houseguest. They want to marry Rostanev to a rich, young lady, though he is in love with his kids' governess… But he can't master his own life.
2. Vasily Grossman. ‘From the Front Line. Stalingrad–Treblinka–Berlin, 1941–45’
Translated by Robert Chandler and Elizabeth Chandler
Vasily Grossman is famous for writing the epic novel ‘Life and Fate’, which is often labeled as ‘War and Peace of the 20th century’. He was a war correspondent on the front lines of World War II and witnessed a lot of major battles on the Eastern Front, from Stalingrad to Berlin. He was also one of the first to cover the horrors of the Treblinka death camp.
The new book is a collection of Grossman’s most remarkable articles he wrote for the ‘Krasnaya Zvezda’ (‘Red Star’) newspaper.
3. Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky. ‘Тhe Return of Munchausen’
Translated by Michael Comenetz
It’s been 10 years since the last translation of this piece came out in ‘New York Review Books’ and the brand new English version is now under release by ‘Academic Studies Press’. Krzhizhanovsky was a Soviet dramatist and theater teacher who never saw his novels published within his own life. They only saw the light in the 1990s, 30 years after his death. Critics compare his masterfully writing with Mikhail Bulgakov and other best modernists of the 20th century. He is considered one of the overlooked geniuses and still not very well known in modern Russia. ‘The Return of Munchausen’ is a 1920s philosophical intellectual and satirical novel about Baron Munchausen secretly coming to Soviet Russia… and trying to deal with its new reality.
4. Osip Mandelstam. ‘Stone’
Translated by Robert Tracy
‘Stone’ is the debut poetry collection of symbolist poet Osip Mandelstam that saw the light of day in 1913. Mandelstam lyrics are full of complex metaphors and allusions to antiquity. He was a key figure of the so-called 'Silver Age' of Russian literature. But, due to his anti-Stalinist position, he was arrested and sent to the Gulag in 1938, where he died.
5. Osip Mandelshtam. ‘The Meadow Where Time Stands Still. Essential Poems’
Translated by James Greene
This year marks the 135th anniversary of Mandelstam’s birth, so one of the most important 20th century Russian poets got another brand new English publication. This volume collects the best of his works, including poems he was unable to publish in his lifetime.
BONUS – Fyodor Dostoyevsky. ‘The Idiot’
Translated by Michael R. Katz
Several new releases of Dostoevsky’s novels are planned for this year, though most of them are reprintings of already existing translations. Except this one, scheduled for September 2026. The new translation of one of Dostoevsky’s most important novels was done by Michael R. Katz, who has already worked with ‘Brothers Karamazov’, ‘Crime and Punishment’ and ‘Notes from the Underground’.
