Like Germany, Russia is the birthplace of many literary giants: Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Abramov, Leo Tolstoy and, more recently, Boris Akunin and Maria Arbatova. Last month Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced a list of 100 Russian books “that every Russian school leaver will be required to read.” In a 4,500-word editorial published by Russia’s Nezavismaya Gazeta newspaper, Putin notes that, “in the 1920’s, some leading universities in the United States advocated something referred to as the Western Canon,” a collection of books that academics considered to be the most influential in shaping Western culture. Proclaiming that Russia has “always been described as a ‘reading nation,’” Putin proposes taking a survey of the country’s “most influential cultural figures” and compiling their works into a single collection for all future schoolchildren. It’s an ambitious project and a unique one; given Russia’s history of censorship under the Soviet regime. It would be nice to see a similar project here in the U.S. But, I know religious and social politics would probably undermine the endeavor, even before it gets started.
Chekhov
Chief Writing Wolf 