Which Russian Classic Should You Read First?

If you've never read a Russian classic in the original, start with something short by Chekhov or Pushkin, then move to Dostoevsky's White Nights. Save Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov for much later.

That's the short answer. To get beyond the usual advice, we also measured the openings of the seven classics in our own library.

How long are the sentences?

Long sentences aren't the only thing that makes a book hard, but they're a big part of what wears learners out. You reach the verb and you've already lost the subject.

Here are the numbers from the free opening pages on our site.

Book	Author	Words measured	Average words per sentence	Sentences over 25 words
The Shooting Party	Chekhov	1,700	10	7%
The Captain's Daughter	Pushkin	2,300	13	9%
Crime and Punishment	Dostoevsky	2,600	16	16%
White Nights	Dostoevsky	3,500	16	17%
Oblomov	Goncharov	1,900	17	24%
The Brothers Karamazov	Dostoevsky	600	19	31%
Anna Karenina	Tolstoy	700	21	35%

Please read this table as a rough guide. It covers only the openings, two of the samples are short, and our count is automatic, so treat the figures as approximate. A book's first pages can also be unlike the rest of it. Sentence length says nothing about old-fashioned words, either.

Even so, two things stand out.

Chekhov and Pushkin really are easier to get through, at least by this measure. The usual advice holds up.

Dostoevsky isn't uniformly hard. The Crime and Punishment opening has shorter sentences on average than the Anna Karenina opening, even though Dostoevsky is often the name that scares learners off. The Brothers Karamazov is another matter. His books vary, so don't judge them all by one.

A reading order that makes sense

1. Your first original texts

If you're around intermediate level, start with something you can finish in a week or two. Finishing matters more than prestige here.

• Chekhov's short stories. Babbel's language experts recommend The Lady with the Dog for intermediate students, and it's a good place to begin.
• Pushkin's fairy tales. The same list suggests The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish for beginners. It's written in verse, simple enough for children and still fun for adults.

2. Your first short novels

• The Shooting Party by Chekhov. It's a crime story, so you have a reason to keep turning pages, and it had the shortest sentences we measured.
• The Captain's Daughter by Pushkin. It's a historical adventure with short sentences. It was published in 1836 and has older words and forms in places, so expect to look up a few things that modern textbooks skip.

3. Your first Dostoevsky

White Nights is where we'd start. It's short, it's a love story, and it's told in the first person by a lonely dreamer. Its first line shows what you're in for:

Была чудная ночь, такая ночь, которая разве только и может быть тогда, когда мы молоды, любезный читатель.

It was a wonderful night, a night that could only happen when we are young, dear reader.

The style is emotional and full of repetition, and that repetition helps a learner: you keep seeing the same words and patterns.

Crime and Punishment comes next. It's far longer, but the plot pulls you along from the first pages.

I'm the developer behind FluenTech. Reading the classics was what I wanted from Russian, and today I can read Dostoevsky without outside help and understand most of it. If he's your goal too, it's a fair one. He just doesn't have to be your first step.

4. The big ones

Oblomov, Anna Karenina and The Brothers Karamazov are worth the wait. They're long, and their openings had the longest sentences we measured. Attempt them once shorter novels feel comfortable.

Three tips for reading your first classic

Read a page before you commit. Try the opening of two or three books. The right one is the book you want to continue, as long as you can follow what's happening.

Learn the patterns behind the sentences. Literary Russian leans heavily on participles and gerunds, which you rarely meet in beginner courses. Reviewing them first saves a lot of confusion.

Use a translation without guilt. Reading a line in Russian and checking it against a translation is still reading in Russian. Over time you'll check less often.

Try them for free

Every book in the table links to its opening pages, with the Russian text and an English translation under every line. No app or account is needed. You can also browse all our Russian books.

To read the full books, our Learn Russian app has them with a translation under every line, along with the grammar and vocabulary to get you there. It's free to download, though some books and extra content need diamonds you earn while learning, or Premium.