NEW YORK — “Are you Russian?” the woman asked in a Russian accent, and when I said I wasn’t, she moved on to ask someone else.

Osip Mandelstam and Anna Akhmatova, two of the leading figures in the history of 20th century Russian literature, continue to be revered as poets, confirming the verdict of their contemporaries.

See About archive blog posts. Bella Akhmadulina, 73, a poet whose verses have been described as among the best in contemporary Russian literature, died Monday at her home in Peredelkino near Moscow.

At a time of war, many of us look to literature. We may not be after topical subject matter, or editorial argument, but simply the peculiar justice of the best words in the best order.

Now 71, she is a devout Orthodox Christian. Though she remains a profoundly Russian poet, steeped in Russian tradition, she is also fluent in Greek, Latin, French, English and Italian.

Lev Rubinstein, a Russian poet, activist and prominent figure in the Soviet literary underground movement, died Jan. 14 in Moscow from injuries after being struck by a car six days earlier. He was 76.

THE literary career and reputation of the poet F. I. Tyutchev have certain points of resemblance to those, respectively and both together, of A. E. Housman and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Tyutchev was ...

Vladimir Putin is reputed to love Russian literature. So did Joseph Stalin, who read voraciously and even gave “advice” to authors after reading their manuscripts carefully. For that matter ...

Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky, who rose to prominence during the thaw that followed Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s death, died in Moscow on Tuesday. He was 77.

Fortunately, the poet has more pleasant things to think about now. “I want to have a conversation with friends about the good old days on the Russian River,” he said.