Alexander Solzhenitsyn is one of the most quoted Russian authors of the 20th cent.
I stumbled across one of his books for R7 in a street carnival.
'The Gulag Archipelago' is his story of how he went from a officer in the Red army to be denounced, arrested and put in a gulag for 15 years. Let me tell you, Hitler had nothing on Stalin. Hitler only killed 6 million, Stalin at least racked up 60 million.
I think he might be the most quoted Russian becuase he has such a clear vision of evil and no delusion that man is basically good. The stories on every page are just terrible. Just when you think it couldn't get any worse, it does. It's not despressing, but deeply sad.
"If only there were some evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to seperate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
Mark 7:20-23
Scott
PS: If you want to get your hands on a copy, get the abridged version (450 pages) not the full 3 volume set (1500 pages)!