Thread: Novels on Russian Society?

Don't ask why, but I took a sudden interest in Russian society and I want to know if there are any good books on it. Anything from post world war 2 to present would be good.

Hell throw in some good African books too XD!!

Anna Karenina has tonnes of social commentary on Russian society.
It's all undercurrents to the main plot, but it's interesting none the less.
(Most of it was lost on me, being only 20 years old )

Anna Karenina is 19th Century Russian society, as is everything Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Gogol wrote. Master and Margarita (by Bulgakov) is a big-time classic, with a lot of insight into the Russian culture. It's technically pre-WWII, but an important criticism of Soviet Union (in fact, the book was banned during the time of the Soviet Union).

Can't think of a good modern one at the moment, but will let you know if I remember of something.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

For contemporary Russian society, I highly recommend Black Earth. The author travels North near the arctic to a deserted Soviet-era ghost town, South to Chechnya to a town where a massacre took place, East to St. Petersburg where he interviews an extremely powerful mafioso, and West to Vladivostok and Sakhalin island. Great read.

Even though it's fictional, it is also a vicious satire on 1930's Soviet society: give Master and Margarita a try.

Thanks, all these books look great. How about African books?