What are some MUST read Russian books?

Some Russian books are heavy going because of the often use of several 'different' names for their characters: you get the surname alone, the first name and patronym (parent's name), the first name alone, and the colloquial use of the first name all referring to the same person. As an example, using an English name: you might get "Smith", "James, son of Michael", "James", and "Jimmy", all of which can equally apply to a person called "James Smith".

But the classic Russian writers are famous because of their writing, same as French, English and American authors are.

Some of the most famous Russian books include 'Anna Karenina', 'War and Peace' and 'Doctor Zhivago', and these three have been made into Russian and/or Western films. Like all films, the film versions often cut out whole swathes of the original story, but can give an outline of what the books contain.

Idiot by Dostoevsky is a must read for sure. It's not science fiction of course, but a kind of a utopian attempt of a good man to transform the fallen souls. As well as Crime and Punishment, it's a brilliant reflection on human nature put in specific circumstances and challenged by the prehistoric evil ideas which have been haunting the humankind since the times immemorial.

Strugatsky brothers have some decent science fiction.

Dostoevsky has some exciting and thought provoking books (if you put aside his antisemitism and religious fanatism).

Pushkin has some great prose and poetry.

Some people find Nabokov a great writer.

Pelevin - is the only modern Russian writer worth reading and enjoying. His fiction among other themes is also a great and precise satirical reflection of a modern Russian society.

I can't tell you whether you'll love or hate Fyodor Sologub's The Petty Demon but you won't feel lukewarm on it. The Cioran translation is more complete but harder to find than older translations now in the public domain.

I've been meaning to get to Victor Pelevin's The Life of Insects for a while.

Not science fiction.

From my memory,

a) Brothers Karamazov (Dosteovsky)

b) Crime and Punishment (Dosteovsky)

c) Master and Margarita (Bulgakov)

d) Short stories of Checkhov

e) Pale fire (Nabakov).

Not sure if you would consider Nabakov as Russian or American, but his prose has clarity and is hypnotic.

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice was really good.

Generally the classics: Tolstoy, Pushkin, Googol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Nabokov, etc.

Look up writers and playwrights associated with the Nihilist Movement if you want the explosive stuff (the writings that would ignite the Revolution many years later), although I can't personally speak for the quality of such works outside the authors I've mentioned.

While she didn't write for a Russian audience despite being of Russian descent herself, Ayn Rand's novels certainly have the literary approach of the 19th century Russian novel and the style of 20th century film noir.

If you want early science fiction, there's Aelita by Aleksy Tolstoy and We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (with the latter considered the grand-daddy of dystopian fiction as we know it)