Russian Reading

What Russians and those who lived in the former Soviet Union have to read. See also Russian Relaxing.

Newspapers

Pravda- several papers have been referred to this way, we'll be focusing on the best known one, the paper of the CPSU. Pravda is Russian for "truth". Da, pravda.
In Soviet times the other main newspaper was called Izvestiya, literally meaning News (In Russian there is no distinction between definite and indefinite forms of nouns, so the title could also be translated as The News.) This inspired the following joke: "There are no news in Truth, and no truth in News".
Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star)- newspaper of the Soviet and now Russian military. Gave Margaret Thatcher her "Iron Lady" nickname.

Magazines

Ogonyok- A weekly magazine running since 1899.

Notable literature

Poets

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837), considered to be the greatest Russian poet and founder of Russian literature
Michail Yurievich Lermontov (1814-1841), author of A Hero of Our Time
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711-1765)
Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky (1893-1930)

The classics: The "Golden Age" et seq.

Nikolai Gogol: Dead Souls, The Revisor, The Inspector General'
Ivan Goncharov: Oblomov
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky: He wrote Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Notes From Underground, The Brothers Karamazov and many other books. He is considered by many to be Russia's greatest writer along Tolstoy.
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy aka Leo Tolstoy: He wrote War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Kreutzer Sonata, and many, many others. He heavily influenced Mohandas Gandhi.

20th century: The "Silver Age" and the Soviet period

Isaac Babel: Wrote Tales of Odessa, Red Cavalry, and other works.
Mikhail Bulgakov: Wrote The Master and Margarita, Heart of a Dog, Black Snow, Ivan Vasilievich, The Fatal Eggs, and others. Living in early USSR times, he was proud enough to make fun of its ugly parts.
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov—yes, THE Chekhov. Wrote tons of short stories, of which perhaps the most famous is The Lady with the Little Dog, and some legendary plays like The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull. Deemed heavily influential on Virigina Woolf and James Joyce, to mention just two.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and other works. Won a Nobel Prize in 1970. He is not really wide popular in modern times, thought. His name is often mentioned when 'crimes of communism' are discussed
Vladimir Nabokov: Wrote Glory and The Gift in Russian, as well as the infamous Lolita in English, among numerous other works and translations.
Boris Pasternak: Wrote Doctor Zhivago (banned in the USSR, standard school study material in post-Soviet Russia), other novels and novellas, and many poems.
Ilf and Petrov—1920's-30's satirical writers. Authors of The Twelve Chairs and The Little Golden Calf.
Strugatsky Brothers Arkady and Boris: Soviet era Science Fiction writers. There are a number of films based on their writings. Their novel Roadside Picnic inspired the video game STALKER.
Kir Bulychev: A friend of the Strugatskys, he also wrote sci-fi, most notably the Alice, Girl from the Future cycle. He is also a historian and wrote several educational books.
Ivan Yefremov: Wrote Thais of Athens and the Great Ring cycle.
Vainer Brothers: Detective novel writing duo. Authors of The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed and The Vertical Races

Contemporary literature: Post-Soviet period to Present Day

Sergey Lukyanenko, a popular modern Russian Speculative Fiction author. He wrote Night Watch, one of the most popular recent fantasy novels in Russia and his most famous work in the English-speaking world.
The Erast Fandorin series, the Reconstruction of Russian detective genre starting in late '90s.
Arcia Chronicles, a High Fantasy novel series, and Reflections of Eterna, a Low Fantasy series by the same author.
Labyrinths of Echo by Max Frei. Another popular fantasy series.
Oleg Divov: one of the most popular modern Russian sci-fi authors.
Nick Perumov is probably the second most well-known after Lukyanenko; he is better known for his fantasy works.
Victor Pelevin: is something of an oddball. His works can be described as highly postmodernistic Magical Realism. Think russian Grant Morrison on even more drugs.