I recently got great pleasure from re-reading two classics - “Woe from Wit” and “Yevgeniy Onegin”. It just amazes me every time how modern these works sound, even though they were written nearly two centuries ago!

“Woe from Wit” is a kind of revelation – a literary phenomenon, you might say. Griboyedov wrote it to highlight the problems facing Russian society at that time – and incidentally, these are still relevant today. And he found the ideal form in which to do it - a comedy in verse. It’s so refined and light. But this lightness of style conceals some very subtle observations and comments. And what magnificent use of the Russian language! Almost every line has become a popular saying.

I enjoyed reading “Yevgeniy Onegin” just as much. The novel doesn’t change, but every time you re-read it, it produces different feelings and thoughts. It’s a work in which people of different ages can find something of their own, something close to their heart. And over the years your perceptions change: in the past, for example, I simply paid no attention to some of the small points, but now I realize that these are not small points at all… So anyway, take my advice: read the classics!