> Today in US it is absolutely not interesting to study the self-reflections of people with too much time on their hands in a society without opportunities and

> Today in US it is absolutely not interesting to study the self-reflections of people with too much time on their hands in a society without opportunities and without good access to mental health professionals - ie. Russian literature (as well as literature of almost any other culture - because they pretty much all deep in the past and the issues they explore in many cases has already been answered). I disagree with the grammar of your point. I think most of the issues you're referring to don't have answers--or direct ones at least. They're meant to serve as exploratory exercises into morality, the human condition, and the other age-old questions that will continue to engage mankind so long as we don't have all the answers. That sort of self-reflection isn't uniquely Soviet, nor is it entirely separable from works that are more focused on human progress and advancement. We study and value these works for similar (if not the same) reasons we study and value history. Implying they are not applicable to our times seems awfully short-sighted.