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The classics of Russian literature should make us proud - their words have proven durable. But wouldn't Russians rather see their nation step out of the dreamland of fiction and start living in modernity, not in some imagined greatness?

To be sure, modernity has its uncertain, scary side - as Nabokov has shown through his most sinister character, the sexual predator Humbert Humbert of "Lolita." But the freedom to think and act also allows people to flourish - as Nabokov demonstrates in his portraits of courageous characters like Pnin, the illusive Russian émigré caught up in the politics of American college life. Pnin, like his real-life countrymen, is free to embrace the West while remaining Russian - without going backward.

Nina Khrushcheva teaches international affairs at The New School in New York. She is the author of "Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics."