To be clear, I’m not looking to learn about the Soviet union’s history. Rather, I want to engage with its culture. I find that a lot of my knowledge of Eastern European literature is Russian-specific and from the early modern period, and I would like to change that view.
Andromeda Nebula by Ivan Yefremov.
It ostensibly begins as a space exploration sci-fi, but the real focus is on exploring how a future communist society would be organized and the psychology of future communist people.