Very few of humanitarian science publications is translating from Russian, on the other hand things that opinion journalism is revealing often weird and politicized.

If you want some kind of overview of Russian specific, writers done this work better than scientists through generalized characters and situations. Reading cultural researches you'll be surprised by amount of fictional references.

I can recommend few for a not-dry reading.

N.Leskov "The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea" http://www.auburn.edu/~mitrege/russian-culture/lefty.doc This is short, partially based on actual events story about XIX century engineer. Its perfect crystal describes difference between russian and western mentality and engineering. I think its touching the russia-west problems not yielding C. P. Snow lectures about western intellectual life )

I.Ilf, I.Petrov "Twelve chairs" http://lib.ru/ILFPETROV/ilf_petrov_12_chairs_engl.txt about "entrepreneur" life in early XX. It's full of killing precise WTF persons and situations, that still filling everyday life.