>I feel enormously fortunate for being fluent in Russian, reading Bulgakov and Tolstoy in original is pure joy, any translation removes subtleties
As a native Russian speaker, I find it easier to experience their writings in English (and I don't feel anything of importance has been lost). And I've also heard other russian speakers claim that English prose (i.e. Shakespeare) is too dry, so I'm assuming this all comes entirely from people's subjective perceptions and is not an objective fact.
> easier to experience their writings in English
I suppose, it may feel easier, because English can be dense, it can feel more compact. Of course, it has this chameleonic ability to implode into scholarly dry, sophisticated and complex language, but yes, when I need more informational throughput, English usually outshines other alternatives - it delivers the point from the page directly into your brain. Although with prose, often it's not the sheer throughput but small subtleties that matter - we read not just for the sake of the fast comprehension of the story. How would you paint the difference between 'сухарь' and 'сухарик' in Russian text, especially if the words are used metaphorically? Of course it is all very subjective - I can only imagine what emotions evoke the arrangement of words I choose to put in this text - they could make you angry or sad, or bring smile or utter indifference. I've read Bulgakov in four different languages, and yet translations never matched pictures the original elicits in my head. "В белом плаще с кровавым подбоем, шаркающей кавалерийской походкой, ранним утром четырнадцатого числа весеннего месяца нисана ..." simply can't be done in another language for me - it just never feels the same.
Shakespeare is dry in English and feels easier in Russian translation because there's such a thing as "archaic English". The Russian language, in comparison, has changed little over the past few hundred years.