I always forget that westerners have a very different cultural baggage. When I was discussing the stuff I write with my wife, we got into a heated debate about GSC's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. videogame series and Пикник на обочине (I don't have a single clue if it was translated to English and if it was, how it was called) which inevitably led to discussing Tarkovskiy's Stalker, which led to discussing Solaris and the original Lem's novel. The fact that someone had to Google what noosphere is reminded me about the differences
And then there's a dichotomy between karamat and istidraj, but that's a whole other theological tangent I'm not wiiling to delve into drunk.
You have to remember that the vast majority of us have no idea what Герой нашего времени is, let alone would be able to recognize an allusion to it.