Schirmunski's main interests lay in the field of Germanic languages, particularly Old English literature and history, as well as contemporary German literature. He also authored works on comparative literature, theory of translation and Russian literature.
Schirmunski's works include:
- Old English Literature (1940)
- Comparative Poetics (1940)
- Germanic Literature of the Peoples of the USSR (1946)
- German Romanticism (1947)
- Theory of Literary Translation (1947)
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe. 1749-1832 (1949)
- Thomas Mann and His Era (1963)
- Shakespeare and His Era (1964)
- Dostoevsky and His Epoch (1971)
- Goethe in World Literature (1972)
- The Literature of the Slavic Peoples (1973)