Pushkin and His Successors

After the general political awakening of the country that followed the Crimean War the tradition of Belinsky was carried on by Nicolas Chernyshevsky (1828-89), Nicolas Dobrolyubov (1836-61) and Dmitri Pisarev (1840-68). They still further identified literary criticism with social politics. They rejected all non-utilitarian values, while Pisarev even condemned all art that was not directly and simply useful. About 1870 Russian Radical ism entered on a new phase, less rationalistic and more ethical, which proclaimed service to the people in atonement for the sins of serfdom, the only way of virtue open to the educated classes. These Radicals are known as the narodniks (populists). Their chief spokesman was Nicolas Mikhaylovsky (1842-1904), whose influence over the Radical intelligentsia was for about 20 years almost unlimited. The other camp was less influential (except in the purely political sphere where the brilliant journalism of Ivan Aksakov was a great power) but richer in original and inde pendent personalities. The critic Apollon Grigoriev was excessively prolific and hot-headed, but at his rare best he displayed an imaginative understanding of the highest order. He is also the author of a few songs of strange and poignant beauty. A no less striking personality was that of Constantine Leontiev (1831-91), whose political philosophy of extreme conservatism is a curious amalgam of religious, aesthetic and biological con siderations, that presents certain affinities with Nietzsche. Nicolas Strakhov (1828-96), was a good critic but a personality of less significance.

Rise of the Realistic Novel.

The Russian realistic novel grew up under the presiding influences of Gogol and of the ideal istic social realism of French writers, especially of George Sand. The note of social revolt, echoed from France, is first heard in the Three Tales (1835) of Nicolas Pavlov (1805-64), and in the naïve and sincere work of Elena Hahn (pseud. Zinaida R-va, The influence of Gogol dominates the work of Yakov Butkov (c. 1815-56) and of Count Vladimir Sollogub (1814-82). These first gropings were followed by the great creative outburst of 1846-47, when in the course of a few months Turgenev, Dos toyevsky, Goncharov and others gave the world their first works. The main characteristics of the new school were : the realistic rendering of contemporary Russian life ; an interest concen trated on social problems; a critical attitude to existing social con ditions; an avoidance of all extremes of the grotesque and the romantic ; and an endeavour to write as simply and "transpar ently" as possible, so that words should be only a reflection of things. In these two latter points they distinctly broke away from Gogol, whose disciples they otherwise claimed to be. The most successful novelists during the first 15 years of the movement, were Ivan Goncharov (1812-1891) (q.v.) and especially Ivan Tur genev (1818-1883) (q.v.). The former in his second novel, Oblo mov (1858) achieved one of the greatest masterpieces of social realism; the figure of Oblomov is at once strictly realistic and im mensely symbolical, the imaginative quintessence of a character istic aspect of the serf-owning intelligentsia. Turgenev is, of all his

contemporaries, most closely related to Pushkin : most of his char acters are developments of Onegin and Tatiana, the weak man and the strong woman. His novels, from Rudin (1856) to Fathers and Sons (1862), realize the perfect type of the "social" novel that is at once relevant to the solution of social problems and full of human significance. His style, realistic without rudeness, and poetical without emphasis, answered to perfection to the aesthetic ideal of the age, and was proclaimed the exemplar of Russian prose.

A different literary type is presented by the "philanthropic" fiction that sought to awaken sympathy with the poor and op pressed. Some writers (including the young Dostoyevsky) took their subject matter from the life of the poorer urban classes, the "poor clerk" being a particularly favourite character; others devoted themselves to the peasant. The unquestionable master piece of the latter group is Turgenev's A Sportsman's Sketches (1847-52). Other writers of peasant fiction were Dmitri Gri gorovich (1822-1900), whose first novels were among the literary events of 1846-47; and Marko-Vovchok (pseud. of Mme. Mar kovich, nee Velinsky, whose best work was done in Ukrainian (see UKRAINIAN LITERATURE). Another group of novel ists chose the uneducated classes for their heroes, not as objects of compassion, but as the depositories of characteristic Russian qualities and of a moral strength that had been forfeited by the gentry. The best stories of this kind were written by Alexis Pisemsky (1820-81), especially The Petersburgher (1853). His novels of "genteel" life (e.g., A Thousand Souls, 1858) are full of a bitter contempt for the educated classes. His characters are powerfully drawn and there is more masculine vigour in his nar rative art than in that of any of his contemporaries. The novels of Nicolas Melnikov (pseud. A. Pechersky, 1819-83) contain more valuable ethnographical information than literary merits. Sentimentality, tempered by humour, marks the stories of Mme. Sokhansky (pseud. Nadezhda Kokhanovsky, 1825-84) who took her material from the life of the provincial squiredom of the back-steppes.

Sergey Aksakov, a much older man (1791-1859), realized his possibilities only under the influence of Gogol and of the new realism. After several books on sport and animal life he published A Family Chronicle (1856), describing with extraordinary objec tivity and vividness the life of the East Russian squires in the 18th century. It was followed by Years of Childhood of Bagrov grandson (1858) where he tells the story of his first eight years with a minuteness of convincing detail that has been rivalled only by Proust. Aksakov's Russian is remarkable for its purity and plasticity. His works have been admirably translated into English by J. C. Duff.