PISAREFF, pe'sit-ryAf, IVANOVITCIC (1840-6S). A famous Russian critic. Born at Znamenka, he graduated from the Saint Peters burg Classical Gymnasium, and took up philol ogy. A successful review ( 1859) in the Dawn, a magazine for girls, caused him to turn to literature. In 1860 he placed a translation of 1 [nine's Attu Troll in Blagosryetlotrs monthly llussiun 11"or/d, of which he became coeditor•. Scholastics of tits Nineteenth Ccntury made him the idol of the youth, who asserted that "thence forth COD t empora ry metaphysics and mysticism were dead." In Slay, 1862, the monthly. was sup pressed. In bitter mood Pisarcff rewrote a sup• pressed review of his for an underground publica tion. As a result he was shut up for nearly five years in the Schlfisselberg fortress. All his best efforts, critical estimates of contemporary and preceding Russian authors, as well as his popu larization of natural sciences, which exercised a powerful influence on the generation: of the six ties and seventies, were written here. Given liberty
in 1867, lie went to recuperate ten the of the Baltic, and lost his life while bathing. Ru mors were rife that the Government had a hand in the matter. Pisareff's fame rests on his cham pionship of two principles—emancipation of per sonality and De has been berated as a savage utilitarian, advising poets "to make shoes and bake fish pies." in reality lie demand ed that when a writer could not say with Biirne, "I write with the blood of my heart and the sap of my nerves," he should turn to more utilitarian work. Scientific achievements during the fifties, Shill's ardent plea for utilitarianism, and the liberation of serfs in 1861 account for Pisaretrs ideas as well as for his popularity. Dying at twenty-eight, he left ten volumes of critical works (2d ed., 6 vols., Saint Peterslum•g, 1894).