BYELINSKI, VISSARION GRI GORYEVITCH 1810-4S). A Russian literary critic. He was born at Sveaborg, the son of a physician. He attended the gymnasium at Penza and stud ied philology at the University of _Moscow. where he became intimate with the 'idealist' circle of Stankyevitch, llerzen, others. In I S32, on ac count of a tragedy directed against serfdom, he was expelled from the university, ostensibly on the ground of 'incapacity.' In 1534 he made his &but with the famous Literary !lei-cries—a brilliant survey of the historical development of Russian literature—in Rumor, contrib uted to it and the Telescope until their sup pression in 1836. Two years later, with sev eral friends, he undertook to edit the Moscow Obserrer. Under the influence of Bakunin and a one-sided intervretation of Begel's proposi tion, 'all that exists is rational,' he preached complete acceptance of and conciliation with reality. At the sante time he advocated the the ory of pure art, which aimed at an artistic embodiment of 'eternal ideas' and not at a re production of life. In 1839 he went to the capi tal and became principal contributor of the itanak of the Fatherland. 'Reality' soon fright ened him here, and all the fiery striving for truth and right now' turned into deep grief over this reality. From 1840-46 he wrote a series of long essays on Derzhavin. Lermontoff, (logo]. Kolt soff, Pushkin (the last a volume of over 600 pages), and other popular writers, the whole forming practically a history of Russian litera ture from Lomonosoff down to his own day. llyelinskrs critiques now acquired a social char acter, and he appeared not only as a keen ;es thetic judge, but as a passionate eritieo-publieist as well. fighting for personal rights, unmasking social and literary hypocrisy. scourging stagna
tion, routine. and lack of humaneness in society. lit 1846 he began to contribute to the Content porary. rejuvenated under the editorship of the poet Nek•asoff. His last great effort was his Literary Reriew for the Year 1817. in which he saw the hope of Russian literature in the 'natu ralistic' works of •urrenietr. Gonteharoff. Dos toyelski, and others. his health was under mined. and the trip abroad could not delay the progress of consumption, which brought him to the grave on the eve of his arrest by the police on aeeount of his radical views.
A perfect master of style. passionate, and en dowed with a brilliant fancy, with a natural bitterness greatly increased by physical ailing and the hardships of life, he poured all his heart and soul into hi work. Greeting with ardent delight the appearance of every now gifted writer. he unerringly foretold his future develop ment, basing his opinion upon a careful analysis of his work. Besides giving correct estimates of all the chief Russian writers and bringing down the history of Russian literature to certain well defined periods. he was the first Russian to estab lish right conceptions of art and literature, and to point (nit the direction which literature must take to become a social force.
Ills works, in twelve volumes, were published in 1859-62, and later. In 189S. after the copyright ceased, several new editions appeared. The best is now (1902) in the course of publication, with pro fuse notes by S. Vengeroff (to be in twelve vol umes). Consult A. Pypin, Byclinski: Ms Life and Correspondence (Saint Petersburg, 1876).