Russian Writers and Society in the Nineteenth Century

<p>This book first published in 1977 begins with a close look at the lives of nineteenth century Russian writers and at the problems of their profession. It then examines their environment in its broader aspects the Russian empire being considered from the point of view of geography ethnography economics and the impact of individual Tsars on writers and society. A discussion of the main social ‘estates’ follows and concluding is an analysis in their literary context of the activities of the competing forces of cohesion and disruption in imperial society: the civil service law courts police army schools universities press censorship revolutionaries and agitators. This book makes possible a fuller understanding of the works of Pushkin Dostoyevsky Chekhov and the other great Russian writers.</p>