youth. The power of Pisarev's writings was enhanced because the government imprisoned the raw student for a proclamation in which he had defended Herzen against the reactionary minions of authority. The most widely influential of Pisarev's essays were written in prison.
Pisarev did not exercise an illuminating influence upon literature and philosophy, and still less can it be said that his work was creative, but among all the radicals of his day his was certainly the most philosophical intelligence.[1]
Pisarev, like Černyševskii, was essentially a philosopher of the enlightenment. The "thoughtful realist" aims at a "rational comprehension" of the world. He strives to secure a precise and scientific conception of the universe. With Buckle, he sees human progress, and anticipates its continuance solely through the diffusion and strengthening of the reasoning powers, through culture. Pisarev knows of only one evil thing in humanity, ignorance; and he has but one remedy to
- ↑ During the sixties and seventies there were a number of other authors and journalists besides Pisarev to represent the realistic trend; their names are but little known today, and their works lie buried in the various reviews that have been named above. Antonovič acquired a reputation from 1859 onwards as a critic, contributing to the Sovremennik; after Černyševskii's arrest he became editor of that periodical; subsequently he achieved notable successes in his speciality, geology. Šelgunov worked unremittingly from 1859 to his death in 1881. Noteworthy were his studies upon the English proletariat, based upon the work of Engels, and published in the Sovremennik; and many other articles. There has been a collected edition of his works. Zaicev was, with Pisarev, a leading collaborator on the Russkoe Slovo. In materialistic fashion, Zaicev declared that artistic work was a manifestation of stimulated sensuality, of spinal irritation; he was an eager adversary of liberalism and aristocracy. His literary criticisms were far more radical than those of Pisarev. For example, Lermontov's hero was denominated "a disillusioned idiot"; manual workers were stated to be far more useful than poets. Despite his radicalism, Zaicev favoured negro slavery, and therefore attacked Harriet Beecher Stowe. If the Irish would eat peas instead of potatoes they would become more cultured, wealthier, and freer—and so on. When the Russkoe Slovo was suppressed, Zaicev took refuge abroad, and in 1880 wrote, Concerning the Utility of Tsaricide. Blagosvětlov was of note at this period. From 1860 onwards he was editor of the Russkoe Slovo and had considerable influence upon Pisarev's development. Tkačev, an associate of Blagosvětlov, will be considered in § 111, vi. Among men of a still younger generation, Protopopov, the critic, who came to the front in 1877, has best regarded as a successor of Černyševskii, Dobroljubov, and Pisarev, although he wrote some sharp things about Pisarev. Subsequently he was under narodnik influence; and finally he became a mystic. The positivist Skabičevskii, who died quite recently, deserves mention as critic and historian of literature; he formulated his critical credo in the polemic against Pisarev's exaggerations, but continued down to our own day to represent the realistic trend. Skabičevskii, however, though a realist, was a bourgeois realist.
