''Russkoye Slovo'' (Русское слово, Russian Word) was a
Russian
Russian(s) may refer to:
*Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*A citizen of Russia
*Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages
*''The Russians'', a b ...
weekly
magazine
A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...
published in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
Yakov Polonsky
Yakov Petrovich Polonsky (; ) was a leading Pushkinist poet who wrote poems faithful to the traditions of Russian Romantic poetry during the heyday of realistic prose.
Of noble birth, Polonsky attended the Moscow University, where he befriended ...
, and A.Khmelnitsky. In mid-1860 Grigory Blagosvetlov came in, to invite several new authors, including
Dmitry Pisarev
Dmitry Ivanovich Pisarev ( – ) was a Russian literary critic and philosopher who was a central figure of Russian nihilism. He is noted as a forerunner of Nietzschean philosophy, and for the impact his advocacy of liberation movements and natu ...
who became the head of the literary criticism section. ''Russkoye Slovo'' soon became quite popular among the young Russian
intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...
. In 1862, after the publication of Pisarev's essay "Poor Russian Thought" (Бедная русская мысль), the magazine received half a year suspension.
While ''
Sovremennik
''Sovremennik'' ( rus, «Современник», p=səvrʲɪˈmʲenʲːɪk, a=Ru-современник.ogg, "The Contemporary") was a Russian literary, social and political magazine, published in Saint Petersburg in 1836–1866. It came out f ...
'' (with
Nikolai Dobrolyubov
Nikolay Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov ( rus, Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Добролю́бов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ dəbrɐˈlʲubəf, a=Nikolay Alyeksandrovich Dobrolyubov.ru.vorb.oga; 5 February O.S. 24 Janu ...
and
Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky ( – ) was a Russian literary and social critic, journalist, novelist, democrat, and socialist philosopher, often identified as a utopian socialist and leading theoretician of Russian nihilism and the N ...
as its ideological leaders) represented the deeper, analytical part of the same spectrum, for ''Russkoye Slovo'' the straightforward, often
nihilistic
Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that life is meaningless, that moral values are baseless, and that knowledge is impossible. Thes ...
protest was the order of the day. Some attacks on liberal literature and arts published in the journal were criticized even by its ''Sovremennik'' allies.
Polemic essays by Pisarev,
Varfolomey Zaytsev
Varfolomey Alexandrovich Zaytsev (; 11 September 1842 – 20 January 1882) was a Russian literary critic, historian, journalist, and publicist. He was a leading figure of the Russian nihilist movement in literary publication of his time.
Career ...
Afanasy Shchapov
Afanasiy Prokopievich Shchapov (Russian: Афанасий Прокофьевич Щапов) (5 October .S. 17 October1830 – February 27 N.S.10 March1876) was a Russian historian accused of " Siberian nationalism" and persecuted by tsari ...
represented the facade of ''Russkoye Slovo''. The prose section behind it was less impressive: the main contributors to it were
Nikolai Bazhin
Nikolai Fedotovich Bazhin (; 5 July 1843 – 16 October 1908) was a Russian Empire writer, journalist and critic.Nikolai Blagoveshchensky as well as (occasionally)
Marko Vovchok
Marko Vovchok (, birth name: Mariia Vilinskа, surname by the first marriage: Markovych, surname by the second marriage: Lobach-Zhuchenko, ; 22 December 1833 – 10 August 1907) was a Ukrainian female writer of Russian descent. Her pen name, Ma ...
,
Alexander Levitov
Alexander Ivanovich Levitov (; August 1, 1835 – January 16, 1877), was a Russian writer.
Biography
Levitov was born in the village of Dobroye, in Tambov Governorate, where his father was a sexton. He learned to read and write in a school ...
Gleb Uspensky
Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky (; October 25, 1843 April 6, 1902) was a Russian writer and a prominent figure of the Narodnik movement.
Biography Early life
Gleb Uspensky was born in Tula, Russia, Tula, the son of Ivan Yakovlevich Uspensky, a senior o ...
monarch
A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...