Belinski, Vissarion Grigorievich (1811-1848)

Russian literary critic and journalist. He was one of the leaders of the Westernists and a representative of a new generation of radical intelligentsia in Russia. He founded the sociological (‘critical realist’) school of literary criticism, which was dominant in Russia until the end of the 19th century and was to form the basis for socialist realism in the USSR.

Belinski was influenced by German idealist philosophy, and hailed the realist approach of such Russian writers as Nicolai Gogol, Mikhail Lermontov, and the young Fyodor Dostoevsky. He was popularly known as ‘frenzied Belinski’, as a result of his radical views and passionate rhetoric in voicing them. This is epitomized by his ‘Letter to Gogol’ in 1847, in which he criticizes a new book by the writer for its conservative and pietistic tone. His Selected Philosophical Works appeared in 1956.