[1] Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky—a Russian thinker, writer, literary critic, publicist, and Westernizer philosopher—lived a remarkable but brief life.

Initially captivated by Hegelian philosophy, particularly its assertion that "all that is real is rational," Belinsky passionately embraced this idea.

Belinsky argued that Russian literature did not truly exist until the works of Nikolai Gogol emerged.

Nevertheless, he dedicated a series of articles to Russian writers in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland), which were later compiled into a separate volume.

This collection effectively served as a history of Russian literature, spanning from Mikhail Lomonosov to Alexander Pushkin.