Ivan Kireyevsky

The boy was just six at the time of his death; he was brought up by a maternal uncle, Vasily Zhukovsky, and his mother, Avdotya Yelagina, who would later become an influential lady with a brilliant salon in Moscow.

Starting in 1821, Kireyevsky attended the Moscow University, where he became interested in contemporary German philosophy and joined the circle of "wisdom-lovers" (Lyubomudry), led by Dmitry Venevitinov and Vladimir Odoevsky.

Kireyevsky's original literary works do not give him a place in the history of Russian literature, but he did gain a measure of fame by publishing the penetrating analyses of contemporary authors.

The journal was banned after two issues, but not before Kireyevsky published his large article The Nineteenth Century, his first extended critique of Western philosophy and values.

Many critics, starting with Herzen, tended to attribute the twelve-year hiatus in Kireyevsky's literary career to his Oblomovian inclination to indecision and inaction.

Since the reactionary reign of Nicholas I was not favourable for journalistic activities, Khomyakov and Kireyevsky criticized the "one-sided, superficial, analytical rationality" of the West in salons and soirées of Moscow.

He blamed Aristotle "for molding the mind of the West in the iron cast of reasonableness", which he defined as timid prudence (as opposed to true wisdom) or the "striving for the better within the circle of the commonplace".