[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia":3,"chapter-my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-chapter-4":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","My Life as a Literary Giant in Russia",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2317179,4531,"Chapter 4: Naturalist School","my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-chapter-4",4,"\u003Cp>Although being surrounded and cheered as “a new Gogol has been born!” was a thrilling thing, Mikhail, after a moment of stunned silence, quickly said to avoid being thrown out by his landlord:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hey! Hey! Quiet down, Demy! Do you know what time it is? Why did you come here now?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s all because Nikolai dragged me here,” Demyrit said, starting to laugh—but remembering Mikhail’s warning, he abruptly stopped himself:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“After I left this morning, I went straight to him. He wasn’t home, so I asked the maid to leave a note and left the novel with her. Hey, only God knows how anxious I was! He didn’t get back until very late, read it, and came straight to me. We talked it over and couldn’t resist coming here right away.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But Mikhail, your place is really remote—we had to search forever just to find it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I see.” Having grasped the general course of events, Mikhail turned his gaze to the thin but energetic young man before him and asked: “And who is this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Nikolai Alekseyevich Nekrasov.” The young man formally extended his hand, giving his full name: “Pleased to meet you!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nekrasov?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The long string of names before it made Mikhail’s head ache—but that final surname triggered a key word in his memory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In short, this young man before him was the “midwife of Russian realism.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Russian literature had already shown signs of realism in Pushkin and Gogol, it was Belinsky who systematically summarized and articulated it—and this man played no small part in that process.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like many Russian nobles, this fellow followed the family tradition: born into an aristocratic household, his father was a retired officer who, in 1838, planned to send him to the Petersburg Military Academy to pave his son’s future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Nekrasov defied his father’s wishes and applied to university instead. After failing the entrance exam, he insisted on auditing classes at Petersburg University.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His father, enraged, cut off all financial support. Thus, at just seventeen, Nekrasov plunged into years of chronic hunger and cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet this man was undeniably gifted: that same year, he published poetry in Russia’s premier literary journal, *The Fatherland Chronicle*, and gradually appeared in other magazines, barely sustaining himself this way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But his literary path was far from smooth. His first poetry collection, *Fantasies and Sounds*, published in 1840, drew harsh criticism from Belinsky—who by then was already the undisputed literary leader—because most of it was derivative.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In anguish, he temporarily stopped writing poetry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet however painful his spirit, life had to go on—or it would become even more painful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So this man began writing letters for peasants, drafting petitions, composing advertisements for merchants—and still persisted in literary creation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And fate’s turning point came soon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After years of struggle, Nekrasov learned the rhythms of the cultural market. He noticed that Paris’s “physiology of the city” and “naturalist sketches” were wildly popular with readers—in short, these collections depicted the lives of Paris’s underclass.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This coincided perfectly with the new trend in Russian literature embodied by Pushkin’s *The Station Master* and Gogol’s *The Nose* and *The Overcoat*.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nekrasov instinctively sensed the immense potential of this trend and threw himself into promoting it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Starting in 1845, he edited a series of collections portraying the living conditions of Russia’s underclass.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Naturally, this provoked fierce opposition from conservatives, who accused such works of fixating on “filthy” themes and being artless “naturalists.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The conservatives opposed it—but Belinsky, now the literary leader, stood firmly with Nekrasov. He adopted the term “naturalist,” praising it for daring to write truthfully and for its humanitarian spirit in exposing the dark underbelly of Russian society.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, this was the turning point where Russian literature shifted from romanticism to realism.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the significance of this work: after this movement, names like Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy emerged into public view, lifting Russian literature to a towering peak in world literature that could no longer be ignored.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This era became known as Russia’s Golden Age of Literature.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, though young, Nekrasov had already befriended many prominent figures in St. Petersburg and had clearly broken into the cultural scene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was likely now fully committed to publishing, actively working to launch *The Physiology of Petersburg*.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for Mikhail? An unknown among the utterly unknown.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Nekrasov clearly treated Mikhail with far greater seriousness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, looking at the young man before him, Mikhail extended his hand and shook it, then gave his own name:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mikhail Romanovich Raskolnikov. Are you Nikolai Alekseyevich Nekrasov, the poet who published *Fantasies and Sounds*?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, you’ve heard of me?” Nekrasov, startled and delighted, hesitated—then, remembering his immature collection, added with shame: “I never expected you’d know this—but compared to your novel, my poetry means nothing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Oh right—this man had not yet entered his mature creative phase; he was still reeling from Belinsky’s harsh critique.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You will be,” Mikhail smiled. “Your poetry holds something precious. In the right time, with the right subject, it will ignite—and becoming a great poet is only a matter of time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That’s truly—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Normally, this might have been a historic meeting—but unfortunately, before the two could continue, the landlord—a broad-shouldered, burly woman whose arms looked capable of carrying a horse—stormed in. Before she even entered, her thunderous voice roared:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is there a funeral in your house?! Why are you praying at this hour?! Go to hell!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We’re sleeping, we’re sleeping!” Mikhail quickly shut the door and said to the two: “Demy, Nikolai—let’s talk tomorrow. We need to be quiet now.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",924,"2026-06-20T14:41:53.633Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","f5282ef4cffed2176a02cdf7e460c45cfde7b6b37da0ec6c0ef6abe2dc7902e1","my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-chapter-5","my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-chapter-3",105,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fmy-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-cover.jpg"]