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Vissarion Belinsky
Sign in to saveAlso known as Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky, Vissárion Grigoryevich Belinsky
Russian literary critic
Vissarion Belinsky was a 19th-century Russian literary critic who became one of the most influential voices in shaping Russian intellectual thought and literature. His writings helped establish literary criticism as a serious intellectual force in Russia and influenced how Russians understood their own culture and society.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Russian Empire
- Place of birth
- Suomenlinna
- Place of death
- Saint Petersburg
- Occupation
- opinion journalist
- Languages spoken
- Russian
- Native language
- Russian
- Field of work
- literary criticism
- Movement
- opinion journalism
- Image
- Kirill Gorbunov, Vissarion Belinsky, 1843, Tretyakov Gallery 3270.jpg
Show 12 more facts
- name in native language
- Виссарион Белинский
- start of work period
- 1830-00-00
- cause of death
- tuberculosis
- Commons category
- Vissarion Belinsky
- place of burial
- Volkovo Cemetery
- medical condition
- tuberculosis
- date of birth
- 1811-06-11
- date of death
- 1848-06-07
- described by source
- Granat Encyclopedic Dictionary
- manner of death
- natural causes
- ethnic group
- Russians
- writing language
- Russian
via Wikidata · CC0
~11 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A bust of Belinsky A 1957 Vissarion Belinsky Soviet postage stamp
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky (Russian: Виссарио́н Григо́рьевич Бели́нский; June 11 [O.S. May 30] 1811 – June 7 [O.S. May 26] 1848) was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. Belinsky played one of the key roles in the career of poet and publisher Nikolay Nekrasov and his popular magazine Sovremennik. He was the most influential of the Westernizers, especially among the younger generation. He worked primarily as a literary critic, because that area was less heavily censored than political pamphlets. He agreed with Slavophiles that society had precedence over individualism, but he insisted the society had to allow the expression of individual ideas and rights. He strongly opposed Slavophiles on the role of Orthodoxy, which he considered a retrograde force. He emphasized reason and knowledge, and attacked autocracy and theocracy.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Vissarion Belinsky” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.