It may be said, that the emancipation of literature in Russia dates
back scarcely fifty years. All the Russian writers, whether of poetry
or prose, with the exception possibly of one or two satirists, were
little more than imitators. Some of the most valued authors during
the first half of this century, Zhukovsky for example, owed all their
fame to translations. Pushkin himself, who, on the recommendation of
Merimée, has for some time been admired in France, did not venture far
from the Byronic manner. He died, to be sure, just at the moment when
he had found his path. He suspected the profit that could be made from
national sources; he had a presentiment that a truly Russian literature
was about to burst into bloom; he aided in its production. His greatest
originality lies in his having predicted, preached, perhaps prepared or
inspired Gogol.