Otechestvennye Zapiski

(Notes of the Fatherland), the name of three Russian publications.

(1) A Russian monthly journal published in St. Petersburg from 1820 to 1830 by P. P. Svin’in. It printed articles on Russian industry, ethnography, and history and acquainted the reader with works by writers of simple origins, such as E. I. Alipanov and F. N. Slepushkin.

(2) A Russian literary and sociopolitical monthly journal published in St. Petersburg from 1839 to 1867 by A. A. Kraevskii. Among its contributors were M. Iu. Lermontov, V. F. Odoevskii, A. V. Kol’tsov, A. I. Herzen, N. A. Nekrasov, F. M. Dostoevsky, and I. S. Turgenev. In the early 1840’s many of Otechestvennye Zapiski’s contributors tended toward the ideas of the Westernizers. The journal printed articles by critics and publicists of the nascent revolutionary-democratic trend and works by writers of the “natural school.”

V. G. Belinskii, who headed the critical and bibliographical section, played a prominent role in the journal. His section was devoted almost entirely to his own articles and reviews, which propagandized the ideas of Utopian socialism and criticized both the feudal system and the capitalist system. In April 1846, Belinskii broke with Kraevskii and joined Sovremennik (The Contemporary). For about two more years, Otechestvennye Zapiski continued to enjoy success with its readers; many of its former authors were still published, and V. N. Maikov was in charge of the critical section. Political reaction, which set in after the revolution of 1848 in France, made the journal insipid. Lively comment on contemporary literature gave way to academic articles by A. N. Afanas’ev and F. I. Buslaev and to the amorphous reviews of S. S. Dudyshkin and others. At the beginning of the 1860’s, Otechestvennye Zapiski held moderately conservative views. A sharp reduction in the number of subscribers forced Kraevskii to turn the journal over to Nekrasov in 1868.

(3) A Russian literary and sociopolitical monthly journal published in St. Petersburg from 1868 to 1884 by N. A. Nekrasov, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, and G. Z. Eliseev; after the death of Nekrasov in 1877, N. K. Mikhailovskii joined the editorial board. In addition to the editors themselves, contributors to the journal included A. N. Ostrovskii, G. I. Uspenskii, V. M. Gar-shin, D. N. Mamin-Sibiriak, and S. Ia. Nadson. The critical section was run briefly by D. I. Pisarev, then by A. M. Skabichevskii and Mikhailovskii.

The searching” inquiries of Russian revolutionary thought in the 1870’s and early 1880’s found reflection in Otechestvennye Zapiski. Taking note of the growth of capitalism in Russia, some contributors, including Saltykov-Shchedrin and Nekrasov, looked with skepticism on the hopes that the obshchina (peasant commune) might provide a basis for a socialist structure. A majority considered capitalism a nonorganic phenomenon in Russia, one which the revolutionary intelligentsia and the defenders of the obshchina could successfully oppose; most of the obshchinniki subsequently abandoned the idea of revolutionary struggle. The journal’s literary critics defended the works of narodnik (populist) writers. Otechestvennye Zapiski strongly opposed reactionary journalism, especially the journal Russkii Vestnik (Russian Bulletin). It expressed sympathy for the revolutionary underground and essentially acted as the underground’s legal organ. After gaining fame as the best democratic publication of its time, Otechestvennye Zapiski was subjected to harassment by the tsarist government and was shut down.