Russkaia Beseda

(Russian Conversation), a Slavophile journal published in Moscow in the years 1856–60. A. I. Koshe-lev was publisher and editor. Coeditors included T. I. Filippov, then P. I. Bartenev and M. A. Maksimovich, and, later, I. S. Aksakov.

Russkaia beseda advocated the convocation of a consultative zemskii sobor (central body representing the estates of Russian society), implementation of bourgeois reforms, emancipation of the peasants using land for redemption payments, and preservation of the obshchina (peasant commune). A special supplement to Russkaia beseda devoted to the peasant question—the journal Sel’skoe blagoustroistvo—was published in 1858 and 1859. Many prominent Slavophiles and writers from other Slavic countries contributed to Russkaia beseda. Russian writers included S. T. Aksakov, I. S. Nikitin, and A. N. Ostrovskii. Ukrainians were represented by Marko Vovchok, L. A. Kulish, and T. G. Shevchenko.