Nikolay Nekrasov - Recognition and Legacy

Recognition and Legacy

During his time, Nekrasov was best remembered as Fyodor Dostoyevsky's first editor, in 1845, and the long-standing publisher of Sovremennik (The Contemporary) (from 1846 until July 1866, making it the leading Russian literary magazine of his time. Sovremennik was originally founded by Pushkin, and Nekrasov continued the legacy.

During its 20 years of steady and careful literary policy, Sovremennik evolved into a literary salon and served as a cultural forum for all Russian writers. Sovremennik published the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Ivan Turgenev, and Leo Tolstoy, as well as Nekrasov's own poetry and prose, among many other writers. During the 1850s and 1860s, Sovremennik had the largest circulation of all Russian literary magazines, it was also distributed among Russian expatriate communities in Europe. The success of Sovremennik was mainly attributed to Nekrasov's talent as a publisher, as well as to the circle of talented writers in Russia and abroad. Sovremennik was one of the very few Russian magazines to publish the works of leading European authors, such as Flaubert and Balzac, translated into Russian. However, the lack of real political freedom in Russia, coupled with financial difficulties, led to the end in 1866, when the magazine was closed by the tsar's government in connection with the arrest of its radical editor, revolutionary Nikolai Chernyshevsky).

Nekrasov's estate in Karabikha, his St. Petersburg home, as well as the office of Sovremennik magazine on Liteyny Prospekt, are now national cultural landmarks and public museums of Russian literature.