ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a very brief sketch of Michael E. Saltykov-Shchedrine's best work, which is deservedly among the classics of Russian realism. As realistic as Alexey F. Pisemsky but much more topical was Saltykov-Shchedrine. Shchedrine reached the high-water mark of portraiture even in Russian literature. Shchedrine wrote the novel The Golovlyov Family, which stands somewhat apart from Shchedrine's other writings. The Golovlyov Family is one of the gloomiest and most powerful novels in Russian literature. The chapter mentions a story as a proof that Pisemsky's realism derived quite a few of its ingredients from Gogol. Gogol's and Belinsky's attitude towards literature as a judge and critic of life persisted and kept on growing. Iudushka has become a nickname on a par with Gogol's characters and Goncharov's Oblomov. As for the basic impulse underlying Shchedrine's writings, it is the same as in Gogol, but with the addition of Belinsky's "social command".
