Editing History of Russia (section)

===Russian society in the first half of 19th century===
[[File:Painted-portraits-of-writer.png|thumb|right|«[[Golden Age of Russian Poetry]]» writers: [[Pushkin]], [[Ivan Krylov|Krylov]], [[Vasily Zhukovsky|Zhukovsky]], and [[Gnedich]]]]

The early 19th century is the time when [[Russian literature]] becomes an independent and very striking phenomenon.

[[Westernizers]] favored imitating Western Europe while others renounced the West and called for a return of the traditions of the past. The latter path was championed by [[Slavophile]]s, who heaped scorn on the "decadent" West. The Slavophiles were opponents of bureaucracy and preferred the [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivism]] of the medieval Russian ''[[mir (social)|mir]]'', or [[obshchina|village community]], to the individualism of the West.<ref>{{cite book|first = Tim |last = Chapman|title = Imperial Russia: 1801–1905|date = 2001|pages = 60–65|url =  |publisher = Routledge |isbn = 978-0415231091}}</ref> A forerunner of the Westernizer movement was [[Pyotr Chaadayev]]. He exposed the cultural isolation of Russia, from the perspective of Western Europe, in his ''Philosophical Letters'' of 1831. He cast doubt on the greatness of the Russian past, and ridiculed Orthodoxy for failing to provide a sound spiritual basis for the Russian mind. He called on Russia to emulate Western Europe, especially in rational and logical thought, its progressive spirit, its leadership in science, and indeed its leadership on the path to freedom.<ref>Janko Lavrin, "Chaadayev and the West." ''Russian Review'' 22.3 (1963): 274–288 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/126270 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325102200/https://www.jstor.org/stable/126270 |date=25 March 2020 }}.</ref><ref>Raymond T. McNally, "The Significance of Chaadayev's Weltanschauung." ''Russian Review'' 23.4 (1964): 352–361. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/126212 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531155448/https://www.jstor.org/stable/126212 |date=31 May 2022 }}</ref> [[Vissarion Belinsky]]<ref>Neil Cornwell, "Belinsky and V.F. Odoyevsky." ''Slavonic and East European Review'' 62.1 (1984): 6–24. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4208792 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531231253/https://www.jstor.org/stable/4208792 |date=31 May 2022 }}</ref> and [[Alexander Herzen]] were prominent Westernizers.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kantor | first1 = Vladimir K. | year = 2012 | title = The tragedy of Herzen, or seduction by radicalism | journal = Russian Studies in Philosophy | volume = 51 | issue = 3| pages = 40–57 | doi = 10.2753/rsp1061-1967510303 | s2cid = 145712584 }}</ref>