11 Facts About Alexander Skabichevsky

Alexander Skabichevsky studied first at the Larin gymnasium, then at the Saint Petersburg University.

Alexander Skabichevsky debuted as a published author in 1859 with an article called "The Hunter's Notes", in Rassvet, a magazine for young ladies.

Alexander Skabichevsky moved to Otechestvennye zapiski where he became one of the major proponent of the Narodnik doctrine; many saw him as its co-creator, alongside Nikolai Mikhailovsky.

Unlike the latter, though, Alexander Skabichevsky was more of a literary critic and scholar than a publicist and sociologist.

Alexander Skabichevsky rejected radical realism, claiming that the purpose of art isn't the reproduction of external reality, but rather to reflect the world as it appears to us subjectively.

Alexander Skabichevsky criticized the idea of "types" in literature; he thought that the logic of types led to abstract generalizations that obscured the true color and variety of life.

Alexander Skabichevsky theorized that there was a pattern in European thought of movements going through two phases: the abstract or philosophical phase and the practical one.

Alexander Skabichevsky saw the literature of the 1860s as the abstract phase of Russian literature, while the populism that followed represented the practical phase.

Alexander Skabichevsky often clashed with the early Russian symbolists, but he saw them as part of the practical phase as well.

Alexander Skabichevsky felt that some of Ivan Turgenev's stories showed more of an affinity with symbolism than realism, while he had a negative view of the works of Fyodor Tyutchev, generally considered as a forerunner of symbolism.

Alexander Skabichevsky found the descriptions of war experiences in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace to be over-simplified, and held a negative view of some of Anton Chekhov's early works.