Introduction

Abstract

“Our century is pre-eminently an historical century. ...Even art has now become pre-eminently historical. The historical novel and drama interest each and everyone more at present than do similar works belonging to the realm of pure fiction.”¹ Although Belinskii was writing in 1841, his statement could equally well apply to the Russia of a century later, when the interest in historical fiction had become, if anything, more intense. In fact, the abundance of Soviet historical novels and plays tempts one to believe Heine, when he said that the people want their history handed to them by the poet, not the historian.

The taste for history is the most aristocratic of all tastes.

Ernest Renan