p (Dedicated to S. M. Kravchinsky)^^1^^

p The abolition of serfdom has confronted thinking people in Russia with a whole series of questions that could not be solved without a prior understanding of how our people lives, what it thinks and where it is striving. All our public figures, peaceful and revolutionary, legal and illegal, have realised that the nature of their activity must be determined by the nature and mode of life of the people. Hence there has arisen the natural urge to study the people, to understand its position, its world outlook and its needs. A comprehensive study of popular life has begun. The results of this study which have appeared in the press have been received by the public with tremendous interest and sympathy. They have been read and reread, and made the basis of all manner of “programmes” of practical activity. In all this the most active and enthusiastic figure has been our raznochinets,^^2^^ our "thinking proletarian”, who calls himself with pride and a somewhat amusing exclusiveness "the intelligentsia".

p The educated raznochinets existed at the time of serfdom too, but then he represented a very small group of people who managed to get as far as abstract negation, in the manner of Bazarov,^^8^^ but could not even think of forming a “party”. At that time in general the existence of any parties other than literary ones was impossible. With the abolition of serfdom matters changed. The collapse of the old economic structure increased the numbers of the thinking proletariat considerably and aroused in it new hopes and new demands. These demands remained unsatisfied for the most part. The disgraceful political system, by its very nature alien to any “intelligentsia” without rank, was increasingly arousing a spirit of opposition in our educated proletariat, while the vagueness and ambiguity of the latter’s position between the upper classes, on the one hand, and the people, on the other, forced it to reflect upon the question of what was to be done. It is not surprising, therefore, that it was our raznochinets who plunged so avidly into all manner of research into popular life. The most determined section of these peculiar proletarians of unproductive (in the economic sense of the word) labour sought in the people support for its oppositional and revolutionary strivings; the other, peace- 38 ful section simply regarded the people as a medium in which it could live and work without relinquishing its human dignity and without cringing to any authority. For both a knowledge of the people was essential. And so our raznochinets not only devours studies on popular life, but is for the most part the author of these studies. He gets to know the urban artisan and pettybourgeois, studies the common law of the peasants, observes the land commune and cottage industries, copies down folk tales, songs and proverbs, has theological talks with sectarians, collects all sorts of statistical data and information about the people’s sanitary conditions, in a word, investigates and takes an interest in everything. A new Narodnik trend in our literature arose and soon became established, exerting an influence, inter alia, on fiction. Alongside the various special studies there appeared a multitude of sketches, scenes, and stories based on popular life. The raznochinets also contributed to fiction, as he did somewhat later to painting, where, incidentally, his activity was less interesting and fruitful.

Knowing that the writer is not only the spokesman of the social environment from which he comes, but also its product; that he brings with him into literature its likes and dislikes, its world outlook, customs, ideas and even language, we can say with certainty that as a writer our raznochinets too was bound to retain the distinctive features that were in general characteristic of him as a raznochinets.