Editing Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy: Mikhail Katkov and the Great Russian Novel

Some of the greatest works of Russian prose first saw the light in the Russian Herald, the journal founded and edited by Mikhail Katkov: Fathers and Sons, War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, and The Brothers Karamazov. Yet because of his conservative politics and his intrusive editing practices, Katkov has been either ignored or demonized by scholars both in Russia and in the West; in contemporary Russia he has been hailed as the “savior of the fatherland” because of his aggressive Russian nationalism. This book studies Katkov’s literary career without vilification or canonization, focusing on the ways in which his nationalism fueled his drive to create the canon of Russian literature as a recognized part of world literature.