Kireevsky was one of Russia's first literary critics and journal publishers. He was also known as one of the main theoreticians of Russian Slavophilism, a movement that attempted to define the essence of Russia's historical development and identity. He was the first to complete critical studies of Aleksandr Pushkin's poetry, with his "Nechto o kharaktere poezii Pushkina" (Something About Pushkin's Poetry, 1828); he did an early survey of current Russian literature; and he was the first to dedicate an article to Russian women writers: "O russikh pisatel'nitsakh" (On Russian Women Writers, 1834). He was also one of the first to import Western ideas to Russia and apply them in the construction of his own Slavophile philosophical system. His journalistic activity mirrors his development as a literary critic and thinker. Two issues of Evropeets (The European) published in 1832, particularly his article "Deviatnadtsati vek" (The Nineteenth Century), are typical of his early...