Alexander Pushkin
What was the publisher of Sovremennik from 1836 to 1837?
Sovremennik Sovremennik ( , The Contemporary ) was a Russian literary , social and political magazine , published in Saint Petersburg in 1836–1866 . It came out four times a year in 1836–1843 and once a month after that . The magazine published poetry , prose , critical , historical , ethnographic and other material . Sovremennik originated as a private enterprise of Alexander Pushkin who was running out of money to support his growing family . To assist him with the magazine , the poet asked Nikolai Gogol , Pyotr Vyazemsky and Vladimir Odoyevsky to contribute their works to the journal . It was there that the first substantial assortment of Fyodor Tyutchevs poems was published . Soon it became clear that Pushkins establishment could not compete with Faddey Bulgarins journal , which published more popular and less demanding literature . Sovremennik was out of date and could not command a paying audience . When Pushkin died , his friend Pyotr Pletnyov took over the editorship in 1838 . A few years later the magazine fell into decline , and Pletnyov handed it over to Nikolay Nekrasov and Ivan Panaev in 1847 . It was Nekrasov who really made the magazine profitable . He enlisted the services of Ivan Turgenev , Ivan Goncharov , Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogaryov . Sovremennik was the first to publish translated works by Charles Dickens , George Sand and other best-selling foreign writers . Although the magazine was owned and run by Nekrasov , its official editor-in-chief was Alexander Nikitenko . The virulent realist critic Vissarion Belinsky was responsible for its ideology . His criticism of present-day reality and propaganda of democratic ideas made the journal very popular among the Russian intelligentsia . Sovremenniks circulation was 3,100 copies in 1848 . During the reactionary reign of Nicholas I , the journal had to struggle against censorship and complaints of disgruntled aristocracy . Its position grew more complicated after Herzens emigration ( 1847 ) and Belinskys death ( 1848 ) . Despite these hardships , Sovremennik published works by best Russian authors of the day : Leo Tolstoy , Turgenev and Nekrasov . Timofey Granovsky , Sergey Solovyov and other leading historians were published as well . The period between 1852 and 1862 is considered to be the most brilliant in the history of the journal . Nekrasov managed to strike a deal with its leading contributors , whereby their new works were to be published exclusively by him . As regards ideology , Sovremennik grew more radical together with its audience . Belinsky was succeeded by Nikolai Chernyshevsky in 1853 and by Nikolai Dobrolyubov . All their principal articles were published in Sovremennik . In late 1858 , the magazine entered into polemics with the liberal and conservative press and became a platform for and ideological center of the revolutionary democracy , turning into a political magazine . In 1861 , it published materials , dedicated to the emancipation of the serfs and advocated the interests of serfs in the strongest terms possible . In 1859-1861 , Sovremennik argued with Herzens Kolokol about the aims of the Russian democracy . Such a radical stance alienated those writers who were indifferent to politics or personally disliked revolutionary intelligentsia . Although Tolstoy , Turgenev , and Dmitry Grigorovich eventually left the magazine , Sovremenniks circulation reached 7,126 copies in 1861 . The death of Dobrolyubov in 1861 , an 8-month suspension of publishing activities ( in June 1862 ) , and Chernyshevskys arrest caused irreparable damage to the magazine . Its ideological stance became less clear and consistent . In 1863 , Nekrasov managed to resume publishing Sovremennik . He invited Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin ( stayed until 1864 ) , Maxim Antonovich , Grigory Yeliseyev and Alexander Pypin to join its editorial staff . Controversy among the members of the editorial staff soon resulted in adoption of a more temperate policy . In 1863-1866 , Sovremennik published Chernyshevskys What Is to Be Done ? ( written in the Peter and Paul Fortress ) , satires by Saltykov-Shchedrin , and works by the so-called plebeian authors ( Vasily Sleptsov , Fyodor Reshetnikov , Gleb Uspensky ) . The magazine was closed down in June 1866 , owing to the official panic that followed the first attempt on Alexander IIs life . After that , Nekrasov and Saltykov-Schedrin acquired the rights to publish the Otechestvennye Zapiski , a literary journal widely viewed as Sovremenniks successor .