Otechestvennye Zapiski
"Who is to Blame?" was first published in the journal "Otechestvennye Zapiski" (1845-1846), with some cuts by the censor. It was published in book form in 1847. It was the first purely "social" novel in Russian literature. Vissarion Belinsky remarked that the novel was artistically weak but was valuable as a social and psychological evaluation of contemporary Russian life.