Valerian Maykov

Valerian Nikolayevich Maykov (; September 9 1823 — July 27, 1847) was a Russian writer and literary critic, son of painter Nikolay Maykov, brother of poet Apollon and novelist Vladimir Maykov. Valerian Maykov, once a Petrashevsky Circle associate, was considered by contemporaries as heir to Vissarion Belinsky's position of Russia's leading critic, and later credited for being arguably the first in Russia to introduce scientific approach to the art of literary criticism.

Biography Valerian Maykov, son of painter Nikolay Maykov, was born in Moscow and received a high-quality home education: Ivan Goncharov, the family's friend, taught him Russian language and literature. He studied in the Saint Petersburg University and later cited professor Viktor Poroshin who taught political economy as a major influence. In his first article, called "Productivity as Related to Wealth Distribution" (1842), he critically analyzed Adam Smith's theory and suggested an idea of workers' receiving shares of the profit. In 1842 Maykov graduated from the university and joined the governmental Department of Agriculture.

Legacy After a barrage of obituaries all mourning Russian literature's heavy loss there came ten years of oblivion. In 1861 Fyodor Dostoyevsky wrote warmly of Maykov's short legacy, then in 1868 Ivan Turgenev published a piece on him in his Literary Memoirs. In 1972 the magazine Otechestvennye Zapisky published a major analysis of Maykov's works. Critics argued, though, that the author, Aleksander Skabichevsky greatly exaggerated the degree of disagreement between him and Belinsky. In 1886 a large article by K. K. Arsentyev on Maykov and his political activities was published by Vestnik Evropy. The years 1891 and 1892 saw a renewed interest in Maykov's set of ideas when A. N. Tchudinov published in Literary Pantheon (Пантеон Литературы) his Critical Exercises (Критические опыты), which inspired a lively discussion in Vestnik Evropy, Russkaya Mysl and Istorichesky Vestnik magazines. Later a large article on this work was published by Akim Volynsky in his Russian Critics series.

According to the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, Maykov "wasn't a gifted writer in the common sense of the word," his style of writing was "anemic and occasionally murky", his analysis of Herzen and Tyutchev's works not original. Yet author Semyon Vengerov credited Maykov with being arguably the first "theoretical" critic in Russia who, unlike most of his colleagues, was interested not so much in analysis of particular literary works as with the way these works fitted into his own "rather neat and elaborate aesthetic theory". In fact, Maykov himself (in a letter to Turgenev) admitted that he'd "never meant to become a critic in terms of evaluating "other people's literary works". "I always dreamt of a scientist's career. But how could I make the common public read my scientific works? For me literary criticism is the only way of enticing it into the spheres of my scientific interest," he wrote.