Vasily Botkin

Vasily Petrovich Botkin (; – ) was a Russian essayist, literary, art and music critic, translator and publicist.

Early life Vasily was born in Moscow, the son of Alexandra Antonovna (Baranova) and Petr Kononovich Botkin, a wealthy tea merchant. His brothers were Sergey Botkin, a well-known physician, and Mikhail Botkin, a painter and art collector. Vasily was a moderate liberal in the 1830s and 40s, associating with members of the circle of Nikolai Stankevich, and with the Westernizers, including Mikhail Bakunin, Vissarion Belinsky and Alexander Herzen.

His extensive correspondence with Belinsky, Tolstoy, and others is of great social interest.

English translations A. A. Fet, from Russian Literature Triquarterly #17, Ardis Publishers, 1982.