Andrew M. Drozd – författare

A 2023 Choice Reviews Outstanding Academic TitleReading Darwin in Imperial Russia: Literature and Ideas expands upon the cataloging efforts of earlier scholarship on Darwin’s reception in Russia to analyze the rich cultural context and vital historical background of writings inspired by the arrival of Darwin’s ideas in Russia. Starting with the first Russian translation of The Origin of Species in 1864, educated Russians eagerly read Darwin’s works and reacted in a variety of ways. From enthusiasm to skepticism to hostility, these reactions manifested in a variety of published works, starting with the translations themselves, as well as critical reviews, opinion journalism, literary fiction, and polemical prose. The reception of Darwin spanned reverent, didactic, ironic, and sarcastic modes of interpretation. This book examines some of the best-known authors of the second half of the nineteenth century (Dostoevsky, Chernyshevsky, Chekhov) and others less well-known or nearly forgotten (Danilevsky, Timiriazev, Markevich, Strakhov) to explore the multi-faceted impact of Darwin’s ideas on Russian educated society. While elements of Darwin’s Russian reception were comparable to other countries, each author reveals distinctly Russian concerns tied to the meaning and consequences of the challenge posed by Darwinism. The scholars in this volume demonstrate not only what the authors wrote, but why they took their unique perspectives.

Revisiting Russian Radicals is a collection of ten articles that seeks to promote a revisitation of the Russian Radicals who have been somewhat unjustly forgotten in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. Rather than viewing the radicals through the lens of the 1917 October Revolution, the authors seek to analyze them on their own terms and explore new aspects of their legacy. The chapters provide a fresh look at some well-known radicals like Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, and Pisarev as well as examinations of lesser-known figures, and offer an interdisciplinary approach to their investigations, combining historical and literary analysis. A lengthy introduction is included for those who are non-Slavists, and for the newer generation of Slavists who may not be as familiar with these figures.