The contributions in this volume, which is part of a series, examine the connection beween literature and ideas in important 19th-century instances, such as Pushkin, Chaadaev, the publicistic writing of the 1860s, the work of Solovev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Leant'ev. In the 20th century the spotlight falls on Rozanov, Mandelstam, Socialist Realism, Zinoviev and the "New God-Builders". The editor contends that these studies demonstrate that Russian and Soviet literature far from being swamped by ideology, has always been enriched by ideas while often subverting the ideology to suit its own autonomous needs.