"CLEANING RUSSIAN LITERATURE MEANS CLEANING TOILETS AND DEPENDING ON THE POLICE"

The period of realism in Russian literature, the 19th century, is very turbulent for the country. Russia participated in many wars, from the Napoleonic wars to the Russo-Turkish one at the end of the century. The internal political climate was also unfavorable as part of the nobility and military were eager for a change in the ways of ruling the country and abolishment of serfdom. This led to the Decembrist revolt. Although the revolt was suppressed, it is considered to have contributed to the subsequent partial abolishment of serfdom in the second half of the century.Such was the highly charged atmosphere in which the 19th century Russian poets and writers created their works. However, all the problems that oppressed the country - political, social and spiritual - seemed to enhance the development ofRussian literature. The authors were severely punished by the official censorship and the emperor himself. Literary figures like Pushkin, Lermontov and Dostoyevsky were persecuted, ostracized, imprisoned and their books were banned. Pushkin andLermontov were killed in a duel, and the authority did not seem to regret that. Herzen was forced to leave Russia. Dostoyevsky was initially sentenced to death and consequently served four years of hard labor. Chernyshevsky was ostracized for twentytwo years.However, despite the extremely strict censorship imposed by the court, the Russian literature of this period achieved great progress and received international acclaim because of its brilliant authors.