19th century Russian writers and how they dealt with the Western Influence of that time.

The first half of the 19th century marked Russia with a "feudal backwardness" for much of the Western Europe. It was considered more a component of Asia than a representative of European thinking. During the beginning of the century, indeed, peasants ("serfs") lead their miserable lives and were treated as the property of their feudal masters and could be easily bought and sold. However, they had a few more rights than slaves and gained their freedom only in 1861.
Nevertheless, as state secondary school and university education became more promptly available, the number of educated aristoc…