About the book: year / Katya Dianina's book takes us to the 1860s, when the exhibition hall and the newspaper spread became the two new spaces of the public sphere , where discourses about art and national self-determination intersected. This dialogue was of paramount importance because newspaper columns not only described cultural events, but also determined their meaning for society as a whole. Thanks to popular texts, previously unfamiliar visual arts became accessible to the literate population - both as a source of pride and as a subject of loud controversy. Thus, fine arts and journalism took part in the construction of Russian cultural identity. The focus of this study is the development of a general discourse on cultural self-presentation, shaped by art exhibitions and mass journalism..