About the book: year / "...The public saw that Sovremennik in 1858 did not remain an idle and indifferent spectator of the social movement taking place in present time: to the best of the editor’s strength, in accordance with its purpose and program, Sovremennik tried to serve the common cause of development and improvement, the desire for which has been so noticeably revealed in Russian society recently. Leaving the readers to judge to what extent our magazine satisfied its purpose in 1858, we hasten to say that we are very far from the idea of ​​​​considering the fulfillment of our chosen task perfect…»