The booklet “The Main Aspects of Modern Russian Literature” is an introductory lecture given by the literary historian and critic Semyon Afanasyevich Vengerov at Saint Petersburg University on September 24, 1897.

The lecture was printed in the Vestnik Evropy (Messenger of Europe) magazine in 1898 and then published in a separate edition in 1899. In his lecture, the scholar reflected upon the phenomenon of Russian literature, its development throughout the 18th –19th centuries, the influence Russia had on the European literary scene and the success of Russian writers with European readers and critics.

According to Vengerov, a distinctive aspect of Russian literature, which made it so different from the literature of other European countries, lies in the fact that it was never limited to simply achieving literary goals and has always been a useful platform for promoting edifying content. The scholar wrote, “All the major figures in our literature responded to the needs of the time in one way or another and were preaching artists.” Semyon Vengerov’s lecture was very well-received and therefore reprinted many times.

For many years, he gave lectures on the history of Russian literature at University of Kharkov, the Bestuzhev Women’s Courses and Petrograd University.

One of his students A. Fomin recalled, “In his lectures, Semyon Afanasyevich demonstrated his inherent great erudition and shared serious knowledge with the listeners. Semyon Afanasyevich read his lectures with great excitement; they were imbued with enthusiasm and ardent love for Russian literature, even to the point of passionate worship. All this inspired the students and instilled in them a lively interest and love for literature. Semyon Afanasyevich’s influence was enormous — he instilled interest and love for literature in his students and managed to enthrall many of them.”

Semyon Afanasyevich Vengerov played quite a significant role in the development of Russian literary studies. His multi-volume works “Critical and Biographical Dictionary of Russian Writers and Scientists”, “Sources of the Dictionary of Russian Writers” and “Russian Books” contributed greatly to the bibliography of Russian literature. Vengerov wrote over 100 articles for the “Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary”, where he was the editor of the literature section from 1891 to 1897. The scholar’s critical and bibliographical activity was highly praised by his contemporaries. He was dubbed the symbol and banner of Russian bibliography.