The scientific, literary and political magazine Russkaya Mysl (Russian Mind) was published in Moscow by the writer and translator Vukol Mikhailovich Lavrov. The magazine was characterized as moderately liberal and sympathetic to the Narodnichestvo political movement.
Each book of the magazine was divided into two parts. The first consisted of works of fiction and articles on subjects of science and history. The second one comprised opinion pieces and included sub-sections: “Political Notes”, “Inside View”, “New Books”, “Theater Reviews”, “Zemstvo”, “Medley” and others. The fiction section enjoyed such appearances as Gleb Ivanovich Uspensky, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, Vladimir Galaktionovich Korolenko, Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin, Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak and Dmitry Vasilyevich Grigorovich.
The Russkaya Mysl also featured Alexander Ivanovich Ertel’s works of the late 1880s and early 1890s. Over this short period, the magazine printed his “Mineral Waters”, “Two Couples”, “The Spirit Seers” and “The Change”. In 1889, the novel “The Gardenins; Their Retainers, Their Friends, and Their Enemies” was published in parts in several issues of the magazine. This work occupies a central place in Ertel’s legacy and is an integral part of the history of Russian novels, written in the last third of the 19th century.
In October 1889, Alexander Ertel wrote about his work on “The Gardenins” to the editor of the Russkaya Mysl magazine Viktor Alexandrovich Goltsev,
