was true in Pushkin's day), and said his fables were read by men of
letters, merchants, men of the world, servants and children. His work
bears the stamp of ageless modernity just as _The Pilgrim's Progress_
or Cicero's letters seem modern. It also has the peculiarly Russian
quality of unexaggerated realism. He sees life as it is, and writes
down what he sees. It is true that although his style is finished and
polished, he only at times reaches the high-water mark of what can be
done with the Russian language: his style, always idiomatic, pregnant
and natural, is sometimes heavy, and even clumsy; but then he never
sets out to be anything more than a fabulist. In this he is supremely
successful, and since at the same time he gives us snatches of
exquisite poetry, the greater the praise to him. But, when all is said
and done, Krylov has the talisman which defies criticism, baffles
analysis, and defeats time: namely, charm. His fables achieved an
instantaneous popularity, which has never diminished until to-day.

Internal political events proved the next factor in Russian
literature; a factor out of which the so-called romantic movement was
to grow.

During the Napoleonic wars a great many Russian officers had lived
abroad. They came back to Russia after the Congress of Vienna in 1815,
teeming with new ideas and new ideals. They took life seriously, and
were called by Pushkin the Puritans of the North. Their aim was
culture and the public welfare. They were not revolutionaries; on the
contrary, they were anxious to co-operate with the Government. They
formed for their purpose a society, in imitation of the German
_Tugendbund_, called _The Society of Welfare_: its aims were
philanthropic, educational, and economic. It consisted chiefly of
officers of the Guard, and its headquarters were at St. Petersburg.
All this was known and approved of by the Emperor. But when the
Government became reactionary, this peaceful progressive movement
changed its character. The Society of Welfare was closed in 1821, and
its place was taken by two new societies, which, instead of being
political, were social and revolutionary. The success of the
revolutionary movements in Spain and in Italy encouraged these
societies to follow their example.

The death of Alexander I in 1825 forced them to immediate action. The
shape it took was the "Decembrist" rising. Constantine, the Emperor's
brother, renounced his claim to the throne, and was succeed