The review analyzes the monograph by Chinese researcher Zhu Jiangang, "尼·斯特拉霍夫文学批评研究" („Literary Criticism by N. N. Strakhov"), published by Peking University Press in 2025. It notes that the author brings Strakhov out of the shadow of his great contemporaries (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky) and treats him as an independent figure with his own thought and style. The central formula identified in the monograph is “一破一立” (polemical overcoming of nihilism and creative affirmation of Russian cultural identity), with “life” serving as the unifying concept. The review shows how Zhu Jiangang consistently reveals Strakhov's position regarding Pushkin, Turgenev, Herzen, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, highlighting both the strengths of his critical method and its limitations (especially in understanding Dostoevsky).
The review analyzes the monograph by Chinese researcher Zhu Jiangang, "尼·斯特拉霍夫文学批评研究" („Literary Criticism by N. N. Strakhov"), published by Peking University Press in 2025. It notes that the author brings Strakhov out of the shadow of his great contemporaries (Tolstoy, Dostoevsky) and treats him as an independent figure with his own thought and style. The central formula identified in the monograph is “一破一立” (polemical overcoming of nihilism and creative affirmation of Russian cultural identity), with “life” serving as the unifying concept. The review shows how Zhu Jiangang consistently reveals Strakhov's position regarding Pushkin, Turgenev, Herzen, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, highlighting both the strengths of his critical method and its limitations (especially in understanding Dostoevsky).