In Russia, when the name of Evgenii Baratynsky is spoken, it is usually accompanied by an almost obligatory reference to Aleksandr Pushkin, his contemporary, in comparison to whom Baratynsky is usually viewed by literary critics and historians as occupying second place on the scale of the literary ranking of Russian Romantic poets. There have been moments in literary history when the “poet-thinker,” as Baratynsky is frequently called (thanks to Pushkin), is granted first place within this poetic pantheon. The most acclaimed of these moments occurred during the poet's rediscovery by the Russian neo-Romantic poets at the turn of the century. Initiated by Valerii Iakovlevich Briusov, the new generation of poets judged the intellectual power of Baratynsky superior to the lyric elegance of Pushkin. Certainly, it is this same poetic intellectual power that granted Baratynsky a lasting literary importance within the history of Russian letters. Appreciated mainly this century...