Few figures in Russian literary history have been as universally reviled and categorically condemned as Faddei Bulgarin (Tadeusz Bulharyn). This nineteenth-century Polish expatriate is seldom remembered in his adopted country for any of his literary accomplishments. Instead he is known mainly for his unscrupulous practices as a journalist, his alleged service as a spy for the tsar's secret police, his espousal of archreactionary political views as a newspaper editor, and his merciless hounding, as a literary critic, of the great national poet Aleksandr Pushkin. Bulgarin's name, in fact, has become virtually synonymous in Russia with viciousness, opportunism, and avarice of the most amoral kind. Such widespread disdain for Bulgarin's disagreeable personality traits and unethical conduct has unfairly colored critical judgment of his considerable achievements as a writer, as well as his important contributions to Russian literature as a critic, journalist, and publisher. Probably few people today realize that...