The L'vov-Derzhavin circle, inspired by Nikolai Aleksandrovich L'vov and lasting for more than thirty years, occupies an important position in the history of Russian letters. Starting in the 1770s, some of the most prominent Russian poets became associated with L'vov, including Gavriil Derzhavin, Vasilii Kapnist, Ivan Khemnitser, and Mikhail Murav'ev. The writers of this group were among the first to depart from classicist notions of art as the imitation of external models, classical or foreign, or as didactic propaganda designed to support an absolutist government. To them, literature (and art in general) was neither a craft open to everyone nor a hobby to which one devoted time after retirement--it was a fate and a calling.

L'vov helped acquaint his friends in Russia with Western culture, not only as a result of his wide travels in Europe, but also through his contacts in the aristocratic circles of Saint Petersburg...