[5] Cossack villages.

Iván Ivánovich Lazhéchnikov. (1794-1869.)

Lazhéchnikov was the most famous of Russian novelists before Gógol. His father was a rich grain and salt merchant in the city of Kolómna, and he spared no money for the education of his son. At sixteen years Lazhéchnikov wrote his _Thoughts in Imitation of La Bruyère_, which was published in The Messenger of Europe. His father having lost all his property, he accepted a government position, but in 1812 joined the army and with it went through the whole French campaign. In 1819 appeared his _Campaign Memoirs of a Russian Officer_, which are full of youthful ardour, patriotism, and a consciousness of the European importance of Russia. Having attracted the attention of the Court, he received various appointments, but again left the service in 1826. He then wrote his three great novels on which his reputation rests, namely, _The Last Noviks_, _The Ice House_, and _The Heretic_. His later stories did not sustain his fame.

In English has appeared _The Heretic_, translated from the Russian of Lajetchnikoff, by Thomas B. Shaw (in three volumes), Edinburgh and London, 1844, and again, under the title _The Heretic and the Maid of Moscow, a Romance of Russia_, by Thos. B. Shaw, London, 1849.

THE HERETIC