Why did Vissarion Belinsky criticize Selected Passages from Correspondence with My Friends?

Vissarion Belinsky, a prominent literary critic and advocate for social progress, fiercely criticized Nikolay Gogol’s Selected Passages from Correspondence with My Friends (1847) because he viewed the work as a betrayal of the Russian people.1

Belinsky’s condemnation stemmed from the book's content, which included 32 discourses that eulogized the conservative church and state and preached submission to the very powers Gogol had previously criticized. In an indignant letter, Belinsky denounced Gogol as a "preacher of the knout" and a "defender of obscurantism and of darkest oppression," arguing that the work served as a "handmaid of despotism".123

For Belinsky, who believed that Russian literature should honestly reflect reality and serve the development of a mature, civilized society, Gogol’s shift toward reactionary moralizing represented a profound abandonment of his role as a social critic.1