'Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky' is both history and story, incorporating in its analysis of Alexander II's turbulent reign the lives and ideas of the period's great writers, thinkers and revolutionaries who made this the Golden Age of Russian literature and thought. Uniquely, the book examines Alexander II's policies and the reactions they provoked from the Russian intelligentsia. In doing so, it interweaves in-depth consideration of the personal and public lives of individuals such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev; it also incorporates reflections as to why the outcome of this tumultuous reign was so tragic.


In his combination of considerable biographical material with the presentation of the main ideas of the era's chief writers and thinkers, Walter G. Moss has written a history that is of interest not only to scholars and students of the period, but also to more general readers.