The taste for history is the most ariswcratic of all tastes. Ernest Rerum "Our century is pre-eminently an historical century . . . . Even art has now become pre-eminently historical. The historical novel and drama interest each and everyone more at present than do similar works belonging to the realm of pure fiction. " Although Belinskii was writing in 1841, his statement could equally well apply to the Russia of a century later, when the interest in historical fiction had become, if anything, more intense. In fact, the abundance of Soviet historical novels and plays tempts one to believe...