Vasily Sleptsov was a Russian social activist and writer during the politically charged 1860s, known as the era of great reforms, and marked by Alexander II s emancipation of the serfs and the relaxation lifting of censorship. Popular in his day, Sleptsov s contemporaries Leo Tolstoy and Anton Chekhov praised his writing:, with Chekhov once remarkeding, Sleptsov taught me, better than most, to understand the Russian intelligent, and my own self as well.
The novella Hard Times is considered Sleptsov s most important work. It focused popular attention on the radical...