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Alexey Makhrov, Introduction to Dmitriev, 'Materials for a history of civilisation'

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Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev (1840-67) was a satirist and critic who wrote for various satirical journals, icluding Iskra (The Spark) and Budil'nik (The Alarm-Clock), which he edited until March 1866. After the publication of the article 'Art which Bows and Scrapes' in 1863 Dmitriev continued his polemics against the supporters of Academic art. His target in this 1866 piece was Nikolai Ramazanov, a tutor at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture and a writer on art, who criticised 'tendentiousness' in the work of Vasilii Perov. In this unsigned note, published in the satirical journal The Alarm Clock, Dmitriev denies any trace of 'common sense' in the exhibition reviews written by Ramazanov, and identifies him with retrograde forces in Russian society. Such a force was Mikhail Katkov, editor of the journal The Russian Messenger, who had previously censored Stasov's article 'On the Significance of Briullov and Ivanov in Russian Art',