Pogodin was a member of that first generation of historians trying to decide what archeology meant to them and their discipline. He influenced the next, great generation of historians, including Solovev and Bestuzhev-Riumin. Very much a public intellectual, he published two journals, “The Moscow Herald” and “The Muscovite”; even Pushkin published in the former, but the latter was a Slavophile journal, a reflection of his politics.
Social Estate: serf
Fedor Grigorevich Solntsev, who lived for more than 90 years, has a remarkably eclectic biography. Though born on the estate of Prince A. I. Musin-Pushkin, his serf-father worked as a theatre cashier in St. Petersburg. The enormously talented F. G. entered the Academy of Arts, where Director Alexei Olenin became his mentor. A draftsman and watercolorist with as keen an eye for detail as there ever was one, Solntsev created the visual style of Russian romantic nationalism with his six volumes of Antiquities of the Russian State, published 1849-53. Among the many architectural ruins he helped to restore, the Kremlin’s Terem Palace stands out. Despite having no formal education, he became an Acamedician.