Alexander Nikolaevich Engelhardt is a chemist, writer and public figure of the 60s and 70s of the 19th century, known to the general public mainly as the author of the letters “From the Village”. These are indeed detailed letters, the first of which was sent in 1872 to Otechestvennye zapiski from the Engelhardt family estate - the village of Batishchevo, Dorogobuzh district, Smolensk region. And then for ten years OZ readers waited for the publication of the next letter. The twelfth letter was already published in Vestnik Evropy - Otechestvennye zapiski was closed. “Letters” was published as a book at one time and read by Lenin and Marx, thanks to which “From the Village” was republished after 1917.