“Great was Pushkin’s feat that he was the first in his novel to poetically reproduce Russian society of that time and, in the person of Onegin and Lensky, showed its main, that is, male, side; but perhaps the greater feat of our poet is that he was the first to poetically reproduce, in the person of Tatyana, a Russian woman. A man in all conditions, in all layers of Russian society plays the first role; but we will not say that a woman plays a second and inferior role with us, because she plays absolutely no role...”