Ethical Choice in Mikhail Katkov's Literary Criticism: Focused on the Publication Controversy of Crime and Punishment.

The literary criticism of the famous 19th-century Russian political commentator and thinker Mikhail Katkov not only established his ethical identity as the head of conservative literary criticism, but also made the Slavic ethical values of Russian literary criticism evident. The depth of Katkov's involvement in the creation of Crime and Punishment shows that his literary criticism was not just an exercise in the usual sense of the word, but that it included the intention of guiding social thinking, shaping good morals and even defending the interests of the state. This intention is not only determined by his ethical status as editor-in-chief of the magazine, but also related to his understanding of the ethical nature of literary creation. Based on Russian Orthodox beliefs, the ethics of Katkov's literary criticism reflects the theme of the conflict between art and reality in nineteenth-century Russian literature, as well as the significance of Slavic ethical values. This is a point that has often been ignored by previous researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]