YOUNG GENERATION - THE HOPE AND PAIN OF SALTYKOV-SHCHEDRIN
The article is devoted to Saltykov- Shchedrin΄s attitude towards young people, who took part in the democratic movement of the 1860-1870-s. The problems of the ways of national development, of the creation of social novel, the searches of the modern hero were connected for the satirist with the young Russia. The writer defended the idea of the new generation, aspiring to the individual and social freedom, to the reorganisation of Russian reality. Saltykov-Shchedrin understood, that political atmosphere 1860-1870-s was unfavourable for the young democrats. The satirist, as his oldest contemporary Hertsen, believed that the future of Russia was connected with these young men, but sharply criticized the extremes of their movement.