Between 1847 and 1859 Zotov published more than eighty of Khvosh-
chinskaia’s poems.
Interestingly, Praskov’ia Khvoshchinskaia does not mentionKhvoshchinskaia’s true poetic debut five years earlier, in 1842 , when her
poem, “Zavetnye chuvstva” (Secret feelings) appeared in Syn otechestva
(no. 2). (The poem appears as “Na bale” [At the ball, no. 21] in her note-
book, which is discussed later in this chapter). That same year “Materi”
(To my mother), Khvoshchinskaia’s dedicatory poem to her translation
of Victor Hugo’s “La prière pour tous” ( 1831 ), also appeared in Syn otech-
estva(no. 5 ).^31 How these poems came to be published remains unknown.
Vladimir Zotov, who arranged for all subsequent publications of
Khvoshchinskaia’s poetry, has been described as her “mentor” and “in
the liberal camp.”^32 Both terms require qualification. In regard to Zotov’s
politics, it is true that in the 1840 s he was friendly with the antigovern-
ment Petrashevsky circle, which included Dostoevsky and A. N. Plesh-
cheev, was arrested with them, but was then released.^33 And in the late
1850 s and 1860 s he helped Aleksandr Herzen collect censored Russian
literature to be published abroad. However, in 1861 Zotov praised the
reforms under which the serfs were nominally freed, but which more
radical social critics, for example, the Sovremennik group led by N. A.
Nekrasov, N. G. Chernyshevsky, and N. A. Dobroliubov, considered in-
adequate. And in 1858 he wrote an article described as “openly anti-
Semitic” in Illiustratsiia,which he edited from 1858 to 1861 , “protesting
against the idea of extending civil rights to Jews.”^34
Zotov’s treatment of Khvoshchinskaia was equally equivocal. Fromone point of view, it could be argued that Zotov did indeed act as
Khvoshchinskaia’s mentor: he published her poetry in a wide variety of
newspapers and thick journals, making her known as a poet. He intro-
duced her to Saint Petersburg literary circles and prevailed on her to
turn from poetry to prose, in which she experienced a great deal of
success. From another point of view, however, it could be argued that
Zotov exploited and abused Khvoshchinskaia, while appropriating
her work. Several sources observe that he did not pay her for her poetry.
As mentioned in chapter 2 , he published the first two groups of her
poems below an article suggestively titled “Safo i lesbosskie getery”
(Sappho and the courtesans of Lesbos). As women poets generally
did not appear in Literaturnaia gazeta,it seems a strange choice to have
placed Khvoshchinskaia’s work below an article that sexualized the
most famous classical woman poet. The poems of Khvoshchinskaia’s
Nadezhda Khvoshchinskaia 121