Saltykov-shchedrin, Mikhail Evgrafovich

(mēkhəyēl´ yĭvgrä´fəvĭch säl´tĭkôf-shchĕ´drēn), 1826–89, Russian novelist and satirist. Saltykov-Shchedrin was a master of the satirical sketch, which he used to attack the bourgeoisie, the gentry, and the officials of the civil service, of which he was a member. His greatest satirical work is The History of a Town (1869–70), directed against Russian officials and citizens alike. His masterpiece is his only novel, The Golovyov Family (1876, tr. 1931), a study of decaying gentry. Fables (1885, tr. 1931), a collection of pointedly critical tales in the manner of Aesop, revealed his genius for circumventing the censor.

See N. Strelsky, Saltykov and the Russian Squire (1940).