This article considers the origins of the Russian obsession with culture. Focusing on the last third of the nineteenth century, when in the aftermath of the Great Reforms of the 1860s Russia experienced a conspicuous expansion of public sphere, I examine public debates in the contemporary press that tackled the question of national culture, deliberating on what it was and whether Russia needed it. Contemporary periodicals demonstrate that the Russian tradition of locating positive identity in culture was originally highly contested territory. Russian culture thrived on debate. What is more, even such prominent makers of the national tradition as Dostoevsky and Tolstoy assumed an explicit stance against culture. The article nevertheless contends that it was precisely this negative take that contributed to the glorious mythology that surrounds Russian tradition today. In the course of the many heated debates of the day, culture became a household word and a familiar marker of identity.
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