neither believed in the possibility of an agrarian revolution in Russia, nor wanted it to happen, seeing education and enlightenment, often of religious nature, as the factors for social improvement," wrote the biographer. On the other hand, he had very little in common with Russian literary aristocrats. According to D. S. Mirsky, Leskov was "one of those Russian writers whose knowledge of life was not founded on the possession of serfs, to be later modified by university theories of French or German origin, like Turgenev's and Tolstoy's, but on practical and independent experience. This is why his view of Russian life is so unconventional and so free from that attitude of condescending and sentimental pity for the peasant which is typical of the liberal and educated serf-owner." Mirsky expressed bewilderment at how Leskov, after his first novel No Way Out, could have been seriously regarded as a 'vile and libelous reactionary', when in reality (according to the critic) "the principal socialist characters in the book were represented as little short of saints." Some modern scholars argue that, contrary to what his contemporary detractors said, Leskov had not held "reactionary" or even "conservative" sensibilities and his outlook was basically that of a democratic enlightener, who placed great hopes upon the 1861 social reform and became deeply disillusioned soon afterwards. The post-serfdom anachronisms that permeated Russian life in every aspect, became one of his basic themes. Unlike Dostoevsky, who saw the greatest danger in the development of capitalism in Russia, Leskov regarded the "immovability of Russia's 'old ways' as its main liability," critic Viduetskaya insisted. Leskov's attitude towards 'revolutionaries' was never entirely negative, this critic argued; it's just that he saw them as totally unprepared for the mission they were trying to take upon themselves, this tragic incongruity being the leitmotif of many of his best known works; (The Musk-Ox, Mystery Man, The Passed By, At Daggers Drawn). In 1891, after Mikhail Protopopov's article "The Sick Talent" was published, Leskov responded with a letter of gratitude, pointing out: "You've judged me better than those who wrote of me in the past. Yet historical context should be taken into account too. Class prejudices and false piety, religious stereotypes, nationalistic narrow-mindedness, what with having to defend the state with its glory... I grew up amidst all of this, and I was sometimes abhorred by it all... still I couldn't see the [true Christianity's guiding]