Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science, and the Arts as a Literary and Public Institution in the Second Half of 19th Century

The research is devoted to the activities of the literary and public organization Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Science and the Arts, which was founded in St. Petersburg and existed from 1801 to 1826. The main purpose of the research is to analyze how the Free Society functioned as a literary and public institution, in which its members managed to significantly influence the development of the literature, science and the arts. For these purposes, the research examines the internal structure of the Society, which includes the established rules, statutes, methods of organizing members’ work and methods of organizing gatherings and projects with literary materials presented there. The research consists of 4 chapters. The first chapter is devoted to the history of the creation of the Free Society, the following chapters are an analysis of the organization of the internal structure of the Society. The division of chapters made according to the periods of the existence of the Society. The subsections consider in more detail the gatherings and the literature presented there, as well as publishing activities in the period under review. The main result of the research is the conclusion about how the organization of a literary community, consisting of members with such a different ideas and activities, made it possible to create a well-functioning institution, whose members were able to contribute to various fields of knowledge in the second half of the 19th century.