The articles of the outstanding Russian art critic V.V. Stasov, a passionate fighter for realism in art, consider paintings by A. Ivanov, Fedotov, Perov, Kramskoy, Ge, Repin, Surikov, V. Vasnetsov, Shishkin and many other Russian artists of the 19th century. Stasov's reviews of the work of these artists are interesting for us as a direct assessment of a contemporary who saw their paintings for the first time. Published articles introduce the reader to the interesting, rich in major events artistic life of Russia in the second half of the last century.