At the head of the second group, which clung to the aesthetic doctrine that regarded every-day life as the best source of inspiration and contained several very talented expositors, stood Nikolai Alexyeevitch Nekrasoff (1821-1877).

Nekrasoff belonged to an impoverished noble family, which had once been very wealthy, and was still sufficiently well off to have educated him in comfort.

But when his father sent him to St.Petersburg to enter a military school he was persuaded to abandon that career and take a course at the University.

His father was so enraged at this step that he cast him off, and the lad of sixteen found himself thrown upon his own resources.

He nearly starved to death and underwent such hardships that his health was injured for life, but he did not manage to complete the University course.