Arzamas or, more formally, “The Arzamas Society of Obscure People” [Arzamasskoe obshchestvo bezvestnykh liudei] was a St. Petersburg literary circle active in Russia from 1815-1818. It was formed in response to another literary circle, Beseda (more formally, “The Colloquium of Admirers of the Russian Word” [Beseda liubitelei russkogo slova]). Arzamasians celebrated literary innovation, experimenting with genres, borrowing Western forms and language, and juxtaposing linguistic registers. The Besedists, on the other hand, are sometimes called “archaists” as they sought to maintain the eighteenth-century Russian literary tradition, especially its neoclassical forms and purity of language. Arzamas’s focus was on sharing and discussing its members’ literary works and it is best known today for its particular culture, which valued friendship, informality, wit, and playfulness, as well as literary experimentation and jovial debate.
The circle was formed of Nikolai...
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Citation: Bowers, Katherine. "Arzamas". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 September 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19327, accessed 09 June 2026.]
