"If there could be said to be a central river – a Volga as it were – feeding Russian literature since its inception, it is this: heroes conform, accepting the fate an the will of the community; antiheroes are individualists who do not fit into society, who battle against fate and often try to impose foreign ideals onto the community. Superfluous men are these latter sorts of outsiders, and they have been with Russia from the beginning of its modern existence." – From the introduction.
