The article gives a survey of A. Jelachicʼs observations dedicated to the Russian thinkers of the 19th century, unified under the title “Grand Masters of Russian Literary Criticism and Social Thought”, published in the “Russian Archive” in 1932–1935. These articles consern the life and work of Russian social thinkers and literary critics of the 19th century from the 1840s until their deaths (with a special reference to the period from the 1840s to the 1870s). Jelachic shows the evolution of their philosophical views: from Hegel and his idealism through the anthropological materialism of Feuerbach to Kant’s agnosticism and Conte’s positivism.