This thesis examines the role nineteenth-century women's literary journals, specifically Ladies' Journal (1823--1833), played in the development of Russian literature. The longest-lived and most-circulated of the pre-Soviet women's literary journals, Ladies' Journal was well-positioned to have contributed to the on-going formation of a national literature through its influence on the Russian woman writer and reader. Ladies' Journal served as a forum for new Russian women writers and translators. It also promoted the discussion of women's issues. However, Ladies' Journal had a contradictory editorial policy concerning women and literature. While advocating women stake their own ground as writers, Ladies' Journal modeled the type of writer it wanted. The ideal writer was the inspiration of male poets and did not differ from the Romantic heroine or the ideal Romantic woman. This was a gesture in the spirit of the time, but it had consequences for Russian literature and for the poetics and politics of Russian women's journals to come.

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