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Situated between Europe and Asia, Russia has been open to languages and cultures since the nineteenth century, making it an ideal place for comparative literature. This article offers an overview of the discipline of general and comparative literature in Russia from a historical perspective. It outlines the sources of comparative thought, the development of comparatism as a discipline, and considers the current situation of the discipline. In particular, it examines debates surrounding notions of “crisis” and “critique” in comparative literature, as well as the discipline’s relationship to linguistics, translation studies, and the notion of world literature.