The idea of a second national opera began to occupy Glinka's mind very soon after the production of _A Life for the Tsar_. It was his intention to ask Poushkin to furnish him with a libretto based upon his epic poem "Russlan and Liudmilla." The co-operation of Russia's greatest poet with her leading musical genius should have been productive of great results. Unhappily the plan was frustrated by the tragic death of Poushkin, who was shot in a duel in 1837. Glinka, however, did not renounce the subject to which he had been attracted, and sketched out the plot and even some musical numbers, falling as before into the fatal mistake of expecting his librettist to supply words to music already written. The text for _Russlan and Liudmilla_ was supplied by Bakhtourin, but several of Glinka's friends added a brick here and there to the structure, with very patchy results. The introduction and finale were sketched out in 1839, but the composer, partly on account of failing health, did not work steadily at the opera until the winter of 1841. The score was actually completed by April 1842, when he submitted it on approval to Gedeonov. This time Glinka met with no difficulties from the Director of the Imperial Opera; the work was accepted at once and the date of the first production fixed in the following November. The subject of _Russlan and Liudmilla_, though equally national, has not the poignant human interest that thrills us in _A Life for the Tsar_. The story belongs to a remote and legendary period in Russian history, and the characters are to a great extent fantastic and mythical. It had none of those qualities which in the first opera made for an immediate popular success in every stratum of Russian society. The days are now long past when the musical world of Russia was split into two hostile camps, the one led by Serov, who pronounced _Russlan_ to be the last aberration of a lamentably warped genius; the other by Stassov, who saw in it the mature expression of Glinka's inspiration. At the same time Stassov was quite alive to the weaknesses and impossible scenic moments of the libretto, faults which are doubtless the reason why seventy years have not sufficed to win popularity for the work, although the lapse of time has strengthened the conviction of all students of Russian opera as to the actual musical superiority of _Russlan and Liudmilla_ over _A Life for the Tsar_. The story of the opera runs as follows: