This comparative study takes Reinhart Koselleck's theory of Verzeitlichung (temporalization) as a point of departure for a new perspective on the emergence of modern generationality in the 19th century. Regarding four major works of German and Russian Entwicklungsromane (novels of development), this dissertation seeks to show, how the biographical challenge of evolving new, individual balances of past, present and future creates the possibility of new forms of communities such as modern generations. The differences between the Russian and the German plots are clear-cut: The ideological points of convergence of these communities, no matter how separated they might be according to space and time, are stated by 'values' in the German novels and 'ideas' in the Russian ones.
