Also fundamental to this theory is the modernist intellectual argument in the Soviet Union, particularly Russian formalism led by Victor Shklovsky and Roman Jakobson. As David Lodge indicates, Russian formalism advocates" making the study of literature an exact science; an idea which featured in twentieth century thought through the Prague School, Structuralism and New criticism"(15). But Bakhtin sees a link between literature and history which is why he states categorically in Speech Genres and Other Late Essays that" True understanding in literature and literary scholarship is always historical and personified"(162). This insistence on the relationship between literature and history accounts for the tension generated by his conflict based theory because his works bring history under scrutiny. Bakhtin's difficult career has produced major classics among which are: Problems of Dostoevsky's Art, Rabelias and His world