In the article N. A. Nekrasov’s “Panaeva Cycle” – the poet’s love poems addressed to A. Ja. Panaeva – are considered in the gender optics. Although it describes an equal and free love relationship, its distinguishing feature is a specific male discourse, where the subject constantly instructs the beloved. (is feature of “Panaeva Cycle” in the article is traced back to the literary programs and to the everyday practices of the Russian followers of Georges Sand. Not only the mansplaining of “Panaeva Cycle”, but also its dramatic substratum are associated with them: in the 1840s–1850s, the program of the female development systematically failed, since “educated” women got out of the control of the emancipators, showed their own subjectivity, which did not correspond to the expectations of the progressives. (e article analyzes in detail some of the poems of “Panaeva Cycle” and the historical context, which is necessary for the new understanding of the cycle.