The name of Mitrophan Belaiev, who was a wealthy timber merchant and a maecenas, is not as well-known as those of Tretyakov, Morozov and Mamontov in the modern Russian historiography. But contemporaries regarded their contributions to the development of art comparable. Belaiev established «The Glinka Prizes», founded a publishing house in Leipzig «Belaieff Verlag», held the Chamber-music competitions, provided funding for individual grants to needy musicians. The author (of the article) attempts to investigate whether the Belaiev Circle constituted a singular trend in art. Some referred to it as «Academism», which was largely the position held by representatives of Modernism. If we look at the works of the Belaiev Circle through the eyes of its members, «nationalism» was a matter of principle and significant for their self-identification. Music and painting are very important for a nation to get mobilized as the «imagined community». That is why this problem is very interesting and topical today.