В-163

ВЛАСТИТЕЛЬ ДУМ (чьих, кого) lit NP fixed WO

a person who has much influence on his contemporaries, an intellectual and spiritual leader

molder of opinion

dominant (major) influence.

...За пятьдесят лет прогрессивной критики, от Белинского до Михайловского, не было ни одного властителя дум, который не произдевался бы над поэзией Фета (Набоков 1). ...During fifty years of utilitarian criticism, from Belinski to Mi-khailovski, there was not a single molder of opinion who did not take the opportunity to jeer at the poems of Fet (1a).

He знает он, что о ненавистном во все школьные годы физике станет когда-нибудь вспоминать с теплотою, а о кумире и властителе дум завуче — с содроганием (Битов 2). Не doesn't know that someday he will come to remember with warmth the physics teacher he has hated throughout his school years, and will shudder to remember the principal, his idol and dominant influence (2a).

From Aleksandr Pushkin's poem aTo the Sea" («К морю»), 1824. Used by Pushkin in reference to Napoleon and Byron.