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Founder of Russian socialism

Writer and publicist, philosopher and teacher, author of the memoirs “The Past and Thoughts”, founder of Russian free (uncensored) printing, Alexander Herzen was one of the most ardent critics of serfdom, and at the beginning of the 20th century he turned out to be almost a symbol of the revolutionary struggle. Until 1905, Herzen remained a banned writer in Russia, and the complete collection of the author’s works was published only after the October Revolution.

Alexander Herzen was the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner Ivan Yakovlev and a German woman, Louise Haag, and therefore received the surname that his father came up with for him - Herzen (“son of the heart”). The boy did not have a systematic education, but numerous tutors, teachers and educators instilled in him a taste for literature and knowledge of foreign languages. Herzen was brought up on French novels, the works of Goethe and Schiller, and the comedies of Kotzebue and Beaumarchais. The literature teacher introduced his student to the poems of Pushkin and Ryleev.

“The Decembrists woke up Herzen” (Vladimir Lenin)

The Decembrist uprising made a great impression on 13-year-old Alexander Herzen and his 12-year-old friend Nikolai Ogarev; biographers claim that the first thoughts about freedom, dreams of revolutionary activity in Herzen and Ogarev arose precisely then. Later, as a student at the Faculty of Physics and Technology at Moscow University, Herzen took part in student protests. During this period, Herzen and Ogarev became friends with Vadim Passek and Nikolai Ketcher. A circle of people is forming around Alexander Herzen, just like him, who are keen on the works of European socialists.

This circle did not last long, and already in 1834 its members were arrested. Herzen was exiled to Perm, and then to Vyatka, but, partly at the request of Zhukovsky, our hero was transferred to Vladimir. It is believed that it was in this city that Herzen lived his happiest days. Here he got married, secretly taking his bride from Moscow.

In 1840, after a short stay in St. Petersburg and service in Novgorod, Herzen moved to Moscow, where he met Belinsky. The union of two thinkers gave Russian Westernism its final form.

“Hegel’s philosophy - revolution” (Alexander Herzen)

Herzen's worldview was formed under the influence of left-wing Hegelians, French utopian socialists and Ludwig Andreas von Feuerbach. The Russian philosopher saw a revolutionary direction in Hegel’s dialectics; it was Herzen who helped Belinsky and Bakunin overcome the conservative component of Hegelian philosophy.

Having moved to the Mother See, Herzen became the star of Moscow salons; in oratory skills he was second only to Alexei Khomyakov. Publishing under the pseudonym Iskander, Herzen began to acquire a name in literature, publishing both works of art and journalistic articles. In 1841–1846, the writer worked on the novel “Who is to Blame?”

In 1846, he received a large inheritance after the death of his father and a year later he left for Paris, from where he sent four “Letters from Avenue Marigny” to Nekrasov for Sovremennik. They openly promoted socialist ideas. The writer also openly supported the February Revolution in France, which forever deprived him of the opportunity to return to his homeland.

“In the history of Russian social thought, he will always occupy one of the very first places”

Until the end of his days, Alexander Herzen lived and worked abroad. After the victory of General Cavaignac in France, he left for Rome, and the failure of the Roman Revolution of 1848–1849 forced him to move to Switzerland. In 1853, Herzen settled in England and there, for the first time in history, created a free Russian press abroad. The famous memoirs “The Past and Thoughts,” essays and dialogues “From the Other Shore” also appeared there. Gradually, the philosopher's interests moved from the European revolution to Russian reforms. In 1857, Herzen founded the magazine Kolokol, inspired by ideas that appeared in Russia after the Crimean War.

The special political tact of Herzen the publisher, who, without retreating from his socialist theories, was ready to support the reforms of the monarchy as long as he was confident in their effectiveness and necessity, helped “The Bell” become one of the important platforms on which the peasant issue was discussed. The magazine's influence declined when the issue itself was resolved. And Herzen’s pro-Polish position in 1862–1863 pushed him back toward that part of society that was not inclined toward revolutionary ideas. To young people, he seemed backward and outdated.

In his homeland, he was a pioneer in promoting the ideas of socialism and the European positivist and scientific worldview of 19th century Europe. Georgy Plekhanov openly compared his compatriot with Marx and Engels. Speaking about Herzen’s “Letters”, Plekhanov wrote:

“One can easily think that they were written not in the early 40s, but in the second half of the 70s, and, moreover, not by Herzen, but by Engels. To such an extent the thoughts of the first are similar to the thoughts of the second. And this striking similarity shows that Herzen’s mind worked in the same direction in which the mind of Engels, and therefore Marx, worked.”.

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen - Russian revolutionary, writer, philosopher.
The illegitimate son of a wealthy Russian landowner I. Yakovlev and a young German bourgeois woman Louise Haag from Stuttgart. He received the fictitious surname Herzen - son of the heart (from German Herz).
He was brought up in Yakovlev's house, received a good education, became acquainted with the works of French educators, and read the forbidden poems of Pushkin and Ryleev. Herzen was deeply influenced by his friendship with his talented peer, the future poet N.P. Ogarev, which lasted throughout their lives. According to his memoirs, the news of the Decembrist uprising made a strong impression on the boys (Herzen was 13, Ogarev was 12 years old). Under his impression, their first, still vague dreams of revolutionary activity arise; During a walk on the Sparrow Hills, the boys vowed to fight for freedom.
In 1829, Herzen entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, where he soon formed a group of progressively thinking students. His attempts to present his own vision of the social order date back to this time. Already in his first articles, Herzen showed himself not only as a philosopher, but also as a brilliant writer.
Already in 1829-1830, Herzen wrote a philosophical article about Wallenstein by F. Schiller. During this youthful period of Herzen’s life, his ideal was Karl Moor, the hero of F. Schiller’s tragedy “The Robbers” (1782).
In 1833, Herzen graduated from the university with a silver medal. In 1834, he was arrested for allegedly singing songs discrediting the royal family in the company of friends. In 1835, he was sent first to Perm, then to Vyatka, where he was assigned to serve in the governor’s office. For organizing an exhibition of local works and the explanations given to the heir (the future Alexander II) during its inspection, Herzen, at the request of Zhukovsky, was transferred to serve as an adviser to the board in Vladimir, where he got married, having secretly taken his bride from Moscow, and where he spent the happiest and bright days of your life.
In 1840, Herzen was allowed to return to Moscow. Turning to fictional prose, Herzen wrote the novel “Who is to Blame?” (1847), the stories “Doctor Krupov” (1847) and “The Thieving Magpie” (1848), in which he considered his main goal to expose Russian slavery.
In 1847, Herzen and his family left Russia, going to Europe. Observing the life of Western countries, he interspersed personal impressions with historical and philosophical research (Letters from France and Italy, 1847-1852; From the Other Shore, 1847-1850, etc.)
In 1850-1852, a series of Herzen’s personal dramas took place: the death of his mother and youngest son in a shipwreck, the death of his wife from childbirth. In 1852, Herzen settled in London.
By this time he was perceived as the first figure of the Russian emigration. Together with Ogarev, he began to publish revolutionary publications - the almanac "Polar Star" (1855-1868) and the newspaper "Bell" (1857-1867), the influence of which on the revolutionary movement in Russia was enormous. But his main creation of the emigrant years is “The Past and Thoughts.”
“The Past and Thoughts” by genre is a synthesis of memoirs, journalism, literary portraits, an autobiographical novel, historical chronicles, and short stories. The author himself called this book a confession, “about which stopped thoughts from thoughts were collected here and there.” The first five parts describe Herzen's life from childhood until the events of 1850-1852, when the author suffered difficult mental trials associated with the collapse of his family. The sixth part, as a continuation of the first five, is devoted to life in England. The seventh and eighth parts, even more free in chronology and theme, reflect the life and thoughts of the author in the 1860s.
All other works and articles by Herzen, such as “The Old World and Russia”, “Le peuple Russe et le socialisme”, “Ends and Beginnings”, etc. represent a simple development of ideas and sentiments that were fully defined in the period 1847-1852 years in the works mentioned above.
In 1865, Herzen left England and went on a long trip to Europe. At this time he distanced himself from the revolutionaries, especially from the Russian radicals. Arguing with Bakunin, who called for the destruction of the state, Herzen wrote: “People cannot be liberated in external life more than they are liberated internally.” These words are perceived as Herzen’s spiritual testament.
Like most Russian Westernized radicals, Herzen went through a period of deep fascination with Hegelianism in his spiritual development. Hegel's influence can be clearly seen in the series of articles “Amateurism in Science” (1842-1843). Their pathos lies in the approval and interpretation of Hegelian dialectics as a tool for knowledge and revolutionary transformation of the world (“algebra of revolution”). Herzen severely condemned abstract idealism in philosophy and science for its isolation from real life, for “apriorism” and “spiritism.”
These ideas were further developed in Herzen’s main philosophical work, “Letters on the Study of Nature” (1845-1846). Continuing his criticism of philosophical idealism, Herzen defined nature as “the genealogy of thinking,” and saw only an illusion in the idea of ​​pure being. For a materialistically minded thinker, nature is an ever-living, “fermenting substance”, primary in relation to the dialectics of knowledge. In the Letters, Herzen, quite in the spirit of Hegelianism, substantiated consistent historiocentrism: “neither humanity nor nature can be understood without historical existence,” and in understanding the meaning of history he adhered to the principles of historical determinism. However, in the thoughts of the late Herzen, the old progressivism gives way to much more pessimistic and critical assessments.
On January 21, 1870, Alexander Ivanovich Herzen died. He was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery. His ashes were later transported to Nice and buried next to his wife's grave.
Bibliography
1846 - Who is to blame?
1846 - Passing by
1847 - Doctor Krupov
1848 - Thieving Magpie
1851 - Damaged
1864 - Tragedy over a glass of grog
1868 - Past and thoughts
1869 - For the sake of boredom
Film adaptations
1920 - Thieving Magpie
1958 - The Thieving Magpie
Interesting Facts
Elizaveta Herzen, the 17-year-old daughter of A.I. Herzen and N.A. Tuchkova-Ogareva, committed suicide because of unrequited love for a 44-year-old Frenchman in Florence in December 1875. The suicide had a resonance; Dostoevsky wrote about it in his essay “Two Suicides.”

Russian history is full of ascetics who are ready to lay down their lives for their idea.

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (1812-1870) was the first Russian socialist who preached the ideas of equality and brotherhood. And although he did not directly participate in revolutionary activities, he was among those who prepared the ground for its development. One of the leaders of the Westerners, he later became disillusioned with the ideals of the European path of development of Russia, went over to the opposite camp and became the founder of another significant movement for our history - populism.

The biography of Alexander Herzen is closely connected with such figures of the Russian and world revolution as Ogarev, Belinsky, Proudhon, Garibaldi. Throughout his life, he constantly tried to find the best way to create a just society. But it was precisely the ardent love for his people, the selfless service to the chosen ideals - this is what won the respect of the descendants of Herzen Alexander Ivanovich.

A short biography and overview of the main works will allow the reader to get to know this Russian thinker better. After all, only in our memory can they live forever and continue to influence minds.

Herzen Alexander Ivanovich: biography of the Russian thinker

He was the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev and the daughter of a manufacturing official, 16-year-old German Henrietta Haag. Due to the fact that the marriage was not officially registered, the father came up with a surname for his son. Translated from German, it means “child of the heart.”

The future publicist and writer was brought up in his uncle’s house (now it is named after Gorky).

From an early age, he began to be overwhelmed by “freedom-loving dreams,” which is not surprising - literature teacher I. E. Protopopov introduced the student to the poems of Pushkin, Ryleev, Busho. The ideas of the Great French Revolution were constantly in the air of Alexander's study room. Already at that time, Herzen became friends with Ogarev, and together they hatched plans to transform the world. It made an unusually strong impression on the friends, after which they became fired up with revolutionary activity and vowed to defend the ideals of freedom and brotherhood for the rest of their lives.

Books constituted Alexander's daily book ration - he read a lot of Voltaire, Beaumarchais, and Kotzebue. He did not ignore early German romanticism - the works of Goethe and Schiller put him in an enthusiastic spirit.

University club

In 1829, Alexander Herzen entered the physics and mathematics department. And there he did not part with his childhood friend Ogarev, with whom they soon organized a circle of like-minded people. It also included the future famous writer-historian V. Passek and translator N. Ketcher. At their meetings, members of the circle discussed the ideas of Saint-Simonism, equal rights for men and women, the destruction of private property - in general, these were the first socialists in Russia.

"Malovskaya story"

Studying at the university was sluggish and monotonous. Few teachers could introduce lecturers to the advanced ideas of German philosophy. Herzen sought an outlet for his energy by participating in university pranks. In 1831, he became involved in the so-called “Malov story,” in which Lermontov also took part. The students expelled the criminal law professor from the classroom. As Alexander Ivanovich himself later recalled, M. Ya. Malov was a stupid, rude and uneducated professor. Students despised him and openly laughed at him in lectures. The rioters got off relatively lightly for their prank - they spent several days in a punishment cell.

First link

The activities of Herzen’s friendly circle were of a rather innocent nature, but the Imperial Chancellery saw in their beliefs a threat to the tsarist power. In 1834, all members of this association were arrested and exiled. Herzen first ended up in Perm, and then he was assigned to serve in Vyatka. There he organized an exhibition of local works, which gave Zhukovsky a reason to petition for his transfer to Vladimir. Herzen also took his bride there from Moscow. These days turned out to be the brightest and happiest in the writer’s stormy life.

The split of Russian thought into Slavophiles and Westerners

In 1840, Alexander Herzen returned to Moscow. Here fate brought him together with the literary circle of Belinsky, who preached and actively propagated the ideas of Hegelianism. With typical Russian enthusiasm and intransigence, the members of this circle perceived the ideas of the German philosopher about the rationality of all reality somewhat one-sidedly. However, Herzen himself drew completely opposite conclusions from Hegel’s philosophy. As a result, the circle broke up into Slavophiles, whose leaders were Kirievsky and Khomyakov, and Westerners, who united around Herzen and Ogarev. Despite extremely opposing views on the future path of Russia's development, both were united by true patriotism, based not on blind love for Russian statehood, but on sincere faith in the strength and power of the people. As Herzen later wrote, they looked like whose faces were turned in different directions, but their hearts beat the same.

The collapse of ideals

Herzen Alexander Ivanovich, whose biography was already full of frequent moves, spent the second half of his life completely outside of Russia. In 1846, the writer's father died, leaving Herzen a large inheritance. This gave Alexander Ivanovich the opportunity to travel around Europe for several years. The trip radically changed the writer's way of thinking. His Western friends were shocked when they read Herzen’s articles published in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski entitled “Letters from Avenue Marigny,” which later became known as “Letters from France and Italy.” The obvious anti-bourgeois attitude of these letters indicated that the writer was disillusioned with the viability of revolutionary Western ideas. Having witnessed the failure of the chain of revolutions that swept across Europe in 1848-1849, the so-called “spring of nations”, he began to develop the theory of “Russian socialism”, which gave birth to a new trend of Russian philosophical thought - populism.

New philosophy

In France, Alexander Herzen became close to Proudhon, with whom he began publishing the newspaper “Voice of the People.” After the suppression of the radical opposition, he moved to Switzerland, and then to Nice, where he met Garibaldi, the famous fighter for freedom and independence of the Italian people. The publication of the essay “From the Other Shore” belongs to this period, which outlined new ideas that Alexander Ivanovich Herzen became interested in. The philosophy of a radical reorganization of the social system no longer satisfied the writer, and Herzen finally said goodbye to his liberal convictions. He begins to be visited by thoughts about the doom of old Europe and the great potential of the Slavic world, which should bring the socialist ideal to life.

A. I. Herzen - Russian publicist

After the death of his wife, Herzen moved to London, where he began publishing his famous newspaper “The Bell”. The newspaper enjoyed its greatest influence in the period preceding the abolition of serfdom. Then its circulation began to fall; its popularity was especially affected by the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863. As a result, Herzen’s ideas did not find support among either radicals or liberals: for the former they turned out to be too moderate, and for the latter too radical. In 1865, the Russian government persistently demanded from Her Majesty the Queen of England that the editors of Kolokol be expelled from the country. Alexander Herzen and his associates were forced to move to Switzerland.

Herzen died of pneumonia in 1870 in Paris, where he came on family business.

Literary heritage

The bibliography of Alexander Ivanovich Herzen includes a huge number of articles written in Russia and in emigration. But his greatest fame was brought to him by his books, in particular the final work of his life, “Past and Thoughts.” Alexander Herzen himself, whose biography sometimes took unimaginable zigzags, called this work a confession that evoked various “thoughts from his thoughts.” This is a synthesis of journalism, memoirs, literary portraits and historical chronicles. Over the novel “Who is to Blame?” the writer worked for six years. In this work, he proposes to solve the problems of equality of women and men, relationships in marriage, and education with the help of high ideals of humanism. He also wrote the highly social stories “The Thieving Magpie”, “Doctor Krupov”, “Tragedy over a Glass of Grog”, “For the Sake of Boredom” and others.

There is probably not a single educated person who does not know, at least from hearsay, who Alexander Herzen is. A brief biography of the writer is contained in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary, and who knows what other sources! However, it is best to get to know the writer through his books - it is in them that his personality comes into full view.

Herzen A.I. - biography Herzen A.I. - biography

Herzen Alexander Ivanovich (pseudonym Iskander) (1812 - 1870)
Herzen A.I.
Biography
Russian politician, writer, philosopher, publicist. Born on April 6 (old style - March 25) 1812 in Moscow. Illegitimate son of a noble Russian master I.A. Yakovlev and the German woman Louise Haag, whom Yakovlev, returning after many years of traveling around Europe, took with him to Moscow. Yakovlev gave the child the surname Herzen (from the German word “Herz” - heart). The boy's first years were sad and lonely. He learned German from his mother, and French from conversations with his father and tutors. Yakovlev had a rich library, consisting almost exclusively of works by French writers of the 18th century, and the boy rummaged through it quite freely. The events of December 14, 1825 determined the direction of Herzen’s aspirations and sympathies. In 1833 Herzen graduated from the university with a candidate's degree and a silver medal. While still at the university, he became acquainted with the teachings of the Saint-Simonists. A year after completing the course, Herzen and his friend Ogarev were arrested. The reason for the arrest was the very fact of the existence of “non-employees” in Moscow, young people who were always talking about something, worried and fuming, and the reason was a student party at which a song containing “impudent censure” was sung, and a bust of Emperor Nicholas was smashed Pavlovich. The inquiry found that Sokolovsky composed the song, Ogarev knew Sokolovsky, Herzen was friends with Ogarev, and although neither Herzen nor Ogarev were even at the party, nevertheless, on the basis of “indirect evidence” regarding their “way of thinking,” they were involved in the case of “a failed conspiracy of young people devoted to the teachings of Saint-Simonism, which failed due to arrest.” Herzen spent nine months in prison, after which, in his words, “they read to us, like a bad joke, a sentence of death, and then they announced that, driven by the inadmissible kindness so characteristic of him, the emperor ordered only a corrective measure to be applied to us, in the form of a link." Herzen was assigned Perm as a place of exile, where he spent three weeks and then, by order of the authorities, was transferred to Vyatka, enlisted as a “clerk” in the service of Governor Tyufyaev. Soon he was transferred from Vyatka to Vladimir, and after Vladimir Herzen was allowed to live in St. Petersburg, but soon he again found himself in exile, in Novgorod. Thanks to the efforts of his friends, Herzen managed to escape from Novgorod, retire and move to Moscow. He lived there from 1842 to 1847 - the last period of his life in Russia. Herzen was drawn to Europe, but in response to Herzen’s requests for a foreign passport for the treatment of his wife there, Emperor Nicholas put down a resolution: “no need.” The conditions of Russian life pressed Herzen terribly; Meanwhile, Ogarev was already abroad and from there he wrote to his friend: “Herzen! But you can’t live at home. I’m convinced that it’s impossible. A person who is alien to his family is obliged to break with his family.” In 1847 he finally arrived in Paris, then in Geneva, and lived in Italy. After the appearance of “Letters from France and Italy,” Herzen’s famous work “From the Other Shore” (originally also in German: “Von andern Ufer”) also appeared in print. Having buried his wife in Nice, Herzen moved to London, where he installed the first press of the free Russian press, on which the magazines “Polar Star” and “Bell” were printed, the first issue of which was published on July 1, 1857. “Bell” continued to be published until 1867. The last period of his life Herzen was for him a time of isolation from Russia and loneliness. The “fathers” recoiled from him for his “radicalism,” and the “children” for his “moderation.” He died on January 21 (old style - 9) 1870 in Paris. Herzen was buried first in the Pere Lachaise cemetery, and then his ashes were transported to Nice, where he rests to this day. Above the grave stands a beautiful monument depicting Herzen standing at full height, with his face turned towards Russia, a monument by Zabello.
Among the works are articles, stories, novels: “Notes of a Young Man” (autobiographical story), “Moscow and St. Petersburg” (1842; the pamphlet was widely circulated; published in 1857), “Amateurism in Science” (1843), “Letters about studying nature” (1845 - 1846), “Who is to blame?” (1841 - 1846, novel), "Doctor Krupov" (1847, story), "The Thieving Magpie" (1848, story), "Duty First" (1851, story), "Damaged" (1851, story), " William Penn" (drama), "The Past and Thoughts" (1852 - 1868, autobiographical novel), "For the Sake of Boredom" (1868 - 1869, essay), "Doctor, Dying and the Dead" (1869, story), "To an Old Comrade "(1869, letters - last work).
__________
Information sources:
"Russian Biographical Dictionary"
Encyclopedic resource www.rubricon.com
Project "Russia Congratulates!" - www.prazdniki.ru

(Source: “Aphorisms from around the world. Encyclopedia of wisdom.” www.foxdesign.ru)

Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms. Academician 2011.

See what “Herzen A.I. - biography” is in other dictionaries:

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Herzen- Herzen, A.I. (1812 1870) famous Russian writer and revolutionary. He began his revolutionary activities under the influence of the great utopian socialists. In 1834, together with Ogarev and others, he was exiled to Perm, and then to Vyatka. Upon returning to Moscow... ... 1000 biographies

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Books

• Alexander Herzen. Selected works in 5 volumes (set), Alexander Herzen. Alexander Ivanovich Herzen is a Russian writer, publicist, theorist and literary historian, philosopher, founder of the Russian uncensored press, founder of Russian political...

In the family of a wealthy Russian landowner I. A. Yakovlev.

Mother - Louise Haag, a native of Stuttgart (Germany). The marriage of Herzen's parents was not formalized, and he bore the surname invented by his father (from Herz - “heart”).

Alexander Ivanovich’s early spiritual development was facilitated by his acquaintance with the best works of Russian and world literature, with the forbidden “free” poems of Russian poets of the 10-20s. The “hidden” poetry of Pushkin and the Decembrists, the revolutionary dramas of Schiller, the romantic poems of Byron, the works of advanced French thinkers of the 18th century. strengthened Herzen's freedom-loving beliefs and his interest in the socio-political problems of life.

Young Alexander Ivanovich witnessed the powerful rise of the social movement in Russia caused by the Patriotic War of 1812. The Decembrist uprising had a huge impact on the formation of his revolutionary worldview. “The execution of Pestel and his comrades,” Herzen later wrote, “finally awakened the childish sleep of my soul” (“The Past and Thoughts”). From childhood, Herzen felt hatred for serfdom, on which the police-autocratic regime in the country was based.

In 1827, together with his friend N.P. Ogarev, on the Sparrow Hills, he took an oath to sacrifice his life to fight for the liberation of the Russian people.

In October 1829, Alexander Ivanovich entered the physics and mathematics department of Moscow University. Here, around him and Ogarev, a revolutionary circle of students formed, who deeply felt the defeat of the December uprising. The members of the circle followed the revolutionary movement in the West, studied the social-utopian theories of Western European socialists, “but most of all they preached hatred of all violence, of all government arbitrariness” (“The Past and Thoughts”). Herzen paid great attention to the study of natural sciences at the university; during his student years he wrote several works on natural science topics

“On the Place of Man in Nature”, 1832;

“Analytical presentation of the solar system of Copernicus”, 1833;

in the journal “Bulletin of Natural Sciences and Medicine” (1829), “Athenaeum” (1830) and others. Herzen A.I. published his translations and abstracts of works by Western European scientists devoted to problems of natural science. In these articles, he sought to overcome idealism and affirmed the idea of ​​the unity of consciousness and matter; at the same time, he could not be satisfied with the limited, metaphysical materialism of the 18th century. Herzen's philosophical quests in the 30-40s. were aimed at creating a materialist system that would meet the revolutionary liberation aspirations of the advanced circles of Russian society.

In July 1833, Alexander Ivanovich graduated from the university with a candidate's degree. Together with his friends, he made broad plans for further literary and political activities, in particular the publication of a magazine that would promote advanced social theories. But the tsarist government, frightened by the Decembrist uprising, mercilessly suppressed any manifestation of freedom-loving thought in Russian society.

In July 1834, Herzen, Ogarev and other members of the circle were arrested.

In April 1835, Herzen was exiled to Perm and then to Vyatka under strict police supervision. Prison and exile exacerbated the writer’s hatred of the autocratic-serf system; the exile enriched him with knowledge of Russian life, the vile feudal reality. Close contact with the life of the people had a particularly profound impact on Herzen.

At the end of 1837, at the request of the poet V. A. Zhukovsky, Alexander Ivanovich was transferred to Vladimir (on the Klyazma).

In May 1838 he married N.A. Zakharyina.

(“First meeting”, 1834-36;

"Legend", 1835-36;

"Second Meeting", 1836;

"From Roman Scenes", 1838;

“William Pen”, 1839, and others) he raised the question that deeply concerned him about the reorganization of society on a reasonable basis. In romantically elevated, sublime images, sometimes in a naive, conventional form, the ideological life, passionate philosophical and political quests of the advanced noble youth of the 30s found their embodiment. Imbued with the liberating ideas of his time, the works of the young Herzen, despite all their artistic immaturity, developed the civic motives of Russian literature of the 20s and affirmed “life for ideas” as “the highest expression of society.”

In the summer of 1839, police supervision was removed from Alexander Ivanovich, at the beginning of 1840 he returned to Moscow, and then moved to St. Petersburg.

In 1840-41, in Otechestvennye zapiski, Herzen published the autobiographical story “Notes of a Young Man.” As far as censorship conditions allowed, the story revealed a wide range of spiritual interests of the advanced Russian intelligentsia; its final chapter, in a sharp satirical form, denounced the “patriarchal mores of the city of Malinov” (meaning Vyatka), the vulgar life of the provincial bureaucratic-landowner environment. The story opened a new period in Herzen's literary activity; it marked the writer's entry onto the path of critical realism.

In 1841, for “spreading unfounded rumors” - a harsh review in a letter to his father about the crimes of the tsarist police - Herzen was again exiled, this time to Novgorod.

In the summer of 1842, Alexander Ivanovich returned to Moscow. He took an active part in the ideological struggle of the 40s, in exposing the ideologists of the landowner-serf reaction and bourgeois-noble liberalism, and showed himself to be a worthy ally of the great revolutionary democrat Belinsky. Relying in all his activities on the traditions of Radishchev, Pushkin, the Decembrists, deeply studying the outstanding works of advanced Russian and foreign literature and social thought, he defended the revolutionary path of development of Russia. He defended his views in the fight against Slavophiles, who idealized the economic and political originality of Tsarist Russia, and Western liberals, who worshiped the bourgeois system in Western Europe. Outstanding philosophical works of Herzen

"Amateurism in Science" (1842-43),

“Letters on the Study of Nature” (1844-46) played a huge role in the justification and development of the materialist tradition in Russian philosophy.

Herzen's materialism had an active, effective character and was permeated with a fighting democratic spirit. Alexander Ivanovich was one of the first thinkers who were able to understand Hegel’s dialectic and evaluate it as the “algebra of revolution,” while at the same time he accused the German idealists and Russian Hegelians of being out of touch with life. Together with Belinsky, Herzen put his philosophical quests at the service of the liberation struggle of the masses.

According to the description of V.I. Lenin, Herzen in serf Russia in the 40s. XIX century “managed to rise to such a height that he stood on a level with the greatest thinkers of his time... Herzen came close to dialectical materialism and stopped before historical materialism” (Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 21, p. 256). Herzen's articles provided a deep justification for the basic principles of materialist philosophy. He characterizes the history of the human world as a continuation of the history of nature; spirit, thought, Herzen proves, are the result of the development of matter. Defending the dialectical doctrine of development, the writer asserted contradiction as the basis of progress in nature and society. His articles contained an exceptionally vivid, polemically sharp presentation of the history of philosophical teachings, the struggle between materialism and idealism. Herzen noted the independence of Russian philosophy and the critical perception by Russian thinkers of the advanced philosophical trends of the West. Herzen's struggle with idealistic philosophy as the ideological bulwark of the feudal reaction had a clearly expressed political character. However, in the conditions of backward, feudal Russia, he was unable to give a materialist explanation of the struggle between ideological and materialist philosophical systems as one of the manifestations of the class struggle in society.

The materialist ideas developed in Herzen's articles had a great influence on the formation of the worldview of Russian revolutionary democracy in the 60s.

Alexander Ivanovich's active participation in the liberation struggle of the Russian people served as a powerful source of the artistic power of his literary creativity.

From 1841-46 he wrote the novel “Who is to Blame?” (complete edition - 1847) he raised the most important questions of Russian life in the 40s. Herzen gave a devastating critique of serfdom and the landowner-autocratic system that suppressed the human personality. The severity of his protest against the serfdom acquired a truly revolutionary sound in the novel.

The 1846 story “The Thieving Magpie” (published in 1848) told about the inexhaustible creative powers and talent of the Russian people, about their desire for emancipation, about the consciousness of personal dignity and independence inherent in the common Russian person. With great force, the story revealed the general tragedy of the Russian people under the conditions of the autocratic-serf system.

The 1846 story “Doctor Krupov” (published in 1847), written in the form of a doctor’s notes, painted satirical pictures and images of Russian serfdom reality. The story's deep and penetrating psychological analysis, philosophical generalizations and social acuity make it a masterpiece of Herzen's artistic creativity.

In January 1847, persecuted by the tsarist government and deprived of the opportunity to conduct revolutionary propaganda, Herzen and his family went abroad. He arrived in France on the eve of the revolutionary events of 1848. In a series of articles “Letters from Avenue Marigny” (1847, later included in the book “Letters from France and Italy”, 1850, Russian edition - 1855), Herzen sharply criticized bourgeois society and came to the conclusion that “the bourgeoisie has no great past and no future.” At the same time, he wrote with great sympathy about the Parisian “blouses” - workers and artisans, expressing hope that the impending revolution would bring them victory

In 1848, Herzen witnessed the defeat of the revolution and the bloody rampant reaction. “Letters from France and Italy” and the book “From the Other Shore” (1850, Russian edition - 1855) captured the spiritual drama of the writer. Not understanding the bourgeois-democratic essence of the movement, the writer incorrectly assessed the revolution of 1848 as a failed battle for socialism.

The difficult experiences caused by the defeat of the revolution coincided with Herzen’s personal tragedy: in the fall of 1851, his mother and son died during a shipwreck; in May 1852, his wife died in Nice.

In August 1852, Alexander Ivanovich moved to London. The years of London emigration (1852-65) were a period of Herzen’s active revolutionary and journalistic activity.

In 1853 he founded the Free Russian Printing House.

In 1855 he began publishing the almanac “Polar Star”.

In 1857, together with Ogarev, he began publishing the famous newspaper “The Bell”.

In the 60s Alexander Ivanovich Herzen finally came to the camp of Russian revolutionary democracy. Convinced from the experience of the liberation struggle of the Russian peasantry during the revolutionary situation of 1859-61 in the strength of the revolutionary people, he “fearlessly took the side of revolutionary democracy against liberalism” (Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 18, p. 14). Herzen exposed the predatory nature of the “liberation” of peasants in Russia. With great force he called the masses to revolutionary activity and protest (articles in Kolokol: “The Giant is Awakening!”, 1861;

“The Fossil Bishop, the Antediluvian Government and the Deceived People”, 1861, and others).

In the early 60s. Herzen and Ogarev took part in the activities of the secret revolutionary-democratic society “Land and Freedom” and conducted revolutionary propaganda in the army.

In 1863, Alexander Ivanovich strongly supported the national liberation movement in Poland. Herzen's consistent revolutionary-democratic position on the Polish question provoked fierce attacks from reactionary circles and the liberal circles that joined them.

In 1864, Alexander Ivanovich angrily denounced the tsarism’s reprisal against the leader of Russian revolutionary democracy, Chernyshevsky.

Herzen was one of the founders of populism, the author of the so-called theory of “Russian socialism”. Without understanding the actual social nature of the peasant community, he based his teaching on the liberation of peasants with land, on communal land ownership and the peasant idea of ​​“the right to land.” The theory of “Russian socialism” in reality did not contain “not a grain of socialism” (Lenin), but it in a unique form expressed the revolutionary aspirations of the peasantry, its demands for the complete destruction of landownership.

In the first years of emigration and in London, Herzen continued to work hard in the field of artistic creativity. He defended the inextricable connection of art with life and considered literature a political platform used to promote and defend advanced ideas, to address revolutionary sermons to a wide range of readers. In the book “On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia” (in French, 1851), he noted as a characteristic feature of Russian literature its connection with the liberation movement, the expression of the revolutionary, freedom-loving aspirations of the Russian people.

Using the example of the creativity of Russian writers of the 18th - 1st half of the 19th centuries. Herzen showed how literature in Russia became an organic part of the struggle of advanced social circles. Themes and images of Russian serf life continued to occupy a major place in Herzen’s artistic works (the unfinished story “Duty First,” 1847 - 51, published in 1854; “Damaged,” 1851, published in 1854).

At the same time, Herzen, an artist and publicist, was deeply concerned about issues of bourgeois reality in the countries of Western Europe. In his works of the 50-60s. he repeatedly addressed the life of various circles of bourgeois society

(essays “From the letters of a traveler in the interior of England”, “Both are better”, 1856;

cycle “Ends and Beginnings,” 1862-63;

story “Tragedy over a Glass of Grog”, 1863, and others).

From 1852-68 he wrote memoirs “The Past and Thoughts”, which occupy a central place in Herzen’s literary and artistic heritage. Herzen devoted more than 15 years of hard work to the creation of a work that became an artistic chronicle of social life and revolutionary struggle in Russia and Western Europe - from the Decembrist uprising and Moscow student circles of the 30s. until the eve of the Paris Commune. Among artistic autobiographies of all world literature of the 19th century. “The Past and Thoughts” have no equal work in terms of the breadth of coverage of the reality depicted, the depth and revolutionary courage of thought, the utmost sincerity of the narrative, the brightness and perfection of the images. Alexander Ivanovich appears in this book as a political fighter and a first-class artist of words. The narrative organically combines the events of the author’s personal life with phenomena of a socio-political nature; the memoirs captured the living image of a Russian revolutionary in his struggle against autocracy and serfdom. Having arisen from the writer’s passionate desire to tell the truth about his difficult family drama, “The Past and Thoughts” went beyond the original plan and became an artistic generalization of the era, as Herzen put it, “a reflection of history in a person who accidentally fell on its road.” Herzen's memoirs were one of those books from which Marx and Engels studied the Russian language.

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was an artist-publicist. Articles, notes and pamphlets in Kolokol, full of revolutionary passion and anger, are classic examples of Russian democratic journalism. The writer's artistic talent was characterized by sharp satire; The writer saw in caustic, destructive irony and sarcasm an effective weapon of social struggle. For a more complete and profound disclosure of the ugly phenomena of reality, Herzen often turned to the grotesque. Drawing images of his contemporaries in his memoirs, the writer used the form of a sharp narrative story.

A great master of portrait sketches, Alexander Ivanovich knew how to laconically and accurately define the very essence of character, outline the image in a few words, capturing the main thing. Unexpected sharp contrasts were the writer’s favorite technique. Bitter irony alternates with a funny anecdote, sarcastic mockery is replaced by angry oratorical pathos, archaism gives way to bold Gallicism, folk Russian dialect is intertwined with an exquisite pun. These contrasts revealed Herzen’s characteristic desire for persuasiveness and clarity of the image, sharp expression of the narrative.

Artistic creativity of Herzen A.I. had a great influence on the formation of the style of critical realism and the development of all subsequent Russian literature.

In 1865, Herzen moved the publication of “The Bell” to Geneva, which in those years became the center of Russian revolutionary emigration. Despite all the differences with the so-called “young emigrants” on a number of significant political and tactical issues, Alexander Ivanovich saw in the heterogeneous intelligentsia “the young navigators of the future storm”, a powerful force of the Russian liberation movement.

The last years of the writer's life were marked by the further development of his worldview in the direction of scientific socialism. Herzen revises his previous understanding of the prospects for the historical development of Europe. In the final chapters of “Past and Thoughts” (1868-69), in his last story “The Doctor, the Dying and the Dead” (1869), he raises the question of “the modern struggle of capital with work,” new forces and people in the revolution. By persistently freeing himself from pessimism and skepticism in matters of social development, Herzen is approaching the correct view of the historical role of the new revolutionary class - the proletariat.

In a series of letters “To an Old Comrade” (1869), the writer turned his attention to the labor movement and the International led by Marx.

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen died in Paris, was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery, then transported to Nice and buried next to the grave of his wife.

After Herzen's death, a sharp political struggle unfolded around his ideological legacy. Democratic criticism consistently considered Herzen among the great teachers of the revolutionary intelligentsia of the 70-80s. Reactionary ideologists, convinced of the futility of attempts to denigrate Herzen in the eyes of the younger generation, began to resort to falsifying his image. The fight against the writer’s ideological legacy took on a more subtle form of the hypocritical “struggle for Herzen.” At the same time, the works of Alexander Ivanovich continued to be under a strict and unconditional ban in Tsarist Russia.

The first posthumous Collected Works of the writer (in 10 volumes, Geneva, 1875-79) and other foreign publications of A.I. Herzen (“Collection of posthumous articles”, Geneva, 1870, ed. 2 -1874, and others) were poorly available Russian reader.

In 1905, after 10 years of persistent efforts, it was possible to achieve the first Russian edition of the Collected Works (in 7 volumes, St. Petersburg, published by Pavlenkov), but it was disfigured by numerous censorship omissions and gross distortions.

In the bourgeois-noble press of the late 19th century, and especially during the period of reaction after the defeat of the first Russian revolution, endless variations of false interpretations of Herzen’s views, his ideological and creative path were repeated. They found an extremely cynical expression in the “Vekhi” legend about Herzen as an implacable opponent of materialism and all revolutionary actions. Bourgeois ideologists belittled the role of the great thinker and writer in the development of Russian and world science and literature. Having thoroughly emasculated the revolutionary essence of the writer’s activity, the “knights of liberal Russian linguistics,” as Lenin called them, tried to use the distorted image of the democratic writer in their struggle against the revolutionary movement and progressive social thought in Russia.

Much credit for exposing the reactionary and liberal falsifiers of Herzen belongs to G.V. Plekhanov. In a number of articles and speeches (“Philosophical views of A. I. Herzen”, “A. I. Herzen and serfdom”, “Herzen the emigrant”, “About the book of V. Ya. Bogucharsky “A. I. Herzen”, speech at Herzen’s grave on the hundredth anniversary of his birth and others) Plekhanov gave a deep and comprehensive analysis of Herzen’s worldview and activities, showed the victory of materialism over idealism in his views, the closeness of many of Herzen’s philosophical positions to the views of Engels. However, in Plekhanov's assessment of Herzen, there were many serious mistakes that flowed from his Menshevik concept of the driving forces and the nature of the Russian revolution. Plekhanov was unable to reveal Herzen’s connection with the growing revolutionary movement of the broad masses of the peasantry. Disbelief in the revolutionary spirit of the Russian peasantry and misunderstanding of the connection between the peasantry and the raznochintsy revolutionaries of the 60s deprived Plekhanov of the opportunity to see the class roots of Herzen’s worldview and the entire Russian revolutionary democracy.

In the Capri course of lectures on the history of Russian literature (1908-1909), M. Gorky paid much attention to Alexander Ivanovich. Gorky emphasized the importance of Herzen as a writer who posed the most important social problems in his work. At the same time, having singled out the “drama of the Russian nobility” as his leading feature in Herzen’s worldview, Gorky considered him outside the main stages of the development of the Russian revolution and therefore could not determine the true historical place of Herzen the thinker and revolutionary, as well as Herzen the writer.

The articles and speeches of A.V. Lunacharsky played a significant role in the study of the writer’s ideological heritage. Lunacharsky correctly emphasized the interconnection of various aspects of Herzen’s activity and creativity, the organic unity in his works as an artist and publicist. The weak side of Lunacharsky’s works was the underestimation of the continuity of Russian revolutionary traditions, as a result of which he exaggerated the importance of Western influences on Herzen’s ideological development. Erroneously considering Herzen and Belinsky as exponents of a certain single “Westernizing” trend of the Russian intelligentsia of the 40s, Lunacharsky did not reveal the deep meaning of the struggle Russian revolutionary democracy with bourgeois-landowner liberalism. Lunacharsky mistakenly brought the writer’s worldview closer to the anarchist views of Bakunin and the liberal ideology of the later populists.

Only in the articles and statements of V.I. Lenin did Herzen’s revolutionary legacy receive truly scientific comprehension. Lenin's article “In Memory of Herzen” (1912) became the most important historical document in the struggle of the Bolshevik Party for the theoretical arming of the masses on the eve of a new upsurge in the labor movement. Using Herzen as an example, Lenin called for learning “the great significance of revolutionary theory.” Lenin recreates the image of the original Herzen, a revolutionary writer whose historical place, along with Belinsky and Chernyshevsky, is among the glorious predecessors of Russian Social Democracy. In Lenin's article, Lenin's worldview, creativity and historical role are subjected to a specific and comprehensive analysis; Lenin explores the issues of Herzen's ideological evolution in inextricable unity with his revolutionary political activities. Lenin deeply revealed the path of Herzen, a revolutionary, the direct heir of the Decembrists, to revolutionary peasant democracy. The article contained a remarkable description of the global significance of Herzen's philosophical quests.

The Great October Socialist Revolution for the first time opened up the opportunity for an in-depth study of Herzen's life and work. In the difficult conditions of the civil war and economic devastation, the 22-volume edition of the complete collection of his works and letters, edited by M. K. Lemke, was continued and successfully completed. This publication, despite serious shortcomings, became a major event in the life of young Soviet culture. The general upsurge of Marxist-Leninist literary thought, achieved on the basis of the directing and guiding instructions of the party, had a life-giving effect on the further development of Soviet Herzen studies.

The 125th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, widely celebrated in our country in the spring of 1937, marked the beginning of serious research work in the field of studying the writer’s heritage.

In subsequent years, Soviet Herzen scholars made valuable contributions to literary scholarship. A number of large monographs about Herzen were created; in 1954-65, the USSR Academy of Sciences published a scientific edition of the writer’s works in 30 volumes. Significant work on the study and publication of Herzen’s archival materials stored in Soviet and foreign collections was done by the editors of Literary Heritage.

The Soviet people highly value the rich heritage of Herzen - “a writer who played a great role in the preparation of the Russian revolution” (V.I. Lenin, Complete Works, vol. 21, p. 255).

Died 9(21).I.1870 in Paris.