Biography of Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev. Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev, short biography Brief analysis of creativity

By the time he was six years old, a French teacher was assigned to him, but the choice turned out to be unsuccessful: the teacher, as they later learned, was a fugitive soldier. Soon after the opening of Moscow University, around 1756, Alexander's father took him to Moscow, to the house of his maternal uncle (whose brother, A. M. Argamakov, was the director of the university in 1755-1757). Here Radishchev was entrusted to the care of a very good French governor, a former adviser to the Rouen parliament, who fled the persecution of the government of Louis XV. The Argamakov children had the opportunity to study at home with professors and teachers of the university gymnasium, so it cannot be ruled out that Alexander Radishchev prepared here under their guidance and completed, at least in part, the gymnasium course program.

In 1762, after the coronation of Catherine II, Radishchev was granted a page and sent to St. Petersburg to study in the Corps of Pages. The page corps trained not scientists, but courtiers, and pages were obliged to serve the empress at balls, in the theater, and at state dinners.

Four years later, among twelve young nobles, he was sent to Germany, to the University of Leipzig to study law. During the time spent there, Radishchev expanded his horizons enormously. In addition to a solid scientific school, he adopted the ideas of advanced French enlighteners, whose works greatly prepared the ground for the bourgeois revolution that broke out twenty years later.

Of Radishchev’s comrades, Fyodor Ushakov is especially remarkable for the great influence he had on Radishchev, who wrote his “Life” and published some of Ushakov’s works. Ushakov was a more experienced and mature man than his other comrades, who immediately recognized his authority. He served as an example for other students, guided their reading, and instilled in them strong moral convictions. Ushakov’s health was upset even before his trip abroad, and in Leipzig he further ruined it, partly with poor nutrition, partly with excessive exercise, and fell ill. When the doctor announced to him that “tomorrow he will no longer be involved in life,” he firmly accepted the death sentence. He said goodbye to his friends, then, calling one Radishchev to him, handed over all his papers to him and told him: “remember that you need to have rules in life in order to be blessed.” Ushakov’s last words “marked an indelible mark in the memory” of Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev.

Service in St. Petersburg

Literary and publishing activities

The foundations of Radishchev's worldview were laid in the earliest period of his activity. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1771, a couple of months later he sent an excerpt from his future book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” to the editorial office of the magazine “Painter”, where it was published anonymously. Two years later, Radishchev’s translation of Mably’s book “Reflections on Greek History” was published. Other works of the writer, such as “Officer Exercises” and “Diary of One Week,” also belong to this period.

In the 1780s, Radishchev worked on “The Journey” and wrote other works in prose and poetry. By this time there was a huge social upsurge throughout Europe. The victory of the American Revolution and the French Revolution that followed it created a favorable climate for promoting the ideas of freedom, which Radishchev took advantage of. In 1789, he opened a printing house at his home, and in May 1790 he published his main work, “.”

Arrest and exile 1790-1796

The book began to sell out quickly. His bold thoughts about serfdom and other sad phenomena of the then social and state life attracted the attention of the empress herself, to whom someone delivered “The Journey” and who called Radishchev - “ rebel, worse than Pugachev" A copy of the book has been preserved, which ended up on Catherine’s table, which she covered with her cynical remarks. Where the tragic scene of the sale of serfs at auction is described, the Empress wrote: “ A pathetic story begins about a family sold under the hammer for the master's debts.". Elsewhere in Radishchev’s work, where he talks about a landowner who was killed during the Pugachev rebellion by his peasants because “ every night his messengers brought to him for a sacrifice of dishonor the one he had appointed that day; it was known in the village that he had disgusted 60 girls, depriving them of their purity”, the Empress herself wrote - “ almost the history of Alexander Vasilyevich Saltykov.

Radishchev was arrested, his case was entrusted to S.I. Sheshkovsky. Imprisoned in the fortress, Radishchev led the line of defense during interrogations. He did not name a single name from among his assistants, saved the children, and also tried to save his own life. The Criminal Chamber applied to Radishchev the articles of the Code on “ attack on the sovereign's health”, about “conspiracies and treason” and sentenced him to death. The verdict, transmitted to the Senate and then to the Council, was approved in both instances and presented to Catherine.

On September 4, 1790, a personal decree was passed, which found Radishchev guilty of violating the oath and office of a subject by publishing a book, “filled with the most harmful speculations, destroying public peace, belittling the respect due to the authorities, striving to create indignation among the people against the leaders and authorities, and finally, insulting and violent expressions against the dignity and power of the king.”; Radishchev’s guilt is such that he fully deserves the death penalty, to which he was sentenced by the court, but “out of mercy and for everyone’s joy,” the execution was replaced by a ten-year exile for him in Siberia, in the Ilimsk prison. On the order to expel Radishchev, the Empress wrote in her own hand: “ goes to mourn the deplorable fate of the peasant condition, although it is undeniable that a good landowner has no better fate for our peasants in the whole universe” .

The treatise “On Man, His Mortality and Immortality,” created in exile by Radishchev, contains numerous paraphrases of Herder’s works “A Study on the Origin of Language” and “On the Knowledge and Sensation of the Human Soul.”

There is a legend about the circumstances of Radishchev’s suicide: called to the commission to draw up laws, Radishchev drew up a draft liberal code, in which he spoke about the equality of all before the law, freedom of the press, etc. The chairman of the commission, Count P. V. Zavadovsky, gave him a strict reprimand for his way of thinking, sternly reminding him of his previous hobbies and even mentioning Siberia. Radishchev, a man with very poor health, was so shocked by Zavadovsky’s reprimand and threats that he decided to commit suicide: he drank poison and died in terrible agony.

In the book “Radishchev” by D. S. Babkin, published in 1966, a different version of Radishchev’s death was proposed. The sons who were present at his death testified to the severe physical illness that struck Alexander Nikolaevich already during his Siberian exile. The immediate cause of death, according to Babkin, was an accident: Radishchev drank a glass with “strong vodka prepared in it to burn out the old officer’s epaulettes of his eldest son” (royal vodka). The burial documents indicate a natural death. In the register of the church of the Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg on September 13, 1802, “collegiate advisor Alexander Radishchev” is listed among those buried; fifty-three years old, died of consumption,” priest Vasily Nalimov was present at the removal.

Radishchev's grave has not survived to this day. It is assumed that his body was buried near the Church of the Resurrection, on the wall of which a memorial plaque was installed in 1987.

Perception of Radishchev in the 18th-19th centuries.

The idea that Radishchev was not a writer, but a public figure, distinguished by amazing spiritual qualities, began to take shape immediately after his death and, in fact, determined his further posthumous fate. I. M. Born, in a speech to the Society of Lovers of the Fine, delivered in September 1802 and dedicated to the death of Radishchev, says about him: “He loved truth and virtue. His fiery love for mankind longed to illuminate all his fellow men with this unflickering ray of eternity.” N. M. Karamzin characterized Radishchev as an “honest man” (“honnête homme”) (this oral testimony was given by Pushkin as an epigraph to the article “Alexander Radishchev”). The idea of ​​the superiority of Radishchev’s human qualities over his writing talent is especially succinctly expressed by P. A. Vyazemsky, explaining in a letter to A. F. Voeikov the desire to study Radishchev’s biography: “In our country, a person is usually invisible behind a writer. In Radishchev it’s the opposite: the writer is up to his shoulder, but the man is head and shoulders above him.”

Radishchev’s influence on the work of another freethinking writer, A. S. Griboedov (presumably, both were related by blood), who, being a career diplomat, often traveled around the country and therefore actively tried his hand at the genre of literary “travel”, is obvious.

A special page in the perception of Radishchev’s personality and creativity by Russian society was the attitude of A. S. Pushkin towards him. Having become acquainted with “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” in his youth, Pushkin clearly focuses on Radishchev’s ode “Liberty” in his ode of the same name (or), and also takes into account in “Ruslan and Lyudmila” the experience of “heroic songwriting” of Radishchev’s son, Nikolai Alexandrovich, “ Alyosha Popovich" (Pushkin all his life mistakenly considered Radishchev the father to be the author of this poem). “The Journey” turned out to be in tune with the tyrant-fighting and anti-serfdom sentiments of young Pushkin. Despite the change in political positions, Pushkin remained interested in Radishchev in the 1830s, acquired a copy of “Travel”, which was in the Secret Chancellery, and sketched “Travel from Moscow to St. Petersburg” (conceived as a commentary on Radishchev’s chapters in reverse order). In 1836, Pushkin tried to publish fragments from Radishchev’s “Travel” in his Sovremennik, accompanying them with the article “Alexander Radishchev” - his most extensive statement about Radishchev. In addition to a bold attempt to acquaint the Russian reader with a forbidden book for the first time since 1790, here Pushkin also gives a very detailed criticism of the work and its author.

We never considered Radishchev a great man. His act always seemed to us a crime, unexcusable, and “Journey to Moscow” was a very mediocre book; but with all this we cannot help but recognize him as a criminal with an extraordinary spirit; a political fanatic, mistaken of course, but acting with amazing selflessness and a kind of knightly conscience.

Criticism of Pushkin, in addition to autocensorship reasons (however, the publication was still not allowed by censorship), reflects the “enlightened conservatism” of the last years of the poet’s life. In the drafts of the “Monument” in the same 1836, Pushkin wrote: “Following Radishchev, I glorified freedom.”

In the 1830-1850s, interest in Radishchev decreased significantly, and the number of “Travel” lists decreased. A new revival of interest is associated with the publication of “Travel” in London by A. I. Herzen in 1858 (he puts Radishchev among “our saints, our prophets, our first sowers, first fighters”).

The assessment of Radishchev as the forerunner of the revolutionary movement was adopted by the Social Democrats of the early 20th century. In 1918, A.V. Lunacharsky called Radishchev “the prophet and forerunner of the revolution.” G.V. Plekhanov believed that under the influence of Radishchev’s ideas “the most significant social movements of the late 18th - first third of the 19th centuries were accomplished.” V.I. Lenin called him “the first Russian revolutionary.”

Until the 1970s, opportunities for the general reader to become familiar with The Journey were extremely limited. After almost the entire circulation of “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” was destroyed by the author before his arrest in 1790, until 1905, when the censorship ban was lifted from this work, the total circulation of several of his publications hardly exceeded one and a half thousand copies. The foreign edition of Herzen was carried out according to a faulty list, where the language of the 18th century was artificially “modernized” and numerous errors were encountered. Several editions were published in 1905-1907, but after that “Journey” was not published in Russia for 30 years. In subsequent years it was published several times, but mainly for the needs of the school, with denominations and scanty circulation by Soviet standards. Back in the 1960s, Soviet readers were known to complain that it was impossible to get “Journey” in a store or district library. It was only in the 1970s that The Journey began to be truly mass produced.

Radishchev's scientific research essentially began only in the 20th century. In 1930-1950, under the editorship of Gr. Gukovsky published the three-volume “Complete Works of Radishchev”, where many new texts, including philosophical and legal ones, were published or attributed to the writer for the first time. In the 1950-1960s, romantic hypotheses arose, not confirmed by sources, about the “hidden Radishchev” (G.P. Storm and others) - that Radishchev allegedly continued after exile to finalize “The Journey” and distribute the text in a narrow circle of like-minded people. At the same time, there is a plan to abandon the straightforward propaganda approach to Radishchev, emphasizing the complexity of his views and the great humanistic significance of the personality (N. Ya. Eidelman and others). Modern literature examines Radishchev's philosophical and journalistic sources - Masonic, moralizing, educational and others, emphasizing the multifaceted issues of his main book, which cannot be reduced to the fight against serfdom.

Philosophical views

The main philosophical work is the treatise “On Man, His Mortality and Immortality,” written in Ilimsk exile.

“Radishchev’s philosophical views bear traces of the influence of various trends in European thought of his time. He was guided by the principle of reality and materiality (corporality) of the world, arguing that “the existence of things is independent of the power of knowledge about them and exists in itself.” According to his epistemological views, “the basis of all natural knowledge is experience.” At the same time, sensory experience, being the main source of knowledge, is in unity with “reasonable experience.” In a world in which there is nothing “other than corporeality,” man, a being as corporeal as all of nature, takes his place. Man has a special role; according to Radishchev, he represents the highest manifestation of physicality, but at the same time is inextricably linked with the animal and plant world. “We do not humiliate a person,” Radishchev argued, “by finding similarities in his constitution with other creatures, showing that he essentially follows the same laws as him. How could it be otherwise? Isn’t it real?”

The fundamental difference between a person and other living beings is the presence of a mind, thanks to which he “has the power to know about things.” But an even more important difference lies in the human capacity for moral action and evaluation. “Man is the only creature on earth who knows the bad, the evil,” “a special property of man is the unlimited ability to both improve and become corrupted.” As a moralist, Radishchev did not accept the moral concept of “reasonable egoism,” believing that “self-love” is by no means the source of moral feeling: “man is a sympathetic being.” Being a supporter of the idea of ​​“natural law” and always defending ideas about the natural nature of man (“the rights of nature never dry up in man”), Radishchev at the same time did not share the opposition outlined by Rousseau between society and nature, the cultural and natural principles in man. For him, human social existence is as natural as natural existence. In essence, there is no fundamental boundary between them: “Nature, people and things are the educators of man; climate, local situation, government, circumstances are the educators of nations.” Criticizing the social vices of Russian reality, Radishchev defended the ideal of a normal “natural” way of life, seeing the injustice reigning in society as literally a social disease. He found this kind of “disease” not only in Russia. Thus, assessing the state of affairs in the slave-holding United States of America, he wrote that “one hundred proud citizens are drowning in luxury, and thousands do not have reliable food, nor their own shelter from the heat and filth (frost). In the treatise “On Man, on His Mortality and Immortality,” Radishchev, considering metaphysical problems, remained true to his naturalistic humanism, recognizing the inextricability of the connection between the natural and spiritual principles in man, the unity of body and soul: “Doesn’t the soul grow with the body, not with it?” does he mature and grow stronger, or does he wither and grow dull? At the same time, not without sympathy, he quoted thinkers who recognized the immortality of the soul (Johann Herder, Moses Mendelssohn and others). Radishchev’s position is not that of an atheist, but rather of an agnostic, which fully corresponded to the general principles of his worldview, which was already quite secularized, focused on the “naturalness” of the world order, but alien to godlessness and nihilism.”

Family

Alexander Radishchev was married twice. He married for the first time in 1775 to Anna Vasilyevna Rubanovskaya (1752-1783), who was the niece of his fellow student in Leipzig, Andrei Kirillovich Rubanovsky, and the daughter of an official of the Main Palace Chancellery, Vasily Kirillovich Rubanovsky. This marriage produced four children (not counting two daughters who died in infancy):

• Vasily (1776-1845) - staff captain, lived in Ablyazov, where he married his serf Akulina Savvateevna. His son Alexey Vasilyevich became a court councilor, leader of the nobility and mayor of Khvalynsk.
• Nikolai (1779-1829) - writer, author of the poem “Alyosha Popovich”.
• Catherine (1782)

Anna Vasilievna died at the birth of her son Pavel in 1783. Soon after Radishchev was expelled, the younger sister of his first wife, Elizaveta Vasilievna Rubanovskaya (1757-1797), came to him in Ilimsk, along with his two youngest children (Ekaterina and Pavel). In exile they soon began to live as husband and wife. Three children were born in this marriage:

• Anna (1792)
• Thekla (1795-1845) - married Pyotr Gavrilovich Bogolyubov and became the mother of the famous Russian marine painter A.P. Bogolyubov.
• Afanasy (1796-1881) - major general, Podolsk, Vitebsk and Kovno governor.

Memory

• Village of Radishchevo, Ulyanovsk region, former Noble Tereshka, estate of the Kolyubakin nobles
• In Kyiv there is Radishcheva Street
• In Moscow there are Verkhnyaya and Nizhnyaya Radishchevskaya streets, on Verkhnyaya there is a monument to the writer and poet.
• Radishcheva Street is in the Central District of St. Petersburg.
• Also, in honor of Radishchev, streets in Kursk, Ust-Kuta, Ryazan, Kaluga, Maloyaroslavts, Petrozavodsk, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk, Murmansk, Tule, Tobolsk, Yekaterinburg, Saratov, Kuznetsk, Barnaul, Biysk, Alchevsk, Gatchina, Tambov, Smolensk, Tyumensk , boulevard in Tver, as well as in the city of Tolyatti.
• In Irkutsk, one of the city suburbs is called Radishchevo.
• In the village of Firstovo, Bolsheukovsky district, Omsk region, an obelisk was erected in 1967, in honor of Radishchev, who passed through and visited the village in 1790.
• In the village of Artyn, Muromtsevo district, Omsk region, an obelisk was erected in 1952 in memory of his journey into Siberian exile and return from exile in 1797.
• In honor of A.N. Radishchev’s passage, one of the villages was renamed, and was given the name - the village of Radishchevo, Nizhneomsky district, Omsk region.
• In the village of Evgashchino, Bolsherechensky district, Omsk region, Radishcheva Street is named.
• In the village of Takmyk, Bolsherechensky district, Omsk region, Radishcheva Street is named.
• Radishcheva Street has existed in Ulyanovsk from 1918 to the present.
• Annual Radishchev readings are held in Maloyaroslavets and Kuznetsk
• State Art Museum named after Radishchev (Saratov).
• Platform Radishchevo of the Oktyabrskaya Railway in the Solnechnogorsk district of the Moscow region.
• In Rostov-on-Don there is Radishchev Street.
• In Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo region, there is a street. Radishcheva (Ordzhonikidze district).
• In Khabarovsk there is Radishcheva Street (Industrial District).
• In Simferopol there is a street. Radishchev (not far from Vernadsky Ave.)
• In Krivoy Rog there is a street. Radishcheva (Zhovtnevy district)
• In 1991, an obelisk in memory of A.N. Radishchev was erected in Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk region.
• In Zheleznogorsk-Ilimsky (Irkutsk region, Nizhneilimsky district) there is Radishchev Street, a school named after. A.N. Radishchev, Central Intersettlement Library named after A.N. Radishchev
• In the Nizhneilimsky district of the Irkutsk region there is the village of Radishchev.

see also

Bibliography

• Radishchev A. N. Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow - St. Petersburg: b. i., 1790. - 453 p.
• Radishchev A. N. Prince M. M. Shcherbatov, “On the damage to morals in Russia”; A. N. Radishchev, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” With a foreword by Iskander (A.I. Herzen). - London, Trübner, 1858.
• Radishchev A. N. Essays. In two volumes./ Ed. P. A. Efremova. - St. Petersburg, ed. Cherkesov, 1872. (edition destroyed by censorship)
• Radishchev A. N. Complete works of A. Radishchev / Ed., intro. Art. and approx. V. V. Kallash. T. 1. - M.: V. M. Sablin, 1907. - 486 p.: p., The same T. 2. - 632 p.: ill.
• Radishchev A. N. Full composition of writings. T. 1 - M.; L.: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1938. - 501 p.: p. The same T. 2 - M.; L.: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1941. - 429 p.
• Radishchev A. N. Poems / Intro. art., ed. and note. G. A. Gukovsky. Ed. board: I. A. Gruzdev, V. P. Druzin, A. M. Egolin [and others]. - L.: Sov. writer, 1947. - 210 p.: p.
• Radishchev A. N. Selected works / Intro. Art. G. P. Makogonenko. - M.; L.: Goslitizdat, 1949. - 855 pp.: P, k.
• Radishchev A. N. Selected philosophical works / Under the general editorship. and with a preface. I. Ya. Shchipanova. - L.: Gospolitizdat, 1949. - 558 p.: p.
• Radishchev A. N. Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow. 1749-1949 / Enter. article by D. D. Blagoy. - M.; L.: Goslitizdat, 1950. - 251 p.: ill.
• Radishchev A. N. Selected philosophical and socio-political works. [To the 150th anniversary of his death. 1802-1952] / Under the general. ed. and will join in. article by I. Ya. Shchipanov. - M.: Gospolitizdat, 1952. - 676 ​​p.: p.
• Radishchev A. N. Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow / [Introduction. article by D. Blagoy]. - M.: Det. lit., 1970. - 239 p. The same - M.: Det. lit., 1971. - 239 p.

Notes

1. Brief literary encyclopedia - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1962. - T. 6. - P. 143–148.
2. / ed. I. E. Andreevsky, K. K. Arsenyev, F. F. Petrushevsky - St. Petersburg. : Brockhaus - Efron, 1907.
3. / ed. A. A. Polovtsov, N. P. Chulkov, N. D. Chechulin and others - St. Petersburg. , M.
4. Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich // Great Soviet encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ed. A. M. Prokhorov - 3rd ed. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969.
5. Gukovsky G. A. Radishchev // History of Russian literature: In 10 volumes / Academy of Sciences of the USSR. - M.; L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1941-1956. T. IV: Literature of the 18th century. Part 2. - 1947. - pp. 507-570.
6. Khrabrovitsky A. V. Where was A. N. Radishchev born and where did he spend his childhood? // Russian literature. L., 1974. No. 3. P. 180-181.
7. A. Startsev. Questions of literature, No. 2. - M., 1958. - P. 172-175. - 243 p.
8. Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire. First meeting. Volume XXIII
9. Lecture by Professor A. B. Zubov on the topic: “Serfdom in Imperial Russia and its lessons today”
10. GERDER
11. A. Lossky. Russian biographical dictionary (1910)
12. Kobak A.V., Piryutko Yu.M.. - Second edition. - M.-St. Petersburg: Tsentrpoligraf, 2011. - P. 402. - 797, p. - 1500 copies. -

Biography Russian writer, one of the main representatives of "educational philosophy" in Russia. Alexander, the eldest son and mother's favorite, was born on August 31 (August 20, old style) 1749. His grandfather, Afanasy Prokofievich Radishchev, one of Peter the Great's amusements, rose to the rank of brigadier and gave his son Nikolai a good upbringing for that time. His father, Nikolai Afanasyevich, was a Saratov landowner, his mother, Fekla Stepanovna, came from an old noble family of the Argamakovs. My father's estate was located in Verkhny Ablyazov. Alexander learned Russian literacy from the Book of Hours and the Psalter. When he was 6 years old, a French teacher was assigned to him, but the choice turned out to be unsuccessful: the teacher, as they later learned, was a fugitive soldier. Then the father decided to send the boy to Moscow, where he was entrusted to the care of a good French tutor, a former adviser to the Rouen parliament, who had fled the persecution of the government of Louis XV. In 1756, Alexander was sent to the noble gymnasium of Moscow University. Gymnasium life lasted six years. In September 1762, the coronation of Catherine II took place in Moscow, on the occasion of which Catherine promoted many nobles to rank. On November 25, Radishchev was granted a page. In January 1764 he arrived in St. Petersburg and until 1766 he studied in the page corps. When Catherine ordered twelve young noblemen to be sent to Leipzig for scientific studies, including six pages of the most distinguished in behavior and success in learning, among whom Radishchev was located. When sending students abroad, instructions were given regarding their studies, written in Catherine II’s own hand. Significant funds were allocated for the maintenance of students - 800 rubles each. (since 1769 - 1000 rubles) per year for each. But assigned to the nobles as a chamberlain and educator, Major Bokum concealed a significant part of the sums in his own favor, so that the students were in great need. Radishchev's stay abroad was described in his "Life of F.V. Ushakov." Students' activities in Leipzig were quite varied. They listened to philosophy, history, law. In accordance with the instructions of Catherine II, students could study “other sciences” if they wished. Radishchev studied medicine and chemistry, not as an amateur, but seriously, so that he could pass the exam to become a doctor and then successfully practiced treatment. Chemistry classes also always remained one of his favorite things. Radishchev knew German, French and Latin well; later he learned English and Italian. After spending five years in Leipzig, he, like his comrades, greatly forgot the Russian language, so upon returning to Russia he studied it under the guidance of the famous Khrapovitsky, Catherine’s secretary. Upon completion of his studies, Radishchev became one of the most educated people of his time, not only in Russia. In 1771 he returned to St. Petersburg and soon entered service in the Senate as a protocol clerk, with the rank of titular councilor, where he did not serve for long, because. I was hampered by poor knowledge of the Russian language, the camaraderie of clerks, and the rude treatment of my superiors were burdensome. Radishchev entered the headquarters of General-Chief Bruce, who commanded in St. Petersburg, as a chief auditor. In 1775, Radishchev retired with the rank of army second major. One of Radishchev’s comrades in Leipzig, Rubanovsky, introduced him to the family of his older brother, whose daughter, Anna Vasilievna, Alexander married. In 1778 he was again assigned to serve in the state chamber college for an assessor vacancy. In 1788 he was transferred to serve in the St. Petersburg customs office, as an assistant manager, and then as a manager. Both in the chamber collegium and in the customs, Radishchev stood out for his selflessness, devotion to duty, and serious attitude to business. Russian language classes and reading led Radishchev to his own literary experiments. In 1773, he published a translation of Mably's work, then began to compile a history of the Russian Senate, but destroyed what he had written. In 1783, after the death of his beloved wife, he began to seek solace in literary work. In 1789, he published “The Life of Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov with the addition of some of his works.” Taking advantage of Catherine II’s decree on free printing houses, Radishchev opened his own printing house at home and in 1790 published his main work: “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” The book began to sell out quickly. Her bold thoughts about serfdom and other sad phenomena of the then social and state life attracted the attention of the empress herself, to whom someone delivered “The Journey.” Although the book was published “with the permission of the deanery,” that is, with the permission of the established censorship, prosecution was nevertheless brought against the author. At first they did not know who the author was, since his name was not on the book; but, having arrested the merchant Zotov, in whose shop “Journey” was sold, they soon learned that the book was written and published by Radishchev. He was also arrested, his case was “entrusted” to the famous Sheshkovsky. Catherine forgot that Radishchev, both in the page corps and abroad, studied “natural law” by the highest command, and that she herself preached and allowed the preaching of principles similar to those that the “Journey” preached. She reacted to Radishchev’s book with strong personal irritation, she herself drew up questions for Radishchev, and she herself, through Bezborodko, supervised the entire matter. Imprisoned in a fortress and interrogated by the terrible Sheshkovsky, Radishchev declared his repentance, renounced his book, but at the same time, in his testimony he often expressed the same views as those given in “The Journey.” By expressing repentance, Radishchev hoped to soften the punishment that threatened him, but at the same time he was unable to hide his convictions. Radishchev's fate was decided in advance: he was found guilty in the very decree to bring him to trial. The Criminal Chamber carried out a very brief investigation, the contents of which were determined in a letter from Bezborodko to the commander-in-chief in St. Petersburg, Count Bruce. The Criminal Chamber applied to Radishchev the articles of the Code on an attempt on the sovereign's health, conspiracies, treason, and sentenced him to death. The verdict, transmitted to the Senate and then to the Council, was approved in both instances and presented to Catherine. On September 4, according to the old style, 1790, a personal decree was held, which found Radishchev guilty of the crime of the oath and office of a subject, by publishing a book; Radishchev’s guilt is such that he fully deserves the death penalty, to which he was sentenced by the court, but “out of mercy and for everyone’s joy,” on the occasion of the conclusion of peace with Sweden, the death penalty was replaced by exile to Siberia, to the Ilimsk prison, “for a ten-year hopeless stay ". The decree was then carried out. The sad fate of Radishchev attracted everyone's attention: the sentence seemed incredible, rumors arose in society more than once that Radishchev had been forgiven and was returning from exile, but these rumors were not justified, and Radishchev stayed in Ilimsk until the end of Catherine's reign. His wife’s sister, E.V., came to visit him in Siberia. Rubanovskaya, and brought the younger children (the older ones stayed with their relatives to get an education). In Ilimsk, Radishchev married E.V. Rubanovskaya. Emperor Paul, soon after his accession, returned Radishchev from Siberia (Imperial command of November 23, 1796), and Radishchev was ordered to live on his estate in the Kaluga province, the village of Nemtsov, and the governor was ordered to monitor his behavior and correspondence. After the accession of Alexander I, Radishchev received complete freedom; he was summoned to St. Petersburg and appointed a member of the commission to draw up laws. Radishchev's contemporaries Ilyinsky and Born certify the accuracy of the legend about Radishchev's death. This legend says that when Radishchev submitted his liberal project on the necessary legislative reforms - a project where the liberation of the peasants was again put forward, the chairman of the commission, Count Zavadovsky, made him a strict reprimand for his way of thinking, sternly reminding him of his previous hobbies and even mentioning Siberia. Radishchev, a man with very poor health and broken nerves, was so shocked by Zavadovsky’s reprimand and threats that he decided to commit suicide, drank poison and died in terrible agony. Radishchev died on the night of September 12, old style, 1802 and was buried in the Volkov cemetery. Radishchev's name was banned for a long time; it almost never appeared in print. Soon after his death, several articles about him appeared, but then his name almost disappears in the literature and is found very rarely; Only fragmentary and incomplete data are provided about it. Batyushkov included Radishchev in the program of essays on Russian literature he compiled. It was only in the second half of the fifties that the ban on Radishchev’s name was lifted and many articles about him appeared in the press. __________ Information sources: "Russian Biographical Dictionary"

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

Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms. Academician 2011.

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Biography, life story of Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich

Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich - Russian prose writer, philosopher, public figure.

Childhood, youth, education

Alexander Radishchev was born on August 31, 1749 (according to the old style - August 20 of the same year) in a small village called Verkhnee Ablyazovo (Saratov Province). Alexander was lucky to be born into a wealthy family - his father, Nikolai Afanasyevich Radishchev, inherited a noble title and large territories from his father, Alexander’s grandfather. So in childhood, the future luminary of Russian literature did not know any hardships.

Alexander Radishchev spent the first years of his life in the village of Nemtsovo (Kaluga province), where his father had an estate. A caring but strict father tried to give his son an excellent education - he taught him several languages ​​at once (Polish, French, German and even Latin), and taught him Russian literacy, however, mainly from the psalter (Nikolai Afanasyevich was a very devout person). When Alexander was six years old, a French teacher was hired for him, but the teacher did not stay in their family for long - it soon became clear that he was a fugitive soldier.

At the age of seven, Alexander moved to Moscow, to the house of his great-uncle. There he was able to gain good knowledge and skills (the children in his relative’s house had the opportunity to study only with the best professors).

In 1762, Radishchev entered the Corps of Pages (St. Petersburg). After studying there for four whole years, he was redirected to the University of Leipzig (Germany, Leipzig). In a foreign land, Alexander had to study law. And, it should be noted, he achieved good results - in addition to the fact that he diligently completed the teachers’ assignments, he also showed considerable activity in studying other subjects. In a word, at that time his horizons expanded greatly, which undoubtedly played into his hands in the future.

Service

At the age of twenty-two, Alexander Nikolaevich returned to St. Petersburg. He soon became a recorder in the Senate. A little later, he left this post and was hired as chief auditor at the headquarters of the St. Petersburg chief general. The authorities noted Radishchev’s hard work, his diligence and responsible attitude to work.

CONTINUED BELOW

In 1775, Alexander resigned. After leaving the service, he decided to arrange his personal life and start a family. He found a good girl and married her. Two years later, the quiet life tired of Radishchev and he returned to work - he was accepted into the Commerce College.

In 1780, Alexander Radishchev began working at the St. Petersburg customs. In 1790 he was already its boss.

Literary activity

Radishchev took up his pen in 1771, when he returned to St. Petersburg. At that time, she sent a couple of chapters from her future book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” to the editor of the then respected magazine “Painter”. The excerpt was published anonymously - as the author himself wished.

In 1773, Alexander Radishchev translated and published the book “Reflections on Greek History” (author – Gabriel Bonnot de Mably, French writer and philosopher). At the same time, he gave the world his other works - “Diary of One Week”, “Officer Exercises”...

From the beginning of the 1780s, Alexander Nikolaevich began to work hard on “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” The book talked about the difficult situation of serfs, about cruel landowners, about the uselessness of autocracy... For that time, the book was more than scandalous. In May 1790, Radishchev independently printed copies of his book in his own printing house, which he created at home the year before. Radishchev did not sign his creation.

People began to quickly buy up the book. The commotion she caused among ordinary residents excited the empress and she demanded that one copy be delivered to her immediately. After reading the book and finding out who wrote it, the empress became furious. The writer was arrested.

After his arrest, Radishchev was put in a fortress. A series of interrogations began. Alexander Nikolaevich, being a man of honor, did not betray any of those who in any way helped him in publishing the book. The Criminal Chamber, after listening to Radishchev, sentenced him to death. In the fall of 1790, Radishchev’s case was revised - the execution was replaced by a ten-year exile in Siberia. Fortunately, in 1796 the emperor took pity on the talented thinker. The writer returned to his native place. He settled in the village of Nemtsovo, where he spent his childhood.

Personal life

Alexander Radishchev first married in 1775 to Anna Vasilievna Rubanovskaya, the daughter of an official of the Main Palace Chancellery. Anna gave birth to six children to Alexander - three daughters and three sons. Unfortunately, two girls died at an early age. But the other children - Vasily (born in 1776), Nikolai (born in 1779), Ekaterina (born in 1782) and Pavel (born in 1783) - turned out to be stronger. Anna Vasilievna herself died giving birth to her youngest son, Pavel.

When Radishchev was exiled to Siberia, his younger sister Anna Elizaveta came to him. She took Catherine and Pavel with her. It so happened that Elizabeth remained in Siberia. Soon Alexander began to experience very warm feelings for her. Elizabeth reciprocated his feelings. They started living together. The new lover gave birth to Radishchev three children - daughters Anna (born in 1792) and Fekla (born in 1795) and son Afanasy (born in 1796).

When the emperor ordered Radishchev to return home, the happiness of both the writer himself and his beloved woman knew no bounds. No one knew that leaving boring Siberia would bring so much pain to their family... On the way, Elizaveta Vasilievna caught a bad cold. The woman was unable to cope with the disease. She died in 1979.

Death

Alexander Nikolaevich spent the last years of his life as a free and respected person. He was even specially invited to St. Petersburg to join the Commission to draw up laws. Once in St. Petersburg, Radishchev wanted to introduce a bill that would equalize all people before the law, giving everyone the right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Upon learning of this, the Chairman of the Commission gave the writer a very severe reprimand. After the chairman’s threats, some historians say, Alexander Nikolaevich decided to take his own life. Radishchev committed suicide by drinking a huge dose of poison on September 24, 1802 (old style - September 12).

According to another version, Alexander Nikolaevich died after accidentally drinking alcohol instead of medicine. Officially (according to documents) it is believed that Radishchev died of natural causes.

Pugachev's uprising, European educational thought, the lessons of the revolutionary war in America and the revolutionary situation in France contributed to the emergence of a revolutionary trend in Russian enlightenment. This turning point in the history of Russian social thought is associated with A. N. Radishchev (1749-1802), with his famous book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” Radishchev wrote that the peasant was “riveted in chains” and “dead in law.” The nobles force the peasants to “go to corvee six times a week,” collect excessive taxes from them, deprive them of their land, and use the “devilish invention” of the month. The landowners torture the peasants with “rods, whips, batogs or cats”, hand them over as conscripts, send them to hard labor, “sell them in chains like cattle.” Not a single serf is safe in his wife, nor is a father safe in his daughter. The landowners leave “to the peasant only what they cannot take away - air, just air.” From this, Radishchev concluded that it was necessary to “completely abolish slavery” and transfer all the land to the peasant – “the worker of it.”
Radishchev went even further than his predecessors in understanding the connection between serfdom and autocracy. The autocracy protects the interests of nobles and “great otchinniks”; serfdom reigns in government bodies and courts. He was the first among Russian thinkers to emphasize that religion and the church are one of the most important weapons of oppression of the people.
Radishchev firmly believed that after the revolutionary abolition of serfdom, great men would soon be sprung from the peasantry to stand up for the beaten tribe; but they would have other thoughts about themselves and would be deprived of the right of oppression.” Radishchev filled the concept of “patriotism” with revolutionary content. A true patriot, according to Radishchev, can only be considered one who subordinates his entire life and activity to the interests of the people, who fights for their liberation, for the establishment of “prescribed laws of nature and government.”
According to Radishchev, “autocracy is the state most contrary to human nature.” He argued that truth and justice do not live in the “royal palaces”, that the clothes of the king and his entourage are “stained with the blood and soaked in the tears” of the people, therefore the hopes of the enlighteners for a “sage on the throne” are in vain. Radishchev’s thought went further: “There may not be an example, and until the end of the world, there will be no example of a tsar voluntarily giving up anything from his power.”
With his works “Letter to a Friend”, “Conversation about Being a Son of the Fatherland”, “Life of Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov” and “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” Radishchev prepared readers to perceive the idea of ​​​​the need for revolution. In the ode “Liberty,” the most important stanzas of which he included in “Journey,” Radishchev presented a genuine anthem in honor of the future victorious revolution. As the greatest holiday of humanity, he depicts the day when “an army of evil will arise everywhere”, the “riveted peoples will rejoice” and rush “to wash their shame in the blood of the tormentor.” The holiday will be the day when the rebel people win.
After the revolution and the execution of the tsar, according to Radishchev, “the people will sit on the throne” and freedom will reign - “freedom is a gift, an invaluable source of all great deeds.” He highly valued Cromwell for teaching “how nations can take revenge on themselves,” and “executed Charles at his trial.”
When publishing “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” which was banned in Russia, Herzen wrote about its author: “…. He travels along the high road, he sympathizes with the suffering of the masses, he speaks with coachmen, courtyard servants, and recruits, and in every word we find with hatred of violence - a loud protest against serfdom.”
Demanding the complete liberation of the peasants, pointing to the revolutionary path towards it, Radishchev did not exclude the path of reforms from above. This was neither a deviation from his basic views nor a manifestation of liberal illusions and hesitations. He meant reforms that would not strengthen the existing system, but would weaken it and accelerate its death. He developed a plan for the gradual implementation of measures that should culminate in the “complete abolition of slavery.”
However, Radishchev had little faith that the landowners, these “greedy animals, insatiable leeches,” would agree to carry out reforms or that the monarch would implement them. He threatened the landowners that “the slaves, burdened with heavy bonds, in their rage in their despair will break the heads” of their hated masters with iron.
Radishchev believed that revolution was not an empty dream: “The gaze penetrates the thick veil of time, hiding the future from our eyes. I see through a whole century,” he wrote.
Catherine II understood the danger that criticism of serfdom, combined with the proclamation of revolutionary ideas, approval of spontaneous peasant revolts and presentation of a revolutionary program, posed to the autocratic serfdom system.
A special stage of revolutionary, republican thought in Russia is associated with the name of Radishchev. Walking “following Radishchev,” hunted down by the autocracy, the Radishchevites—his contemporaries and followers—took the baton from his hands and passed it on to the generation of Pestel and Ryleev, Griboyedov and Pushkin. If a galaxy of great French enlighteners ideologically prepared the bourgeois revolution in Western Europe, then Radishchev had the great honor of being the ideologist of the nascent revolutionary movement in Russia.
In the days when armed people stormed the Bastille in France, in Russia Radishchev published his “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” At the same time, Ya. B. Knyazhnin completed his last tragedy, “Vadim Novgorodsky,” which was the pinnacle of noble freethinking. Yakov Borisovich Knyazhnin (1742-1791), a nobleman, taught Russian literature for many years in the Land Noble Corps and was the author of many tragedies. In his “Vadim” he gave the image of a republican, contrasting him with the “enlightened monarchy”. Unlike Radishchev, the people in Knyazhnin’s tragedy are depicted as a passive force. Nevertheless, from the pages of “Vadim,” as well as “Journeys from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” although in different ways, there were calls for a fight against the autocracy.
From the very first days of the revolution in France, its slogans and deeds captured many minds in Russia. Contemporaries say that “revolutionary events were a daily subject of conversation and heated debate about the principles and their presentation, and it was impossible not to take part in them.” Revolutionary magazines, books and pamphlets entered Russia. They aroused keen interest in noble mansions and the Gostiny Dvor, in barracks and university auditoriums, in capitals and provinces. Thoughtful observers noticed that the “charms of the French revolution” extended their influence on young minds not only to Ukraine, but also “to the depths of Siberia itself.” In Iasi, for example, at the headquarters of Prince Potemkin, officers began to publish a weekly leaflet, “Bulletin of Moldavia,” which published reports about the revolution in France. In Tobolsk, teachers of the public school published articles on revolutionary topics on the pages of the magazine they published: about human rights, about the National Assembly, about the constitution of 1791. People in Penza, Kremenchug, Semipalatinsk, and Saratov were interested in news from France.
The French Revolution was initially accepted by Russian society with almost unanimous approval. Progressive noble circles, in particular, saw in the events in France the path to an “enlightened” monarchy and passionately advocated for the inculcation of “virtue,” for the “equality of feelings” of people of all classes, for civic dignity, leaving aside issues of socio-economic transformation.
But the dawn of the revolution that flared up in the West gradually sobered the heads of the nobles. Reports of urban and peasant uprisings in France, of burned castles, resurrected in the memory of Russian landowners the formidable specter of the Peasant War under the leadership of Pugachev. In the events in France, they saw the implementation of those thoughts that, according to Radishchev’s vivid definition, they read “on the forehead of each of the ... peasants.” One Vologda landowner noted that “all peasants have a spirit left over from Pugachev’s time - so that there would be no nobles,” and added that this is the spirit of “anarchy and independence that has spread... throughout Europe.” Echoes of the “great fear” reached the Russian noble estates, where, in the words of the landowner A. Karamyshev, they shuddered, watching “how the old world became acquainted with the new.” Mason I.V. Lopukhin wrote in this regard that he would willingly give up all his peasants, if only “that spirit of false love of freedom, which crushes many countries in Europe, would never penetrate our fatherland.”
Developments in France increased the fears of members of the privileged class. The victories of the revolutionary armies on the battlefields, the overthrow of the monarchy and the execution of the king, and the establishment of the Jacobin dictatorship left no more room for noble illusions. The abyss separating the “old” from the “new,” the path to which inevitably led through revolution, became increasingly obvious. The approaching crisis of feudal-serf ideology, even in its “enlightened” form, drove its bearers into despair. “The Age of Enlightenment! I don’t recognize you - in blood and flame I don’t recognize you - among murders and destruction I don’t recognize you!” . In these words, Karamzin expressed to some extent the feelings and thoughts of a large number of nobles.
The government of Catherine II took the path of open reaction. Radishchev was exiled to Siberia, Knyazhnin was thrown into prison, where he apparently died in 1790. Novikov at the beginning of 1792 was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress for a period of 15 years. In the name of protecting “civilization” and “order,” free-thinking people were imprisoned and censorship was rampant. In her messages to European monarchs, Catherine called on them to take a “post campaign” against “Jacobin barbarism.” To suppress “French anarchy,” she wrote, “means to acquire immortal glory.”
The revolutionary events in France were perceived differently by the advanced democratic circles of the Russian intelligentsia, who in their aspirations reflected the interests and needs of the working strata of the population. In the fire of the revolution in France, those very feudal foundations collapsed, against which the Russian peasantry spontaneously fought, and against which the best people of Russia opposed. The French Revolution seemed to confirm in practice the vitality of Radishchev's ideas; it contributed to the formation of a revolutionary ideology in Russia, which developed as a protest against the Russian autocratic-serfdom reality.
The cases of the Secret Expedition, which preserved interrogation protocols and witness testimony, reveal the environment in which Russian revolutionary thought matured. In St. Petersburg, for example, people of various professions gathered with a certain bankrupt merchant Stepan Erkov, including retired land surveyor Fyodor Krechetov, who spoke about the need to overthrow “the power of the autocracy, to create either a republic, or some other way, so that everyone would be equal.” In St. Petersburg, in the circle of small collegiate clerks, there was talk that “the Russians are under the heavy yoke of autocratic tyranny” and that “it would be very good if the National Convention thought of a way to rid France of such an enemy (like Catherine II. - author), and Russian people from tyranny.” In Ukraine, a minor employee from the impoverished nobles, Stepan Poznansky, asked those around him: “What do we need crowned heads for, what do we need magnates,” and proposed to do with them the same way “as they did with them in France, and at that time we will be equal and are free." These demands and hopes speak of the revolutionary conclusions to which advanced Russian people came during the days of the highest rise of the French Revolution. The origins of the revolutionary-democratic movement, which took shape in the Russian liberation movement in the 19th century, were outlined.

Essay on literature on the topic: A. N. Radishchev

Other writings:

1. ODE “Liberty” Ode “Liberty” by Radishchev is the first Russian revolutionary poetry. The writer calls on the heroes to revolution, even the reader takes this for granted. One gets the impression that people’s eyes seem to be open to what is happening, but not everyone can overcome their own fear. The writer tries Read More ......
2. At the end of November 1771, after graduating from Leipzig University, Radishchev returned to St. Petersburg along with his friends Kutuzov and Rubanovsky. The young people were enrolled as protocol keepers in the government Senate. Three lawyers served here for a year and a half and then joined the army. Read More......
3. Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev was the first Russian revolutionary from the nobility, a writer who proclaimed in his book Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow the need for a revolution in ‘Russia against the monarchy and serfdom. Pictures of serfdom and autocratic despotism are written in it with the pen of a passionate patriot, defender Read More ......
4. For several decades, researchers have sought not only to decisively distinguish Radishchev from such a “reactionary” phenomenon as Russian Freemasonry, but also talked about the “struggle” of the revolutionary writer with the Freemasons. Thus, one of the authoritative literary scholars, who has done a lot to study the biography and creativity of Radishchev, Read More ......
5. Crisis of the genre The most flattering review of the work of Alexander Radishchev belongs to Catherine II: “The rebel is worse than Pugachev.” Pushkin gave the most sober assessment of Radishchev: “Journey to Moscow,” the reason for his misfortune and glory, is a very mediocre work, not to mention even the barbaric style.” The most Read More......
6. Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev Radishchev (Alexander Nikolaevich) is a famous writer, one of our main representatives of “enlightenment philosophy”. His grandfather, Afanasy Prokofievich Radishchev, one of Peter the Great’s amusing figures, rose to the rank of brigadier and gave his son Nikolai what was good for that time Read More ......
7. Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow Having set off for Moscow after dinner with friends, the hero woke up only at the next postal station - Sofia. Having difficulty waking up the caretaker, he demanded horses, but was refused due to the night time. I had to give it to the coachmen for vodka, they Read More......
8. Today in a literature lesson I became acquainted with the work of A. N. Radishchev “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” The story was published in May 1790. The author tells us in this story about how he traveled from St. Petersburg to Moscow. But Read More......

A. N. Radishchev

Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev became famous as a talented prose writer and poet, but at the same time he was a philosopher and held a good position at court. Our article presents a brief biography of Radishchev (for 9th grade this information can be very useful).

Childhood. Moving to Moscow

Alexander Nikolaevich was the son of a wealthy landowner Nikolai Afanasyevich Radishchev. He was born in the Saratov province, in the village of Verkhniy Oblyazov in 1749. His father was a cultured man, so he tried to give his son an excellent education. Radishchev's mother was Fekla Savvichna. She was from a family of Moscow noble intelligentsia. Her maiden name is Argamakova.

It is noteworthy that Radishchev’s parents treated their serfs very well, which they also taught their son. Alexander Nikolaevich spent his childhood in Oblyazov. It is known that their house was rich and large, and there were always a lot of people in it. Radishchev had four sisters and six brothers; the children communicated with the serfs on equal terms and ran around the village with them. Radishchev's teacher was, apparently, also a serf, his name was Pyotr Mamontov. Radishchev fondly recalled how his uncle told fairy tales.

When the boy was 7 years old, his parents took him to Moscow. There he lived in the care of a relative of his mother. Along with the master's children, he studied with a university professor and a French teacher. He was an old Frenchman who had fled his country.

The boy's surroundings were unusual. He listened to lectures by progressive thinkers, debates about serfdom, construction, education, and bureaucracy. The Argamakovs' guests were dissatisfied with Elizabeth's government, and even under Peter the Third, detente did not happen; on the contrary, indignation only grew. Alexander Nikolaevich grew up in such an environment.

Corps of Pages

When the boy turned 13 years old, he was granted a page. This was done by Empress Catherine the Second. His Argamakov relatives took care of little Radishchev.

Until 1764, Catherine, together with the government, was in Moscow, where the coronation took place, and then, together with her pages, including Radishchev, she returned to St. Petersburg.

The Corps of Pages was not a “decent” educational institution in those years. All the boys were trained by only one teacher - Moramber, who was obliged to show them how to properly serve the Empress at balls, in the theater, and on trains.

A short biography of Radishchev, in which the most important place is devoted to his creative successes, will not describe the experiences of the boy, who was transferred from an atmosphere of serious conversations and public interests to a court environment. Of course, he had already absorbed all the hatred for despotism, lies, flattery, and now he saw it all with his own eyes, and not just anywhere, but in all the splendor of the palace.

It was in the Corps of Pages that Alexander Nikolaevich met Kutuzov, who would become his best friend for many years. And although their paths will subsequently diverge, the commander will not say a single bad word about Radishchev. The short biography of the latter is a direct confirmation of this.

In Leipzig

Two years after moving to St. Petersburg, Radishchev, along with five other young men, was sent to Germany to study at the university. Catherine the Second wanted them to become educated lawyers and serve in the judiciary.

Gradually their small group grew. For example, Fyodor Ushakov, who was at that time a young official, arrived in Leipzig. He left the service for the sake of university knowledge. Fedor was the oldest and quickly became the leader of the group of young men.

Radishchev spent almost five years on foreign soil. All this time he studied diligently and almost received a medical education, but still literature attracted him most of all. Radishchev's brief biography indicates his interest in the pre-romantic movement emerging in Germany.

The country was shocked by the Seven Years' War, which ended quite recently, so many ideological ideas developed in society, one might say free-thinking, if not revolutionary. And Russian students were at the center of it all. Goethe studied with them at the university, they listened to lectures by the outstanding philosopher Platner, who was a supporter of liberalism.

In Germany, the young men did not live very well, since their boss Bokum, assigned by the empress, was a real tyrant and greedy. He took away all the money sent for maintenance from young people. And then the students decided to rebel. This decision backfired on them, as they would have been arrested and sent to trial. But the Russian ambassador intervened.

Bokum was fired much later, just before Radishchev left for his homeland.

Return

A short biography of Radishchev mentions that in 1771 he came to St. Petersburg together with Kutuzov and Rubanovsky. The young people were full of optimism and determination, imbued with advanced social ideals, they wanted to serve society.

It seems that during the years they spent in Germany, the Empress completely forgot about the purpose of sending pages abroad. Radishchev was assigned to work in the Senate as a protocol clerk. This caused a sea of ​​indignation in the young man, and he soon quit his service.

In 1773 he joined the staff of General Bruce, where he was appointed military prosecutor. This work also did not inspire Alexander Nikolaevich, but he had an outlet. Thanks to his charm and education, he became an entry into high society drawing rooms and writers' offices. Alexander Nikolaevich did not forget about his literary hobbies for a minute. Even a very short biography of Radishchev cannot remain silent about his work. Yes, this is not necessary.

Literary path

For the first time, Alexander Nikolaevich turned to literary creativity back in Leipzig. It was a translation of a political-religious pamphlet. But his young page did not finish, because Vedomosti published another, less poignant passage.

In St. Petersburg he met the publisher of the magazine "Painter" Novikov. Soon an essay entitled “Excerpt from a Journey” appeared there, but it was published anonymously. A short biography of Radishchev, the most important thing in which is always on the surface, confirms the fact that the writer almost never indicated his name on his works.

The “Excerpt” vividly showed the life of a fortress village, with all its gloomy events. Of course, the top authorities did not like this, and the landowners were offended. But neither the author nor the publisher were afraid. And soon the same magazine published an article, “An English Walk,” defending the previous edition. And then the continuation of "Excerpt".

Actually, Radishchev’s tragic creative path began with this publication.

Alexander Nikolaevich did a lot of translations, which Novikov also published. By order of Catherine, he translated the book “Reflections on Greek History” by Mably. But at the end he left several of his notes, thereby entering into a polemic with the author, as well as several definitions (including the words “autocracy”).

In 1789, the book “The Life of F. Ushakov” was published, which created a lot of noise. It was again published anonymously, but no one doubted Radishchev’s authorship. Everyone noticed that there were a lot of dangerous expressions and thoughts in the book. However, the authorities ignored her exit, which served as a signal for the writer to take further action.

The short biography of Radishchev for the 9th grade is not so informative, but it also notes that not only the authorities, but also members of the Russian Academy and many nobles were dissatisfied with the work of this man.

Radishchev did not calm down. He wanted some radical action. Therefore, he began to speak in the Society of Friends of Verbal Sciences, which included many writers, as well as sailors and officers. And he achieved his goal: they listened to his speeches.

The society began to publish the magazine "Conversing Citizen", which published works imbued with Radishchev's ideas. An article by the philosopher himself was also published there, more like a propaganda speech (“Conversation about the existence of a son of the Fatherland”). By the way, he had to try very hard to get it sent to print. Even his like-minded people understood how dangerous this could be.

The writer himself did not seem to notice how clouds were gathering over him. But the biography clearly describes this. Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich, whose creativity served him badly, found himself in the crosshairs of the authorities. His next publication added fuel to the fire.

"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow"

Radishchev's short biography contains one surprising fact. His main work passed the censorship test without any problems. It would seem impossible, but it was so. The whole point is that the chief police officer of the Council of Piety was simply too lazy to read it. Seeing the title and table of contents, he decided that it was just a guidebook. The book was printed in the author's home printing house, so no one knew about its contents.

The plot is quite simple. A certain traveler travels from one settlement to another and, passing by villages, describes what he saw. The book very loudly criticizes the autocratic government, talks about the oppressed peasants and the permissiveness of the landowners.

A total of six hundred copies were printed, but only twenty-five went on sale. For a long time, readers came to the seller wanting to hold the revolutionary publication in their hands.

Of course, such a work could not fail to find a response from either readers or the ruling elite. The Empress compared the writer with Pugachev, and it was the rebel who won the comparison.

In addition to the authorities, there were other people who did not appreciate Radishchev’s work. For example, Pushkin responded very coldly to the book, noting that it was a “mediocre work” written in a “barbaric style.”

Arrest and exile

By order of Catherine II, Radishchev was arrested. This happened on June 30, 1790. According to official documents, the reason for the detention was only the authorship of the Journey. But, since the empress had long known about the nature of her subject’s ideas and activities, his other literary works were also brought into play.

Because of the connection with the disgraced man, the Society of Friends was dispersed. The investigation was entrusted to the head of the secret police, Stepan Sheshkovsky, who was the empress’s personal executioner. Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev somehow found out about this. A short biography (9th graders consider this topic as part of the school curriculum) pointed to the fact that the remaining copies of the book were destroyed personally by the author, who was truly afraid.

Radishchev was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He escaped terrible torture only because his wife's sister took all her jewelry to the executioner. When the “rebel” realized how dangerous the game he was involved in was, he was overcome with horror. The threat of the death penalty hung over him, and the stigma of traitors hung over his family. Then Radishchev began to write letters of repentance, although not very sincere.

They demanded that the writer name the names of his accomplices and like-minded people. But Radishchev did not say a single name. Following the trial, a death sentence was imposed on July 24. But since the writer was a nobleman, the approval of all government agencies was required. Radishchev waited for him until August 19. But for some reason the execution was postponed, and on September 4, Catherine replaced the hanging with exile to Siberia.

Information about the ten years spent in the Ilmen prison could be added to his short biography. Alexander Radishchev, whose writer friends turned their backs on the exile, lived there for only six years. In 1796, Emperor Paul, known for his confrontation with his mother, released the writer. And in 1801 he was amnestied.

Last years

Alexander the First summoned the writer to St. Petersburg and appointed him to a position in the Commission for Drafting Laws.

After his exile, Radishchev wrote several poems, but he no longer enjoyed writing. It was difficult for him to drown out his freedom-loving thoughts. In addition, life in Siberia greatly undermined his health; he was no longer young and unhappy. Perhaps all these moments forced the writer to die.

A short biography of Radishchev contains information that there are two options for his death. The first is work related. Allegedly, he proposed introducing laws equalizing the rights of citizens, and the chairman reprimanded him, threatening Siberia. Alexander Nikolaevich took this to heart and poisoned himself.

The second version says that he drank a glass of aqua regia by mistake and died in front of his son. But funeral documents list natural death as the cause of death.

The writer’s grave has not survived to this day.

The fate of the literary heritage

Until the twentieth century, the writer’s books could not be found. He was known only as a resident (“countryman”) of the Penza region - Radishchev. The writer, whose biography (brief in presentation, but so rich in events) was very tragic, was not appreciated by his contemporaries. All his books were burned. It was only in 1888 that a small edition of Journey was published in Russia. And already in 1907 - a collection of works by a prose writer and poet.

Family

The writer was married twice. With his first wife Anna Rubanovskaya he had four children. But the woman died during the birth of her last son, Paul. Anna’s sister Ekaterina agreed to look after the motherless children.

It was she who became Radishchev’s second wife, following him into exile. Three more children were born into their marriage. On the way back to St. Petersburg, Catherine fell ill and died. This loss was deeply experienced by all the children and Radishchev.

The short biography and work of the writer are truly dramatic. Despite all the events of his life, he did not give up his views and followed them until his last breath. This is where the power of the human spirit manifests itself!