Why the life of Radishchev can be called a civil feat. Radishchev's life is a feat. Life feat of Radishchev

End of the 18th century. The era of the most important events in world history. Bourgeois revolutions swept across Europe and America. The Great French bourgeois revolution has come to pass. And only in Russia serfdom is preserved and reaches its peak. It was in such an atmosphere that the young nobleman Alexander Radishchev entered the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages in 1762. Alexander's parents were kind people. They treated the peasants in a human way. For this, the owners were loved. Life on the estate was the first collision of Radishchev with the serf system.
After graduating

The corps of pages, Radishchev served in the palace, got acquainted with the palace life. Then, among the best students, he was sent to Germany. Alexander was greatly impressed by the cruel customs of the feudal landlords, the arbitrariness of the ignorant military. A protest arose in his soul, which later resulted in the wonderful work “A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”.
"Journey." was the result of many years of observation, Radishchev's protest against the system of serfdom. He was the first, he started. The Decembrists came for him, Herzen. Radishchev understood and showed that all troubles stem not from individual landowners, and not even from the tsar, but from the existing system. He showed serfdom as it really was: cruel, unjust, in all its disgusting nakedness. With merciless truthfulness, Radishchev shows the ruling class, the serf-owners: "The monster is scum, mischievous, huge, hundred-zealous." The landlords only care about increasing their estates, increasing their wealth and entertainment. They want to turn serfs into obedient machines, put them on a par and even lower than cattle. But the writer himself believes and makes others believe that this is not so. Peasants are, first of all, people, people with their joys and sorrows. They are smart, fair, and the future belongs to them. Radishchev believes in the great strength of the people, believes that such a people cannot be broken, that they will fight and win,
At that time, the ideas of the enlighteners were widespread. Radishchev also attached great importance to them. But, most importantly, he believed that "a barge haule can solve a lot that was hitherto conjectural in Russian history," that is, make a revolution. He brilliantly predicted that the leaders of the revolution would be "great men" from the people. This has been confirmed by time.
The writer understood the consequences of publishing a book. He published it himself, in his printing house on Gryaznaya Street, with a circulation of only 650 copies, but the book was read everywhere and by everyone - nobles, merchants, peasants. When the book reached Catherine II, she said that the author was "a rebel, worse than Pugachev," and the book was "clearly and clearly rebellious, where the tsars are threatened with a chopping block."
Radishchev was captured and sent to prison. The author of Travel was sentenced to death. But in the form of "mercy" he was replaced by exile to Siberia, to distant Ilimsk. But the writer did not lay down his arms there either. He wrote proud, angry poems denouncing the autocracy, studied culture, everyday life, folklore, and taught.
Tsars were replaced, Tsar Pavel I began to rule. Radishchev was allowed to return to the capital. But the change of kings did not lead to a change in the very essence of serfdom. Radishchev understood this. The writer was broken, depressed. He took poison. This was the last form of public protest.
The significance of Radishchev's work is great. Although only 50 copies were sold, the book was copied by hand and reproduced in secret printing houses. Radishchev's hopes for Siberia came true.

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1. Radishchev lived in Leipzig for five years as a university student, and even then his first encounter with the personification of autocracy (in the person of a student mentor) took place. Hence, the future defender of the rights of peasants made for ...
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3. For several decades, researchers have sought not only to decisively distinguish Radishchev from such a “reactionary phenomenon as Russian Freemasonry, but also spoke of the“ struggle ”of the revolutionary writer with the Freemasons. So, one of the authoritative ...
4. The significance of Russian literature of the 18th century is not limited to even the fact that it posed and, if possible, solved the painful issues of its time and in many ways prepared the brilliant achievements of the literature of the 19th century: creativity ...
5. At the end of November 1771, after graduating from Leipzig University, Radishchev returned to St. Petersburg with his friends Kutuzov and Rubanovsky. The young people were enrolled as protocolmen in the ruling Senate. Here...
6. It is customary to refer to the early period of the writer's work as "The Diary of a Week", which was one of the first sentimental works in Russian literature. Radishchev's appeal to the "confessional" genre met those requirements for literature that ...
7. For his book, Radishchev chose a new genre in literature - “travel”. This genre became widespread in the 18th century. This he owes to Lawrence Stern. An outstanding English writer published in 1767 ...
8. Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev was the first Russian revolutionary of the nobility, a writer who proclaimed in his book Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow the need for a revolution in “Russia against monarchy and serfdom. Pictures of serf bondage ...
9. The first definition of the genre of travel in Russian literary criticism belongs to I. M. Born. In “A Brief Guide to Russian Literature” (1808), he writes the following: “Travels are true narratives about the adventures that happened to the wandering ...
10. Not a single author of the 18th century was so imbued with the idea of ​​negation as Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749-1802). He strove to critically comprehend all spheres of public life without exception. Elimination of its private shortcomings ...
11. For many generations of Russian readers, the name of Radishchev is surrounded by an aura of martyrdom: for writing Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow, the author was sentenced to death, replaced by Catherine II with ten years of exile in ...
12. Born into a landowner's family. His childhood years were spent in the village of Verkhnee Ablyazovo (now the Penza region). The first educators of the boy were serfs: nanny Praskovya Klementyevna and uncle Peter, who taught him to read and write ...
13. I looked around me - my soul was wounded by the suffering of humanity N. Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev is a legendary figure, especially for the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia of the 19th century. In his views on ...
14. For many generations of Russian readers, the name is Radishchev. surrounded by a halo of martyrdom: for writing a Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, the author was sentenced to death, replaced by Catherine II with ten years of exile in ...
15. For many generations of Russian readers, the name of Radishchev is surrounded by an aura of martyrdom: for writing "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow" the author was sentenced to death, replaced by Catherine II by ten years of exile in ...
16. Radishchev is an enemy of slavery. A. Pushkin Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev - 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 ...
17. Russia in the 18th century did not know a philosopher equal to Radishchev in the vastness and depth of mind. With the consistency and versatility of a scholar, he reviewed and subjected to scathing criticism in Travel. the entire autocratic-serf social system, ... I. Fonvizin managed to show reality as it is, but he did not demand radical changes in social conditions. G.R.Derzhavin was able to comprehend the complexity, contrast of the surrounding world, but these contradictions ...

Topic: The life feat of A.N. Radishchev. Review of the content of "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow"

Goals
educational: to give an idea of ​​Radishchev as a highly moral person, to draw a conclusion about what Radishchev's life feat consists of;

developing: to determine the ideological content of the book as a whole and individual chapters;
educational: to instill in students the desire to take an active life position in society.
Planned result of activity: the formation of the second level of results - a positive attitude towards the basic values ​​of society, a value attitude towards social reality in general,
the acquisition of new knowledge by students about the civic position of A.N. Radishchev;
the ability to compare with the present.
Planned effect of the activity: acquired knowledge, experienced feelings should help the formation of competence, identity.

Registration:

1. Stand "Radishchev - enemy of slavery"

2. Exhibition of books.

3.Lighted candles.

4. Pointers with the names of stations.

5.Literary Dictionary.

On the desk: Life feat of Radishchev.

A rebel is worse than Pugachev

Catherine II.

I looked around me - my soul is suffering

humanity became wounded

A. Radishchev.

No. 1.Orgmoment.

No. 2. Introductory speech of the teacher.

In the spring of 1790, on Gryaznaya Street of St. Petersburg, in a printing house that was not subject to censorship, the last pages of "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow" were typed and printed - Alexander Radishchev completed his work.

That distant spring was still the forerunner of the Great French Revolution. Ahead was the seizure of the Bastille, when for the first time the words of the song of the French Revolution “WILL GO!” Sounded ominously, calling to haul the aristocrats into the lanterns, and the execution of Louis16, and the Jacobin terror that horrified contemporaries, and the collapse of the Jacobin dictatorship.

Radishchev is one of the few, not only in Russia, but also in Western Europe, who possessed knowledge capable of both predicting and explaining the ending of the tragedy that crowned the outcome of the “crazy and wise” century.

But the most important thing and striking today is Radishchev's thoughts about the Russian revolution. Even then, at the end of the 18th century, he saw a lot with that piercing clarity that we began to acquire recently.

How precious this Radishchev knowledge must be for us! It's time, it's time to admit our guilt before Radishchev, the guilt of misunderstanding, disinterest, forgetfulness!

Let us, according to Russian custom, light candles - a symbol of life - (both literally and figuratively) as a sign of our respect and memory of that person who was the most courageous thinker of the 18th century, who did not put up with social evil, indifference, limited spirit and thoughts, flew in his dreams to that society, which he tried to discern in his dreams through the veil of time.

But Radishchev's book, completed a year before the start of the French Revolution, organically grew on Russian soil, was intimately connected with Russian reality in the last third of the 18th century.

Therefore, we need to know what it was Russia in the last third of the 18th century.

Student's speech.
Teacher. Yes, during the reign of Catherine II, in connection with the growth of productive forces, the development of new, capitalist relations, social contradictions in the country sharply escalated. Feudal oppression is becoming more and more rigid.

In her domestic policy, Catherine II defended primarily the interests of the nobility, then the merchants. And the peasant, as A. Radishchev wrote, “is dead in the law”.

The largest Russian landowner was the Empress herself. Rebellions broke out here and there. The unrest was suppressed.

Exposing serf tyranny, sympathy for the oppressed peasantry - the leading theme of the literature of the 18th century.

Radishchev directed his bold blows precisely at the "foundation", at the "principle of evil," that is, at the entire system of serfdom and tsarism.

QUESTIONS.

# 1. How was the life of this amazing, outstanding person?

# 2. Who influenced such views?

Students' speeches.

Teacher. Indeed, all progressive people passionately loved their homeland, but it was only in Radishchev's mind that the idea of ​​patriotism was filled with revolutionary content.

A true patriot, Radishchev recognizes only those who give all their strength for the good of the people, who are “not afraid to sacrifice their lives,” who are capable of a heroic deed.

And Radishchev's words were confirmed by his entire future life. And his main business and truly a feat of all his life was the creation of the book "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", which he addressed to the reader and friend Alexei Kutuzov, who, like himself, is able to go through the difficult path of searches, not to be intimidated by the tough, persistent directness of the fundamental questions of life and - most importantly! - who has found the strength to resist the temptation of reconciling simplicity and clarity.

About the history of the "burned book" will tell ... a prepared student ...

SPEECH-SIA.

TEACHER. Nothing: arrest, the threat of the death penalty, exile to Siberia - did not break the revolutionary spirit of Radishchev. He confirmed his loyalty to his convictions in a poem:

You want to know: who am I? what am I? where am i going? -

I am the same as I was and will be all my life:

Not cattle, not a tree, not a slave, but a man! ..

"Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow" is a very difficult book. And not only because, according to Radishchev himself, it is written in heavy language. The difficulty lies in the clash of opposite ideas in it: revolutionary and alien revolution, who deny it, warn against it. And the contradictions are presented frankly.

Today is the time to understand Radishchev. He doubted the need for a revolution, and his alarm was not in vain.

If we can understand that thoughts, worries, doubts, hopes are in tune with our own, then we will understand that his book is modern, in tune with our time.

And some of you will help us determine the route from station to station in chronological order, and we will check how you understood the composition of this work.

The called student attaches signs with the names of stations in the order, then checks against the map - scheme.

TEACHER. At the very beginning of the journey, the voice of a traveler sounds, inseparable from the author's voice. The unnamed protagonist of the book appears as a person who piously believes in the idea of ​​the Enlightenment - that life can be changed, “trusted in wise laws”.

How many Russian writers will be surrendered "in the wake of Radishchev" to the power of the road, the Russian way, the Russian thought ...

STUDENTS 'PERFORMANCES with the analysis of chapters - stations in accordance with the map - scheme.
Reflection.

TEACHER. So our journey ends. Let's summarize, collectively decide whether it succeeded, whether you were able to determine what the main issues are considered by Radishchev.

No. 1. The situation of the peasants.

No. 2. Exposing the autocracy.

No. 3. Call for revolution.

No. 4. Warning.

# 1. What's the idea behind the chapters you've read?

No. 2. What is the civil feat of A. N. Radishchev?

TEACHER... Catherine II was mistaken in calling Radishchev a rebel worse than Pugachev. He was not a rebel - a revolutionary.

He had no doubts about the inevitability of the bloody collapse of the Russian statehood based on oppression and exploitation. But he was alarmed by the reversibility of social processes.

Why is “liberty” capable of turning into slavery? Will this not happen in Russia? Is it not coming after the victorious revolution, the acquired freedom, a time of new oppression, a new trampling on freedoms and human rights ?! Will not the shed blood give birth - new blood, new violence - and so on without end?! ..

The alarm was not in vain. We understand this today.

Doesn't the world he created, torn apart by contradictions, doubts, pain and hope, remind us of what is happening to us today? Whoever groans, shouts, curses, or calls for decisive action, then for restraint: a plowman, a peasant family doomed to poverty, and a warrior who has lost his sight in battle and forced to beggar ...

But Radishchev explains: the main condition for universal prosperity is FREEDOM, which cannot be limited. But freedom is inevitably fraught with great difficulties.

We should understand Radishchev that revolution is a great inevitability, a regularity of Russian history, "its face is terrible", it will bring grace that is not instantly affirmed. And for the people there is only one way - not to let the sprouts of freedom of spirit drown out. This is the hope.

APPEAL TO THE EXHIBITION OF BOOKS.

SUMMING UP.

JOB TO THE HOUSE.

And I have to voice another very important thought. Radishchev did not need financially. But a feeling of compassion was very strongly developed in him, he felt someone else's pain as his own, therefore he built his life like that. I would like you to try to learn this from Radishchev. I do not urge you all to become revolutionaries, but to help a person, even if he does not ask you about it, to support him at the right time - this should become a program for you - at least.

WRITTEN ANSWER TO THE QUESTION / BY STUDENTS 'SELECTION /
No. 1. Is the work of A.N. Radishchev?

№2. What is the life feat of Radishchev?

Writing

The great thinker believed that only a person who is free in his thoughts and deeds can consider himself a "true son of the fatherland": one who "always strives for the beautiful, majestic, lofty." The "true son of the fatherland" is well-behaved and noble, but not by birth. In the understanding of the author of The Travel, a noble person is characterized by virtuous deeds inspired by true honor, that is, love of freedom and morality. serving your people. Writing "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", Radishchev acted exactly as a true son of the fatherland. He accomplished a feat by interceding for people who had been deprived of their human rights, including the right to be called human.

Passionate denunciation of autocracy and serfdom could not go unnoticed in a state where no manifestation of free thought remained unpunished. Pe could go unpunished and the author of a seditious book. Radishchev knew all this and chose his own destiny. While the vast majority of noblemen, Radishchev's contemporaries, lived only for themselves, satisfying their whims at the expense of serfs and servants, the author of "Travel" rejected coziness and comfort, personal well-being in order to challenge the serf-owners and the empress. Just as, almost a century later, N.G. Chernyshevsky, Radishchev, in his prime of strength, was forcibly torn away from his family, from society, from literature, isolated from political struggle and life.

Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev was born on August 20 (31), 1749 in Moscow into the family of a hereditary nobleman, collegiate assessor Nikolai Afanasyevich Radishchev. His mother, Thekla Stepanogna Argamakova, came from the nobility. Alexander was the eldest of seven brothers. He spent his childhood in Moscow and on the estate of his father “Nemtsovo”, Kaluga province, Kuznetsovsky district. In the summertime, the boy, together with his parents, sometimes went to the village of Verkhnee Ablyazovo, Saratov province, where Radishchev's father, a wealthy landowner, owned an estate with 2 thousand souls of serfs. Afanasy Radishchev owned 17 more villages with peasants in different provinces of Russia. In the house of his parents, Sasha did not see scenes of reprisals against serfs, but he heard a lot of stories about cruel neighbors-landowners, among whom he remembered a certain Zubov: the latter fed his serfs, like cattle, from common troughs, and for the slightest offense he mercilessly sec.

The humanity of the Radishchevs and their sympathy for the peasants in their struggle for freedom is evidenced by the following fact: when the peasant war under the leadership of Yemelyan Pugachev reached Upper Ablyazov, the old Radishchev armed his courtyards and went into the forest; Nikolai Afanasevich "gave out his four children among the peasants." “The peasants loved him so much,” says the writer’s son Pavel, “that they didn’t give him away, and their wives smeared their little gentlemen's faces with soot, he was afraid that the rioters would guess from the whiteness and tenderness of their faces that they were not peasant children, usually soiled and unkempt. None of the thousand arcs thought to convey to him ... ".

In November 1762, with the assistance of the Argamakovs, Alexander was granted a page and was able to enter the court educational institution - the Corps of Pages in St. Petersburg.There he made friends with Alexei Kutuzov, who stood out among the pages for his erudition and exemplary behavior. Both young men were in love with Russian literature and read at this time the works of famous Russian writers M.V. Lomonosov, A.P. Sumarokov, V.I. Lukin, F.A.Emin, D.I.Fonvizin. In the house of Vasily Argamakov, where Alexander was, writers and poets gathered, here they read their stories and poems, argued heatedly, dreaming of the time when fine literature would finally leave the walls of aristocratic salons. In the Corps of Pages, young Radishchev stood out among the pupils for his "successes in science and behavior."

In the fall of 1766, among the twelve best students, he was sent to Germany to complete his education. Beginning in 1767, Alexander attended lectures at the Leipzig University on the history of literature and philosophy. Radishchev was also engaged in chemistry, medicine, continued to study Latin, German and French. In their free time, Russian youths gathered in the Ushakovs' room and had heart-to-heart conversations.

A test of courage for him was the clash of students with Major "Bokum, appointed by the tsarist government to" look after "the former students of the Corps of Pages. The greedy Bokum robbed students, embezzling money allocated by the government for their maintenance, subjecting young men to insults and humiliating punishments; Bokum even invented a cage for punishing students, in which "you can neither stand nor sit on the pointed rungs directly." The young people rebuffed the soldier's rude actions. By his own example, the young man was convinced that the brute force of the police state can and should be opposed by the force of convictions, the spirit of a highly gifted and highly moral person who lives with the ideals of goodness and justice. The entire subsequent life of the author of "Travels" testifies to his loyalty to this oath. The origins of his life feat consist precisely in loyalty and adherence to his convictions, the convictions of a revolutionary to the end.

In December 1777, due to financial difficulties, Alexander Nikolaevich was forced to return to service. He was appointed a junior official, with the rank of Major Seconds, to the Commerce Collegium, where the head was Count Alexander Romanovich Vorontsov, a liberal nobleman of Catherine's time. Since 1780, being an assistant to the head of the St. Petersburg customs, Radishchev, already in the rank of court councilor, proved himself to be an honest, incorruptible employee, for whom the interests of Russia are paramount. He declared a merciless war against smugglers and bribe-takers, foreign adventurers and embezzlers. They say that once one of the merchants, wanting to smuggle expensive materials, came to his office and laid out a package with banknotes, but was driven out in disgrace. The merchant's wife, as an uninvited guest, visited Radishchev's wife and left a parcel of expensive fabrics as a guest.

When the "gift" was discovered, Radishchev ordered the servant to catch up with the merchant's wife and return the package to her. The writer fearlessly defended junior employees, including his colleague, customs inspector Stepan Andreev, who was slandered and later sent to hard labor. Later, in "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow," in the chapter "Spasskaya Polest", Radishchev spoke about a gross violation of the rules of legal proceedings, referring to the case of customs officer Stepan Andreev. Radishchev has earned a reputation for being straightforward and fair. This is how his loyalty to the oath given to Fyodor Ushakov was manifested.

Radishchev was a versatile person. In his spare time, Alexander Nikolaevich attended noble meetings and societies, the English club, the Masonic lodge, attended balls, found time for literary pursuits: he read a lot, wrote love poems, translated foreign works into Russian, one of which is “Reflection on Greek history, or On the reasons for the prosperity and misfortune of the Greeks "Gabriel de Mab-li - provided the following note:" Autocracy is the most contrary to human nature state. " None of his friends or a contemporary would have dared to express such an extreme idea. Obviously, in the depths of the consciousness of the great thinker, an enormous creative work was in full swing, and religious ideas of genius, which were destined to find a way out in his revolutionary works: the ode "Liberty" and "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow."

Events of the Peasant War of 1773-1775 played a decisive role in the political education of Radishchev. Having studied the entire course of the uprising on the basis of authentic documents; entering the headquarters of General-in-Chief Ya. A. Bruce, the author of "Travel" recognized the struggle that the peasants, working people, Cossacks and soldiers selflessly waged against the landowners and the tsarina. However, the writer realized that the rebels were inevitably doomed to defeat due to their spontaneity and disorganization. He viewed the Pugachev uprising as an act of popular revenge against the oppressors. “They were looking more for the joy of revenge than for the benefit of shaking the bonds,” wrote the author of Travel in the chapter “Khotilov”. The writer called Pugachev a "rude impostor": the republican Radishchev, an ardent opponent of tsarism, was sickened by the naive monarchism of the leader of the rebellious peasants.

The great thinker believed that only a person who is free in his thoughts and deeds can consider himself a "true son of the fatherland": one who "always strives for the beautiful, majestic, lofty." The "true son of the fatherland" is well-behaved and noble, but not by birth. In the understanding of the author of The Travel, a noble person is characterized by virtuous deeds inspired by true honor, that is, love of freedom and morality. serving your people. Writing "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", Radishchev acted exactly as a true son of the fatherland. He accomplished a feat by interceding for people who had been deprived of their human rights, including the right to be called human.

Passionate denunciation of autocracy and serfdom could not go unnoticed in a state where no manifestation of free thought remained unpunished. Pe could go unpunished and the author of a seditious book. Radishchev knew all this and chose his own destiny. While the vast majority of noblemen, Radishchev's contemporaries, lived only for themselves, satisfying their whims at the expense of serfs and servants, the author of "Travel" rejected coziness and comfort, personal well-being in order to challenge the serf-owners and the empress. Just as, almost a century later, N.G., Radishchev, in his prime of strength, was forcibly torn away from the family, from society, from literature, isolated from political struggle and life.

Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev was born on August 20 (31), 1749 in Moscow into the family of a hereditary nobleman, collegiate assessor Nikolai Afanasyevich Radishchev. His mother, Thekla Stepanogna Argamakova, came from the nobility. Alexander was the eldest of seven brothers. He spent his childhood in Moscow and on the estate of his father “Nemtsovo”, Kaluga province, Kuznetsovsky district. In the summertime, the boy, together with his parents, sometimes went to the village of Verkhnee Ablyazovo, Saratov province, where Radishchev's father, a wealthy landowner, owned an estate with 2 thousand souls of serfs. Afanasy Radishchev owned 17 more villages with peasants in different provinces of Russia. In the house of his parents, Sasha did not see scenes of reprisals against serfs, but he heard a lot of stories about cruel neighbors-landowners, among whom he remembered a certain Zubov: the latter fed his serfs, like cattle, from common troughs, and for the slightest offense he mercilessly sec.

The following fact testifies to the humanity of the Radishchevs and their sympathy for the peasants in their struggle for freedom: when the peasant war under the leadership of Yemelyan reached Upper Ablyazov, old Radishchev armed his courtyards, and he went into the forest; Nikolai Afanasevich "gave out his four children among the peasants." “The peasants loved him so much,” says the writer’s son Pavel, “that they didn’t give him away, and their wives smeared their little gentlemen's faces with soot, he was afraid that the rioters would guess from the whiteness and tenderness of their faces that they were not peasant children, usually soiled and unkempt. None of the thousand arcs thought to convey to him ... ".

In November 1762, with the assistance of the Argamakovs, Alexander was granted a page and was able to enter the court educational institution - the Corps of Pages in St. Petersburg.There he made friends with Alexei Kutuzov, who stood out among the pages for his erudition and exemplary behavior. Both young men were in love with Russian literature and read at this time the works of famous Russian writers M.V. Lomonosov, A.P. Sumarokov, V.I. Lukin, F.A.Emin, D.I.Fonvizin. In the house of Vasily Argamakov, where Alexander was, writers and poets gathered, here they read their stories and poems, argued heatedly, dreaming of the time when fine literature would finally leave the walls of aristocratic salons. In the Corps of Pages, young Radishchev stood out among the pupils for his "successes in science and behavior."

In the fall of 1766, among the twelve best students, he was sent to Germany to complete his education. Beginning in 1767, Alexander attended lectures at the Leipzig University on the history of literature and philosophy. Radishchev was also engaged in chemistry, medicine, continued to study Latin, German and French. In their free time, Russian youths gathered in the Ushakovs' room and had heart-to-heart conversations.

A test of courage for him was the clash of students with Major "Bokum, appointed by the tsarist government to" look after "the former students of the Corps of Pages. The greedy Bokum robbed students, embezzling money allocated by the government for their maintenance, subjecting young men to insults and humiliating punishments; Bokum even invented a cage for punishing students, in which "you can neither stand nor sit on the pointed rungs directly." The young people rebuffed the soldier's rude actions. By his own example, the young man was convinced that the brute force of the police state can and should be opposed by the force of convictions, the spirit of a highly gifted and highly moral person who lives with the ideals of goodness and justice. The entire subsequent life of the author of "Travels" testifies to his loyalty to this oath. The origins of his life feat consist precisely in loyalty and adherence to his convictions, the convictions of a revolutionary to the end.

In December 1777, due to financial difficulties, Alexander Nikolaevich was forced to return to service. He was appointed a junior official, with the rank of Major Seconds, to the Commerce Collegium, where the head was Count Alexander Romanovich Vorontsov, a liberal nobleman of Catherine's time. Since 1780, being an assistant to the head of the St. Petersburg customs, Radishchev, already in the rank of court councilor, proved himself to be an honest, incorruptible employee, for whom the interests of Russia are paramount. He declared a merciless war against smugglers and bribe-takers, foreign adventurers and embezzlers. They say that once one of the merchants, wanting to smuggle expensive materials, came to his office and laid out a package with banknotes, but was driven out in disgrace. The merchant's wife, as an uninvited guest, visited Radishchev's wife and left a parcel of expensive fabrics as a guest.

When the "gift" was discovered, Radishchev ordered the servant to catch up with the merchant's wife and return the package to her. The writer fearlessly spoke out in defense of junior employees, including his colleague, customs inspector Stepan, who was slandered and later sent to hard labor. Later, in "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow," in the chapter "Spasskaya Polest", Radishchev spoke about a gross violation of the rules of legal proceedings, referring to the case of customs officer Stepan Andreev. Radishchev has earned a reputation for being straightforward and fair. This is how his loyalty to the oath given to Fyodor Ushakov was manifested.

Radishchev was a versatile person. In his spare time, Alexander Nikolaevich attended noble meetings and societies, the English club, the Masonic lodge, attended balls, found time for literary pursuits: he read a lot, wrote love poems, translated foreign works into Russian, one of which is “Reflection on Greek history, or On the reasons for the prosperity and misfortune of the Greeks "Gabriel de Mab-li - provided the following note:" Autocracy is the most contrary to human nature state. " None of his friends or a contemporary would have dared to express such an extreme idea. Obviously, in the depths of the consciousness of the great thinker, an enormous creative work was in full swing, and religious ideas of genius, which were destined to find a way out in his revolutionary works: the ode "Liberty" and "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow."

End of the 18th century. The era of the most important events in world history. Bourgeois revolutions swept across Europe and America. The Great French bourgeois revolution has come to pass. And only in Russia serfdom is preserved and reaches its peak. It was in such an atmosphere that the young nobleman Alexander Radishchev entered the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages in 1762. Alexander's parents were kind people. They treated the peasants in a human way. For this, the owners were loved. Life on the estate was the first collision of Radishchev with the serf system. After graduating from the Corps of Pages, Radishchev served in the palace, got acquainted with the palace life. Then, among the best students, he was sent to Germany. Alexander was greatly impressed by the cruel customs of the feudal landlords, the arbitrariness of the ignorant military. A protest arose in his soul, which later resulted in the wonderful work "A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow". "Journey ..." was the result of many years of observation, Radishchev's protest against the system of serfdom. He was the first, he started. The Decembrists came for him, Herzen. Radishchev understood and showed that all troubles stem not from individual landowners, and not even from the tsar, but from the existing system. He showed serfdom as it really was: cruel, unjust, in all its disgusting nakedness. With merciless truthfulness, Radishchev shows the ruling class, the serf-owners: "The monster is bastard, mischievous, huge, hundred-zealous." The landlords only care about increasing their estates, increasing their wealth and entertainment. They want to turn serfs into obedient machines, put them on a par and even lower than cattle. But the writer himself believes and makes others believe that this is not so. Peasants are, first of all, people, people with their joys and sorrows. They are smart, fair, and the future belongs to them. Radishchev believes in the great strength of the people, believes that such a people cannot be broken, that they will fight and win. At that time, the ideas of the enlighteners were widely spread. Radishchev also attached great importance to them. But, most importantly, he believed that "a barge haule can solve a lot of the hitherto conjectural in Russian history", that is, make a revolution. He brilliantly predicted that the leaders of the revolution would be "great men" from the people. This has been confirmed by time. The writer understood the consequences of publishing a book. He published it himself, in his printing house on Gryaznaya Street, with a circulation of only 650 copies, but the book was read everywhere and by everyone - nobles, merchants, peasants. When the book reached Catherine II, she said that the author was "a rebel, worse than Pugachev," and the book was "clearly and clearly rebellious, where the tsars are threatened with a chopping block." Radishchev was captured and sent to prison. The author of Travel was sentenced to death. But in the form of "mercy" he was replaced by exile to Siberia, to distant Ilimsk. But the writer did not lay down his arms there either. He wrote proud, angry poems denouncing the autocracy, studied culture, everyday life, folklore, and taught. Tsars were replaced, Tsar Pavel I began to rule. Radishchev was allowed to return to the capital. But the change of kings did not lead to a change in the very essence of serfdom. Radishchev understood this. The writer was broken, depressed. He took poison. This was the last form of public protest. The significance of Radishchev's work is great. Although only 50 copies were sold, the book was copied by hand and reproduced in secret printing houses. Radishchev's hopes for Siberia came true.