N herzen. Alexander Ivanovich Herzen

Russian publicist, writer, philosopher, teacher

Alexander Herzen

short biography

The Russian writer, publicist, philosopher, revolutionary, founder of the domestic political emigration - was the illegitimate child of a wealthy Moscow landowner I. Yakovlev. The boy who was born on April 6 (March 25, O.S.), 1812, was given the surname Herzen invented by his father. He grew up in his father's house and received an upbringing typical of noble families of that time. The opportunity to read French enlighteners and encyclopedists from the home library influenced the formation of his worldview. As a teenager, Alexander met Nikolai Ogarev, with whom he carried his friendship through the years. The Decembrist uprising of 1825 was a landmark event for Herzen's biography. The impressions from him were so strong that Herzen and Ogarev swore an oath to serve freedom all their lives.

In 1829 Herzen became a student at Moscow University (Physics and Mathematics Department). He and his faithful comrade Ogarev become active participants in a circle of freedom-loving youth opposed to the actions of the government. In 1834, Herzen was among the arrested participants and was exiled to Perm. Later he was sent to Vyatka, where he served in the governor's office. When the tsar's heir, the future Alexander II, came to the city, Herzen participated in a local exhibition and gave explanations to a high-ranking person. Thanks to this, he was transferred to Vladimir, where he served as an adviser to the board and married a Moscow bride. Despite being in exile, Herzen recalled those days as the happiest in his life.

In 1836, he began to publish, act as a publicist, taking the pseudonym Iskander. In early 1840, Herzen was allowed to return to Moscow, and in the spring he changed his place of residence to St. Petersburg. The father insisted that his son get a job in the office of the Ministry of the Interior, but after Herzen spoke unflatteringly about the police in a letter to him, he was exiled again in July 1841, this time to Novgorod.

A year later, in 1842, Herzen returned to the capital. At that time, the main direction of social thought was the ideological dispute between the Slavophiles and the Westernizers. Herzen is not just actively involved in it, shares the position of the latter - thanks to erudition, the talent to think, to debate, he turns into one of the key figures in Russian public life. In 1842-1843. he publishes a series of articles "Amateurism in Science", in 1844-1845. - "Letters on the Study of Nature", in which he calls for an end to the opposition between philosophy and the natural sciences. Seeing in literature a mirror of social life and an effective way of fighting, the writer presents to the public anti-serf fiction works - Doctor Krupov (1847), The Thieving Magpie (1848). During the years 1841-1846. Herzen writes a socio-psychological novel, one of the first of its kind in Russia - "Who is to blame?"

The move to Europe (France) in 1847 after the death of his father marked the beginning of a new period in Herzen's biography. He happened to become an eyewitness to the defeat of the revolutions of 1848-1849, and under the influence of disappointment in the revolutionary potential of Western countries, thoughts about the dying of old Europe, the philosopher creates the "theory of Russian socialism", lays the foundations of populism. The literary embodiment of the ideas of that time were the books From the Other Bank (1847-1850), On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia (1850).

In 1850, Alexander Ivanovich and his family settled in Nice, where he closely communicated with representatives of European emigration and the Italian national liberation movement. In 1851, the Russian government awarded Herzen the status of an eternal exile, deprived him of all rights for disobeying the demand to return to his homeland. Having lost his wife, in 1852 Herzen went to live in London and a year later founded the Free Russian Printing House, designed to print literature banned in Russia. In 1855, Herzen became the publisher of the almanac Polar Star, and in 1857, after N. Ogarev moved to London, he began publishing the first Russian revolutionary newspaper, The Bell. Ruthless criticism fell upon the Russian government from its pages, calls were made for fundamental reforms, for example, the liberation of the peasantry, publicity in court, the elimination of censorship, etc. This publication played a huge role in shaping Russian public thought, the worldview of young revolutionaries. "The Bell" lasted 10 years.

In 1868, Herzen finished writing the autobiographical novel "The Past and Thoughts", begun in 1852. It is considered not only the pinnacle of his work as an artist of the word, but also one of the best examples of Russian memoirs. At the end of his life, Herzen came to the conclusion that violence and terror were unacceptable methods of struggle. The last years of his life are connected with different cities: Geneva, Lausanne, Brussels, Florence. A.I. died. Herzen January 21, 1870 in Paris from pneumonia. He was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery, then his ashes were reburied in Nice.

Biography from Wikipedia

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen(March 25 (April 6) 1812, Moscow - January 9 (21), 1870, Paris) - Russian publicist, writer, philosopher, teacher, one of the most prominent critics of the official ideology and policy of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, a supporter of revolutionary changes.

Childhood

Herzen was born into the family of a wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev (1767-1846), who was descended from Andrei Kobyla (like the Romanovs). Mother - 16-year-old German Henriette-Wilhelmina-Louise Haag (German: Henriette Wilhelmina Luisa Haag), daughter of a petty official, clerk in the state chamber in Stuttgart. The marriage of the parents was not formalized, and Herzen bore the surname invented by his father: Herzen - "son of the heart" (from German Herz).

Father of A. I. Herzen - Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev

In his youth, Herzen received the usual noble upbringing at home, based on reading works of foreign literature, mainly of the late 18th century. French novels, comedies by Beaumarchais, Kotzebue, works by Goethe, Schiller from an early age set the boy in an enthusiastic, sentimental-romantic tone. There were no systematic classes, but the tutors - the French and Germans - gave the boy a solid knowledge of foreign languages. Thanks to his acquaintance with the work of Schiller, Herzen was imbued with freedom-loving aspirations, the development of which was greatly facilitated by the teacher of Russian literature, I.E. Bouchot, a participant in the French Revolution, who left France when the "lecherous and rogues" took over. This was joined by the influence of Tanya Kuchina, Herzen's young aunt, "Korchevskaya cousin" Herzen (married Tatiana Passek), who supported the young dreamer's childhood pride, prophesying an extraordinary future for him.

In December 1820, I. A. Yakovlev enrolled his son in the department of the “Kremlin building expedition”, indicating his age of 14 instead of 8; in 1823 he was awarded the rank of collegiate registrar.

Already in childhood, Herzen met and became friends with Nikolai Ogaryov. According to his memoirs, a strong impression on the boys (Herzen was 13, Ogaryov was 12 years old) was made by the news of the Decembrist uprising on December 14, 1825. Under his impression, they have the first, still vague dreams of revolutionary activity; during a walk on Sparrow Hills, the boys vowed to fight for freedom.

Already in 1829-1830, Herzen wrote a philosophical article on "Wallenstein" by F. Schiller. During this youthful period of Herzen's life, his ideal was Karl Moor, the hero of F. Schiller's tragedy The Robbers (1782).

University (1829−1833)

In the autumn of 1823, Herzen entered the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of Moscow University, and here this mood intensified even more. At the university, Herzen took part in the so-called "Malov story" (a student protest against an unloved teacher), but got off relatively lightly - a short imprisonment, along with many comrades, in a punishment cell. Of the teachers, only M.T. Kachenovsky with his skepticism and M.G. Pavlov, who introduced the listeners to German philosophy at the lectures on agriculture, awakened young thought. The youth was set, however, rather violently; she welcomed the July Revolution (as can be seen from Lermontov's poems) and other popular movements (the cholera that appeared in Moscow contributed to the excitement of the students, in the fight against which all university youth took an active part). By this time, Herzen's meeting with Vadim Passek, which later turned into friendship, the establishment of friendly relations with Ketcher, etc., dates back. The bunch of young friends grew, made noise, seethed; at times she allowed small revels, of a completely innocent, however, character; diligently engaged in reading, being carried away mainly by public issues, studying Russian history, mastering the ideas of Saint-Simon (whose utopian socialism Herzen considered then the most outstanding achievement of contemporary Western philosophy) and other socialists.

Link

In 1834, all members of Herzen's circle and he himself were arrested. Herzen was exiled to Perm, and from there to Vyatka, where he was appointed to serve in the office of the governor.

For the organization of the exhibition of local works and the explanations given during its inspection to the heir to the throne (the future Alexander II), Herzen, at the request of Zhukovsky, was transferred to serve as an adviser to the board in Vladimir, where he married, secretly taking his bride from Moscow, and where he spent the happiest and bright days of your life.

After the link

At the beginning of 1840, Herzen was allowed to return to Moscow. In May 1840, he moved to St. Petersburg, where, at the insistence of his father, he began to serve in the office of the Ministry of the Interior. But in July 1841, for a sharp review in one letter about the activities of the police, Herzen was sent to Novgorod, where he served in the provincial government until July 1842, after which he settled in Moscow.

Here he had to face the famous circle of Hegelians Stankevich and Belinsky, who defended the thesis of the complete rationality of all reality.

Most of Stankevich's friends approached Herzen and Ogaryov, forming the camp of Westernizers; others joined the camp of the Slavophiles, with Khomyakov and Kireevsky at the head (1844).

Despite mutual bitterness and disputes, both sides had much in common in their views, and above all, according to Herzen himself, the common thing was "a feeling of boundless love for the Russian people, for the Russian mindset, embracing the whole existence." Opponents, "like a two-faced Janus, looked in different directions, while the heart beat one." “With tears in their eyes”, embracing each other, the recent friends, and now the principal opponents, went in different directions.

Herzen often traveled to St. Petersburg to attend meetings of Belinsky's circle; and soon after the death of his father he went abroad forever (1847).

In the Moscow house where Herzen lived from 1843 to 1847, since 1976 the House-Museum of A. I. Herzen has been operating.

In exile

Herzen arrived in Europe more radically republican than socialist, although the publication he began in Otechestvennye Zapiski of a series of articles entitled Letters from Avenue Marigny (subsequently published in a revised form in Letters from France and Italy) shocked him. friends - Western liberals - with their anti-bourgeois pathos. The February Revolution of 1848 seemed to Herzen the realization of all his hopes. The subsequent June uprising of the workers, its bloody suppression and the ensuing reaction shocked Herzen, who resolutely turned to socialism. He became close to Proudhon and other prominent figures of the revolution and European radicalism; together with Proudhon, he published the newspaper "Voice of the People" ("La Voix du Peuple"), which he financed. The beginning of his wife's passion for the German poet Herweg dates back to the Parisian period. In 1849, after the defeat of the radical opposition by President Louis Napoleon, Herzen was forced to leave France and moved to Switzerland, and from there to Nice, which then belonged to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

During this period, Herzen moved among the circles of radical European emigration, who had gathered in Switzerland after the defeat of the revolution in Europe, and, in particular, met Giuseppe Garibaldi. Fame brought him an essay book "From the Other Shore", in which he made a calculation with his past liberal convictions. Under the influence of the collapse of the old ideals and the reaction that came throughout Europe, Herzen formed a specific system of views about the doom, the "dying" of old Europe and the prospects for Russia and the Slavic world, which are called upon to realize the socialist ideal.

In July 1849, Nicholas I arrested all the property of Herzen and his mother. After that, the seized property was pledged to the banker Rothschild, and he, negotiating a loan to Russia, achieved the lifting of the imperial ban.

"The Bell" by A. I. Herzen, 1857

After a series of family tragedies that befell Herzen in Nice (the betrayal of his wife with Herweg, the death of his mother and son in a shipwreck, the death of his wife and newborn child), Herzen moved to London, where he founded the Free Russian Printing House for printing prohibited publications and from 1857 published a weekly newspaper "Bell".

A. I. Herzen, ca. 1861

The peak of Kolokol's influence falls on the years preceding the emancipation of the peasants; then the newspaper was regularly read in the Winter Palace. After the peasant reform, her influence begins to decline; support for the Polish uprising of 1863 drastically undermined circulation. At that time, for the liberal public, Herzen was already too revolutionary, for the radical - too moderate. On March 15, 1865, under the persistent demand of the Russian government to the British government, the editors of The Bell, headed by Herzen, left London forever and moved to Switzerland, of which Herzen had become a citizen by that time. In April of the same 1865, the Free Russian Printing House was also transferred there. Soon, people from Herzen's entourage began to move to Switzerland, for example, in 1865 Nikolai Ogaryov moved there.

A. I. Herzen on his deathbed

On January 9 (21), 1870, Alexander Ivanovich Herzen died of pneumonia in Paris, where he had arrived shortly before on his family business. He was buried in Nice (the ashes were transferred from the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris).

Literary and journalistic activity

Herzen's literary activity began in the 1830s. In the "Atheneum" for 1831 (II vol.), his name is found under one translation from French. First article signed with a pseudonym Iskander, was published in the "Telescope" for 1836 ("Hoffmann"). The “Speech given at the opening of the Vyatka public library” and “Diary” (1842) belong to the same time. In Vladimir, the following were written: “Notes of a Young Man” and “More from the Notes of a Young Man” (“Notes of the Fatherland”, 1840-1841; Chaadaev is depicted in this story in the person of Trenzinsky). From 1842 to 1847, he published articles in Otechestvennye Zapiski and Sovremennik: Amateurism in Science, Romantic Amateurs, The Workshop of Scientists, Buddhism in Science, and Letters on the Study of Nature. Here Herzen rebelled against learned pedants and formalists, against their scholastic science, alienated from life, against their quietism. In the article "On the Study of Nature" we find a philosophical analysis of various methods of knowledge. At the same time, Herzen wrote: "On One Drama", "On Different Occasions", "New Variations on Old Themes", "A Few Remarks on the Historical Development of Honor", "From Dr. Krupov's Notes", "Who is to Blame?", "Forty -vorovka”, “Moscow and Petersburg”, “Novgorod and Vladimir”, “Edrovo Station”, “Interrupted Conversations”. Of all these works, the story “The Thieving Magpie”, which depicts the terrible situation of the “serf intelligentsia”, and the novel “Who is to blame?”, Dedicated to the issue of freedom of feelings, family relationships, and the position of a woman in marriage, stand out especially. The main idea of ​​the novel is that people who base their well-being solely on the basis of family happiness and feelings, alien to the interests of public and universal, cannot ensure lasting happiness for themselves, and it will always depend on chance in their life.

Of the works written by Herzen abroad, of particular importance are the letters from Avenue Marigny (the first published in Sovremennik, all fourteen under the general title: Letters from France and Italy, 1855 edition), representing a remarkable characterization and analysis of events and the moods that worried Europe in 1847-1852. Here we meet a completely negative attitude towards the Western European bourgeoisie, its morality and social principles, and the author's ardent faith in the future significance of the fourth estate. A particularly strong impression both in Russia and in Europe was made by Herzen's work "From the Other Bank" (originally in German "Vom anderen Ufer", Hamburg, 1850; in Russian, London, 1855; in French, Geneva, 1870), in which Herzen expresses his complete disillusionment with the West and Western civilization - the result of that mental upheaval that determined Herzen's worldview in 1848-1851. It should also be noted the letter to Michelet: "The Russian people and socialism" - a passionate and ardent defense of the Russian people against those attacks and prejudices that Michelet expressed in one of his articles. “The Past and Thoughts” is a series of memoirs, partly of an autobiographical nature, but also giving a whole series of highly artistic paintings, dazzlingly brilliant characteristics, and Herzen’s observations from what he experienced and saw in Russia and abroad.

All other works and articles by Herzen, such as: "The Old World and Russia", "The Russian People and Socialism", "Ends and Beginnings", etc. - represent a simple development of ideas and moods that were completely determined in the period 1847-1852 in the writings above.

In general, as B. A. Kuzmin noted, “beginning - and not by chance - with his studies with Heine, Herzen then created his own special genre of fiction. The whole presentation is very emotional. The attitude of the author to the events described is expressed in his remarks, exclamations, digressions.

Philosophical views of Herzen during the years of emigration

The attraction to freedom of thought, "free-thinking", in the best sense of the word, was especially strongly developed in Herzen. He did not belong to any, either explicit or secret party. The one-sidedness of the "people of action" repelled him from many revolutionary and radical figures in Europe. His mind quickly comprehended the imperfections and shortcomings of those forms of Western life, to which Herzen was initially attracted from his unbeautiful distant Russian reality of the 1840s. With astonishing consistency, Herzen gave up his enthusiasm for the West when in his eyes it turned out to be below the ideal he had previously drawn up.

As a consistent Hegelian, Herzen believed that the development of mankind proceeds in stages, and each stage is embodied in a certain people. Herzen, who laughed at the fact that the Hegelian god lives in Berlin, in essence transferred this god to Moscow, sharing with the Slavophils the belief in the coming change of the German period by the Slavic one. At the same time, as a follower of Saint-Simon and Fourier, he combined this faith in the Slavic phase of progress with the doctrine of the forthcoming replacement of the rule of the bourgeoisie by the triumph of the working class, which should come, thanks to the Russian community, just discovered by the German Haxthausen. Together with the Slavophiles, Herzen became disillusioned with Western culture. The West is rotten, and new life cannot be poured into its dilapidated forms. Faith in the community and the Russian people saved Herzen from a hopeless view of the fate of mankind. However, Herzen did not deny the possibility that Russia, too, would pass through the stage of bourgeois development. Defending the Russian future, Herzen argued that in Russian life there is a lot of ugliness, but on the other hand there is no vulgarity that has become rigid in its forms. The Russian tribe is a fresh, virginal tribe that has "aspirations for the future century," an immeasurable and inexhaustible supply of vitality and energy; "a thinking person in Russia is the most independent and most open-minded person in the world." Herzen was convinced that the Slavic world was striving for unity, and since “centralization is contrary to the Slavic spirit,” the Slavs would unite on the principles of federations. With a free-thinking attitude towards all religions, Herzen recognized, however, that Orthodoxy had many advantages and merits in comparison with Catholicism and Protestantism.

Herzen's philosophical and historical concept emphasizes the active role of man in history. At the same time, it implies that the mind cannot realize its ideals without taking into account the existing facts of history, that its results constitute the “necessary base” for the operations of the mind.

Pedagogical ideas

In Herzen's heritage there are no special theoretical works on education. However, throughout his life, Herzen was interested in pedagogical problems and was one of the first Russian thinkers and public figures of the middle of the 19th century who touched upon the problems of education in his writings. His statements on issues of upbringing and education indicate the presence thoughtful pedagogical concept.

Herzen's pedagogical views were determined by philosophical (atheism and materialism), ethical (humanism) and political (revolutionary democracy) convictions.

Criticism of the education system under Nicholas I

Herzen called the reign of Nicholas I a thirty-year persecution of schools and universities and showed how the Nikolaev Ministry of Education stifled public education. The tsarist government, according to Herzen, “was in wait for the child at the first step in life and corrupted the cadet-child, the schoolboy-boy, the student-boy. Mercilessly, systematically, it etched out human germs in them, weaned them, as from a vice, from all human feelings, except for humility. For violation of discipline, it punished juveniles in the same way that hardened criminals are not punished in other countries.

He resolutely opposed the introduction of religion into education, against the transformation of schools and universities into an instrument for strengthening serfdom and autocracy.

Folk Pedagogy

Herzen believed that the simple people have the most positive influence on children, that it is the people who are the bearers of the best Russian national qualities. Young generations learn from the people respect for work, disinterested love for the motherland, and aversion to idleness.

Upbringing

Herzen considered the main task of education to be the formation of a humane, free person who lives in the interests of his people and strives to transform society on a reasonable basis. Children should be provided with conditions for free development. "A reasonable recognition of self-will is the highest and moral recognition of human dignity." In everyday educational activities, an important role is played by the “talent of patient love”, the disposition of the educator towards the child, respect for him, and knowledge of his needs. A healthy family environment and the right relationship between children and educators are a necessary condition for moral education.

Education

Herzen passionately sought to spread enlightenment and knowledge among the people, urged scientists to bring science out of the walls of offices, to make its achievements public. Emphasizing the enormous upbringing and educational significance of the natural sciences, Herzen was at the same time in favor of a system of comprehensive general education. He wanted the students of a general education school to study literature (including the literature of ancient peoples), foreign languages, and history along with natural science and mathematics. A. I. Herzen noted that without reading there is not and cannot be any taste, style, or many-sided breadth of understanding. Thanks to reading, a person survives centuries. Books influence the deep spheres of the human psyche. Herzen emphasized in every possible way that education should promote the development of independent thinking in students. Educators should, relying on the innate inclinations of children to communicate, develop in them social aspirations and inclinations. This is served by communication with peers, collective children's games, general activities. Herzen fought against the suppression of children's will, but at the same time attached great importance to discipline, considered the establishment of discipline a necessary condition for proper education. “Without discipline,” he said, “there is no calm confidence, no obedience, no way to protect health and prevent danger.”

Herzen wrote two special works in which he explained natural phenomena to the younger generation: "The experience of conversations with young people" and "Conversations with children." These works are wonderful examples of a talented, popular presentation of complex worldview problems. The author simply and vividly explains the origin of the universe to children from a materialistic point of view. He convincingly proves the important role of science in the fight against wrong views, prejudices and superstition and refutes the idealistic fabrication that in a person, apart from his body, there is also a soul.

Family

In 1838, in Vladimir, Herzen married his cousin Natalia Alexandrovna Zakharyina; before leaving Russia, they had 6 children, of which two survived to adulthood.

The Russian revolutionary, philosopher, writer A. I. Herzen was born in Moscow on March 25, 1812. He was born from an extramarital affair between a wealthy landowner Ivan Yakovlev and a young German woman of bourgeois blood Louise Haag, originally from Stuttgart. They came up with the surname Herzen for their son (translated from German as “heart”).

The child grew up and was brought up in the Yakovlev estate. He was given a good education at home, he had the opportunity to read books from his father's library: works by Western enlighteners, poems by banned Russian poets Pushkin and Ryleev. As a teenager, he became friends with the future revolutionary and poet N. Ogarev. This friendship lasted a lifetime.

Youth of Herzen

When Alexander was thirteen years old, the December Uprising took place in Russia, the events of which forever affected the fate of Herzen. So, from a very young age, he had eternal idols, patriotic heroes who came to Senate Square to deliberate death for the future new life of the younger generation. He swore an oath to avenge the execution of the Decembrists and continue their work.

In the summer of 1828, on Sparrow Hills in Moscow, Herzen and Ogarev swore an oath to devote their lives to the struggle for the freedom of the people. Friends kept the loyalty to the oath for life. In 1829 Alexander began his studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. In 1833 he graduated from it, receiving the degree of candidate. In their student years, Herzen and Ogarev grouped around themselves progressive youth from like-minded people. They were occupied with questions of freedom, equality, education. The university leadership considered Herzen a dangerous freethinker with very daring plans.

Arrest and exile. Herzen's marriage

A year after graduating from the university, he was arrested for active propaganda and exiled to Perm, then transferred to Vyatka, then to Vladimir. The harsh conditions of exile in Perm and Vyatka changed during his stay in Vladimir towards improvement. Now he could travel to Moscow, meet friends. He took his fiancee N. A. Zakharyina from Moscow to Vladimir, where they got married.

1838 - 1840 were especially happy years for young spouses. Herzen, who had already tried his hand at literature before, was not marked by creative achievements during these years. He wrote two romantic dramas in verse ("Licinius", "William Pen"), which have not survived, and the story "Notes of a Young Man". Alexander Ivanovich knew that creative imagination was not his element. He was better able to realize himself as a publicist and philosopher. Nevertheless, he did not leave classes in the field of literary creativity.

Philosophical works. The novel “Who is to blame?”

After serving his exile in 1839, he returned to Moscow, but soon showed negligence in correspondence with his father and spoke sharply against the tsarist police. He was arrested again and sent into exile again, this time to Novgorod. Returning from exile in 1842, he published his work, on which he worked in Novgorod, - "Amateurism in Science", then - a very serious philosophical study "Letters on the Study of Nature".

In his years of exile, he began work on the novel "Who is to blame?". In 1845 he completed the work, devoting five years to it. Critics consider the novel "Who is to blame?" Herzen's greatest creative achievement. Belinsky believed that the strength of the author is in the "power of thought", and the soul of his talent is in "humanity".

"Thieving Magpie"

Herzen wrote The Thieving Magpie in 1846. It was published two years later, when the author was already living abroad. In this story, Herzen focused his attention on the particularly difficult, disenfranchised position of the serf actress. An interesting fact: the narrator in the story is a “famous artist”, the prototype of the great actor M.S. Shchepkin, who was also a serf for a long time.

Herzen Abroad

January 1847. Herzen and his family left Russia forever. Settled in Paris. But in the autumn of that year he went to Rome to participate in demonstrations and engage in revolutionary activities. In the spring of 1848 he returned to Paris, engulfed in revolution. After her defeat, the writer suffered an ideological crisis. About this is his book of 1847 - 50 years "From the Other Bank".

1851 - tragic for Herzen: a shipwreck claimed the lives of his mother and son. And in 1852 his beloved wife died. In the same year, he left for London and began work on his main book, Past and Thoughts, which he wrote for sixteen years. It was a book - a confession, a book of memories. In 1855 he published the almanac "Polar Star", in 1857 - the newspaper "The Bell". Herzen died in Paris on January 9, 1870.

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

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

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Alexander Ivanovich (pseudo Iskander) (25.3(0.4). 1812, Moscow, 9(21).1.1870, Paris), Russian. writer and publicist, materialist philosopher, revolutionary. From the nobility: the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner I. A. Yakovlev. Graduated in Physics and Mathematics ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

Alexander Ivanovich (1812 1870) a remarkable publicist and one of the most talented memoirists of world literature, an outstanding political figure, the founder of Russian free (uncensored) printing, the founder of Russian political ... ... Literary Encyclopedia

Surname of an outstanding Russian writer and politician. The marriage of his father, a large gentleman, I.A. Yakovlev, with a German girl was not a church one, so the father could not pass on his surname to his son and gave him the surname Herzen from the German Herz heart. ... ... Russian surnames

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

HERZEN- GERTSEN, Petr Alexandrovich, professor of surgery 1 Moscow. state university; genus. in 1871; son of Professor of Physiology A. A. Herzen and grandson of the writer and revolutionary A. I. Herzen. Honey. He received his education abroad, where he defended the first ... ... Big Medical Encyclopedia

Alexander Ivanovich (Iskander) (1812-1870) Russian philosopher, writer, public figure. In 1829 1833 he studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. Even before entering the university, he met N.P. Ogarev, together with ... ... The latest philosophical dictionary

I Herzen Alexander Ivanovich (pseudonym Iskander), Russian revolutionary, writer, philosopher and publicist. Born into the family of a wealthy landowner I. A. Yakovlev; mother German Louise Haag. Marriage of parents... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Alexander Ivanovich (pseudo Iskander) (25.III (6.IV).1812 9 (21).I.1870) Russian revolutionary figure, philosopher, writer and publicist. Genus. in Moscow in the family of a wealthy landowner. The formation of G.'s worldview was influenced by freedom-loving ... ... Soviet historical encyclopedia

1. GERTSEN Alexander Ivanovich (1812 1870), revolutionary, writer, philosopher. He graduated from Moscow University (1833), where in 1831 34, together with N. P. Ogaryov, he headed a student circle. In 1834 he was arrested and spent 6 years in exile. Published since 1836 under ... ... Russian history

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

Herzen Al-dr Iv- HERZEN Al dr Iv. (pseudo Iskander) (1812 70) rev. publicist, writer, philosopher. The illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner I. A. Yakovlev and Louise Haag, a native of Stuttgart. Got a house. education. From an early age, he was influenced by freedom-loving ideas. In 1828 ... ... Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary

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

The first years of the boy passed sadly and lonely, but his unusually richly gifted nature began to unfold very early. He learned German from his mother, and French in conversations with his father and tutors. Yakovlev had a rich library, consisting almost exclusively of works by French writers of the 18th century, and the boy rummaged through it quite freely. Such a reading aroused in the boy's soul many questions that needed to be resolved. It was with them that young Herzen turned to his French teachers, among whom was the old man Buchot, who took part in the French revolution, and to Russians, especially to the seminarian student Protopopov, who, noticing the boy’s curiosity, introduced him to the works of new Russian literature and - how Herzen later wrote - he began to carry to him "finely copied and very worn notebooks of Pushkin's poems -" Ode to Freedom "," Dagger "- and Ryleev's "Dumas." Herzen wrote off all this and memorized it. The events of December 14, 1825 determined the direction of Herzen's thoughts and aspirations, likes and dislikes. “The stories of indignation, of the trial, of horror in Moscow,” Herzen wrote in his memoirs, “struck me; a new world opened up to me, which became more and more the center of my entire moral existence; I don’t know how it happened, but, understanding little or very vaguely what was the matter, I felt that I was not from the side from which buckshot and victories, prisons and chains. The execution of Pestel and his comrades finally awakened the childish dream of my soul "... The boy's loneliness also ended. He met, and soon became close friends with the son of a distant relative of Yakovlev, Ogarev. This closeness then turned into the closest friendship. Kind, soft, dreamy, ready to give himself entirely to the service of his neighbors, Ogarev perfectly complemented the lively, energetic Herzen. Friends saw each other very often, read together, took long walks together, during which their thoughts and dreams rushed to fight against the injustice that surrounded Russian life. On one of these walks, in 1828, on Sparrow Hills, Herzen and Ogarev swore eternal friendship and an unchanging decision to devote their entire lives to the service of freedom. What was meant by this "freedom" was still unclear to them, but the imagination drew the heroes of the French Revolution, and the Decembrists, and Karl Mora, and Fiesco, and the Marquis of Poza ... Having overcome obstacles from the father, who wanted to arrange a military or diplomatic career, Herzen entered Moscow University and plunged into a new, bustling world. Distinguished by an extremely lively temperament, Herzen studies a lot, reads a lot, but speaks, argues, and preaches even more. “Life at the university,” he recalls, “has left us with the memory of one long feast of ideas, a feast of science and dreams, sometimes stormy, sometimes gloomy, wild, but never vicious.” In addition to Ogarev, Herzen became close at this time with N.I. Sazonov (later a famous emigrant), N.M. Satin (translator of Shakespeare), A.N. Savich (astronomer), N.Kh. Catcher. This circle sometimes asked "mountain feasts", but the feasts were inspired by deep content. Their participants were talking and arguing about science, literature, art, philosophy, politics; if not the “union of Pestel and Ryleev” that Herzen dreamed about when entering the university, then the germ of opposition against the three famous “dogmas” of Russian social and political life was born. The July Revolution, the Polish uprising, the political and literary questions that occupied Europe - all this found a lively response in the student circle, the center of which was Herzen. And then they saw in the circle "with inner horror" that "in Europe, especially in France, from where they were waiting for a political password and a slogan, things are not going well." In 1833 Herzen graduated from the university with a candidate's degree and a silver medal. However, he clearly understood that there was still a lot to learn, and in one letter, written a few days after finishing the university course, he wrote: “Although I completed the course, I collected so little that it’s a shame to look at people” . While still at the university, he became acquainted with the teachings of Saint-Simonis

which made a very strong impression on him. His thought has already turned to the study of the socialist writers of the West, but, of course, it cannot be said that from that time Herzen became a socialist. Herzen, not only at the beginning, but also at the end of the 1930s, was a man passionately searching, and not finally stopping at something, although the direction of his thoughts and sympathies was quite definite and expressed in the desire for freedom. A year after the end of the course, Herzen, Ogarev and several other people were arrested. The reason for the arrest was the very fact of the existence in Moscow of "unemployed", always talking about something, worrying and seething young people, and the reason was one student party, at which a song containing a "impudent censure" was sung, and a bust of Emperor Nicholas was smashed Pavlovich. The inquiry found out that Sokolovsky composed the song, Ogarev was familiar with Sokolovsky, Herzen was friends with Ogarev, and although neither Herzen nor Ogarev were even at the party, nevertheless, on the basis of "indirect evidence" regarding their "way of thinking", they were involved in the case of the "failed, as a result of the arrest, conspiracy of young people devoted to the teachings of Saint-Simonism." Ogarev was arrested before his friend. In the last days of his life at liberty, Herzen met his relative Natalya Alexandrovna Zakharyina, a young girl who was very religious and already loved Herzen, although he had not noticed this before. Herzen entered into conversation with her "for the first time after many years of acquaintance." He was indignant at the arrest of Ogarev, expressed indignation at the conditions of life under which such facts are possible. Natalya Alexandrovna pointed out to him the need to meekly endure trials, remembering Christ and the Apostle Paul. After ending up in prison, he writes from there, as well as from exile, letters full of prayerful mood. “No, faith burns in my chest, strong, alive,” he wrote in a letter dated December 10, 1834, “There is Providence. Herzen spent nine months in prison, after which, according to him, “we were read, as a bad joke, a death sentence, and then it was announced that, driven by such inadmissible kindness, so characteristic of him, the emperor ordered that only a corrective measure be applied to us, in the form of a link. Herzen was appointed the place of exile in Perm. “What do I care about Perm or Moscow, and Moscow-Perm,” Herzen wrote then. “Our life is decided, the die is cast, the storm has carried away. .. With such a mood, Herzen arrived in exile. He lived with him for a long time, but in him he aspired - to freedom. Natalya Alexandrovna brought him the words of the Apostle Paul: "He who lives in God cannot be chained," and in this Herzen saw the path to freedom, inner freedom, achievable for everyone, and through this and as a result of this, to universal freedom. Here begins the second period of Herzen's life. Herzen spent only three weeks in Perm and then, by order of the authorities, was transferred to Vyatka, where he was enrolled as a "clerk" in the service of Governor Tyufyaev, a typical representative of the pre-reform administration. Tyufyaev received Herzen very hostilely, and it is not known how his cavils and persecutions would have ended if some circumstances favorable for the exile had not happened. The Minister of the Interior decided to establish provincial statistical committees throughout Russia and demanded that the governors send him their comments on this matter. In order to compile an answer to such an unheard-of "inbox", I had to turn to the "scientific candidate of Moscow University." Herzen promised not only to draw up the required "review," but also to engage in the actual implementation of the minister's desire, so that he would be released from the useless daily stay in the governor's office and allowed to work at home. Tyufyaev had to agree to this. Soon Herzen clashed with Tyufyaev in a sharper form, and the exile would probably have had to travel to much more distant places if fate had not once again come to Herzen's aid. At this time of travel

l in Russia, accompanied by Zhukovsky and Arsenyev, who was then heir to the throne, Alexander Nikolayevich. Tyufyaev received from St. Petersburg an order to arrange an exhibition in Vyatka, in order to familiarize the heir with the natural wealth of the region, placing the exhibits "in the three kingdoms of nature." I had to turn again to Herzen, who also gave explanations to the heir. Surprised by the abundance of knowledge of a young man in the Vyatka wilderness, Zhukovsky and Arseniev began to ask Herzen in detail who he was and how he got to Vyatka. Having learned what was the matter, they promised to petition for the return of Herzen from exile. This petition was not crowned with complete success, but, thanks to Zhukovsky and Arseniev, an order was soon issued to transfer Herzen from Vyatka to Vladimir. Meanwhile, an order was made from St. Petersburg to start in all provincial cities "Gubernskie Vedomosti"

omitted "informal department". Governor Kornilov, who replaced Tyufyaev, offered Herzen the head of this department. Herzen traveled a lot around the province to collect materials for the newspaper, got acquainted with the life of the people, placed in the "Gubernskiye Vedomosti" a number of articles of economic and ethnographic content. With his active participation in Vyatka, the first public library was founded, during which he delivered a speech, which later became part of the complete collection of his works. In Vyatka, Herzen became close to the famous architect Vitberg, who was in exile there, and experienced his influence very strongly. “Natalie,” wrote Herzen, “simply showed me God, and I began to believe. The fiery soul of the artist crossed the boundaries and was lost in dark, but majestic mysticism, and I found more life and poetry in mysticism than in philosophy. I bless that time ". At the same time, Herzen began writing The Legend of St. Theodore and Thought and Revelation. Of the last article, Herzen responds as follows: "in it I described my own development in order to reveal how experience led me to a religious outlook." Herzen was in the same mood in Vladimir, where the biggest fact of his life was his marriage to N.A. Zakharyina. “I confessed today for the first time from my birth,” Herzen wrote on March 13, 1838, “I achieved such a victory with the help of Natasha over my soul.” But this was followed by a crisis. “Whatever you say, dear friend,” he wrote to the same Natasha, “but I can’t force myself to that heavenly meekness, which is one of the main properties of your character, I’m too fiery.” The strong mind of Herzen, the huge amount of collected information, which was still disorderly in the mind, the restless spirit and nature thirsting for activity - all this was still shrouded in a thick veil of Vyatka-Vladimir moods, but it was already torn to break them, it was only waiting for a push to give that Herzen, the distinguishing feature of which was not "resignation", but a thirst for struggle. Such an impetus was for Herzen the study of Hegel, whose works were read at that time by all Herzen's friends in Moscow. This study led Herzen to conclusions opposite to those drawn from Hegel by Belinsky and other "Hegelians" of that time. Belinsky preached the well-known "reconciliation"; Herzen found that Hegel's philosophy is the "algebra of revolution". It was on this basis that Herzen's clash with Belinsky soon took place, ending in their temporary rupture; later, when Belinsky admitted his views were wrong, a friendship was established between him and Herzen, which lasted all their lives. After Vladimir Herzen was allowed to live in St. Petersburg, but then the "vile Russian reality" made itself felt again. In St. Petersburg, the watchman killed a passerby; this story was talked about everywhere, and Herzen told about it, as one of the news from St. Petersburg, in a letter to his father. The letter was read through, and Herzen was again assigned a link to Vyatka. Only with the help of great efforts was it possible to change the exile in Vyatka to exile in Novgorod, where Herzen was sent to serve as an adviser to the provincial government. There he had to manage cases of abuse of landlord power, cases of schismatics and ... cases of persons under police supervision, and among such persons was himself. In parallel with the accumulation of lessons drawn from life itself, Herzen worked continuously on theoretical questions. Soon he managed to get acquainted with the book of the most "leftist" of the Hegelians: Ogarev was abroad and from there he brought Feuerbach's The Essence of Christianity. Reading this book made a very strong impression on Herzen. In Novgorod, Herzen began to write his famous novel, "Who is to blame." Thanks to the efforts of friends, Herzen managed to escape from Novgorod, retire and move to Moscow. There he lived from 1842 to 1847 - the last period of his life in Russia. This period is filled with the most intensive work. Constant communication with Belinsky, Granovsky, Chaadaev and others, disputes with the Slavophiles, literary activity were the main content of Herzen's life. He grew more and more into such an outstanding force that Belinsky prophesied for him a place

"not only in the history of Russian literature", but also "in the history of Karamzin". As in many other cases, Belinsky was not mistaken. Herzen's literary activity did not put him in the ranks of Russian classical writers, but it is nonetheless remarkable to a high degree. Here are the development of philosophical problems, and questions of ethics, and the Russian life of that time, with its oppressive influence on the living forces of the country, and ardent love for the native land, native people. Like all the best Russian people of the "forties", Herzen saw very well that the main evil of Russia was serfdom, but it was especially difficult. Nevertheless, in the story "The Thieving Magpie" and in the well-known novel "Who is to blame" Herzen, as far as possible, touched on this forbidden topic. Herzen peered intently into another question, even more complex - the question of the relationship between the sexes. This question is the main theme of the novel "Who is to blame"; Herzen returned to it more than once in his other works, especially in the article: "About a Drama." This article was written under the impression of "the most ordinary play," but the strength of Herzen's intellectual and moral personality lies in the fact that his gaze saw aspects in the most "ordinary" things that thousands of people pass by with complete indifference. Herzen peered just as intently into the question of the role of abstract knowledge, theoretical ideas, and abstract philosophy. He devoted the articles "Amateurs in Science", "Dilewantl-Roantiksh", "Dshlhtanty0i0tskhkh0uzeyykh" and "Buddhism in Eaukh", "science" to this topic. Herzen means in general the theoretical work of human thought and, in particular, philosophy. Herzen demands from a person both breadth and depth. To a specialist in a particular field, he demands to respond to all the demands of living life, in other words, to be a citizen. He makes the same demand to "amateurs", insisting that at least one question be thoroughly studied. Herzen was also deeply occupied with the question of the relationship between the individual and the collectivity. In the ancient world, the individual was wholly sacrificed to the collectivity. "The Middle Ages turned the question around - they made the individual essential, the res publica insignificant. But neither one nor the other solution can satisfy the perfect man." "One reasonable, conscious combination of the individual and the state will lead to the true concept of the person in general. This combination is the most difficult task set by modern thinking "... If we add to this such works by Herzen as "Letters on the Study of Nature", which are essays on the history of philosophy and an exposition of the philosophical views of Herzen himself, then all the versatility of topics that worried him will become clear. back in the forties. And over all these topics there was that living feeling that determined the content of Herzen's whole life. He himself characterized this content, already at the end of his days, in the following words: "the dominant axis around which our life went - this is our attitude towards the Russian people, faith in him, love for him, a desire to actively participate in their destinies. He worked hard. His intellectual interests and demands were enormous. He closely follows the development of socialist teachings in Europe, studies Fourier, Considerant, Louis Blanc, pays tribute to them, but retains independence and his own thought. He says about them in his diary: "well, extremely good, but not a complete solution to the problem. They are cramped in a wide light phalanstery; this arrangement of one side of life is awkward for others." This entry refers to 1844, but Herzen is already heard in it during the period of his life in Europe. Proudhon makes the most complete impression on Herzen, about whose famous work, “Qu” est ce que la proprieteN”, Herzen responded in his diary as follows: “a wonderful work, not only not lower, but higher than what was said and written about not

m ... Development is excellent, apt, strong, sharp and imbued with fire. "At the same time, Herzen studies the history of Russia, the life of the Russian people, the way of his mental life. He approaches the question: what force has preserved many of the wonderful qualities of the Russian people, despite on the Tatar yoke, the German drill and the domestic whipN - This is the strength of Orthodoxy, - said the Slavophiles: only from it comes, as a derivative, the spirit of the catholicity of the people, and the external expression of this spirit is the communal life of the Russian peasantry. period" of Russian history, and this is all our misfortune. The whole question now boils down to returning "to the people", to merging with it. The Russian people in their everyday life solved the very task that the "West" set only in thought. Herzen did not agree with the premises from which the views of the Slavophils proceeded, but there is no doubt that their views on "special

features of the economic life of Russia were largely assimilated by him and took their place in his later views. He himself admitted this. this thought sometimes drove him almost to despair: “They argued and argued,” he wrote in his diary, “and, as always, ended in nothing, cold speeches and witticisms. Our state is hopeless, because it is false, because historical logic indicates that we are beyond the needs of the people, and our cause is desperate suffering. "Herzen was drawn to Europe, but at Herzen's request for a passport for a foreign passport to treat his wife there, Emperor Nicholas put a resolution: “No need.” The conditions of Russian life pressed Herzen terribly, meanwhile Ogarev was already abroad and wrote to his friend from there: “Herzen! But you can't live at home. I am convinced that it is impossible. A person who is a stranger to his family is obliged to break with his family ... I'm tired of carrying everything inside, I need an act. I - weak, indecisive, impractical, dem Grubelenden - need an act. What after that to you, stronger than meN "Herzen himself felt with his whole being that" it is impossible to live at home, "but he endured many hard days before the desired opportunity came, and the doors of the stuffy Russian prison of the 40s opened before him. The joy of liberation, the novelty of the feeling of being able to breathe with a free chest, and that heightened atmosphere that distinguished all of Europe, and especially in France, on the eve of the storms of 1848 - all this filled Herzen's soul with joy. Arriving, in 1847, directly in Paris, he was completely immersed in the new life that opened up before him. He quickly became close to the leaders of the French social movement of that time and therefore had the opportunity to observe the unfolding events very closely. "Herzen's house," Annenkov, who was also abroad at that time, recalls, "became like a Dionysian ear where all the noise of Paris was clearly reflected, the slightest movements and unrest that ran through the surface of its street and intellectual life. "But through the external scenery of this life, Herzen soon discerned its shadowy sides. Already in "Letters from Avenue Marigny" there are lines that clearly indicate the dissatisfaction that he then experienced. "France has never fallen so deeply in moral terms as it is now," he wrote on September 15, 1847. deeper antipathy. “Debauchery,” he wrote, “penetrated everywhere: into the family, into the legislative body, literature, the press. It is so common that no one notices it, and does not want to notice it. And this debauchery is not wide, not chivalrous, but petty, soulless, stingy. This is the debauchery of a huckster." As for the leaders of the movement, here, too, the first impression of conversations with them, equal, as he jokingly remarked, "to some extent to rank, promotion," was quickly replaced by a skeptical attitude towards them. "I have all the experiences of idolatry and idols do not hold and very soon give way to complete denial." He was drawn to Italy, where at that time the liberation movement was going, apparently, in a different direction than in France. “I recovered morally,” wrote Herzen, “crossing the borders of France; I owe Italy a renewal of faith in my own strength and in the strength of others; many hopes have risen again in my soul; I saw animated faces, tears, I heard passionate words ... All of Italy woke up before my eyes. I saw the Neapolitan king, made by hand, and the pope, humbly begging for alms of people's love. " The news of the February revolution in France and the proclamation of the Second Republic there again attracted Herzen to Paris, where the fever of events seized him very strongly; but the impression that France made on him on his first visit there has not diminished in the least even now. He saw more and more clearly that the revolution had nothing to rely on and that Paris was irresistibly heading towards disaster. It happened in the "June days" that Herzen experienced in Paris. They made a terrible impression.

but him. “On the evening of June 26, after the victory over Paris, we heard correct volleys, with small arrangements ... We all looked at each other, everyone had green faces. “After all, they are shooting,” we said in one voice and turned away from each other. I pressed my forehead against the glass of the window and was silent..." The scenes that followed were of the same character: "The haughty National Guard, with dull malice on their face, took care of their shops, threatening with a bayonet and butt; jubilant crowds of drunken mobiles walked along the boulevards, singing; boys They boasted about the blood of their brothers for 15-17 years.Cavaignac carried with him some kind of monster who killed a dozen Frenchmen... Doubt brought its heavy leg to the last assets, it shook up not the church sacristy, not doctoral robes, but revolutionary banners"... Soon Herzen had to flee from Paris to Geneva in order to avoid arrest, although on paper a republic continued to exist in France. While still in Paris, Herzen made up his mind not to return to Russia. No matter how terrible everything he experienced in Europe, Herzen managed to get used to such living conditions, after which the return to his homeland seemed downright beyond human strength. To fight against the conditions of Russian life - and Herzen decided to fight them by a direct attack on them in the press in Russian and foreign languages ​​- was possible only by remaining in Europe. In addition, he wanted to acquaint Europe with Russia - the real Russia, and not the one that Europe was often drawn by bribed pens. But before Herzen's position as an emigrant was finally determined, some other events took place in his life. Hiding from Paris to Geneva, he met there many people from different countries and, among other things, with Mazzini, for whom he retained the warmest sympathy for the rest of his life. There he also received a letter from Proudhon asking him to help him publish the newspaper La voix du Peuple and become its closest collaborator. Herzen sent Proudhon the 24,000 francs necessary for making a bail and began to write in his newspaper. But this did not last long: a number of fines were imposed on the newspaper, nothing remained of the pledge, and the newspaper ceased. After that, Herzen finally naturalized in Switzerland. The aggravation of the reaction was joined by a series of heavy blows in Herzen's personal life. All this brought Herzen into the darkest mood of the spirit, and when the December coup d "etat took place, Herzen wrote the article "Vive la mort!" ... He lived then in Nice. At one time it seemed to him that "everything collapsed - the general and private, European revolution and domestic shelter, freedom of the world and personal happiness. He himself called the state in which he was "the edge of moral death", but he emerged victorious from it: according to him, he was saved by "faith in Russia", and he decided to devote himself entirely to serving her. While living in Nice, he published a number of his works: first in German, "Letters from France and Italy", then a pamphlet "On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia" (originally the same in German in "Deutsche Jahrbucher", then a separate edition in French "Du developpement des idees revolutionnaires en Russie") and, finally, "Le peuple russe et le socialisme" ("Letter to Michelet"). Both of these pamphlets were banned in France. At the same time, the famous work of Herzen "From the Other Bank" (originally also in German: "Von andern Ufer") appeared in print. In this famous work, Herzen posed the question: “Where lies the need for the future to play out a program we have invented,” in other words, what are the objective guarantees that the ideals of socialism are feasibleN Having parted with theologism a long time ago, Herzen took the same negative position to every philosophical construction. Having declared to Khomyakov back in Moscow that he could accept “the terrible results of the most ferocious immanence, because the conclusions of the mind are independent of whether a person wants to or not,” Herzen called on the judgment of reason and earthly religion, the religion of humanity, the religion of progress. “Explain to me, please,” he asked, “why it is ridiculous to believe in God, but to believe in humanity is not funny, to believe in the kingdom of heaven

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The natural is stupid, but to believe in earthly utopias is smartN "- The goal of each generation, according to Herzen, is itself. It must live, and live a human life - to live in a social environment in which the individual is free, and at the same time society is not destroyed. But the creation of such relations between the individual and society depends only partly on ourselves - mainly on the conditions already given by previous history. Examining the living conditions of European countries, Herzen comes to conclusions for these countries that are very pessimistic. He finds that Europe is mired in the impenetrable swamp of "philistinism". It may, perhaps, get rid of the autocracy of private property by realizing the economic side of the problem of socialism. This will be the best case, but even then it will not be able to wash off the petty bourgeoisie from itself; its very socialism will be petty-bourgeois socialism. In the worst case even this will not happen - then Europe will completely stagnate in the terry bloom of philistinism

and will eventually disintegrate. With such a turn of affairs, the possibility is not ruled out that she will become a victim of Eastern peoples with fresher blood. Herzen saw the objective conditions for other possibilities in Russia with the communal way of life of its people and the thought free from prejudice of the advanced stratum of Russian society, what later became known as the intelligentsia. Herzen was led to the same conclusion by his ardent love for Russia. He wrote that faith in Russia saved him then "on the verge of moral death." This faith resurrected all Herzen's strength, and in the same work "From the Other Shore" he wanted to speak to Europe about the Russian people, "powerful and inscrutable, which secretly formed a state of 60 million, which grew so strongly and surprisingly, without losing the communal principle, and carried him through the initial upheavals of state development; who retained stately features, a lively mind and a wide revelry of a rich nature under the yoke of serfdom and to Peter's order to be formed - responded a hundred years later with the enormous phenomenon of Pushkin. This theme takes over Herzen completely, he varies it in different ways, comes to the conclusion about the possibility for Russia of a different path of development, different from the Western European one, considers the community and the artel as the basis for such development, sees in the secular gathering an embryo from which the widest public, lays the foundation for the later Russian populism - in a word, imposes the stamp of his personality on the movement of the Russian intelligentsia, which then continued for decades. Living in Nice, Herzen hardly saw Russians. Lived there at the same time, also as an emigrant, Golovin, who edited there even the newspaper "Le Carillon" (Trezvon); Perhaps this name prompted Herzen to give his Russian organ the name Kolokol later on. Herzen did not establish any close relations with Golovin. Engelson was also in Nice (later an employee of the Polar Star); Herzen had closer relations with him than with Golovin. After burying his wife in Nice, Herzen moved to London. There he installed the first free Russian press machine. Leaflets and brochures were printed on this machine ("St. George's Day", "Poles Pierce Us", "Baptized Property", etc.), then the magazine "Polyarnaya Zvezda" and, finally, the famous "Bell", the first issue of which was published on July 1, 1857 The Kolokola program included three specific provisions: 1) the liberation of the peasants from the landowners, 2) the liberation of the word from censorship, and 3) the liberation of the taxable estate from beatings. Outlining this program, Herzen, of course, looked at it as a minimum program and, calling himself in his famous letter to Alexander II "an incorrigible socialist," wrote the following lines: "I am ashamed of how little we are ready to be content with. We want things in the justice of which you doubt as little as anyone else. In the first case, this is enough for you." The breadth of his outlook, combined with the ability to put questions on practical grounds, attracted to Herzen the warm sympathy of the best elements of Russia in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Shevchenko wrote in his diary that he wanted to redraw the portrait of Herzen, "honoring the name of this holy man" and that, when he saw the "Bell" for the first time, he "reverently kissed it." Kavelin wrote to Herzen: “When you denounced everything with unheard-of and unprecedented courage, when you threw thoughts in your brilliant articles and pamphlets that ran centuries ahead, and for the current day set the most moderate, most immediate, standing in line demands, you told me seemed to be the great man who should begin a new Russian history. I wept over your articles, knew them by heart, chose epigraphs from them for future historical works, political and philosophical studies. " “With tears in our eyes,” says P.A. Kropotkin in his memoirs, “we read Herzen’s famous article: “You won, Galilean” ... There are a lot of such reviews about Herzen and his journal. role played by the "Bell" in resolving the peasant question and in general in public

movement in Russia in the late 50s and early 60s, a special article will be devoted. With the advent of reaction, and especially after the Polish uprising, Herzen's influence fell sharply; The Bell continued to be published until 1867, inclusive, but it no longer had its former significance. The last period of Herzen's life was for him a time of isolation from Russia and loneliness. "Fathers" recoiled from him for "radicalism", and "children" - for "moderation". Herzen's state of mind was, of course, very difficult, but he believed that the truth would triumph, believed in the powerful spiritual forces of the Russian people, and firmly endured his position. Everyone who saw him at that time unanimously testifies that, despite everything experienced and experienced, it was still the same lively, charming, witty Herzen. As before, he was interested in the course of events in Russia, as before, he kept a vigilant eye on the state of affairs in Europe. How penetratingly Herzen looked at everything that was happening around him can be seen from such a striking example: living at the end of 1867 (after the end of The Bell) in Genoa, Herzen wrote an article about Napoleonic France, which can be called prophetic. "Holy father, now it's your business" - these words from Schiller's "Don Carlos" (Philip II transfers the life of his son into the hands of the Grand Inquisitor), taken by Herzen as an epigraph to the article, Herzen "one wants to repeat Bismarck. The pear is ripe, and without his lordship will not do. Do not stand on ceremony, count. I'm sorry that I'm right; I seem to be touched by the fact that I foresaw it in general terms. I'm annoyed with myself, as a child is annoyed with a barometer that indicates a storm and ruins a walk.. Count Bismarck, now it's up to you!" Those were the words of a seer. A year after Herzen wrote this article (it appeared in the last book of the Polar Star), he arrived in Paris, where on January 9/21, 1870, he died. He was buried first in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise, and then his ashes were transported to Nice, where he rests to this day. Above the grave rises a beautiful monument depicting Herzen standing to his full height, with his face turned towards Russia, a monument by Zabello. On March 25, 1912, all cultural Russia celebrated the centenary of Herzen's birth. On this day, many newspapers dedicated hot articles to the memory of the glorious citizen of the Russian land, which were read by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of readers, and thus the beginning of Herzen's "spiritual return" to his homeland was laid. With the change in the conditions of political life existing in Russia, such a "return" will no doubt be carried out in a much more complete manner. Then not only the spirit of Herzen, in the form of a complete collection of his works and letters, but, hopefully, the ashes of the great exile will be returned to Russia and laid to rest in his dearly beloved native land. Literature. The main source for the study of Herzen are, first of all, his own works, available in two editions, foreign and Russian. Both editions are far from complete. They did not include many of Herzen's works, not to mention his correspondence with various people, which is of great importance for the study of Herzen's life and work. Biographies of Herzen: Smirnova (Ev. Solovieva; 1897); Vetrinsky (1908) and Bogucharsky (1912). Herzen is also devoted to: an article by Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky (characteristic); Baturinsky's book "Herzen, his friends and acquaintances"; Gershenzon "Social and political views of Herzen"; Plekhanov, an article in the 13th issue of the "History of Russian Literature of the 19th Century", etc. A detailed bibliography of Herzen and about Herzen, compiled by A.G. Fomin (brought to 1908). V. Bogucharsky.

KLASSNE
KLASSNE 05.11.2016 07:19:46

April 6 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Russian prose writer, publicist and philosopher Alexander Ivanovich Herzen.

The illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev and a German woman, Louise Ivanovna Gaag. At birth, the father gave the child the surname Herzen (from the German word herz - heart).

He received a good education at home. From his youth, he was distinguished by his erudition, freedom and breadth of views. The December events of 1825 had a great influence on Herzen's worldview. Soon he met his distant paternal relative Nikolai Platonovich Ogarev and became his close friend. In 1828, being like-minded and close friends, they took an oath of eternal friendship on Sparrow Hills in Moscow and showed their determination to devote their whole lives to the struggle for freedom and justice.

Herzen was educated at Moscow University, where he met with a number of progressive-minded students who formed a circle in which a wide range of issues related to science, literature, philosophy and politics were discussed. After graduating from the university in 1833 with a PhD and a silver medal, he became interested in the teachings of the Saint-Simonists and began to study the works of the socialist writers of the West.

A year later, A.I. Herzen, N.P. Ogarev and their other associates were arrested for freethinking. After spending several months in prison, Herzen was exiled to Perm, and then to Vyatka, to the office of the local governor, where he became an employee of the Gubernskiye Vedomosti newspaper. There he became close to the exiled architect A.I. Witberg. Then Herzen was transferred to Vladimir. For some time he was allowed to live in St. Petersburg, but soon he was again exiled, this time to Novgorod.

Since 1838 he has been married to his distant relative Natalya Aleksandrovna Zakharyina. Parents did not want to give Natalya to the disgraced Herzen, then he kidnapped his bride, married her in Vladimir, where he was in exile at that time, and confronted his parents with a fait accompli. All contemporaries noted the extraordinary affection and love of the Herzen spouses. Alexander Ivanovich more than once turned in his works to the image of Natalya Alexandrovna. In marriage, he had three children: a son, Alexander, a professor of physiology; daughters Olga and Natalia. The last joint years of the life of the spouses were overshadowed by the sad passion of Natalya Alexandrovna for the German Georg Gerweg. This ugly story, which made all its participants suffer, ended with the death of Natalya Alexandrovna from childbirth. The illegitimate child died with his mother.

In 1842, Herzen received permission to move to Moscow, where he lived until 1847, engaging in literary activities. In Moscow, Herzen wrote the novel "Who is to blame?" and a number of stories and articles concerning social and philosophical problems.

In 1847, Alexander Ivanovich left for Europe, living alternately in France, then in Italy, then in Switzerland and working in various newspapers. Disillusioned with the revolutionary movement in Europe, he looked for a different path from the West for the development of Russia.

After the death of his wife in Nice, A.I. Herzen moved to London, where he organized the publication of a free Russian press: the Polar Star and the Bells. Speaking with a freedom-loving and anti-serfdom program for Russia, Herzen's Bell attracted the attention and sympathy of the progressive part of Russian society. It was published until 1867 and was very popular among the Russian intelligentsia.

Herzen died in Paris and was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery, then his ashes were transferred to Nice.