GERTSEN Alexander Ivanovich (1812–1870), publicist, one of the leaders of the "Westerners". In 1847 he went abroad, in London he founded the Free Russian Printing House and from 1857 he published the Russian weekly newspaper Kolokol, which was in opposition to the autocracy. Highly appreciated the work of Gogol. Gogol

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen(March 25 (April 6), Moscow - January 9 (21), 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 bourgeois-democratic transformations .

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✪ Lecture I. Alexander Herzen. Childhood and youth. Prison and exile

✪ Lecture III. Herzen in the West. "Past and thoughts"

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✪ Herzen and the Rothschilds

✪ Lecture II. Westernizers and Slavophiles. Small prose Herzen

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Biography

Childhood

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

In his youth, Herzen received the usual noble upbringing at home, based on reading the works of foreign literature, mostly late 18th century. French novels, comedies by Beaumarchais, Kotzebue, works by Goethe, Schiller with early years tuned 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 Great 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 Tatyana   Passek), who supported the childish pride of the young dreamer, prophesying an extraordinary future for him.

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

University (1829−1833)

Herzen dreamed of friendship, dreamed of struggle and suffering for freedom. In this mood, Herzen entered the Physics and Mathematics Department 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 Kachenovsky, with his skepticism, and Pavlov, who managed at lectures Agriculture to acquaint listeners with German philosophy, awakened a 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 a lot to the revival and excitement of students, in the fight against which all university youth took an active and selfless 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. A handful 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, assimilating the ideas of Saint-Simon (whose utopian socialism Herzen considered then the most outstanding achievement contemporary Western philosophy) and other socialists.

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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 into different sides while the heart was beating alone. “With tears in their eyes”, embracing each other, the recent friends, and now the principal opponents, went in different directions.

In the Moscow house, where Herzen lived from 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 fulfillment 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 others eminent figures 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, became acquainted with 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, "dying" of old Europe and the prospects for Russia and the Slavic world, which are called upon to realize the socialist ideal.

After a succession family tragedies that fell on Herzen in Nice (treason of his wife with Herweg, death of mother and son in a shipwreck, 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 the weekly newspaper The Bell.

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 in 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 insistent 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.

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 delivered at the opening of the Vyatka public library"and" Diary "(1842). In Vladimir, the following were written: “Notes of a Young Man” and “More from the Notes of a Young Man” (“Domestic Notes”, 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 philosophical analysis various methods of knowledge. At the same time, Herzen wrote: “About one drama”, “According to different occasions”, “New Variations on Old Themes”, “A Few Remarks on historical development honor”, ​​“From the notes of Dr. Krupov”, “Who is to blame? "," Magpie-thief", "Moscow and St. 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 feeling, stand out especially. family relationships, the position of a woman in marriage. 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,; in Russian, London, 1855; in French, Geneva, 1870), in in which Herzen expresses 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" - a series of memoirs that are partly autobiographical in nature, but giving and whole line 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.

Philosophical views of Herzen during the years of emigration

Attraction to freedom of thought, "freethinking", in best value of this word, were 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 far away 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.

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, regardless of existing facts history, that its results constitute the "necessary base" of the operations of the mind.

Quotes

“Let’s not invent a god if he doesn’t exist, because of this he still won’t exist.”

“At every age and under different circumstances, I returned to reading the Gospel, and each time its content brought peace and meekness into the soul.”

Pedagogical ideas

There are no special theoretical works about education. However, throughout his life, Herzen was interested in pedagogical problems and was one of the first Russian thinkers and public figures mid-nineteenth century, who touched upon the problems of education in their works. 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 most positive influence the simple people have 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, selfless love to the homeland, disgust for idleness.

Upbringing

Herzen considered the main task of education to be the formation of a humane, free individual 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. “The rational recognition of self-will is the highest and moral recognition human dignity". In daily educational activities important role plays 'talent patient love”, the location of the educator to the child, respect for him, knowledge of his needs. Healthy family environment and right relationship between children and caregivers are necessary condition 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 great educational and educational value natural sciences, Herzen was at the same time in favor of a system of comprehensive general education. He wanted the students secondary school along with natural science and mathematics, they studied literature (including the literature of ancient peoples), foreign languages, and history. 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 Natalya Alexandrovna Zakharyina, before leaving Russia they had 6 children, of whom two survived to adulthood:

• Alexander(1839-1906), famous physiologist, lived in Switzerland.
• Natalya (b. and d. 1841), died 2 days after birth.
• Ivan (b. and d. 1842), died 5 days after birth.
• Nikolai (1843-1851), was deaf from birth, with the help of the Swiss teacher I. Shpilman, he learned to speak and write, died in a shipwreck (see below).
• Natalia(Tata, 1844-1936), family historiographer and curator of the Herzen archive.
• Elizabeth (1845-1846), died 11 months after birth.

In exile in Paris, Herzen's wife fell in love with Herzen's friend Georg Herweg. She confessed to Herzen that “dissatisfaction, something left unoccupied, abandoned, was looking for a different sympathy and found her in friendship with Herweg” and that she dreams of a “threesome marriage”, moreover, spiritual rather than purely carnal. In Nice, Herzen with his wife and Herweg with his wife Emma, ​​as well as their children, lived in the same house, forming a "commune" that did not involve intimate relationships outside of couples. Nevertheless, Natalya Herzen became Herweg's mistress, which she hid from her husband (although Herweg opened up to his wife). Then Herzen, having learned the truth, demanded the departure of the Herwegs from Nice, and Herzen blackmailed Herzen with the threat of suicide. The Gerwegians have left. In the international revolutionary community, Herzen was condemned for subjecting his wife to "moral coercion" and preventing her from connecting with her lover.

In 1850, Herzen's wife gave birth to a daughter Olga(1850-1953), who in 1873 married the French historian Gabriel Monod (1844-1912). According to some reports, Herzen doubted his paternity, but never declared it publicly and recognized the child as his own.

In the summer of 1851, the Herzens reconciled, but the family was waiting for new tragedy. On November 16, 1851, near the Giersky archipelago, as a result of a collision with another ship, the steamer "City of Grasse" sank, on which Herzen's mother Louise Ivanovna and his deaf son Nikolai and his tutor Johann Shpilman were sailing to Nice; they died and their bodies were never found.

In 1852, Herzen's wife gave birth to a son, Vladimir, and died two days later, the son also died soon after.

Since 1857, Herzen began to cohabit with Nikolai Ogaryov's wife Natalya Alekseevna Ogaryova-Tuchkova, she raised his children. They had a daughter Elizabeth(1858-1875) and the twins Elena and Alexei (1861-1864, died of diphtheria). Officially, they were considered the children of Ogaryov.

In 1869, Natalya Tuchkova received the surname Herzen, which she bore until her return to Russia in 1876, after Herzen's death.

Elizaveta Ogareva-Herzen, the 17-year-old daughter of A. I. Herzen and N. A. Tuchkova-Ogaryova, committed suicide because of unrequited love for a 44-year-old Frenchman in Florence in December 1875. Suicide had a resonance, wrote about him

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 German word herz - heart).

Got good home education. 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 relative by his father, 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. Bastard died with his mother.

In 1842, Herzen received permission to move to Moscow, where he lived until 1847, studying literary activity. 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.

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

Russian prose writer, publicist and philosopher Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was born on April 6 (March 25 according to the old style) 1812 in Moscow in the family of a wealthy Russian landowner Ivan Yakovlev and a German woman Louise Gaag. The marriage of the parents was not officially registered, so the child was illegitimate and was considered a pupil of his father, who gave him the surname Herzen, which comes from the German word Herz and means "child of the heart."

The childhood of the future writer passed in the house of his uncle, Alexander Yakovlev, on Tverskoy boulevard(now house 25, which houses Literary Institute named after A.M. Gorky). From childhood, Herzen was not deprived of attention, but the position of an illegitimate child evoked in him a feeling of orphanhood.

From an early age, Alexander Herzen read the works of the philosopher Voltaire, the playwright Beaumarchais, the poet Goethe and the novelist Kotzebue, so he early acquired free-thinking skepticism, which he retained until the end of his life.

In 1829, Herzen entered the Physics and Mathematics Department of Moscow University, where soon, together with Nikolai Ogarev (who entered a year later), he formed a circle of like-minded people, among whom the most famous were future writer, historian and ethnographer Vadim Passek, translator Nikolai Ketcher. Young people discussed the socio-political problems of our time - French Revolution 1830, Polish uprising(1830-1831), were fond of the ideas of Saint-Simonism (the teaching French philosopher Saint-Simon - building an ideal society through the destruction of private property, inheritance, estates, equality of men and women).

In 1833, Herzen graduated from the university with a silver medal and went to work in the Moscow expedition of the Kremlin building. The service left him enough free time for creative work. Herzen was going to publish a journal that was supposed to unite literature, social issues and natural science with the idea of ​​​​Saint-Simonism, but in July 1834 he was arrested - for singing songs that defame royal family, at a party where a bust of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich was broken. During interrogations, the Investigative Commission, without proving the direct guilt of Herzen, considered that his beliefs posed a danger to the state. In April 1835, Herzen was exiled first to Perm, then to Vyatka with the obligation to be in the public service under the supervision of the local authorities.

From 1836 Herzen published under the pseudonym Iskander.

At the end of 1837, he was transferred to Vladimir and was given the opportunity to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg, where he was accepted into the circle of critic Vissarion Belinsky, historian Timofey Granovsky and novelist Ivan Panaev.

In 1840, the gendarmerie intercepted Herzen's letter to his father, where he wrote about the murder of a St. Petersburg guard - a street guard who killed a passerby. For spreading unfounded rumors, he was exiled to Novgorod without the right to enter the capitals. Minister of the Interior Stroganov appointed Herzen as an adviser to the provincial government, which was an official promotion.

In July 1842, having retired with the rank of court counselor, after the petition of his friends, Herzen returned to Moscow. In 1843-1846 he lived in Sivtsev Vrazhek Lane (now a branch Literary Museum- The Herzen Museum), where he wrote the stories "The Thieving Magpie", "Doctor Krupov", the novel "Who is to Blame?", the articles "Amateurism in Science", "Letters on the Study of Nature", political feuilletons "Moscow and Petersburg" and other works. Here Herzen, who headed the left wing of the Westerners, was visited by history professor Timofey Granovsky, critic Pavel Annenkov, artists Mikhail Shchepkin, Prov Sadovsky, memoirist Vasily Botkin, journalist Yevgeny Korsh, critic Vissarion Belinsky, poet Nikolai Nekrasov, writer Ivan Turgenev, forming the Moscow epicenter of the Slavophile controversy and Westerners. Herzen visited the Moscow literary salons of Avdotya Elagina, Karolina Pavlova, Dmitry Sverbeev, Pyotr Chaadaev.

In May 1846, Herzen's father died, and the writer became the heir to a significant fortune, which provided the means to travel abroad. In 1847, Herzen left Russia and began his long journey through Europe. Watching life Western countries, he interspersed personal impressions with historical and philosophical studies, of which the most famous are "Letters from France and Italy" (1847-1852), "From the Other Shore" (1847-1850). After the defeat of the European revolutions (1848-1849), Herzen became disillusioned with the revolutionary possibilities of the West and developed the theory of "Russian socialism", becoming one of the founders of populism.

In 1852 Alexander Herzen settled in London. By this time, he was perceived as the first figure of the Russian emigration. In 1853 he Together with Ogarev, he published revolutionary publications - the almanac "Polar Star" (1855-1868) and the newspaper "The Bell" (1857-1867). The motto of the newspaper was the beginning of the epigraph to the "Bell" by the German poet Schiller "Vivos voso!" (I call the living!). The Bells program at the first stage contained democratic demands: the liberation of peasants from serfdom, the abolition of censorship, and corporal punishment. It was based on the theory of Russian peasant socialism developed by Alexander Herzen. In addition to articles by Herzen and Ogarev, Kolokol published a variety of materials about the state of the people, the social struggle in Russia, information about abuses and secret plans of the authorities. The newspapers Pod sud' (1859-1862) and Obshchee veche (1862-1864) were published as supplements to Kolokol. Sheets of Kolokol printed on thin paper were illegally transported to Russia across the border. At first, Kolokol's employees included writer Ivan Turgenev and Decembrist Nikolai Turgenev, historian and publicist Konstantin Kavelin, publicist and poet Ivan Aksakov, philosopher Yuri Samarin, Alexander Koshelev, writer Vasily Botkin and others. After the reform of 1861, articles appeared in the newspaper sharply condemning the reform, texts of proclamations. Contact with the editors of Kolokol contributed to the formation of the revolutionary organization Land and Freedom in Russia. In order to strengthen ties with the "young emigration" concentrated in Switzerland, the publication of The Bells was transferred to Geneva in 1865, and in 1867 it practically ceased to exist.

In the 1850s, Herzen began to write main work of his life "The Past and Thoughts" (1852-1868) - a synthesis of memoirs, journalism, literary portraits, an autobiographical novel, historical chronicle, short story. The author himself called this book a confession, "about which stopped thoughts from thoughts gathered here and there."

In 1865 Herzen left England and went on a long journey through Europe. At this time, he distanced himself from the revolutionaries, especially from the Russian radicals.

In the autumn of 1869 he settled in Paris with new plans for literary and publishing activities. Alexander Herzen died in Paris on January 21 (9 old style) January 1870. He was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery, and his ashes were later transferred to Nice.

Herzen was married to his cousin Natalya Zakharyina, the illegitimate daughter of his uncle, Alexander Yakovlev, whom he married in May 1838, taking him secretly from Moscow. The couple had many children, but three survived - the eldest son Alexander, who became a professor of physiology, daughters Natalya and Olga.

The grandson of Alexander Herzen, Pyotr Herzen, was a famous surgeon, founder of the Moscow School of Oncology, director of the Moscow Institute for the Treatment of Tumors, which currently bears his name (P.A. Herzen Moscow Research Oncological Institute).
After the death of Natalya Zakharyina in 1852, Alexander Herzen was married in a civil marriage from 1857 to Natalya Tuchkova-Ogaryova, the official wife of Nikolai Ogaryov. The relationship had to be kept secret from the family. The children of Tuchkova and Herzen - Liza, who committed suicide at the age of 17, the twins Elena and Alexei, who died at a young age, were considered the children of Ogarev.

Tuchkova-Ogaryova led the proofreading of The Bell, and after Herzen's death she was engaged in publishing his works abroad. From the end of the 1870s she wrote "Memoirs" (came out separate edition in 1903).

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources.

Publications in the Literature section

Founder of Russian socialism

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

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

"The Decembrists woke up Herzen" (Vladimir Lenin)

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

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

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

"Hegel's philosophy is revolution" (Alexander Herzen)

Herzen's worldview was formed under the influence of the left Hegelians, the French utopian socialists and Feuerbach. In Hegel's dialectic, the Russian philosopher saw a revolutionary direction; it was Herzen who helped Belinsky and Bakunin overcome the conservative component of Hegelian philosophy.

Having moved to the Mother See, Herzen became the star of Moscow salons, in oratory he was second only to Alexei Khomyakov. Publishing under the pseudonym Iskander, Herzen began to acquire a name in literature, printing and works of art and publicistic articles. In 1841-1846 the writer worked on the novel "Who is to blame?".

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

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

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

The special political tact of Herzen the publisher, who, without retreating from his socialist theories, was ready to support the reforms of the monarchy, as long as he was confident in their effectiveness and necessity, helped the Bell to become one of the important platforms where the peasant question was discussed. The magazine's influence waned when the issue itself was resolved. And the pro-Polish position of Herzen in 1862-1863 threw him back to that part of society that was not disposed to revolutionary ideas. To the youth, it seemed backward and outdated.

At home, he was a pioneer in promoting the ideas of socialism and the European positivist and scientific worldview. Europe XIX century. Georgy Plekhanov openly compared his compatriot with Marx and Engels. Speaking of Herzen's Letters, Plekhanov wrote:

“It is easy to think that they were written not in the early 40s, but in the second half of the 70s, and not by Herzen, but by Engels. To such an extent, the thoughts of the first are similar to the thoughts of the second. And this striking resemblance shows that the mind of Herzen worked in the same direction as the mind of Engels, and therefore Marx..