Herzen is a writer. Biography

Years of life: from 04/06/1812 to 01/21/1870

The fate of this man, who stood at the origins of populism, was connected with the great dramatic moments of Russian and European history. He witnessed and participated in a number of significant events: the formation of Marxism, the French Revolution of 1848, the social upsurge in Russia in the 60s.

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was born on March 25 (April 6), 1812. His father, Ivan Yakovlevich, was closely related to the envoy at the Westphalian court, A. A. Yakovlev. And the mother was a young German woman, Henrietta - Louise Haag, who was almost thirty years younger than her lover. The marriage of the parents was not formalized, the baby began to be officially called the “pupil” and bear the surname invented by the father: Herzen - “son of the heart”, from the German herz.

He spent his childhood, which was not cloudless, in his parents' house. It was hard for him to get along with his father, whose character was from the category of "not a gift." Alexander had an older brother - Yegor. But he grew up in complete obscurity in the village of Pokrovsky, where his mother, a serf, was exiled.

As a child, little Herzen was very fond of listening to stories about the times of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. And he did not miss the opportunity to listen and learn something new for himself. He received the usual noble upbringing at home, based on reading foreign literature of the late 18th century. The novels and comedies of Beaumarchais, Kotzebue, Goethe, Schiller from an early age caused him awe and delight.

Thanks to his desire to learn new things and interest in 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. Protopopov. This was also facilitated by the influence of Tanya Kuchina, Herzen's cousin (married Tatyana Passek), who supported the young dreamer's childhood pride, prophesying an extraordinary future for him.

At the age of 13, Herzen met the future poet and publicist Nikolai Ogarev, who at the time of the meeting was only 12 years old. After the news of the Decembrist uprising on December 14, 1825, Herzen, together with his friend Nikolai, for the first time begins to dream of revolutionary activity, and during one of their walks they vowed to fight for freedom.

Herzen dreamed of friendship, dreamed of fighting for freedom. In such a rather gloomy mood, in 1829 he entered Moscow University in the department of physics and mathematics. At the university, he takes part in the so-called "Malov story" - the protest of students against teachers. This protest ended with the imprisonment of the young rebel, along with his comrades, in a punishment cell. The youth was in a violent mood: they welcomed the July Revolution and other popular movements. A handful of young rebel friends grew, at times they allowed small revels, of course, of an innocent nature.

But of course, all these protests and the struggle for freedom did not go unnoticed by the authorities. In 1834, members of Herzen's circle and he himself were arrested. Link was the punishment. Herzen was first exiled to Perm, and then to Vyatka, where he was appointed to serve in the office of the governor.

When organizing an exhibition of local works, Herzen got a chance to distinguish himself before the future emperor Alexander II, and soon, at the request of Zhukovsky, he was transferred to serve as an adviser to the board in Vladimir. In 1838 he married, having secretly taken his bride, Natalya Alexandrovna Zakharyina, from Moscow.

At the beginning of 1840, Herzen was allowed to return to Moscow. In May of this year, 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 exiled to Novgorod. Already here he ran into the famous circle of Stankevich and Belinsky, who defended the thesis of the useful reasonableness of any activity. Most of Stankevich's friends became close friends with Herzen and Ogaryov, and a camp of Westernizers was formed.

Herzen arrived in Europe more inclined towards a radical republican character than a socialist one. The February Revolution of 1848 seemed to him the fulfillment of all his hopes and desires. The subsequent June uprising of the workers and its suppression shocked Herzen, who resolutely turned to socialism. He became close to Proudhon and other prominent figures of the revolution and European radicalism. In 1849, after the defeat of the radical opposition by President Louis Napoleon, Herzen was forced to leave France and moved to Switzerland, from there to Nice, which then belonged to the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Under the influence of the collapse of the old ideals and the reaction that came across Europe, Herzen formed a specific system of views about doom. By decree of Nicholas I in July 1849, all the property of Herzen and his mother was arrested. After the death of his wife in 1852, Herzen moved to London, where he founded the Free Russian Printing House for printing prohibited publications. Since 1857 he began to publish the weekly newspaper "The Bell".

The peak of Kolokol's influence falls on the years preceding the liberation of the peasants, when the newspaper was regularly read in the Winter Palace. After the peasant reform, her popularity begins to fall. At that time, Herzen was already too revolutionary for the public. On March 15, 1865, under the insistent demand of the Russian government, the editors of The Bell, headed by Herzen, left London forever and moved to Switzerland. In April of the same year, the Free Russian Printing House was also transferred there. Soon, people from Herzen's entourage, such as Nikolai Ogaryov, began to move to Switzerland.

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

Circumstances of personal life.
They were practically not mentioned at the time when Herzen's personality was considered only from the point of view of social significance in the revolutionary reorganization of Russian and European society. While some facts of his personal and family life may be shocking ...

Despite all the "storms" that happened in his life with his first wife, they were happy. And already in 1839 their son Alexander was born, and two years later - a daughter. In 1842, the son Ivan was born, who died 5 days after birth. In 1843, the son Nikolai was born, who was deaf and mute. Nikolai lived only 10 years and died along with Herzen's mother during a sea voyage to Nice as a result of a collision of ships. In 1844, a daughter, Natalya, was born. In 1845, a daughter, Elizabeth, was born, who died 11 months after birth. In 1850, Herzen's wife gave birth to a daughter, Olga. The year 1852 brought Herzen a series of tragic losses: his wife gave birth to a son, Vladimir, and died two days later, his son also died soon after.

In 1857, Herzen began to cohabit with the second wife of Nikolai Ogaryov, Natalya Alekseevna Ogaryova-Tuchkova, who took care of Herzen's children. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, who lived a short life. At the age of 17, she committed suicide due to unrequited love (in Florence in December 1875). In 1869, Tuchkova received the surname Herzen, which she bore until her return to Russia in 1876, even after Herzen's death.

A.I. Herzen

As a child, Herzen met and became friends with Nikolai Ogarev. According to his memoirs, the Decembrist uprising made a strong impression on the boys (Herzen was 13, Ogaryov was 12 years old). Under his impression, they have the first, still vague dreams of revolutionary activity. Once, during a walk on Sparrow Hills, the boys vowed to devote their lives to the struggle for freedom.
A. Herzen is the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev and a young German Henrietta Haag. The boy's surname was invented by his father: Herzen (from German herz - heart) - "son of the heart."

He received a good education, graduating from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. While still a student, together with his friend N. Ogarev, he organized a circle of student youth, in which socio-political issues were discussed.

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (1812-1870) occupies a special place in the controversy between "Westerners" and "Slavophiles". He not only belonged to the "Westernizers" party, but also, in a certain sense, led it, was its ideological leader.

The essence of the controversy between these two groups of Russian intellectuals was the difference in understanding of the historical process and Russia's place in it. The "Slavophiles" proceeded from the fact that Europe, having outlived its time, is decaying, and Russia has its own historical path of development, in no way similar to the Western one. The “Westerners” argued that the principle of historical development is of universal importance for mankind, but due to a number of circumstances it was most adequately and fully expressed in Western Europe, therefore it has universal significance.

In 1847, having obtained permission to visit Europe, Herzen left Russia, as it turned out, forever. In 1848, Herzen witnessed the defeat of the French Revolution, which had a profound ideological impact on him. Since 1852, he settled in London, where already in 1853 he founded a free Russian printing house and began to publish the almanac "Polar Star", the newspaper "The Bell" and the periodical "Voices from Russia". The publications of the free Russian printing house of Herzen became the first uncensored press in Russia, which had a huge impact not only on socio-political, but also on philosophical thought.

Philosophical views

In 1840, after returning from exile, Herzen became acquainted with the circle of Hegelians, which was headed by Stankevich and Belinsky. He was impressed by their thesis of the complete reasonableness of all reality. But the radical revolutionaries repelled him with their intransigence and readiness to make any, even unreasonable, sacrifices for the sake of revolutionary ideas. As a follower of Hegel, Herzen believed that the development of mankind proceeds in stages, and each stage is embodied in the people. Thus, Herzen, being a "Westernizer", shared with the "Slavophiles" the belief that the future belongs to the Slavic peoples.

socialist ideas

"Theory of Russian socialism" A.I. Herzen

After the suppression of the French Revolution of 1848, Herzen came to the conclusion that the country in which it is possible to combine socialist ideas with historical reality is Russia, where communal land ownership has been preserved.

In the Russian peasant world, he argued, there are three principles that make it possible to carry out an economic revolution leading to socialism:

1) the right of everyone to land

2) communal ownership of it

3) worldly government.

He believed that Russia had the opportunity to bypass the stage of capitalist development: "The man of the future in Russia is a peasant, just like a worker in France."

Herzen paid great attention to the methods of carrying out the social revolution. However, Herzen was not a supporter mandatory violence and coercion: “We do not believe that peoples cannot move forward except up to their knees in blood; we bow with reverence before the martyrs, but from the bottom of our hearts we wish that there were none.”

During the preparation of the peasant reform in Russia, Kolokol expressed hopes that the government would abolish serfdom on favorable terms for the peasants. But in the same "Bell" it was said that if the freedom of the peasants is bought at the price of Pugachevism, then this is not too expensive a price. The most stormy, unbridled development is preferable to the preservation of the orders of Nikolaev stagnation.

Herzen's hopes for a peaceful solution to the peasant question provoked objections from Chernyshevsky and other revolutionary socialists. Herzen answered them that Rus' should not be called “to the ax”, but to brooms in order to sweep away the dirt and rubbish accumulated in Russia.

“Having called for an ax,” Herzen explained, “you need to master the movement, you need to have an organization, you need to have a plan, strength and readiness to lie with your bones, not only grabbing the handle, but grabbing the blade when the ax diverges too much.” There is no such party in Russia; therefore, he will not call for an ax until "at least one reasonable hope remains for a denouement without an ax."

Herzen paid special attention to the "international union of workers", that is, to the International.

Ideas about the state

The problems of the state, law, politics were considered by him as subordinate to the main - social and economic problems. Herzen has many opinions that the state has no content of its own at all - it can serve both reaction and revolution, to the one on whose side the power is. The view of the state as something secondary in relation to the economy and culture of society is directed against the ideas of Bakunin, who considered the destruction of the state to be the primary task. "An economic revolution," Herzen objected to Bakunin, "has an immense advantage over all religious and political revolutions." The state, like slavery, Herzen wrote, is moving towards freedom, towards self-destruction; however, the state "cannot be thrown off like a dirty sackcloth until a certain age." "From the fact that the state is a form transient - Herzen emphasized, - it does not follow that this form is already past."

Herzen's views on pedagogy

Herzen did not specifically deal with this issue, but, being a thinker and public figure, he had a well-thought-out concept on education:

2) children, according to Herzen, should develop freely and learn respect for work, aversion to idleness, disinterested love for the motherland from the common people;

3) called on scientists to bring science out of the walls of their offices, to make its achievements public domain. 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 multilateral development. 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."

Literary activity

Herzen's ideas could not but find expression in his literary works and in numerous journalism.

"Who is guilty?", novel in two parts(1846)

"Mimoezdom", story (1846 G.)

"Doctor Krupov", story (1847 G.)

"Thieving Magpie" story (1848 G.)

"Damaged", story (1851 G.)

"Tragedy over a glass of grog" (1864 G.)

"For the sake of boredom" (1869 G.)

Newspaper "The Bell"

"Bell"

It was the first Russian revolutionary newspaper, published by A. I. Herzen and N. P. Ogaryov in exile at the Free Russian Printing House in 1857-1867. As a continuation of the closed Bell, in 1868 a newspaper was published in French Kolokol("La cloche"), addressed mainly to the European reader.

In the early years of the existence of the Free Russian Printing House, the authorship of most of the published articles belonged to Herzen himself. In 1855, Herzen began publishing the almanac "Polar Star", and the situation changed dramatically: there was not enough space in it to publish all the interesting materials - publishers began to publish an appendix to the almanac, the newspaper "Kolokol". The first issues of Kolokol were published once a month, but the newspaper began to gain popularity, and they began to issue it twice a month with a volume of 8 or 10 pages. The sheets were printed on thin paper, which was easier to illegally smuggle through customs. The regular uncensored edition turned out to be in demand by readers. Including reprints, about half a million copies were issued during the ten years of the newspaper's existence. The publication was immediately banned in Russia, and in the first half of 1858 the Russian government managed to get the Bells officially banned in other European countries as well. However, Herzen manages to create routes for the relatively safe delivery of correspondence from Russia through a number of reliable addresses.

Literary works were also published in Kolokol, which were subordinated to the tasks of agitation, exposing the policy of the authorities. In the newspaper one could meet the poetry of M. Yu. Lermontov (“Alas! how boring this city is ...”), N. A. Nekrasov (“Reflections at the front door”), accusatory poems by N. Ogaryov, etc. As in the “Polar star”, in the “Bell” they publish excerpts from “The Past and Thoughts” by A. Herzen.

From 1862, interest in the Bell began to decline. More radical movements are already appearing in Russia, which “called Rus' to the axe”. Despite the condemnation of terrorism by Kolokol, after the assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander II, the newspaper continues to lose readers. Correspondence from Russia almost ceases to arrive. In 1867, the publication again returns to the only issue per month, and on July 1, 1867, with a poem by N. Ogaryov "Goodbye!" reports that "the Bell is silent for a while." But in 1868 the Bell ceased to exist.

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.

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 .

Encyclopedic YouTube

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

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

✪ Herzen Alexander Ivanovich "Who is to blame? (ONLINE AUDIOBOOKS) Listen

✪ Herzen and the Rothschilds

✪ Lecture II. Westernizers and Slavophiles. Small prose of 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 Henriette-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 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 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, 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.

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 M.T. Kachenovsky with his skepticism and M.G. Pavlov, who introduced listeners to German philosophy at lectures on agriculture, awakened a young thought [ clarify] [ ] . 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. 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, mastering the ideas of Saint-Simon (whose utopian socialism Herzen considered then the most outstanding achievement of contemporary Western philosophy) and other socialists.

Link

After the link

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 the 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.

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 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, 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, the "dying" of old Europe and the prospects for Russia and the Slavic world, which are called upon to realize the socialist ideal.

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 "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 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” (“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 a philosophical analysis of various methods of knowledge. At the same time, Herzen wrote: “About a Drama”, “On Different Occasions”, “New Variations on Old Themes”, “A Few Remarks on the Historical Development of 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 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,; 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” is a series of memoirs, partly of an autobiographical nature, but also giving a number 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.

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.

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.

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

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 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 "marriage of three", and more spiritual 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 a new tragedy awaited the family. 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 Ogaryova-Gerzen, 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 during

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen - Russian revolutionary, writer, philosopher.
The illegitimate son of a wealthy Russian landowner I. Yakovlev and a young German bourgeois Louise Haag from Stuttgart. He received the fictitious surname Herzen - the son of the heart (from German Herz).
He was brought up in the house of Yakovlev, received a good education, got acquainted with the works of the French enlighteners, read the forbidden poems of Pushkin, Ryleev. Herzen was deeply influenced by friendship with a talented peer, the future poet N. P. Ogarev, which lasted all their lives. According to his memoirs, the news of the Decembrist uprising made a strong impression on the boys (Herzen was 13, Ogaryov was 12 years old). Under his impression, they have the first, still vague dreams of revolutionary activity; while walking on Sparrow Hills, the boys vowed to fight for freedom.
In 1829, Herzen entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, where he soon formed a group of progressive-minded students. By this time, his attempts to present his own vision of the social order belong. Already in the first articles, Herzen showed himself not only as a philosopher, but also as a brilliant writer.
Already in 1829-1830, Herzen wrote a philosophical article 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).
In 1833 Herzen graduated from the university with a silver medal. In 1834 he was arrested - for allegedly singing songs in the company of friends that discredited the royal family. In 1835, he was exiled first to Perm, then 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 (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.
In 1840 Herzen was allowed to return to Moscow. Turning to fiction, Herzen wrote the novel "Who is to blame?" (1847), the novels Doctor Krupov (1847) and The Magpie-Thief (1848), in which he considered the denunciation of Russian slavery to be his main goal.
In 1847, Herzen left Russia with his family, leaving for Europe. Observing the life of Western countries, he interspersed personal impressions with historical and philosophical studies (Letters from France and Italy, 1847–1852; From the other side, 1847–1850, etc.)
In 1850-1852, a series of personal dramas of Herzen took place: the death of a mother and youngest son in a shipwreck, the death of his wife from childbirth. In 1852 Herzen settled in London.
By this time, he was perceived as the first figure of the Russian emigration. Together with Ogarev, he began to publish revolutionary publications - the almanac "Polar Star" (1855-1868) and the newspaper "The Bell" (1857-1867), whose influence on the revolutionary movement in Russia was enormous. But his main creation of the emigrant years is "The Past and Thoughts".
"The Past and Thoughts" by genre - a synthesis of memoirs, journalism, literary portraits, autobiographical novel, historical chronicle, short stories. The author himself called this book a confession, "about which stopped thoughts from thoughts gathered here and there." The first five parts describe Herzen's life from childhood to the events of 1850-1852, when the author suffered severe spiritual trials associated with the collapse of his family. The sixth part, as a continuation of the first five, is devoted to life in England. The seventh and eighth parts, even more free in chronology and subject matter, reflect the life and thoughts of the author in the 1860s.
All other writings and articles by Herzen, such as, for example, "The Old World and Russia", "Le peuple Russe et le socialisme", "Ends and Beginnings", etc., represent a simple development of ideas and moods that were completely determined in the period 1847-1852 years in the works mentioned above.
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. Arguing with Bakunin, who called for the destruction of the state, Herzen wrote: "People cannot be liberated in the outer life more than they are liberated inside." These words are perceived as Herzen's spiritual testament.
Like most Russian Westernizers-radicals, Herzen went through a period of deep passion for Hegelianism in his spiritual development. The influence of Hegel is clearly seen in the series of articles "Amateurism in Science" (1842-1843). Their pathos lies in the approval and interpretation of Hegelian dialectics as a tool for cognition and revolutionary transformation of the world (“the algebra of revolution”). Herzen severely condemned abstract idealism in philosophy and science for being isolated from real life, for "apriorism" and "spiritualism."
These ideas were further developed in Herzen's main philosophical work, Letters on the Study of Nature (1845–1846). Continuing the criticism of philosophical idealism, Herzen defined nature as a "pedigree of thinking", and saw in the idea of ​​pure being only an illusion. For a materialistic thinker, nature is an eternally living, "wandering substance", primary in relation to the dialectic of knowledge. In the Letters, Herzen, quite in the spirit of Hegelianism, substantiated consistent historiocentrism: “neither humanity nor nature can be understood without historical being,” and in understanding the meaning of history he adhered to the principles of historical determinism. However, in the reflections of the late Herzen, the former progressivism gives way to much more pessimistic and critical assessments.
January 21, 1870 Alexander Ivanovich Herzen died. He was buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery. Later, his ashes were taken to Nice and buried next to the grave of his wife.

Bibliography
1846 - Who is to blame?
1846 - Passing by
1847 - Dr. Krupov
1848 - Thieving Magpie
1851 - Damaged
1864 - Tragedy over a glass of grog
1868 - Past and thoughts
1869 - Boredom for the sake of

Screen adaptations
1920 - Thieving Magpie
1958 - Thieving Magpie

Interesting Facts
Elizaveta Herzen, the 17-year-old daughter of A. I. Herzen and N. A. Tuchkova-Ogareva, committed suicide because of unrequited love for a 44-year-old Frenchman in Florence in December 1875. Suicide had a resonance, Dostoevsky wrote about it in the essay "Two Suicides".