Alexander Herzen
Encyclopedia
Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen ( – ) was a Russia
n pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism
", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudoviks
and the agrarian American Populist Party
). He is held responsible for creating a political climate leading to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. His autobiography My Past and Thoughts, written with grace, energy, and ease, is often considered the best specimen of that genre in Russian literature
.
. Yakovlev supposedly gave his son the surname Herzen because he was a "child of his heart" (German herz).
He was first cousin to Count Sergei Lvovich Levitsky
(1819–1898, Moscow, Russian: Сергей Львович Львов-Левицкий), considered the patriarch of Russian photography and one of Europe's most important early photographic pioneers, inventors and innovators. In 1860, Levitsky would immortalize Herzen in a famous photo capturing the writer's essence and being.
Herzen was born in Moscow
shortly before Napoleon's invasion of Russia and brief occupation of the city. His father, after a personal interview with Napoleon, was allowed to leave Moscow after agreeing to bear a letter from the French to the Russian emperor in St. Petersburg. His family accompanied him to the Russian lines.
A year later the family returned to Moscow, remaining there after Herzen completed his studies at Moscow University
, until 1834, when Herzen was arrested and tried on charges of having attended a festival during which verses by Sokolovsky that were uncomplimentary to the tsar, were sung. He was found guilty, and in 1835 banished to Vyatka
, now Kirov, in north-eastern Russia. He remained there until the tsar's son, Alexander (later to become Alexander II
) visited the city, accompanied by the poet Zhukovsky
; Herzen was allowed to leave Vyatka for Vladimir
, where he was appointed editor of the city's official gazette.
In 1840 he returned to Moscow, where he met literary critic Vissarion Belinsky
, who was strongly influenced by him. He then obtained a post in the ministry of the interior at St Petersburg; but as a consequence of complaining about a death caused by a police officer, was sent to Novgorod, where he was a state councillor until 1842. In 1846 his father died, leaving him a large amount of property. In 1837 he eloped with Natalya Zakharina (Letters from France and Italy, 1847-1851), his cousin, secretly marrying her. She accompanied his emigration abroad in 1847, never returning to Russia. She bore him four children, before succumbing to tuberculosis in 1852 (Letters from France and Italy, 1847-1851). Herzen was eventually joined in France by his lifelong friend Nikolay Ogarev
. By then Natalya was in the final stages of tuberculosis, and soon died. Ogarev was in poor health, having suffered a number of strokes. Herzen began an affair with Ogarev's common-law wife Natalia Tuchkova, the daughter of the general Tuchkov (the hero of the War of 1812
). Tuchkova bore Herzen 3 more children. His assets were frozen because of his emigration, however Baron Rothschild with whom his family had business relationship, negotiated the release of Herzen's assets which were nominally transferred to Rothschild.
From Italy
, on hearing of the revolution of 1848, he hastened to Paris, and then to Switzerland
. He supported the revolutions of 1848
, but was bitterly disillusioned with European socialist movements after their failure. In 1852 he left Geneva
for London
, where he settled for many years. He promoted socialism and individualism
, arguing that the full flowering of the individual could best be realized in a socialist order. In 1864 he returned to Geneva
, and after some time went to Paris
, where he died on the 21st of January 1870 of tuberculosis complications. Originally buried in Paris, his remains were taken to Nice.
form of his Christian name. His second work, also in Russian, was his Letters on the Study of Nature (1845–46). In 1847 appeared his novel Kto Vinovat? (Who is to blame?), and about the same time were published in Russian periodicals the stories which were afterwards collected and printed in London in 1854, under the title of Prervannye Razskazy (Interrupted Tales). In 1850 two works appeared, translated from the Russian manuscripts, From Another Shore and Lettres de France et d'Italie. In French also appeared his essay Du Developpement des idées revolutionnaires en Russie, and his Memoirs, which, after being printed in Russian, were translated under the title of Le Monde russe et la Révolution (3 vols., 1860–1862), and were in part translated into English as My Exile to Siberia (2 vols., 1855).
His Who is to blame? is a story about how the domestic happiness of a young tutor, who marries the unacknowledged daughter of a Russian sensualist of the old type, dull, ignorant and genial, is troubled by a Russian sensualist of the new school, intelligent, accomplished, and callous, with there being no possibility of saying who is most to blame for the tragic ending.
s, such as his Baptized Property (1853), an attack on serfdom
; others were periodical publications, the Polyarnaya Zvyezda (or Polar Star), the Kolokol
(or Bell), and the Golosa iz Rossii (or Voices from Russia). The Kolokol soon obtained an immense circulation, and exercised an extraordinary influence.
As the first independent Russian political publisher Herzen began publishing The Polar Star, a review which appeared infrequently and was later joined by The Bell in 1857, a journal issued between 1857 and 1867 at Herzen's personal expense. Both publications acquired great influence via an illegal circulation in Russian territory; it was said the Emperor himself read them. Both publications gave Herzen influence in Russia reporting from a liberal
perspective about the incompetence of the Tsar
and the Russian bureaucracy
.
Writing in 1857 Herzen became excited by the possibility of social change under Alexander II
, “A new Life is unmistakably boiling up in Russia, even the government is being carried away by it”. Herzen used his skill for popular writing to expose the injustices of the ruling elite.
Herzen fought a propaganda
war through the journals that had the goal of attaining individual liberty
for Russians. Herzen understood the competing claims to power, and was aware of the failings of the doctrines that guided the 1848 revolutionary failures. Herzen wrote of the inhumanity of the ruling monarchies of Europe
but also the excesses perpetrated by revolutionary governments. Herzen constantly fought for social change and felt his journals would contribute to the winds of change,
For three years the Russian Free Press went on printing without selling a single copy, and scarcely being able to get a single copy introduced into Russia; so when at last a bookseller bought ten shillings worth of Baptized Property, the half-sovereign was set aside by the surprised editors in a special place of honor. But the death of the emperor Nicholas in 1855 led to a complete change. Herzen's writings, and the magazine
s he edited, were smuggled wholesale into Russia, and their words resounded throughout the country, as well as all over Europe. Their influence grew.
1855 gave Herzen reason to be optimistic; Alexander II had ascended the throne and reforms seemed possible. The Bell broke the story that the government was considering serf emancipation in July 1857, adding that the government lacked the ability to resolve the issue. Herzen urged the Tsarist regime 'Onward, onward' towards reform in The Polar Star in 1856, yet by 1858 full serf emancipation had not been achieved. Herzen grew impatient with reform and by May 1858 The Bell
restarted its campaign to comprehensively emancipate the serfs. Once Serf emancipation was achieved in 1861 The Bells campaign changed to 'Liberty and Land', a program that tried to achieve further social change in support of serf rights. Alexander II granted serfs their freedom, the law-courts were remodelled, trial by jury was established, and liberty was to a great extent conceded to the press. When the Polish insurrection of 1863
broke out however, and Herzen pleaded the insurgents' cause, his reputation in Russia declined.
where he would reside until 1864. Herzen was disillusioned with the 1848 revolutions
but not disillusioned with revolutionary thought. Herzen had always admired the French Revolution
and broadly adopted its values. In his early writings he viewed the French Revolution as the end of history, the final stage in social development of a society based on humanism and harmony. Through his early life Herzen saw himself as a revolutionary radical called to fight the political oppression of Nicholas I of Russia
. Essentially Herzen fought against Christian hypocrisy and in favour of individual self-expression.
Herzen spent time in London organising with the International Workingmen's Association
, becoming well acquainted with revolutionary circles including the likes of Bakunin and Marx
. It was during his time in London that Herzen began to make a name for himself for "scandal-mongering" when he told Bakunin, freshly arrived having escaped imprisonment in Siberia, that Marx had accused him of being a Russian agent; in reality the two were on very good terms.
It was revolutionary failures coupled with the tragedies of his wife, children's and mother's deaths that drove Herzen to Britain, and he fell into emotional despair for several years. From London
he found his despair had revived new energy for political and literary work to help the Russian peasantry he idolised. Herzen became critical of those 1848 revolutionaries who were “so revolted by the Reaction after 1848, so exasperated by everything European, that they hastened on to Kansas or California”. Herzen found a new desire to influence and win the appreciation of his countrymen as he established the Russian Printing Press.
In London he hired Malwida von Meysenbug
to give an education to his daughters. In 1862, Malwida von Meysenbug
went to Italy with Olga, his daughter. Meysenbug would later become an acquaintance of Friedrich Nietzsche
, while Olga married Gabriel Monod
in 1873.
and Kavelin
believed individual freedom would be achieved through the rationalisation of social relations. Their etatist variety of liberalism was opposed by Herzen as it supposed that Russian society would evolve to an ideal state based on a Hegelian view of reason. They believed the revolutionaries would merely postpone the establishment of the ideal state, while Herzen thought that, on the contrary, they were blind to historical reality. Herzen would always reject grand narratives
such as a predestined position for a society to arrive at, and his writings in exile promoted small-scale communal living with the protection of individual liberty by a non-interventionist government.
Herzen aggravated Russian radicals by appearing too moderate. Radicals such as Chernyshevsky
and Dobrolyubov wanted more commitment towards violent revolution from Herzen, and to withdraw from any hope in the reformist Tsar
. Radicals asked Herzen to use The Bell as a mouthpiece for violent radical revolution, however Herzen rejected these requests. He argued that the Russian Radicals were not united and strong enough to seek successful political change, stating “You want happiness, I suppose? I dare say you do! Happiness has to be conquered. If you are strong, take it. If you are weak, hold your tongue”. Herzen feared the new revolutionary government would merely replace the dictatorship with another dictatorship.
The radicals describe Herzen as a liberal for not wanting immediate change, but Herzen rejects their pleas arguing for change at a pace that will ensure success. Herzen briefly joined with other Russian liberals such as Kavelin
to promote the peasant 'awakening' in Russia. Herzen continued to use The Bell as an outlet to promote unity with all sections of the Russian society behind a demand for a national parliament
. However his hope as acting as a uniting force were ended by the Polish revolt of 1863
, when the liberal support for Tsarist revenge against the Poles ended Herzen's link with them. This breach resulted a declining readership for The Bell, which ceased publication in 1867. By his death in 1870 Herzen was almost forgotten.
by 1880 led to a favorable re-evaluation of his writings. Herzen sided with the agrarian collectivist
model of social structure
.
Alongside populism
Herzen will be remembered for his rejection of corrupt government of any political persuasion, and for his support for individual rights. A Hegelian in his youth, this translated into no specific theory or single doctrine dominating his thought. Herzen came to believe the complex questions of society could not be answered and Russians
must live for the moment and not a cause, essentially life is an end in itself. Herzen found greater understanding by not committing himself to an extreme but rather lived impartially enabling him to equally criticise competing ideologies. Herzen believed that grand doctrines
ultimately result in enslavement, sacrifice and tyranny.
Herzen was a hero of the 20th century philosopher Isaiah Berlin
. The words of Herzen that Berlin repeated most insistently were those condemning the sacrifice of human beings on the altar of abstractions, the subordination of the realities of individual happiness or unhappiness in the present to glorious dreams of the future. Berlin, like Herzen, believed that ‘the end of life is life itself’, and that each life and each age should be regarded as its own end and not as a means to some future goal.
Tolstoy
declared that he had never met another man "with so rare a combination of scintillating brilliance and depth". Berlin called his autobiography "one of the great monuments to Russian literary and psychological genius.….a literary masterpiece to be placed by the side of the novels of his contemporaries and countrymen, Tolstoy
, Turgenev
, Dostoevsky ..."
Russian Thinkers (The Hogarth Press, 1978) a collection of Berlin's essays in which Herzen features, was the inspiration for Tom Stoppard
's The Coast of Utopia
, a trilogy of plays performed at London's National Theatre in 2002 and at New York's Lincoln Center in 2006-2007. Set against the background of the early development of Russian socialist thought, the Revolutions of 1848
and later exile, the plays examine the lives and intellectual development of, among other Russians, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin
, the literary critic
Vissarion Belinsky
, the novelist Ivan Turgenev
and Alexander Herzen, whose character dominates the plays.
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudoviks
Trudoviks
The Trudoviks were a moderate Labour party in early 20th Century Russia...
and the agrarian American Populist Party
Populist Party (United States)
The People's Party, also known as the "Populists", was a short-lived political party in the United States established in 1891. It was most important in 1892-96, then rapidly faded away...
). He is held responsible for creating a political climate leading to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. His autobiography My Past and Thoughts, written with grace, energy, and ease, is often considered the best specimen of that genre in Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
.
Life
Herzen was an illegitimate child of a rich Russian landowner, Ivan Yakovlev, by a young German Protestant woman, Henriette Wilhelmina Luisa Haag from StuttgartStuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. Yakovlev supposedly gave his son the surname Herzen because he was a "child of his heart" (German herz).
He was first cousin to Count Sergei Lvovich Levitsky
Sergei Lvovich Levitsky
Count Sergei Lvovich Levitsky , is considered one of the patriarchs of Russian photography and one of Europe's most important early photographic pioneers, inventors and innovators.- Early life :...
(1819–1898, Moscow, Russian: Сергей Львович Львов-Левицкий), considered the patriarch of Russian photography and one of Europe's most important early photographic pioneers, inventors and innovators. In 1860, Levitsky would immortalize Herzen in a famous photo capturing the writer's essence and being.
Herzen was born in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
shortly before Napoleon's invasion of Russia and brief occupation of the city. His father, after a personal interview with Napoleon, was allowed to leave Moscow after agreeing to bear a letter from the French to the Russian emperor in St. Petersburg. His family accompanied him to the Russian lines.
A year later the family returned to Moscow, remaining there after Herzen completed his studies at Moscow University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, until 1834, when Herzen was arrested and tried on charges of having attended a festival during which verses by Sokolovsky that were uncomplimentary to the tsar, were sung. He was found guilty, and in 1835 banished to Vyatka
Kirov, Kirov Oblast
Kirov , formerly known as Vyatka and Khlynov, is a city in northeastern European Russia, on the Vyatka River, and the administrative center of Kirov Oblast. Population: -History:...
, now Kirov, in north-eastern Russia. He remained there until the tsar's son, Alexander (later to become Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
) visited the city, accompanied by the poet Zhukovsky
Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century...
; Herzen was allowed to leave Vyatka for Vladimir
Vladimir
Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
, where he was appointed editor of the city's official gazette.
In 1840 he returned to Moscow, where he met literary critic Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. He was an associate of Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin , and other critical intellectuals...
, who was strongly influenced by him. He then obtained a post in the ministry of the interior at St Petersburg; but as a consequence of complaining about a death caused by a police officer, was sent to Novgorod, where he was a state councillor until 1842. In 1846 his father died, leaving him a large amount of property. In 1837 he eloped with Natalya Zakharina (Letters from France and Italy, 1847-1851), his cousin, secretly marrying her. She accompanied his emigration abroad in 1847, never returning to Russia. She bore him four children, before succumbing to tuberculosis in 1852 (Letters from France and Italy, 1847-1851). Herzen was eventually joined in France by his lifelong friend Nikolay Ogarev
Nikolay Ogarev
Nikolay Platonovich Ogarev , was a Russian poet, historian and political activist. He was deeply critical of the limitations of the Emancipation of the Serfs claiming that the serfs were not free but had simply exchanged one form of serfdom for another.Ogarev was a fellow-exile and collaborator of...
. By then Natalya was in the final stages of tuberculosis, and soon died. Ogarev was in poor health, having suffered a number of strokes. Herzen began an affair with Ogarev's common-law wife Natalia Tuchkova, the daughter of the general Tuchkov (the hero of the War of 1812
French invasion of Russia
The French invasion of Russia of 1812 was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It reduced the French and allied invasion forces to a tiny fraction of their initial strength and triggered a major shift in European politics as it dramatically weakened French hegemony in Europe...
). Tuchkova bore Herzen 3 more children. His assets were frozen because of his emigration, however Baron Rothschild with whom his family had business relationship, negotiated the release of Herzen's assets which were nominally transferred to Rothschild.
From Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, on hearing of the revolution of 1848, he hastened to Paris, and then to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. He supported the revolutions of 1848
Revolutions of 1848
The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...
, but was bitterly disillusioned with European socialist movements after their failure. In 1852 he left Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
for London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he settled for many years. He promoted socialism and individualism
Individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
, arguing that the full flowering of the individual could best be realized in a socialist order. In 1864 he returned to Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, and after some time went to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he died on the 21st of January 1870 of tuberculosis complications. Originally buried in Paris, his remains were taken to Nice.
Writings
His literary career began in 1842 with the publication of an essay, in Russian, on Dilettantism in Science, under the pseudonym of Iskander, the TurkishTurkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
form of his Christian name. His second work, also in Russian, was his Letters on the Study of Nature (1845–46). In 1847 appeared his novel Kto Vinovat? (Who is to blame?), and about the same time were published in Russian periodicals the stories which were afterwards collected and printed in London in 1854, under the title of Prervannye Razskazy (Interrupted Tales). In 1850 two works appeared, translated from the Russian manuscripts, From Another Shore and Lettres de France et d'Italie. In French also appeared his essay Du Developpement des idées revolutionnaires en Russie, and his Memoirs, which, after being printed in Russian, were translated under the title of Le Monde russe et la Révolution (3 vols., 1860–1862), and were in part translated into English as My Exile to Siberia (2 vols., 1855).
His Who is to blame? is a story about how the domestic happiness of a young tutor, who marries the unacknowledged daughter of a Russian sensualist of the old type, dull, ignorant and genial, is troubled by a Russian sensualist of the new school, intelligent, accomplished, and callous, with there being no possibility of saying who is most to blame for the tragic ending.
Free Russian Press
It was as a political writer that Herzen gained his reputation. Having founded in London his Free Russian Press, the fortunes of which he gave an interesting account in a book published (in Russian) in 1863, he published a large number of Russian works, all against the system of government prevailing in Russia. Some of these were essayEssay
An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...
s, such as his Baptized Property (1853), an attack on serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
; others were periodical publications, the Polyarnaya Zvyezda (or Polar Star), the Kolokol
Kolokol (newspaper)
Kolokol was the first Russian censorship-free weekly newspaper in Russian and French languages, published by Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogaryov in London and Geneva . Circulation – up to 2500 copies...
(or Bell), and the Golosa iz Rossii (or Voices from Russia). The Kolokol soon obtained an immense circulation, and exercised an extraordinary influence.
As the first independent Russian political publisher Herzen began publishing The Polar Star, a review which appeared infrequently and was later joined by The Bell in 1857, a journal issued between 1857 and 1867 at Herzen's personal expense. Both publications acquired great influence via an illegal circulation in Russian territory; it was said the Emperor himself read them. Both publications gave Herzen influence in Russia reporting from a liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
perspective about the incompetence of the Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
and the Russian bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...
.
Writing in 1857 Herzen became excited by the possibility of social change under Alexander II
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
, “A new Life is unmistakably boiling up in Russia, even the government is being carried away by it”. Herzen used his skill for popular writing to expose the injustices of the ruling elite.
Herzen fought a propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
war through the journals that had the goal of attaining individual liberty
Liberty
Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
for Russians. Herzen understood the competing claims to power, and was aware of the failings of the doctrines that guided the 1848 revolutionary failures. Herzen wrote of the inhumanity of the ruling monarchies of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
but also the excesses perpetrated by revolutionary governments. Herzen constantly fought for social change and felt his journals would contribute to the winds of change,
“The storm is approaching, it is impossible to be mistaken about that. Revolutionaries and Reactionaries are at one about that. All men's heads are going round; a weighty question, a question of life and death, lies heavy on men's chests”Herzen refused to trust any government, and he believed in the right to make your own choices, with minimal state intervention.
For three years the Russian Free Press went on printing without selling a single copy, and scarcely being able to get a single copy introduced into Russia; so when at last a bookseller bought ten shillings worth of Baptized Property, the half-sovereign was set aside by the surprised editors in a special place of honor. But the death of the emperor Nicholas in 1855 led to a complete change. Herzen's writings, and the magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s he edited, were smuggled wholesale into Russia, and their words resounded throughout the country, as well as all over Europe. Their influence grew.
1855 gave Herzen reason to be optimistic; Alexander II had ascended the throne and reforms seemed possible. The Bell broke the story that the government was considering serf emancipation in July 1857, adding that the government lacked the ability to resolve the issue. Herzen urged the Tsarist regime 'Onward, onward' towards reform in The Polar Star in 1856, yet by 1858 full serf emancipation had not been achieved. Herzen grew impatient with reform and by May 1858 The Bell
Kolokol (newspaper)
Kolokol was the first Russian censorship-free weekly newspaper in Russian and French languages, published by Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogaryov in London and Geneva . Circulation – up to 2500 copies...
restarted its campaign to comprehensively emancipate the serfs. Once Serf emancipation was achieved in 1861 The Bells campaign changed to 'Liberty and Land', a program that tried to achieve further social change in support of serf rights. Alexander II granted serfs their freedom, the law-courts were remodelled, trial by jury was established, and liberty was to a great extent conceded to the press. When the Polish insurrection of 1863
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
broke out however, and Herzen pleaded the insurgents' cause, his reputation in Russia declined.
British Exile 1852 - 1864
In 1852 Herzen arrived in BritainUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
where he would reside until 1864. Herzen was disillusioned with the 1848 revolutions
Revolutions of 1848
The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...
but not disillusioned with revolutionary thought. Herzen had always admired the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
and broadly adopted its values. In his early writings he viewed the French Revolution as the end of history, the final stage in social development of a society based on humanism and harmony. Through his early life Herzen saw himself as a revolutionary radical called to fight the political oppression of Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I of Russia
Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...
. Essentially Herzen fought against Christian hypocrisy and in favour of individual self-expression.
Herzen spent time in London organising with the International Workingmen's Association
International Workingmen's Association
The International Workingmen's Association , sometimes called the First International, was an international organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class...
, becoming well acquainted with revolutionary circles including the likes of Bakunin and Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
. It was during his time in London that Herzen began to make a name for himself for "scandal-mongering" when he told Bakunin, freshly arrived having escaped imprisonment in Siberia, that Marx had accused him of being a Russian agent; in reality the two were on very good terms.
It was revolutionary failures coupled with the tragedies of his wife, children's and mother's deaths that drove Herzen to Britain, and he fell into emotional despair for several years. From London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
he found his despair had revived new energy for political and literary work to help the Russian peasantry he idolised. Herzen became critical of those 1848 revolutionaries who were “so revolted by the Reaction after 1848, so exasperated by everything European, that they hastened on to Kansas or California”. Herzen found a new desire to influence and win the appreciation of his countrymen as he established the Russian Printing Press.
In London he hired Malwida von Meysenbug
Malwida von Meysenbug
Malwida von Meysenbug was a German writer, who was a friend of Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner. She also met the French writer Romain Rolland in Rome in 1890, and is the author of Memories of an Idealist. She published the first volume anonymously in 1869.Von Meysenbug was born at Kassel,...
to give an education to his daughters. In 1862, Malwida von Meysenbug
Malwida von Meysenbug
Malwida von Meysenbug was a German writer, who was a friend of Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner. She also met the French writer Romain Rolland in Rome in 1890, and is the author of Memories of an Idealist. She published the first volume anonymously in 1869.Von Meysenbug was born at Kassel,...
went to Italy with Olga, his daughter. Meysenbug would later become an acquaintance of Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, while Olga married Gabriel Monod
Gabriel Monod
Gabriel Monod was a French historian, the nephew of Adolphe Monod.-Biography:Born in Ingouville, Seine-Maritime, he was educated at Le Havre then went to Paris to complete his education, lodging with the de Pressensé family...
in 1873.
Views of Russian Radicals and Liberals on Herzen
Herzen drew criticism from both liberals who were against violence and from radicals who thought Herzen was too soft. Liberals led by ChicherinChicherin
Chicherin is an old Russian noble family:* Boris Chicherin - Russian liberal jurist* Georgy Chicherin - Soviet Foreign Minister* Nikita Chicherin Russian soccer player...
and Kavelin
Konstantin Kavelin
Konstantin Dmitrievich Kavelin was a Russian historian, jurist, and sociologist, sometimes called the chief architect of early Russian liberalism.Born in Saint Petersburg into an old noble family, Kavelin graduated from the legal department of the Moscow University...
believed individual freedom would be achieved through the rationalisation of social relations. Their etatist variety of liberalism was opposed by Herzen as it supposed that Russian society would evolve to an ideal state based on a Hegelian view of reason. They believed the revolutionaries would merely postpone the establishment of the ideal state, while Herzen thought that, on the contrary, they were blind to historical reality. Herzen would always reject grand narratives
Metanarrative
A metanarrative , in critical theory and particularly postmodernism, is an abstract idea that is thought to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge. According to John Stephens, it "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge...
such as a predestined position for a society to arrive at, and his writings in exile promoted small-scale communal living with the protection of individual liberty by a non-interventionist government.
Herzen aggravated Russian radicals by appearing too moderate. Radicals such as Chernyshevsky
Nikolai Chernyshevsky
Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was a Russian revolutionary democrat, materialist philosopher, critic, and socialist...
and Dobrolyubov wanted more commitment towards violent revolution from Herzen, and to withdraw from any hope in the reformist Tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
. Radicals asked Herzen to use The Bell as a mouthpiece for violent radical revolution, however Herzen rejected these requests. He argued that the Russian Radicals were not united and strong enough to seek successful political change, stating “You want happiness, I suppose? I dare say you do! Happiness has to be conquered. If you are strong, take it. If you are weak, hold your tongue”. Herzen feared the new revolutionary government would merely replace the dictatorship with another dictatorship.
The radicals describe Herzen as a liberal for not wanting immediate change, but Herzen rejects their pleas arguing for change at a pace that will ensure success. Herzen briefly joined with other Russian liberals such as Kavelin
Konstantin Kavelin
Konstantin Dmitrievich Kavelin was a Russian historian, jurist, and sociologist, sometimes called the chief architect of early Russian liberalism.Born in Saint Petersburg into an old noble family, Kavelin graduated from the legal department of the Moscow University...
to promote the peasant 'awakening' in Russia. Herzen continued to use The Bell as an outlet to promote unity with all sections of the Russian society behind a demand for a national parliament
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
. However his hope as acting as a uniting force were ended by the Polish revolt of 1863
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
, when the liberal support for Tsarist revenge against the Poles ended Herzen's link with them. This breach resulted a declining readership for The Bell, which ceased publication in 1867. By his death in 1870 Herzen was almost forgotten.
Influence in the 19th and 20th century
Herzen opposed the aristocracy that ruled 19th Century Russia. A rise in populismPopulism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
by 1880 led to a favorable re-evaluation of his writings. Herzen sided with the agrarian collectivist
Left anarchism
Left anarchism or left-wing anarchism refer to left-wing forms of anarchism. It posits a future society in which private property is replaced by reciprocity and non-hierarchical society...
model of social structure
Social structure
Social structure is a term used in the social sciences to refer to patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of the individuals. The usage of the term "social structure" has changed over time and may reflect the various levels of analysis...
.
Alongside populism
Populism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
Herzen will be remembered for his rejection of corrupt government of any political persuasion, and for his support for individual rights. A Hegelian in his youth, this translated into no specific theory or single doctrine dominating his thought. Herzen came to believe the complex questions of society could not be answered and Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
must live for the moment and not a cause, essentially life is an end in itself. Herzen found greater understanding by not committing himself to an extreme but rather lived impartially enabling him to equally criticise competing ideologies. Herzen believed that grand doctrines
Metanarrative
A metanarrative , in critical theory and particularly postmodernism, is an abstract idea that is thought to be a comprehensive explanation of historical experience or knowledge. According to John Stephens, it "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge...
ultimately result in enslavement, sacrifice and tyranny.
Herzen was a hero of the 20th century philosopher Isaiah Berlin
Isaiah Berlin
Sir Isaiah Berlin OM, FBA was a British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, regarded as one of the leading thinkers of the twentieth century and a dominant liberal scholar of his generation...
. The words of Herzen that Berlin repeated most insistently were those condemning the sacrifice of human beings on the altar of abstractions, the subordination of the realities of individual happiness or unhappiness in the present to glorious dreams of the future. Berlin, like Herzen, believed that ‘the end of life is life itself’, and that each life and each age should be regarded as its own end and not as a means to some future goal.
Tolstoy
Tolstoy
Tolstoy, or Tolstoi is a prominent family of Russian nobility, descending from Andrey Kharitonovich Tolstoy who served under Vasily II of Moscow...
declared that he had never met another man "with so rare a combination of scintillating brilliance and depth". Berlin called his autobiography "one of the great monuments to Russian literary and psychological genius.….a literary masterpiece to be placed by the side of the novels of his contemporaries and countrymen, Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
, Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
, Dostoevsky ..."
Russian Thinkers (The Hogarth Press, 1978) a collection of Berlin's essays in which Herzen features, was the inspiration for Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
's The Coast of Utopia
The Coast of Utopia
The Coast of Utopia is a 2002 trilogy of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866...
, a trilogy of plays performed at London's National Theatre in 2002 and at New York's Lincoln Center in 2006-2007. Set against the background of the early development of Russian socialist thought, the Revolutions of 1848
Revolutions of 1848
The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...
and later exile, the plays examine the lives and intellectual development of, among other Russians, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin was a well-known Russian revolutionary and theorist of collectivist anarchism. He has also often been called the father of anarchist theory in general. Bakunin grew up near Moscow, where he moved to study philosophy and began to read the French Encyclopedists,...
, the literary critic
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky was a Russian literary critic of Westernizing tendency. He was an associate of Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin , and other critical intellectuals...
, the novelist Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His first major publication, a short story collection entitled A Sportsman's Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century...
and Alexander Herzen, whose character dominates the plays.
Works
- Legend (Легенда, 1836)
- Elena (Елена, 1838)
- Notes of a Young Man (1840)
- Diletantism in Science (1843)
- Who is to Blame? (Кто виноват?, 1846)
- Mimoezdom (Мимоездом, 1846)
- Dr. Krupa (Доктор Крупов, 1847)
- Thieving Magpie (Сорока-воровка, 1848)
- The Russian People and Socialism (Русский народ и социализм, 1848)
- From the Other Shore (1848–1850)
- Letters from France and Italy (1852)
- My Past and Thoughts: The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen (1868)
See also
- Illegitimacy in fictionIllegitimacy in fictionThis is a list of fictional stories in which illegitimacy features as an important plot element. Passing mentions are omitted from this article. Many of these stories deal with the social pain and exclusion felt by illegitimate "natural children"....
- Illegitimacy
- List of coupled cousins
- Malwida von MeysenbugMalwida von MeysenbugMalwida von Meysenbug was a German writer, who was a friend of Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner. She also met the French writer Romain Rolland in Rome in 1890, and is the author of Memories of an Idealist. She published the first volume anonymously in 1869.Von Meysenbug was born at Kassel,...
- Pluralism
External links
- Herzen is the lead character in Tom StoppardTom StoppardSir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
's 2002 trilogy of plays The Coast of UtopiaThe Coast of UtopiaThe Coast of Utopia is a 2002 trilogy of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866...
. - Tom Stoppard's article on Herzen in the London Observer
- ALEXANDER II AND HIS TIMES: A Narrative History of Russia in the Age of Alexander II, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky (with several chapters on Herzen)
- Herzen : The revolutionist by Keith Gessen (The New Yorker)
- Alexander Herzen and Russian (spiritual) Landscape (in Japanese)