April 6 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Russian prose writer, publicist and philosopher Alexander Ivanovich Herzen.
Russian prose writer, publicist and philosopher Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was born on April 6 (March 25, old style) 1812 in Moscow in the family of a wealthy Russian landowner Ivan Yakovlev and a German woman, Louise Haag. The parents' marriage was not officially registered, so the child was illegitimate and was considered a pupil of his father, who gave him the surname Herzen, derived from the German word Herz and meaning “child of the heart.”
The future writer spent his childhood in the house of his uncle, Alexander Yakovlev, on Tverskoy Boulevard (now building 25, which houses the A.M. Gorky Literary Institute). Since childhood, Herzen was not deprived of attention, but the position of an illegitimate child gave him a feeling of orphanhood.
From an early age, Alexander Herzen read the works of the philosopher Voltaire, the playwright Beaumarchais, the poet Goethe and the novelist Kotzebue, so he early adopted a free-thinking skepticism, which he retained until the end of his life.
In 1829, Herzen entered the physics and mathematics department of Moscow University, where soon, together with Nikolai Ogarev (who entered a year later), he formed a circle of like-minded people, among whom the most famous were the future writer, historian and ethnographer Vadim Passek, and translator Nikolai Ketcher. Young people discussed the socio-political problems of our time - the French Revolution of 1830, the Polish Uprising (1830-1831), were carried away by the ideas of Saint-Simonism (the teaching of the French philosopher Saint-Simon - building an ideal society through the destruction of private property, inheritance, estates, equality of men and women ).
In 1833, Herzen graduated from the university with a silver medal and went to work in the Moscow Kremlin Expedition. The service left him enough free time to engage in creativity. Herzen was going to publish a magazine that was supposed to unite literature, social issues and natural science with the idea of Saint-Simonism, but in July 1834 he was arrested for singing songs discrediting the royal family at a party where a bust of Emperor Nikolai Pavlovich was broken. During interrogations, the Investigative Commission, without proving Herzen’s direct guilt, considered that his beliefs posed a danger to the state. In April 1835, Herzen was exiled first to Perm, then to Vyatka, with the obligation to remain in public service under the supervision of local authorities.
Since 1836, Herzen published under the pseudonym Iskander.
At the end of 1837, he was transferred to Vladimir and was given the opportunity to visit Moscow and St. Petersburg, where he was accepted into the circle of critic Vissarion Belinsky, historian Timofey Granovsky and fiction writer Ivan Panaev.
In 1840, the gendarmerie intercepted a letter from Herzen to his father, where he wrote about the murder of a St. Petersburg guard - a street guard who killed a passerby. For spreading unfounded rumors, he was exiled to Novgorod without the right to enter the capital. The Minister of Internal Affairs, Stroganov, appointed Herzen as an adviser to the provincial government, which was a promotion.
In July 1842, having retired with the rank of court councilor, after the petition of his friends, Herzen returned to Moscow. In 1843-1846 he lived in Sivtsev Vrazhek Lane (now a branch of the Literary Museum - the Herzen Museum), where he wrote the stories “The Thieving Magpie”, “Doctor Krupov”, the novel “Who is to Blame?”, and the articles “Amateurism in Science” , “Letters on the Study of Nature”, political feuilletons “Moscow and St. Petersburg” and other works. Here Herzen, who led the left wing of Westerners, was visited by history professor Timofey Granovsky, critic Pavel Annenkov, artists Mikhail Shchepkin, Prov Sadovsky, memoirist Vasily Botkin, journalist Evgeny Korsh, critic Vissarion Belinsky, poet Nikolai Nekrasov, writer Ivan Turgenev, forming the Moscow epicenter of the Slavophile polemics and Westerners. Herzen visited the Moscow literary salons of Avdotya Elagina, Karolina Pavlova, Dmitry Sverbeev, and Pyotr Chaadaev.
In May 1846, Herzen's father died, and the writer became the heir to a significant fortune, which provided the means to travel abroad. In 1847, Herzen left Russia and began his many-year journey through Europe. Observing the life of Western countries, he interspersed personal impressions with historical and philosophical research, the most famous of which are “Letters from France and Italy” (1847-1852), “From the Other Shore” (1847-1850). After the defeat of the European revolutions (1848-1849), Herzen became disillusioned with the revolutionary capabilities of the West and developed the theory of “Russian socialism”, becoming one of the founders of populism.
In 1852, Alexander Herzen settled in London. By this time he was perceived as the first figure of the Russian emigration. In 1853 he. Together with Ogarev, he published revolutionary publications - the almanac "Polar Star" (1855-1868) and the newspaper "Bell" (1857-1867). The newspaper's motto was the beginning of the epigraph to the "Bell" of the German poet Schiller "Vivos voso!" (Calling the living!). At the first stage, the "Bells" program contained democratic demands: the liberation of peasants from serfdom, the abolition of censorship and corporal punishment. It was based on the theory of Russian peasant socialism developed by Alexander Herzen. In addition to articles by Herzen and Ogarev, Kolokol published various materials about the situation of the people, social struggle in Russia, information about abuses and secret plans of the authorities. The newspapers Pod Sud (1859-1862) and General Assembly (1862-1864) were published as supplements to the Bell. Sheets of "Bell" printed on thin paper were illegally transported across the border to Russia. At first, Kolokol's employees included the writer Ivan Turgenev and the Decembrist Nikolai Turgenev, the historian and publicist Konstantin Kavelin, the publicist and poet Ivan Aksakov, the philosopher Yuri Samarin, Alexander Koshelev, the writer Vasily Botkin and others. After the reform of 1861, articles sharply condemning the reform and texts of proclamations appeared in the newspaper. Communication with the editorial office of Kolokol contributed to the formation of the revolutionary organization Land and Freedom in Russia. To strengthen ties with the “young emigration” concentrated in Switzerland, the publication of “The Bell” was moved to Geneva in 1865, and in 1867 it practically ceased to exist.
In the 1850s, Herzen began to write the main work of his life, “The Past and Thoughts” (1852-1868) - a synthesis of memoirs, journalism, literary portraits, an autobiographical novel, historical chronicles, and short stories. The author himself called this book a confession, “about which the stopped thoughts from thoughts gathered here and there.”
In 1865, Herzen left England and went on a long trip to Europe. At this time he distanced himself from the revolutionaries, especially from the Russian radicals.
In the autumn of 1869, he settled in Paris with new plans for literary and publishing activities. In Paris, Alexander Herzen died on January 21 (9 according to the old style) January 1870. He was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery, and his ashes were subsequently transported to Nice.
Herzen was married to his cousin Natalya Zakharyina, the illegitimate daughter of his uncle, Alexander Yakovlev, whom he married in May 1838, taking him secretly from Moscow. The couple had many children, but three survived - the eldest son Alexander, who became a professor of physiology, and daughters Natalya and Olga.
The grandson of Alexander Herzen, Peter Herzen, was a famous scientist-surgeon, founder of the Moscow School of Oncologists, director of the Moscow Institute for the Treatment of Tumors, which currently bears his name (Moscow Research Oncology Institute named after P.A. Herzen).
After the death of Natalya Zakharyina in 1852, Alexander Herzen was civilly married to Natalya Tuchkova-Ogareva, the official wife of Nikolai Ogarev, from 1857. The relationship had to be kept secret from the family. The children of Tuchkova and Herzen - Lisa, who committed suicide at the age of 17, the twins Elena and Alexei, who died at a young age, were considered Ogarev's children.
Tuchkova-Ogareva carried out the proofreading of The Bell, and after Herzen’s death she was involved in the publication of his works abroad. From the late 1870s she wrote “Memoirs” (published as a separate edition in 1903).
The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources.
A.I. Herzen
Even 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, Ogarev was 12 years old). Under his impression, their first, still vague dreams of revolutionary activity arise. One day, during a walk on the Sparrow Hills, the boys vowed to devote their lives to the fight for freedom.
A. Herzen is the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev and a young German woman, 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, he, together with his friend N. Ogarev, organized a circle of student youth, in which socio-political issues were discussed.
In the mainstream of the polemics between “Westerners” and “Slavophiles,” Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (1812 - 1870) occupies a special place. He not only belonged to the “Westerners” party, but in a certain sense he 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 the place of Russia in it. The “Slavophiles” proceeded from the fact that Europe, having outlived its time, was rotting, and Russia had its own historical path of development, in no way similar to the Western one. “Westerners” argued that the principle of historical development has universal significance for humanity, but due to a number of circumstances it received expression most adequately and fully in Western Europe, and therefore 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 deep ideological impact on him. Since 1852, he settled in London, where already in 1853 he founded a free Russian printing house and began publishing the almanac “Polar Star”, the newspaper “Bell” and the periodical “Voices from Russia”. The publications of Herzen's free Russian printing house became the first uncensored press in Russia, which had a huge influence not only on socio-political, but also on philosophical thought.
Philosophical views
In 1840, having returned from exile, Herzen met the circle of Hegelians, which was headed by Stankevich and Belinsky. He was impressed by their thesis of the complete rationality of all reality. But the radical revolutionaries repulsed 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 humanity proceeds in steps, and each step 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
"The Theory of Russian Socialism" by A.I. Herzen
After the suppression of the French Revolution of 1848, Herzen came to the conclusion that the country in which it was possible to combine socialist ideas with historical reality was Russia, where communal land ownership was preserved.
The Russian peasant world, he argued, contains three principles that make it possible to carry out an economic revolution leading to socialism:
1) everyone’s right to land
2) communal ownership of it
3) worldly management.
He believed that Russia had the opportunity to bypass the stage of capitalist development: “The man of the future in Russia is a man, just like a worker in France.”
Herzen paid great attention to ways to implement the social revolution. However, Herzen was not a supporter mandatory violence and coercion: “We do not believe that nations cannot move forward except knee-deep in blood; We bow with reverence to the martyrs, but with all our hearts we wish that they would not exist.”
During the period of preparation of the peasant reform in Russia, the Kolokol expressed hopes for the abolition of serfdom by the government on terms favorable to the peasants. But the same “Bell” said that if the freedom of the peasants is bought at the price of Pugachevism, then this is not too expensive a price to pay. The most rapid, unbridled development is preferable to maintaining the order of Nikolaev stagnation.
Herzen's hopes for a peaceful solution to the peasant question aroused objections from Chernyshevsky and other revolutionary socialists. Herzen answered them that Rus' must be called not “to the axe,” but to the brooms, in order to sweep away the dirt and rubbish that has accumulated in Russia.
“Having called for an ax,” Herzen explained, “you must master the movement, you must have organization, you must have a plan, strength and readiness to go down 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 “there remains at least one reasonable hope for a solution without an axe.”
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, and politics were considered by him as subordinate to the main ones - social and economic problems. Herzen has many opinions that the state does not have its own content at all - it can serve both reaction and revolution, depending on which side has the power. 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 primary task of destroying the state. “An economic revolution,” Herzen objected to Bakunin, “has an immense advantage over all religious and political revolutions.” The state, like slavery, wrote Herzen, is moving towards freedom, towards self-destruction; however, the state “cannot be thrown off like dirty rags until a certain age.” “From the fact that the state is a form transitory - Herzen emphasized, “it does not follow that this form is already past."
Herzen's views on pedagogy
Herzen did not deal specifically with this issue, but, being a thinker and public figure, he had a well-thought-out concept on issues of education:
2) children, according to Herzen, should develop freely and learn respect for work, aversion to idleness, and selfless love for their homeland from the common people;
3) called on scientists to bring science out of the classroom walls and make its achievements public domain. He wanted secondary school students, along with natural science and mathematics, to study literature (including the literature of ancient peoples), foreign languages, and history. A.I. Herzen noted that without reading there is and cannot be any taste, no style, no 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 help but be expressed in his literary works and in numerous journalism.
"Who is guilty?", novel in two parts(1846)
"By passing by" story (1846 G.)
"Doctor Krupov" story (1847 G.)
"The Thief Magpie" story (1848 G.)
"Damaged", story (1851 G.)
"Tragedy over a glass of grog" (1864 G.)
"For boredom's sake" (1869 G.)
Newspaper "Bell"
"Bell"
This was the first Russian revolutionary newspaper, published by A. I. Herzen and N. P. Ogarev in exile at the Free Russian Printing House in 1857-1867. As a continuation of the closed "Bell", a newspaper was published in French in 1868 "Kolokol"(“La cloche”), addressed primarily to a European reader.
In the first 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 a supplement to the almanac, the newspaper "Bell". The first issues of Kolokol were published once a month, but the newspaper began to gain popularity, and it began to be published twice a month with a volume of 8 or 10 pages. The sheets were printed on thin paper, which was easier to smuggle through customs illegally. The regular uncensored publication turned out to be in demand among readers. Taking into account additional prints, over the ten years of the newspaper's existence, about half a million copies were published. The publication was immediately banned in Russia, and in the first half of 1858, the Russian government managed to achieve an official ban on “The Bell” in other European countries. However, Herzen manages to create ways for the relatively safe delivery of correspondence from Russia through a number of reliable addresses.
The Bell also published literary works that were subordinated to the tasks of agitation and exposing the policies of the authorities. In the newspaper one could find poetry by M. Yu. Lermontov (“Alas! how boring this city is...”), N. A. Nekrasov (“Reflections at the Main Entrance”), accusatory poems by N. Ogarev and others. As in “Polar star”, “Kolokol” publishes excerpts from “Past and Thoughts” by A. Herzen.
Since 1862, interest in the Bell begins to decline. More radical movements are already appearing in Russia, which “called Rus' to the axe.” Despite Kolokol's condemnation of terrorism, after the assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander II, the newspaper continues to lose readers. Correspondence from Russia almost stops coming. In 1867, the publication again returned to a single issue per month, and on July 1, 1867, with N. Ogarev’s poem “Goodbye!” reports that “the Bell will fall silent for a while.” But in 1868, the Bell ceased to exist.
Herzen Alexander Ivanovich - writer, publicist and public figure of the 19th century. Widely known as the creator of the work “Who’s to Blame?” But few people know how difficult and interesting the writer’s life was. It is about Herzen’s biography that we will talk in this article.
Herzen Alexander Ivanovich: biography
The future writer was born in Moscow on March 25, 1812 into a wealthy landowner family. His father was Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev, his mother was Louise Haag, the sixteen-year-old daughter of an official serving as a clerk in Stuttgart. Herzen's parents were not registered and later also did not legalize the marriage. As a result, the son received the surname invented by his father - Herzen, which was derived from the German herz, which translates as “son of the heart.”
Despite his origins, Alexander received a noble upbringing at home, which was mainly based on the study of foreign literature. He also studied several foreign languages.
The message about the Decembrist uprising had a great effect on Herzen, although he was still just a child. In those years, he was already friends with Ogarev, who shared these impressions with him. It was after this incident that dreams of a revolution in Russia arose in the boy’s mind. Walking on the Sparrow Hills, he swore an oath to do everything to overthrow Tsar Nicholas I.
University years
Herzen's biography (its full version is presented in literary encyclopedias) is a description of the life of a man who tried to make his country better, but was defeated.
The young writer, full of dreams of the fight for freedom, enters the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University, where these sentiments only intensified. During his student years, Herzen took part in the “Malov story”; fortunately, he got off very lightly - he spent several days in a punishment cell with his comrades.
As for university teaching, it left much to be desired and provided little benefit. Only a few teachers introduced students to modern trends and German philosophy. Nevertheless, the youth were very determined and greeted the July Revolution with joy and hope. Young people gathered in groups, vigorously discussed social issues, studied the history of Russia, and sang the ideas of Saint-Simon and other socialists.
In 1833, Herzen graduated from Moscow University without losing these student sentiments.
Arrest and exile
While still at the university, A. I. Herzen joined a circle, whose members, including the writer, were arrested in 1834. Alexander Ivanovich was sent into exile, first to Perm, and then to Vyatka, where he was assigned to serve in the provincial chancellery. Here he met the heir to the throne, who was destined to become Alexander II. Herzen was the organizer of an exhibition of local works and personally gave a tour for the royal person. After these events, thanks to the intercession of Zhukovsky, he was transferred to Vladimir and appointed advisor to the board.
Only in 1840 did the writer get the opportunity to return to Moscow. Here he immediately met representatives of the Hegelian circle, headed by Belinsky and Stankevich. However, he could not fully share their views. Soon a camp of Westerners formed around Herzen and Ogarev.
Emigration
In 1842, A.I. Herzen was forced to go to Novgorod, where he served for a year, and then returned to Moscow again. Due to tightening censorship in 1847, the writer decides to go abroad forever. However, he did not break ties with his homeland and continued to collaborate with domestic publications.
By this time, Herzen adhered to radical republican views rather than liberal ones. The author begins to publish a series of articles in Otechestvennye zapiski, which had a pronounced anti-bourgeois orientation.
Herzen received the February Revolution of 1848 with joy, considering it the fulfillment of all his hopes. But the workers' uprising, which occurred in June of the same year and ended in bloody suppression, shocked the writer, who decided to become a socialist. After these events, Herzen became friends with Proudhon and several other famous revolutionary figures of European radicalism.
In 1849, the writer left France and moved to Switzerland, and from there to Nice. Herzen moves in the circles of radical emigration that gathered after the defeat of the European revolution. Including meeting Garibaldi. After the death of his wife, he moved to London, where he lived for 10 years. During these years, Herzen founded the Free Russian Printing House, where books banned in his homeland were printed.
"Bell"
In 1857, Alexander Herzen began publishing the newspaper Kolokol. The author's biography indicates that in 1849 Nicholas I ordered the seizure of all the property of the writer and his mother. The existence of the printing house and the new publication became possible only thanks to funding from the Rothschild Bank.
The Bell was most popular in the years preceding the peasants' liberation. At this time, the publication was constantly delivered to the Winter Palace. However, after the peasant reform, the influence of the newspaper gradually declined, and support for the Polish uprising that occurred in 1863 greatly undermined the publication's circulation.
The conflict reached the point that on March 15, 1865, the Russian government made an insistent demand to Her Majesty England. And the editors of Kolokol, together with Herzen, were forced to leave the country and move to Switzerland. In 1865, the Free Russian Printing House and the writer’s supporters moved there. Including Nikolai Ogarev.
Literary activity
A. I. Herzen began writing in the 30s. His first article, published in Telescope in 1836, was signed with the name Iskander. In 1842, “Diary” and “Speech” were published. During his stay in Vladimir, Herzen wrote “Notes of a Young Man”, “More from the Notes of a Young Man”. From 1842 to 1847, the writer actively collaborated with Otechestvennye zapiski and Sovremennik. In these writings he spoke out against formalists, learned pedants and quietism.
As for works of fiction, the most famous and outstanding are the novel “Who is to Blame?” and the story “The Thieving Magpie.” The novel is of great value and, despite its modest size, has a deep meaning. It raises issues such as feelings and happiness in family relationships, the position of a woman in modern society and her relationship with a man. The main idea of the work is that people who base their well-being only on family relationships are far from social and universal interests and cannot ensure lasting happiness for themselves, because it will always depend on chance.
Public activity and death
A. I. Herzen had a huge influence on the minds of his contemporaries. Despite his stay abroad, he managed to stay informed about what was happening in his homeland and even influence events. However, his fascination with the uprising in Poland became disastrous for the writer’s popularity. Herzen sided with the Poles, although he hesitated for a long time and was suspicious of their activities. Bakurin's pressure was decisive. The result was not long in coming, and Kolokol lost most of its subscribers.
The writer died in Paris, where he came on business, from pneumonia. This happened on January 9, 1970. Initially, Herzen was buried there in the Père Lachaise cemetery, but later the ashes were transported to Nice.
Personal life
Alexander Herzen was in love with his cousin. A short biography usually does not contain such information, but the writer’s personal life allows us to get an idea of his personality. So, exiled to Vladimir, he secretly married his beloved Natalya Aleksandrovna Zakharyina in 1838, taking the girl away from the capital. It was in Vladimir, despite the exile, that the writer was happiest in his entire life.
In 1839, the couple had a child, son Alexander. And 2 years later a daughter was born. In 1842, a boy was born who died 5 days later, and a year later - a son, Nikolai, who suffered from deafness. Two more girls were born in the family, one of whom lived only 11 months.
Already in exile, while in Paris, the writer’s wife fell in love with her husband’s friend Georg Herwegh. For some time, the families of Herzen and Herwegh lived together, but then the writer demanded his friend’s departure. Herwegh blackmailed him with threats of suicide, but eventually left Nice. Herzen's wife died in 1852, a few days after her last birth. The boy she gave birth to also soon died.
In 1857, Herzen began to live with Natalya Alekseevna Ogareva (whose photo can be seen above), the wife of his friend, who raised his children. In 1869, their daughter Elizabeth was born, who later committed suicide due to unrequited love.
Philosophical views
Herzen (a short biography confirms this) is associated primarily with the revolutionary movement in Russia. However, by nature he was not an agitator or propagandist. Rather, he can simply be called a man of very broad views, well educated, with an inquisitive mind and contemplative inclinations. Throughout his life he tried to find the truth. Herzen was never a fanatic of any beliefs and did not tolerate this in others. That is why he never belonged to any one party. In Russia he was considered a Westerner, but when he got to Europe, he realized how many shortcomings there were in the life that he had praised for so long.
Herzen always changed his ideas about something if factors changed or new nuances appeared. I have never been completely devoted to anything.
Afterword
We got acquainted with the amazing life that Alexander Ivanovich Herzen lived. A short biography may include only some facts from life, but in order to fully understand this person, you need to read his journalism and fiction. Descendants should remember that Herzen dreamed of only one thing all his life - the well-being of Russia. He saw this in the overthrow of the tsar and therefore was forced to leave his dear homeland.
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 policies of the Russian Empire in the 19th century, supporter of revolutionary bourgeois-democratic transformations .
Encyclopedic YouTube
1 / 5
✪ 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. Westerners and Slavophiles. Small prose of Herzen
Subtitles
Biography
Childhood
Herzen was born into the family of a wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev (1767-1846), descended from Andrei Kobyla (like the Romanovs). Mother - 16-year-old German Henrietta-Wilhelmina-Louise Haag (German). Henriette Wilhelmina Luisa Haag), the daughter of a minor official, a clerk in the treasury chamber in. The parents' marriage was not formalized, and Herzen bore the surname invented by his father: Herzen - “son of the heart” (from German Herz).
In his youth, Herzen received the usual noble education at home, based on reading works of foreign literature, mainly from 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 - French and Germans - gave the boy a solid knowledge of foreign languages. Thanks to his acquaintance with Schiller’s work, Herzen was imbued with freedom-loving aspirations, the development of which was greatly facilitated by the teacher of Russian literature I. E. Protopopov, who brought Herzen notebooks of Pushkin’s poems: “Odes to Freedom”, “Dagger”, “Thoughts” by Ryleev, etc., as well as Bouchot, a participant in the Great French Revolution, who left France when the “depraved and rogues” took over. Added to this was the influence of Tanya Kuchina, Herzen’s young aunt, “Korchevskaya cousin” (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 Ogarev. According to his memoirs, the news of the Decembrist uprising on December 14, 1825 made a strong impression on the boys (Herzen was 13, Ogarev was 12 years old). Under his impression, their first, still vague dreams of revolutionary activity arise; During a walk on Vorobyovy Gory, 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 Moscow University in the physics and mathematics department, and here this mood intensified even more. At the university, Herzen took part in the so-called “Malov story” (student protest against an unloved teacher), but got off relatively lightly - with a short imprisonment, along with many of his 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 agricultural lectures, awakened young thought [ ] . The meeting of Herzen with Vadim Passek dates back to this time, which later turned into friendship, the establishment of a friendly connection with Ketcher and others. The group of young friends grew, made noise, seethed; from time to time she allowed small revelries, of a completely innocent nature, however; She read diligently, being carried away mainly by social issues, studying Russian history, assimilating the ideas of Saint-Simon (whose utopian socialism Herzen then considered 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 mentality, embracing the entire existence.” The opponents, “like a two-faced Janus, looked in different directions, while the heart beat alone.” “With tears in our eyes”, hugging each other, recent friends, and now principled opponents, went in different directions.
In the Moscow house where Herzen lived from 1847 to 1847, the A. I. Herzen House Museum has been operating since 1976.
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 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 workers' uprising, its bloody suppression and the ensuing reaction shocked Herzen, who decisively 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 “The Voice of the People” (“La Voix du Peuple”), which he financed. The beginning of his wife's passion for the German poet Herwegh 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 that gathered in Switzerland after the defeat of the revolution in Europe, and, in particular, became acquainted with Giuseppe Garibaldi. He became famous for his book of essays “From the Other Shore,” in which he reckoned with his past liberal convictions. Under the influence of the collapse of old ideals and the reaction that occurred 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 (his wife’s infidelity with Herwegh, the death of a 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 to print prohibited publications and, from 1857, published a weekly newspaper "Bell".
The peak of the influence of the Bell occurs in the years preceding the liberation of the peasants; then the newspaper was regularly read in the Winter Palace. After the peasant reform, its influence begins to decline; support for the Polish uprising of 1863 sharply undermined circulation. At that time, Herzen was already too revolutionary for the liberal public, and too moderate for the radical one. On March 15, 1865, under the persistent demands of the Russian government to the British government, the editorial board of Kolokol, headed by Herzen, left London forever and moved to Switzerland, of which Herzen had by that time become a citizen. 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 Ogarev moved there.
On January 9 (21), 1870, Alexander Ivanovich Herzen died of pneumonia in Paris, where he had recently arrived on family business. He was buried in Nice (the ashes were transferred from the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris).
Literary and journalistic activities
Herzen's literary activity began in the 1830s. In the Athenaeum for 1831 (II volume) his name is found under one translation from French. The first article signed by a pseudonym Iskander, was published in the Telescope for 1836 (“Hoffmann”). The “Speech Delivered at the Opening of the Vyatka Public Library” and “Diary” (1842) date back to the same time. In Vladimir the following were written: “Notes of a young man” and “More from the notes of a young man” (“Otechestvennye zapiski”, 1840-1841; in this story Chaadaev is depicted in the person of Trenzinsky). From 1842 to 1847, he published articles in “Domestic Notes” and “Contemporary”: “Amateurism in Science”, “Romantic Amateurs”, “Workshop of Scientists”, “Buddhism in Science”, “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 one drama”, “On various occasions”, “New variations on old themes”, “A few notes on the historical development of honor”, “From the notes of Dr. Krupov”, “Who is to blame? "", "The Thieving Magpie", "Moscow and St. Petersburg", "Novgorod and Vladimir", "Edrovo Station", "Interrupted Conversations". Of all these works, the story “The Thieving Magpie”, which depicts the terrible situation of the “serf intelligentsia”, and the novel “Who is to Blame?”, dedicated to the issue of freedom of feeling, family relationships, and the position of women in marriage, especially stand out. 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 social and universal humanity, cannot ensure lasting happiness for themselves, and in their lives it will always depend on chance.
Of the works written by Herzen abroad, the following are especially important: letters from “Avenue Marigny” (the first published in Sovremennik, all fourteen under the general title: “Letters from France and Italy”, edition of 1855), representing a remarkable description and analysis of events and the moods that worried Europe in 1847-1852. Here we encounter 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 essay “From the Other Shore” (originally in German “Vom anderen Ufer”, Hamburg,; in Russian, London, 1855; in French, Geneva, 1870), in in which Herzen expresses complete disappointment with the West and Western civilization - the result of that mental revolution that determined Herzen’s worldview in 1848-1851. It is also worth noting the letter to Michelet: “The Russian people and socialism” - a passionate and ardent defense of the Russian people against the attacks and prejudices that Michelet expressed in one of his articles. “The Past and Thoughts” is a series of memoirs that are partly autobiographical in nature, but also provide a whole series of highly artistic pictures, dazzlingly brilliant characteristics, and observations of Herzen from what he experienced and saw in Russia and abroad.
All other works and articles of Herzen, such as: “The Old World and Russia”, “Russian People and Socialism”, “Ends and Beginnings”, etc., represent a simple development of ideas and sentiments that were fully defined in the period 1847-1852 in his writings mentioned above.
Philosophical views of Herzen during the years of emigration
The attraction to freedom of thought, “freethinking,” in the best sense of the word, was especially strongly developed in Herzen. He did not belong to any one party, either open or secret. The one-sidedness of “men of action” alienated 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 drawn from his unbeautiful, distant Russian reality of the 1840s. With amazing consistency, Herzen abandoned his passions for the West when it turned out in his eyes to be lower than the previously drawn up ideal.
Herzen's philosophical and historical concept emphasizes the active role of man in history. At the same time, it implies that reason cannot realize its ideals without taking into account the existing facts of history, that its results constitute the “necessary basis” for the operations of reason.
Quotes
“Let’s not invent a God if he doesn’t exist, because this still won’t exist.”
“At every age and under various circumstances I returned to reading the Gospel, and each time its content brought peace and meekness to my soul.”
Pedagogical ideas
There are no special theoretical works on education in Herzen's legacy. However, throughout his life Herzen was interested in pedagogical problems and was one of the first Russian thinkers and public figures of the mid-19th century to address the problems of education in his works. His statements on issues of upbringing and education indicate the presence thoughtful pedagogical concept.
Herzen's pedagogical views were determined by philosophical (atheism and materialism), ethical (humanism) and political (revolutionary democracy) convictions.
Criticism of the education system under Nicholas I
Herzen called the reign of Nicholas I a thirty-year persecution of schools and universities and showed how the Nicholas Ministry of Education stifled public education. The tsarist government, according to Herzen, “laid in wait for the child at the first step in life and corrupted the cadet-child, the schoolboy-adolescent, the student-boy. Mercilessly, systematically, it eradicated the human embryos in them, weaning them, as if from a vice, from all human feelings except obedience. It punished minors for violation of discipline in a 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 a tool for strengthening serfdom and autocracy.
Folk pedagogy
Herzen believed that the simplest people have the most positive influence on children, that it is the people who bear the best Russian national qualities. Young generations learn from the people respect for work, selfless love for their homeland, and aversion to idleness.
Upbringing
Herzen considered the main task of education to be the formation of a humane, free personality who lives in the interests of his people and strives to transform society on a reasonable basis. Children must be provided with conditions for free development. “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 teacher’s disposition towards the child, respect for him, and knowledge of his needs. A healthy family environment and correct relationships between children and educators are a necessary condition for moral education.
Education
Herzen passionately sought the spread of education and knowledge among the people, calling on scientists to take science out of the classroom walls and make its achievements public domain. Emphasizing the enormous educational importance of the natural sciences, Herzen was at the same time in favor of a system of comprehensive general education. He wanted secondary school students, along with natural science and mathematics, to study literature (including the literature of ancient peoples), foreign languages, and history. A. I. Herzen noted that without reading there is and cannot be either taste, style, or multifaceted breadth of understanding. Thanks to reading, a person survives centuries. Books influence the deepest areas of the human psyche. Herzen emphasized in every possible way that education should contribute to the development of independent thinking in students. Educators should, relying on children’s innate inclinations to communicate, develop social aspirations and inclinations in them. This is achieved through communication with peers, collective children's games, and general activities. Herzen fought against the suppression of children's will, but at the same time attached great importance to discipline, and considered the establishment of discipline a necessary condition for proper upbringing. “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 talented, popular presentation of complex ideological problems. The author simply and vividly explains to children the origin of the Universe from a materialistic point of view. He convincingly proves the important role of science in the fight against incorrect views, prejudices and superstitions and refutes the idealistic fabrication that a soul also exists in a person, separate from his body.
Family
In 1838, in Vladimir, Herzen married his cousin Natalya Alexandrovna Zakharyina, before leaving Russia they had 6 children, two of whom lived 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 learned to speak and write, died in a shipwreck (see below).
- Natalia(Tata, 1844-1936), family historiographer and keeper 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 Herwegh. She admitted to Herzen that “dissatisfaction, something left unoccupied, abandoned, was looking for another sympathy and found it in friendship with Herwegh” and that she dreams of a “marriage of three,” and more spiritual than purely carnal. In Nice, Herzen and his wife and Herwegh and 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 Herwegh’s mistress, which she hid from her husband (although Herwegh revealed himself to his wife). Then Herzen, having learned the truth, demanded the Herwegs' departure from Nice, and Herwegh blackmailed Herzen with the threat of suicide. The Herwegs left anyway. In the international revolutionary community, Herzen was condemned for subjecting his wife to “moral coercion” and preventing her from uniting with her lover.
In 1850, Herzen's wife gave birth to a daughter Olga(1850-1953), who in 1873 married the French historian Gabriel Monot (1844-1912). According to some reports, Herzen doubted his paternity, but never stated this publicly and recognized the child as his own.
In the summer of 1851, the Herzen couple reconciled, but a new tragedy awaited the family. On November 16, 1851, near the Giera archipelago, as a result of a collision with another ship, the steamship “City of Grasse” sank, on which Herzen’s mother Louise Ivanovna and his son Nikolai, deaf from birth, with their teacher Johann Shpilman sailed 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 Ogarev’s wife, Natalya Alekseevna Ogareva-Tuchkova, she raised his children. They had a daughter Elizabeth(1858-1875) and twins Elena and Alexey (1861-1864, died of diphtheria). Officially, they were considered Ogarev’s children.
In 1869, Natalya Tuchkova received the surname Herzen, which she bore until her return to Russia in 1876, after Herzen’s death.
Elizaveta Ogareva-Herzen, the 17-year-old daughter of A.I. Herzen and N.A. Tuchkova-Ogareva, committed suicide because of unrequited love for a 44-year-old Frenchman in
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen - Russian revolutionary, writer, philosopher.
The illegitimate son of a wealthy Russian landowner I. Yakovlev and a young German bourgeois woman Louise Haag from Stuttgart. He received the fictitious surname Herzen - son of the heart (from German Herz).
He was brought up in Yakovlev's house, received a good education, became acquainted with the works of French educators, and read the forbidden poems of Pushkin and Ryleev. Herzen was deeply influenced by his friendship with his talented peer, the future poet N.P. Ogarev, which lasted throughout their lives. According to his memoirs, the news of the Decembrist uprising made a strong impression on the boys (Herzen was 13, Ogarev was 12 years old). Under his impression, their first, still vague dreams of revolutionary activity arise; During a walk on the 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 progressively thinking students. His attempts to present his own vision of the social order date back to this time. Already in his 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 about 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 discrediting the royal family in the company of friends. In 1835, he was sent first to Perm, then to Vyatka, where he was assigned to serve in the governor’s office. For organizing an exhibition of local works and the explanations given to the heir (the future Alexander II) during its inspection, Herzen, at the request of Zhukovsky, was transferred to serve as an adviser to the board in Vladimir, where he got married, having secretly taken 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 fictional prose, Herzen wrote the novel “Who is to Blame?” (1847), the stories “Doctor Krupov” (1847) and “The Thieving Magpie” (1848), in which he considered his main goal to expose Russian slavery.
In 1847, Herzen and his family left Russia, going to Europe. Observing the life of Western countries, he interspersed personal impressions with historical and philosophical research (Letters from France and Italy, 1847-1852; From the Other Shore, 1847-1850, etc.)
In 1850-1852, a series of Herzen’s personal dramas took place: the death of his 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 "Bell" (1857-1867), the influence of which 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 is a synthesis of memoirs, journalism, literary portraits, an autobiographical novel, historical chronicles, and short stories. The author himself called this book a confession, “about which stopped thoughts from thoughts were collected here and there.” The first five parts describe Herzen's life from childhood until the events of 1850-1852, when the author suffered difficult mental 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 theme, reflect the life and thoughts of the author in the 1860s.
All other works and articles by Herzen, such as “The Old World and Russia”, “Le peuple Russe et le socialisme”, “Ends and Beginnings”, etc. represent a simple development of ideas and sentiments that were fully defined in the period 1847-1852 years in the works mentioned above.
In 1865, Herzen left England and went on a long trip to 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 external life more than they are liberated internally.” These words are perceived as Herzen’s spiritual testament.
Like most Russian Westernized radicals, Herzen went through a period of deep fascination with Hegelianism in his spiritual development. Hegel's influence can be 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 knowledge and revolutionary transformation of the world (“algebra of revolution”). Herzen severely condemned abstract idealism in philosophy and science for its isolation from real life, for “apriorism” and “spiritism.”
These ideas were further developed in Herzen's main philosophical work, “Letters on the Study of Nature” (1845-1846). Continuing his criticism of philosophical idealism, Herzen defined nature as “the genealogy of thinking,” and saw only an illusion in the idea of pure being. For a materialistically minded thinker, nature is an ever-living, “fermenting substance”, primary in relation to the dialectics of knowledge. In the Letters, Herzen, quite in the spirit of Hegelianism, substantiated consistent historiocentrism: “neither humanity nor nature can be understood without historical existence,” and in understanding the meaning of history he adhered to the principles of historical determinism. However, in the thoughts of the late Herzen, the old progressivism gives way to much more pessimistic and critical assessments.
On January 21, 1870, Alexander Ivanovich Herzen died. He was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery. His ashes were later transported to Nice and buried next to his wife's grave.
Bibliography
1846 - Who is to blame?
1846 - Passing by
1847 - Doctor Krupov
1848 - Thieving Magpie
1851 - Damaged
1864 - Tragedy over a glass of grog
1868 - Past and thoughts
1869 - For the sake of boredom
Film adaptations
1920 - Thieving Magpie
1958 - The 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. The suicide had a resonance; Dostoevsky wrote about it in his essay “Two Suicides.”
