Russian writer A and Herzen. Alexander Herzen: biography, literary heritage. Ideas about the state

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

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

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

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

As a child, little Herzen loved to listen to stories about the times of the French Revolution of the late 18th century. And he never missed an opportunity to listen and learn something new. He received the usual noble upbringing at home, based on reading foreign literature of the late 18th century. The novels and comedies of Beaumarchais, Kotzebue, Goethe, and Schiller aroused awe and delight in him from an early age.

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

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

Herzen dreamed of friendship, dreamed of fighting for freedom. In such a rather gloomy mood, in 1829 he entered Moscow University to study physics and mathematics. At the university, he takes part in the so-called “Malovsky story” - a protest of students against teachers. This protest ended with the imprisonment of the young rebel along with his comrades in a punishment cell. The youth were in a stormy mood: they welcomed the July Revolution and other popular movements. The group of young rebel friends grew, and from time to time they indulged in small revelries, of an innocent nature, of course.

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

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

At the beginning of 1840, Herzen was allowed to return to Moscow. In May of this year, he moved to St. Petersburg, where, at the insistence of his father, he began to serve in the office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. But in July 1841, for a harsh review in one letter about the activities of the police, Herzen was exiled to Novgorod. Already here he encountered the famous circle of Stankevich and Belinsky, who defended the thesis of the useful rationality of all activities. Most of Stankevich’s friends became close to Herzen and Ogarev, and a camp of Westerners was formed.

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

Under the influence of the collapse of old ideals and the reaction that occurred throughout Europe, Herzen formed a specific system of views about doom. By decree of Nicholas I, in July 1849, all the property of Herzen and his mother was seized. After the death of his wife in 1852, Herzen moved to London, where he founded the Free Russian Printing House to print prohibited publications. In 1857 he began publishing the weekly newspaper Kolokol.

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

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

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

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

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

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 conducted 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.

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

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

Herzen's youth

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

In the summer of 1828, on the Sparrow Hills in Moscow, Herzen and Ogarev swore an oath to devote their lives to the struggle for the freedom of the people. The friends remained faithful to their oath for the rest of their lives. In 1829, Aleksandr began his studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. In 1833 he graduated from it, receiving a candidate's degree. During their student years, Herzen and Ogarev gathered around themselves progressive young people of like-minded people. They were interested in issues of freedom, equality, and education. The university management considered Herzen a dangerous freethinker with very daring plans.

Arrest and exile. Herzen's marriage

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

The years 1838 - 1840 were especially happy for the young couple. Herzen, who had already tried his hand at literature before, did not record any creative achievements during these years. He wrote two romantic dramas in verse (“Licinius”, “William Pen”), which have not survived, and the story “Notes of a Young Man”. Aleksandr Ivanovich knew that creative imagination was not his element. He was better able to realize himself as a publicist and philosopher. But nevertheless, he did not abandon his studies in the field of literary creativity.

Philosophical works. The novel "Who is to Blame?"

Having served his exile in 1839, he returned to Moscow, but soon showed imprudence in correspondence with his father and spoke harshly to the tsarist police. He was arrested again and again sent into exile, this time to Novgorod. Returning from exile in 1842, he published his work, which he had worked on in Novgorod, “Amateurism in Science,” then a very serious philosophical study, “Letters on the Study of Nature.”

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

"The Thieving Magpie"

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

Herzen Abroad

January 1847. Herzen and his family left Russia forever. Settled in Paris. But in the fall of the same year he went to Rome to participate in demonstrations and engage in revolutionary activities. In the spring of 1848 he returned to Paris, engulfed in revolution. After her defeat, the writer suffered an ideological crisis. His book of 1847-50 “From the Other Shore” is about this.

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

Russian history is full of ascetics who are ready to lay down their lives for their idea.

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (1812-1870) was the first Russian socialist who preached the ideas of equality and brotherhood. And although he did not directly participate in revolutionary activities, he was among those who prepared the ground for its development. One of the leaders of the Westerners, he later became disillusioned with the ideals of the European path of development of Russia, went over to the opposite camp and became the founder of another significant movement for our history - populism.

The biography of Alexander Herzen is closely connected with such figures of the Russian and world revolution as Ogarev, Belinsky, Proudhon, Garibaldi. Throughout his life, he constantly tried to find the best way to create a just society. But it was precisely the ardent love for his people, the selfless service to the chosen ideals - this is what won the respect of the descendants of Herzen Alexander Ivanovich.

A short biography and overview of the main works will allow the reader to get to know this Russian thinker better. After all, only in our memory can they live forever and continue to influence minds.

Herzen Alexander Ivanovich: biography of the Russian thinker

He was the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev and the daughter of a manufacturing official, 16-year-old German Henrietta Haag. Due to the fact that the marriage was not officially registered, the father came up with a surname for his son. Translated from German, it means “child of the heart.”

The future publicist and writer was brought up in his uncle’s house (now it is named after Gorky).

From an early age, he began to be overwhelmed by “freedom-loving dreams,” which is not surprising - literature teacher I. E. Protopopov introduced the student to the poems of Pushkin, Ryleev, Busho. The ideas of the Great French Revolution were constantly in the air of Alexander's study room. Already at that time, Herzen became friends with Ogarev, and together they hatched plans to transform the world. It made an unusually strong impression on the friends, after which they became fired up with revolutionary activity and vowed to defend the ideals of freedom and brotherhood for the rest of their lives.

Books made up Alexander's daily book ration - he read a lot of Voltaire, Beaumarchais, and Kotzebue. He did not ignore early German romanticism - the works of Goethe and Schiller put him in an enthusiastic spirit.

University club

In 1829, Alexander Herzen entered the physics and mathematics department. And there he did not part with his childhood friend Ogarev, with whom they soon organized a circle of like-minded people. It also included the future famous writer-historian V. Passek and translator N. Ketcher. At their meetings, members of the circle discussed the ideas of Saint-Simonism, equal rights for men and women, the destruction of private property - in general, these were the first socialists in Russia.

"Malovskaya story"

Studying at the university was sluggish and monotonous. Few teachers could introduce lecturers to the advanced ideas of German philosophy. Herzen sought an outlet for his energy by participating in university pranks. In 1831, he became involved in the so-called “Malov story,” in which Lermontov also took part. The students expelled the criminal law professor from the classroom. As Alexander Ivanovich himself later recalled, M. Ya. Malov was a stupid, rude and uneducated professor. Students despised him and openly laughed at him in lectures. The rioters got off relatively lightly for their prank - they spent several days in a punishment cell.

First link

The activities of Herzen’s friendly circle were of a rather innocent nature, but the Imperial Chancellery saw in their beliefs a threat to the tsarist power. In 1834, all members of this association were arrested and exiled. Herzen first ended up in Perm, and then he was assigned to serve in Vyatka. There he organized an exhibition of local works, which gave Zhukovsky a reason to petition for his transfer to Vladimir. Herzen also took his bride there from Moscow. These days turned out to be the brightest and happiest in the writer’s stormy life.

The split of Russian thought into Slavophiles and Westerners

In 1840, Alexander Herzen returned to Moscow. Here fate brought him together with the literary circle of Belinsky, who preached and actively propagated the ideas of Hegelianism. With typical Russian enthusiasm and intransigence, the members of this circle perceived the ideas of the German philosopher about the rationality of all reality somewhat one-sidedly. However, Herzen himself drew completely opposite conclusions from Hegel’s philosophy. As a result, the circle broke up into Slavophiles, whose leaders were Kirievsky and Khomyakov, and Westerners, who united around Herzen and Ogarev. Despite extremely opposing views on the future path of Russia's development, both were united by true patriotism, based not on blind love for Russian statehood, but on sincere faith in the strength and power of the people. As Herzen later wrote, they looked like whose faces were turned in different directions, but their hearts beat the same.

The collapse of ideals

Herzen Alexander Ivanovich, whose biography was already full of frequent moves, spent the second half of his life completely outside of Russia. In 1846, the writer's father died, leaving Herzen a large inheritance. This gave Alexander Ivanovich the opportunity to travel around Europe for several years. The trip radically changed the writer's way of thinking. His Western friends were shocked when they read Herzen’s articles published in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski entitled “Letters from Avenue Marigny,” which later became known as “Letters from France and Italy.” The obvious anti-bourgeois attitude of these letters indicated that the writer was disillusioned with the viability of revolutionary Western ideas. Having witnessed the failure of the chain of revolutions that swept across Europe in 1848-1849, the so-called “spring of nations”, he began to develop the theory of “Russian socialism”, which gave birth to a new trend of Russian philosophical thought - populism.

New philosophy

In France, Alexander Herzen became close to Proudhon, with whom he began publishing the newspaper “Voice of the People.” After the suppression of the radical opposition, he moved to Switzerland, and then to Nice, where he met Garibaldi, the famous fighter for freedom and independence of the Italian people. The publication of the essay “From the Other Shore” belongs to this period, which outlined new ideas that Alexander Ivanovich Herzen became interested in. The philosophy of a radical reorganization of the social system no longer satisfied the writer, and Herzen finally said goodbye to his liberal convictions. He begins to be visited by thoughts about the doom of old Europe and the great potential of the Slavic world, which should bring the socialist ideal to life.

A. I. Herzen - Russian publicist

After the death of his wife, Herzen moved to London, where he began publishing his famous newspaper “The Bell”. The newspaper enjoyed its greatest influence in the period preceding the abolition of serfdom. Then its circulation began to fall; its popularity was especially affected by the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863. As a result, Herzen’s ideas did not find support among either radicals or liberals: for the former they turned out to be too moderate, and for the latter too radical. In 1865, the Russian government persistently demanded from Her Majesty the Queen of England that the editors of Kolokol be expelled from the country. Alexander Herzen and his associates were forced to move to Switzerland.

Herzen died of pneumonia in 1870 in Paris, where he came on family business.

Literary heritage

The bibliography of Alexander Ivanovich Herzen includes a huge number of articles written in Russia and in emigration. But his greatest fame was brought to him by his books, in particular the final work of his life, “Past and Thoughts.” Alexander Herzen himself, whose biography sometimes took unimaginable zigzags, called this work a confession that evoked various “thoughts from his thoughts.” This is a synthesis of journalism, memoirs, literary portraits and historical chronicles. Over the novel “Who is to Blame?” the writer worked for six years. In this work, he proposes to solve the problems of equality of women and men, relationships in marriage, and education with the help of high ideals of humanism. He also wrote the highly social stories “The Thieving Magpie”, “Doctor Krupov”, “Tragedy over a Glass of Grog”, “For the Sake of Boredom” and others.

There is probably not a single educated person who does not know, at least from hearsay, who Alexander Herzen is. A brief biography of the writer is contained in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary, and who knows what other sources! However, it is best to get to know the writer through his books - it is in them that his personality comes into full view.

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. 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, autobiographical novel, historical chronicle, 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 an instrument of 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 - 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.”

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 to Russia across the border. 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 fall 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 married in a civil marriage 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.

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

✪ 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. 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 and 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 became 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”, “Dumas” 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 Kachenovsky, with his skepticism, and Pavlov, who managed to introduce listeners to German philosophy at agricultural lectures, awakened young thought. The youth were, however, quite stormy; she welcomed the July Revolution (as can be seen from Lermontov’s poems) and other popular movements (the cholera that appeared in Moscow greatly contributed to the revival and excitement of students, in the fight against which all university youth took an active and selfless part). This was the time of Herzen’s meeting with Vadim Passek, 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

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, all-existence love for the Russian people, for the Russian mentality.” 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 demand 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 circle 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 appears 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 Otechestvennye Zapiski and Sovremennik: “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 most notable are the story “The Thieving Magpie,” which depicts the terrible situation of the “serf intelligentsia,” and the novel “Who is to Blame?”, which deals with the issue of freedom of feeling, family relationships, and the position of women in marriage. The main idea of ​​the novel is that people who base their well-being solely on the basis of family happiness and feelings, alien to the interests of 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 work “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 ugly, 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 high school student, 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 teachers are a necessary condition for moral education.

Education

Herzen passionately sought the spread of education and knowledge among the people, called 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, based 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.

While emigrating to 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 Monod (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 Spielmann 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 Florence in December 1875. The suicide had a resonance, he wrote about it

Russian revolutionary, writer and publicist. The founder of Russian political emigration, publisher of the first Russian revolutionary newspaper “The Bell” (1857-1867).

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was the illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner Ivan Alekseevich Yakovlev (1767-1846). He received an artificial surname invented by his father (from the German Herz - heart). He was brought up in the house of I. A. Yakovlev and received a good education.

The event that determined the entire future fate of A. I. Herzen was the Decembrist uprising (1825) and the subsequent execution of five of its leaders (1826). They forever remained for him patriotic heroes who sacrificed themselves in order to awaken a new generation of revolutionaries. In his youth, A.I. Herzen vowed to avenge those executed and continue their work.

In 1829-1833, A. I. Herzen was a student at the physics and mathematics department of Moscow University. At this time, a friendly circle of free-thinking youth formed around him and his friend N.P. Ogarev, in which they “preached hatred of all violence, of all government tyranny.” In 1834, A. I. Herzen and some circle members were arrested on false charges of singing anti-monarchist songs, but in fact for freethinking.

In April 1835, A.I. Herzen was expelled to, from there to, where he served in the provincial chancellery. During a visit by Tsarevich Alexander Nikolaevich (future Emperor Alexander II) in 1837, he was responsible for organizing an exhibition of local works and gave explanations to the heir to the throne during his inspection. At the request of A. I. Herzen at the end of 1837, he was transferred to serve as an adviser to the provincial government.

At the beginning of 1840, A.I. Herzen returned to, and in May of the same year he moved to, where, at the insistence of his father, he entered service in the office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In July 1841, for a harsh review of the police in a letter to his father, A. I. Herzen was expelled to, where he served in the provincial government.

Returning from exile in July 1842, A. I. Herzen retired and settled in. He took an active part in the struggle between the main directions of social thought - Slavophiles and Westerners, sharing the positions of the latter. The brilliant abilities of a polemicist, erudition, and talent as a thinker and artist gave A. I. Herzen the opportunity to become one of the key figures in Russian public life.

Since 1836, A. I. Herzen began his journalistic activity, publishing his works under the pseudonym Iskander. In the 1840s, he published a number of philosophical works: a series of articles “Amateurism in Science” (1842-1843), “Letters on the Study of Nature” (1844-1845), etc., in which he asserted the union of philosophy with the natural sciences. Considering literature as a reflection of social life and an effective means of combating autocratic reality, A. I. Herzen came up with a number of fictional works imbued with anti-serfdom pathos: “Doctor Krupov” (1847), “The Thieving Magpie” (1848), etc. Roman A . I. Herzen “Who is to blame?” (1841-1846) became one of the first Russian socio-psychological novels.

In 1847, A.I. Herzen and his family went abroad. Having witnessed the defeat of the European revolutions of 1848-1849, he became disillusioned with the revolutionary capabilities of the West and developed the theory of “Russian socialism”, becoming one of the founders of populism.

In 1849, in Geneva (Switzerland), he participated in the publication of P. J. Proudhon’s newspaper “The Voice of the People.” In 1850, A. I. Herzen settled in Nice, where he became close to the leaders of the Italian national liberation movement. That same year, he refused the government's demand

HERTEN ALEXANDER IVANOVICH

(b. 1812 – d. 1870)

Famous Russian revolutionary democrat, publicist and writer.

The illegitimate son of a wealthy landowner Ivan Yakovlev and a German woman, Louise Haag, Alexander Herzen was born on March 25, 1812 in Moscow. The boy received a surname invented by his father (from German. Herz- heart). He received a good upbringing and education, his life was spent in contentment, but the stigma of being an illegitimate child always poisoned Herzen’s life.

The Decembrist uprising on December 14, 1825 captured the teenager’s imagination and determined his future interests. He became a passionate champion of freedom and justice. In his dreams of revolution and “people's happiness,” young Herzen found a like-minded person who would become his friend from the age of 12 until his death - Nikolai Ogarev. An entire era of the Russian democratic liberation movement of the 1840s–1850s is associated with Herzen and Ogarev. In 1829–1833, Herzen studied at the physics and mathematics department of Moscow University. There he and Ogarev organize a student revolutionary circle.

Herzen graduated from the University with a candidate's degree and a silver medal, but a year later he and Ogarev were arrested for participating in a student party at which a bust of Emperor Nicholas I was broken. What is interesting: neither Herzen nor Ogarev were even present at this party, nevertheless, on the basis of “circumstantial evidence” and “way of thinking,” they were brought into the case of “a conspiracy of young people devoted to the teachings of Saint-Simonism.”

Herzen spent 9 months in prison, at the end of which he received a death sentence and a personal pardon from the emperor, who ordered a corrective measure to be applied to the prisoner - exile to Perm, and three weeks later - to Vyatka. In exile, Herzen worked as a clerical clerk in the civil service.

Only in 1837, thanks to the petition of the poet and educator of the heir to the throne, Vasily Zhukovsky, who visited Vyatka, Herzen was allowed to settle in Vladimir. There he serves in the governor’s office and edits the official newspaper “Additions to the Vladimir Provincial News.” In 1840, Herzen was allowed to return to Moscow. While still in Vyatka, Herzen published his first literary works under the pseudonym Iskander, and upon returning to Moscow, he rightfully began to dream of fame as a writer.

Here Herzen finds himself in the society of young frondeurs, becomes closely acquainted with Belinsky and Bakunin, and is imbued with their ideas of criticism of the monarchical regime. At the insistence of his father, Alexander enters service in the office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, moves to St. Petersburg, but does not break off his “suspicious” connections. In 1841, for a harsh comment in a private letter about the morals of the Russian police, Herzen was sent to Novgorod, and there he served on the provincial government. Thanks to the efforts of friends and relatives, in 1842 Alexander managed to escape from Novgorod and, after retiring, moved to Moscow.

Herzen lived in Moscow for five years; these were years of literary creativity and ideological quest for him. By the mid-1840s, Herzen was not only a convinced “Westernizer,” but also the leader of young democrats who dreamed of a “Western model” of Russian development. Back in 1841, he wrote the story “Notes of a Young Man”; in subsequent years, the novel “Who is to blame?”, the stories “Doctor Krupov” and “The Thieving Magpie” came out from his pen.

In 1847, Herzen and his family went abroad. He will never see his homeland again. He settles in Paris, where the revolution of 1848 takes place before his eyes, of which he becomes a participant. In 1849, Herzen moved to Geneva, where, together with Proudhon, he published the anarchist newspaper “Voice of the People.”

However, after the defeat of the revolution, Herzen became disillusioned with the revolutionary capabilities of the West and abandoned “Westernism,” criticizing Western social utopias and romantic illusions. He was the first to formulate the theory of “Russian socialism”, becoming one of the founders of the populism movement. In his book “On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia,” written in 1850, Herzen highlighted the history of the development of the Russian liberation movement, emphasizing that Russia has a special revolutionary path. In 1850 he moved to Nice, where he became close to the leaders of the Italian liberation movement. In the same year, when the tsarist government demanded that he immediately return to Russia, Herzen refused.

The years 1851–1852 became a time of sorrow and terrible losses for him - his mother and son died during a shipwreck, and his wife died.

Left alone, Herzen moved to London, where he founded the Free Russian Printing House. For the first two years of its existence, without receiving materials from Russia, he printed leaflets and proclamations, and since 1855 he published the revolutionary almanac “Polar Star”. In 1856, Herzen's friend Nikolai Ogarev moved to London. At this time, Herzen wrote “Letters from France and Italy”, “From the Other Shore”, gradually becoming an iconic figure in the liberation movement.

Since 1857, Herzen and Ogarev published the first Russian revolutionary newspaper, Kolokol. Its wide distribution in Russia contributed to the unification of democratic and revolutionary forces and the creation of the organization “Land and Freedom”. Fighting against the Russian monarchy, the newspaper supported the Polish uprising of 1863–1864. The support of the “rebellious Poles” became fatal for “The Bell”: Herzen is gradually losing readers - patriots accuse him of betraying Russia, moderates recoil because of “radicalism,” and radicals because of “moderation.”

Herzen begins to publish “The Bell” in Geneva, but this cannot improve the situation, and in 1867 the publication of the newspaper was discontinued. Oblivion, lonely old age and squabbles with old friends - this was Herzen’s lot in exile.

In the last years of his life, he often changes his place of residence: he lives in Geneva, then in Cannes, Nice, Florence, Lausanne, Brussels, but his rebellious spirit finds peace nowhere. He continues to work on the autobiographical novel “The Past and Thoughts,” writes the essay “For the Sake of Boredom” and the story “The Doctor, the Dying and the Dead.”

And by this time new figures had already appeared in the revolutionary movement - Marx, Lassalle, Bakunin, Tkachev, Lavrov... Herzen remained a lone propagandist who “launched revolutionary agitation.”

January 9, 1870 Alexander Ivanovich dies in Paris; his ashes are buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery.

From the book In the Name of the Motherland. Stories about Chelyabinsk residents - Heroes and twice Heroes of the Soviet Union author Ushakov Alexander Prokopyevich

CHUKHAREV Alexander Ivanovich Alexander Ivanovich Chukharev was born in 1915 in the village of Lemazy, Duvansky district of the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, into a peasant family. Russian. In 1928 he came to the construction of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works. Graduated from FZU (now GPTU-19), became