Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Moscow University, where he joined radical stu-
dent circles that confirmed his earlier political
feelings. In 1835 and again in 1841, Herzen was
sentenced to internal exile, first in Viatka and
later in Novgorod, for his clandestine political dis-
cussions and writings. In 1847, inspired by Euro-
pean developments, he traveled to France for a
visit, but never returned to Russia. Disenchanted
by the outcome of the 1848 revolutions in west-
ern and central Europe and by European politics
in general, he settled in London in 1852, where
he lived for the next 11 years. His time in London
was extremely productive and established him as
the leading oppositionist voice in exile. He wrote
his multivolume precocious memoirs, My Past
and Thoughts (1842-45), one of the classics of
19th-century Russian memoir literature, and
started the Russian Free Press. In 1857 he
became the publisher of the influential émigré
newspaper Kolokol ( The Bell ), which although ini-
tially censored was widely read by Russian offi-
cial and intellectual circles, especially after the
death of NICHOLAS I in 1855 gave way to a less
oppressive Russian government under ALEXAN -
DER II . Herzen's voice was especially influential
during the period preceding the emancipation of
the serfs in 1861, when he helped shape the
terms of the debate, particularly through his
advocacy of the Russian peasant commune. Dur-
ing these years he began to develop his views on
Russian socialism, a romantic-agrarian type of
socialism based on the belief that the egalitarian
communal instincts of the Russian peasant would
pave the way to a future free society in conjunc-
tion with the leadership of progressive intellectu-
als. These ideas formed the core of the Populist
movement that held sway over Russia's intelli-
gentsia and students from the 1860s through the
1880s. By the early 1860s, however, Herzen's
ideas and willingness to engage the czar in prag-
matic reforms was coming under criticism from
more impatient young radicals who viewed the
older generation of intellectuals as talkers instead
of doers. Herzen's influence also suffered from
his support of the POLISH REBELLION OF 1863-64 ,
which triggered a nationalist backlash through-
out Russian society. In 1864, Herzen moved to
Geneva with the goal of establishing links with a
younger generation of Russian radical students in
Swiss universities. Unsuccessful in this goal, he
stopped publishing Kolokol in 1867 and died in
Paris three years later.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search