Aleksandr Ivanovich Herzen (1812-1870)

Herzen was a prominent Russian Revolutionary Democrat; materialist philosopher, thinker and writer. He was born on April 6, 1812, to a bureaucratic aristocratic family in Moscow. In his youth, influenced by the ideas of the December party members, he was determined to oppose the tsarist autocracy. In 1829, Herzen went to study Physics and Mathematics (Natural Sciences) at Moscow University and organized a political group with his friend Ogarev and others to study various social and political issues. He graduated with distinction in 1833. In 1834, as he was planning to publish a magazine to publicize revolutionary ideas, the Tsar authorities arrested him for the crime of “a free thinker extremely dangerous to society”, and exiled him, Ogarev and other members of the group. He and his team were released in 1840. Shortly afterwards, a letter condemning the illegal shootings of citizens by a St. Petersburg policeman was seized by the censors and he was exiled to Novgorod. Many years of exile brought him widely exposed to the dark social reality of Russia, deepened his understanding of the crimes of autocratic system, and accumulated a lot of materials for his later works.

As early as 1836, he published under the pseudonym “Iskander”. After returning to Moscow from exile in 1842, he devoted himself to revolutionary activities, scientific research and literary creation with great enthusiasm. A man of intelligence, he wrote philosophical works such as Dilettantism in Science (1842-1843), and Letters on the Study of Nature (1844-1845). He criticizes Hegel’s idealism, but also affirms that his dialectics is “The Algebra of Revolution”; he emphasizes the unity of nature and man, material and consciousness, and argued that contradiction is the basis of natural and social progress.

Lenin praised him for reaching the level of “The greatest thinkers of his time”, and “Herzen came right up to dialectical materialism, and halted—before historical materialism”. Since 1840, Herzen has written many novels in a row, with rich and profound ideological content and perfect artistic skills, making him one of the outstanding representatives of Russian realist literature in the mid-19th century. In his creations, he established and developed materialistic aesthetics and realistic literature and art.

As the Tsarist government tightened its control over revolutionary intellectuals, he left Russia with his family in 1847. Witnessing the bloody suppression of the proletarian uprising in Paris and the bourgeoisie’s reactionary stance after the defeat of the European Revolution in 1848, he became hopeless for the prospects of socialist movement in Western Europe and invested his hopes to the growing Russian peasant movement, hoping to move towards socialism through the Russian rural communes. This laid the foundation for later Narodnik movement. His family adopted Swiss nationality in 1849. They moved to London in 1852. In 1853, he established the “Free Russian Press” and published a large number of revolutionary leaflets and pamphlets; in 1855, he began to publish the periodical Polar Star which included both literature and political comments. In 1857, he co-founded The Bell newspaper with Ogarev. In these newspapers, a large number of literary works, articles and materials were published to expose the serfdom in Russia, called on the people to overthrow the Tsarist autocracy. These publications were secretly transported to Russia, in large numbers which promoted the development of democratic movement in Russia. Although Herzen’s political attitude shifted between democracy and liberalism, democracy prevailed after all. After 1860, he stood on the side of the revolutionary democrats again and opposed liberalism, which contributed the outbreak of Russian Narodnik movement. In 1870, thanks to the vigorous activities of First International under the leadership of Marx and Engels, he saw the hope of the future society in the working class.

Herzen’s most important work in his later years is the giant memoir My Past and Thoughts (1852-1868). The book consists of seven volumes, rich in content, including diaries, letters, essays, essays, political comments and miscellaneous feelings. The seven volumes book is rich in content, including diaries, letters, essays, essays, political comments and miscellaneous reflections, which are written in a lively and emotional style. It depicts the social life and revolutionary events of Russia and Western Europe during the fifty years from the Decemberist revolt in 1825 to the eve of the Paris Commune in 1871. It is a great contribution to the genre of autobiographical literature not only highly valuable part of Russian literature but also for the world’s literature.