The Russian writer Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was born in Moscow on March 25, 1812 (April 6, New Style). Thanks to a famous phrase from Lenin’s “In Memory of Herzen” – “The Decembrists awakened Herzen. Herzen began the task of revolutionary agitation.” – everyone who grew up in the Soviet Union knew Herzen’s name, whether or not they had ever read a line of his work.
Lenin’s phrase inspired the contemporary poet Naum Korzhavin to write the humorous, “In Memory of Herzen or Ballad of a Historic Lack of Sleep,” which explains all of Russia’s historical woes in terms of the crankiness a series of the country’s revolutionary heroes felt after being awakened before they had gotten a good night’s sleep.
But actually, the common conception of Herzen as a revolutionary is rather one-sided. Dostoyevsky wrote about this after Herzen’s death, expressing the opinion that his revolutionary activities represented a departure from his true calling as a writer:
“Whenever and wherever, Herzen was a writer first and foremost. The poet prevails in every action he took. The agitator was a poet, the political figure was a poet, the socialist was a poet, and the philosopher was a poet to the utmost! This quality explains much of what he did, even his flippancy and inclination to make puns when weighty matters were being discussed.”
Of all the influences that shaped Herzen, certainly the Decembrist uprising was the most important. After many of the Decembrists were executed, Herzen and his friend Nikolai Ogaryov pledged to avenge them, taking a famous oath on Moscow’s Sparrow Hills.
Two decades of internal exile, pardon and exile anew ensued. Finally, in 1847, Herzen and his family left Russia, never to return, as it turned out, and began a voyage across Europe that lasted many years. In 1852, Herzen settled in London. There, he was perceived as a key figure in the Russian emigration. Together with Ogaryov, he founded the Free Russian Press, which published the almanac The Polar Star, the newspaper The Bell (sometimes known in English by its Russian name, Kolokol), and the anthology, Voices from Russia.
The most important work of Herzen’s years in emigration was My Past and Thoughts, a synthesis of the genres of memoir, political essay, literary portraits, autobiographical fiction, and historical chronicle. At first Herzen set out to write about the events of his personal life, but with time he became more ambitious and the book became not only a confession of sorts, but also an outstanding literary testament to the times.
In 1869 the opportunist and murderer Sergei Nechayev turned up in Western Europe and managed to convince Ogaryov that a major revolt was brewing in Russia. Herzen, however, immediately saw Nechayev for the impostor he later proved to be. Herzen refused to recognize the young émigrés that surrounded him as his successors and called them the “Sobakeviches and Nozdryovs of nihilism.” [Referring to two landowners from Gogol’s Dead Souls, the former financially shrewd and crafty, the latter unscrupulous and crude.] Now and into the future – including after his death in Paris in 1870 – Herzen’s personality and works were a source of fascination for Dostoyevsky (they first met in 1862 and encountered one another on two more occasions). Over many years, the great writer engaged in a sort of dialogue with Herzen in Diary of a Writer and the novels The Devils and The Adolescent. Although Dostoyevsky had little sympathy for Herzen’s Westernism, with time he was increasingly drawn to Herzen the thinker: “Without a doubt, this was an extraordinary man, a great wit, and a remarkable conversation partner.”
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