A. N. Radishchev considered the main political tasks to be the liberation of the peasants and the overthrow of the autocracy, which, in alliance with the church, mercilessly oppressed the people. “Autocracy is the state most contrary to human nature,” he writes. At the same time, Radishchev developed the idea that the education of the people, the mental, moral and political education of the younger generation play an important role in the reconstruction of the country. These questions attract his close attention. He covers them in his main work “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”, in the philosophical treatise “On Man, on His Mortality and Immortality”, in the sociological essay “An Experience on Legislation”, “Conversation on Being a Son of the Fatherland” and in a number of others.
In 1790, he wrote and printed his most famous work- the book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” It not only sharply condemns serfdom, but also contains a direct call for the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a republican form of government. After reading the book, Catherine II described the author: “A rebel is worse than Pugachev!” It’s worse because, in the words of Radishchev himself, Pugachev’s speech showed “in its ignorance, the joy of vengeance rather than the benefit of shaking bonds,” and the author of “Travel” was ideologically shaking the “ties” themselves, the foundations of the autocratic monarchy, class system and serfdom.
Radishchev exposed the feudal system of public education: “division into classes” deprives the masses of the people of the opportunity to gain knowledge, and yet “a person, coming into the world, is equal in everything else”; the ability to know, think, and create is inherent in all people, regardless of race and class. The few schools eke out a miserable existence. Torn away from modern life, they “belong to centuries past.” Neither at school nor in the family is the main task of education carried out - the formation of the personality of a true son of the fatherland, passionately loving his people and hating violence, ready for a selfless fight against social injustice. Everything that exists is various forms of manifestation of matter. Man is also material, “substantial”. Man is not only a part of nature, he is also its highest creation, “the most perfect of creatures, the crown of material compositions, the king of the earth.” Being the highest stage of development of nature, being a “relative” to all living things, man is different from other living beings, even from the most highly organized animals, from monkeys. The main difference between man and other animals, along with a straight gait and developed arms, is his ability to think and speak. Speech contributes to the expansion and development of a person’s thinking abilities, establishing connections between thoughts - “gathering thoughts together.” But there is one feature of man, perhaps the most important: man is a creature that can live only in the society of other similar creatures: “Man is born to live together.”
Radishchev opposed the religious-idealistic view of man. Pointed out the connection between physical and mental development.
The main task of education: the formation of a person with civic consciousness, high moral qualities, who loves his fatherland most of all. He outlined these thoughts in his essay “A Conversation about Being a Son of the Fatherland.” The state is obliged to ensure that the younger generation receives a proper education.
He paid much attention to the process of mastering knowledge and mental development. He insisted that the native language become the language of science and education. He called for taking into account the natural characteristics of children, although he said that the main thing in the formation of a person is not his natural data, but the circumstances of life.
He demanded a full-fledged education for children of all classes, which should be not just education, but the political education of a person fully prepared for the work of rebuilding society.
Gymnasiums should be of two types:
- 1. classical (humanities disciplines, provided the opportunity to enter the university)
- 2. real (oriented towards natural and mathematical disciplines).
Radishchev defended the people's right to education. By nature, the peasant is sharp-witted and capable of mental development no less than other classes. The right to education can only be achieved through a peasant revolution and the establishment of a new, fair system. Then properly organized education will become main force, forming a real person. But, wrote Alexander Nikolaevich, “while recognizing the power of education, we will not take away the power of nature.” As we see, he addressed the problem of the relationship between environment, education and biological factors in human development. New education, according to Radishchev, should be available to every child, regardless of origin, and carried out in their native language. His main goal is to prepare a “son of the fatherland” , a citizen, a true patriot, a defender of the interests of the people, ready to do anything for them. “Son of the Fatherland” has all the data for a reasonable and useful life in society: intelligence, health, strong will, noble character, readiness for useful work. Radishchev is a supporter of real education, which provides knowledge of real life, in contrast to classical education, which contains a lot of scholasticism. Education should be based on native language and history, supplement them with a wide range of natural and other humanities knowledge. Demanded opening large number higher educational institutions. In the process of learning and through the example of parents, educators, and other people from the child’s environment, his moral education should be carried out. Linking morality with the revolutionary idea, he defined the moral traits of the “son of the fatherland”: patriotism, the desire for freedom, hatred of slavery, humanity, honesty, hard work, willpower, and the ability to protect dignity.
Attacking the contemporary system of education and upbringing, Radishchev paints an ideal that has largely not been realized to this day. He says that the government exists for the people, and not vice versa, that the happiness and wealth of the people are measured by the well-being of the mass of the population, and not by the well-being of a few individuals, etc. General character Radishchev’s worldview is also reflected by his extremely sharp “Ode to Liberty”, placed in “Journey” (largely reproduced in the first volume of “Russian Poetry” by A.S. Vengerov). Radishchev’s poem “The Heroic Tale of Bova” was imitated by Pushkin.
Work, Radishchev believes, acts as the best seasoning in a pupil’s lunch, and bliss and laziness are the worst scourges of the human body, they weaken both the body and the strength of spirit. Mental, moral, physical development with labor education are one. Constant “use of strength” strengthens the body, and with it, its mental abilities and morality are “loosened.” A.N. Radishchev is a person of exceptional courage with a developed civic consciousness. Catherine II called him a rebel worse than Pugachev, determining Radishchev a severe punishment for free-thinking and banning his works, which until 1864 were classified as “hidden literature.” He is probably too categorical in some of his statements. In the same noble upbringing there was a lot of instructiveness. He also overestimated the realities of the peasant revolution in the absence of a strong bourgeoisie. Maybe he idealized the “son of the fatherland” too much. But in the main thing he was right: people should be able to protect themselves and their right to education. From A.N. Radishchev traced the origins of Russian revolutionary-democratic pedagogy , further developed by Belinsky, Herzen, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, which existed in Russia in the 19th century.
Where does the homeland begin?
The concept of “patriot” celebrated its three hundredth anniversary last year. It appeared in 1716, but no one had used such a word before or thought in such categories. In Rus', patriotism in our modern understanding did not exist. No, of course, the people loved their native land and even sang. True, it is quite difficult to determine what the Russian land of the 13th century, for example, was - the territories that we used to call Russian did not consider themselves such at all. However, they were in some way united - like Christian lands.
The word "patriot" appeared in Russia in 1716
But it was precisely this unity based on the Christian faith that prevented the emergence of the concept of patriotism. Moscow, which considered itself the heir of Byzantium and Rome, also adopted their self-determination as a world kingdom. And in the Gospel of John it even says: “Jesus answered: My kingdom is not of this world,” that is, a real Christian should have thought about eternal life, and not about mortal earthly existence. And only many years later, in the 19th century, the motto “For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland” appeared, uniting Orthodoxy and love for one’s country in the minds of Russian people.
For a long time, “patriot” and “son of the fatherland” were synonymous
The concept of patriotism was preceded by love for the fatherland, for what we now call small homeland. For example, during the time of the Mongol yoke, one specific land, a “patrimonial estate,” the heritage of the fathers, was considered the fatherland. Only by the 14th century did the fatherland receive a different interpretation - a larger one, its borders extending beyond the boundaries of one land. This was largely facilitated by the rise of the Moscow Principality.
Life for the king!
For a long time, patriotism was associated not with love for the country, but with admiration for the ruler. The very word “state”, in our usual understanding, appeared only XVI century. Back in the 15th century, “state” meant personal power, in particular, that of Ivan III. But already in the Code of Laws of 1550, “state” means a certain territory, land. The change in focus from the ruler to the territory was most clearly evident during the Time of Troubles. Early XVII century clearly showed that the inhabitants of Russia were ready to fight for the country in which they live, even if there is no Tsar-Father above them.
Grand Duke of Moscow Ivan III
First Patriot
In the 17th century, the concept of the “common good” appeared, which arose from the combination of the ideas of “homeland” and “state”. Alexey Mikhailovich, for example, in his letters talks about goodness for the state. His son, Peter I, can rightfully be considered the first patriot in the modern sense of the word. The term “patriot” first appears in the treatise “Discourse on the Causes of the Sveian War,” written by Peter I, a comrade-in-arms, Pyotr Shafirov in 1716.
The term "patriotism" appeared in Catherine's era
At that time, the word “patriot” still retained the meaning that came from the Greek - “countryman”. That is why Shafirov uses the combination “true patriot” or, as equivalent to it, “son of the fatherland.” He calls the ruler “father of the fatherland” and considers him a true patriot, that is, a fighter for his homeland. The term “patriot” replaced the expressions that already existed in the language - “fatherland lover”, “well-wisher”. True, they did not take root in speech, but the borrowing remained.
Petr Pavlovich Shafirov
IN early XVIII centuries, the word “patriot” was used only by the nobility, and only several decades later it entered the lexicon educated people. By the end of the century, the concept of “patriotism” emerged, which was used by writers of that time. For example, in the essay “Conversation about the Son of the Fatherland,” Radishchev discusses whether any person born in the country is worthy of bearing the name of a patriot.
Not everyone born in the Fatherland is worthy of the majestic title of son of the Fatherland (patriot). - Those under the yoke of slavery are not worthy to be adorned with this name. - Hold back, sensitive heart, do not pronounce your judgment on such sayings while you stand in Prague. - Come in and see! - Who doesn’t know that the name of the son of the Fatherland belongs to a person, and not to a beast or cattle, or other dumb animal? It is known that man is a free being, since he is gifted with intelligence, reason and free will; that his freedom consists in choosing the best, that he knows and chooses this best through reason, comprehends it with the help of the mind, and always strives for the beautiful, majestic, high. - He acquires all this in a single adherence to natural and revealed laws, otherwise called divine, extracted from the divine and natural civil, or communal. - But in whom these abilities, these human feelings are suppressed, can he be adorned with the majestic name of the son of the Fatherland? - He's not human, but what? he is lower than cattle; for even cattle follows their own laws and no deviation from them has yet been noticed in them. But here the discussion does not concern those most unfortunate, whom deceit or violence deprived of this majestic advantage of man, who were made in such a way that, without coercion and fear, they no longer produce anything from such feelings, who are likened to draft cattle, do not do higher than certain work, from which they cannot free themselves from; which are likened to a horse condemned to carry a cart for life, and having no hope of freeing himself from his yoke, receiving equal rewards with the horse and suffering equal blows; not about those who do not see the end of their yoke except death, where their labors and their torments will end, although it sometimes happens that cruel sadness, having declared their spirit to be a meditation, ignites the weak light of their mind and makes them curse their disastrous state and seek to this end; We are not talking about those here who do not feel anything other than their humiliation, who crawl and move in the sleep of death (lethargy), who resemble a person only in appearance, otherwise they are burdened with the weight of their chains, deprived of all benefits, excluded from the entire heritage of people , oppressed, humiliated, despised; which is nothing more than dead bodies , buried one next to the other; work necessary for a person from fear; They do not desire anything other than death, and to whom the slightest desire is denied, and the most unimportant undertakings are executed; they are only allowed to grow, then die; about whom it is not asked what they have done worthy of humanity? what commendable deeds, traces of their past lives, did they leave? What good, what benefit did this great number of hands bring to the State? - This is not what we’re talking about here; they are not members of the State, they are not people, when they are nothing more than machines driven by the Tormentor, dead corpses, draft animals! - Man, man is needed to bear the name of the son of the Fatherland! - But where is he? where is this one worthily adorned with this majestic name? - Are you in the arms of bliss and lust? - Not engulfed in the flames of pride, lust, violence? - Isn’t he buried in evil profitability, envy, malice, enmity and discord with everyone, even those who feel the same with him and strive for the same thing? - or is he not mired in the mire of laziness, gluttony and drunkenness? - A helipad, flying around from midday (for then he begins his day) the whole city, all the streets, all the houses, for the most senseless idle talk, for seducing chastity, for infecting good morals, for catching simplicity and sincerity, having made his head a flour store, eyebrows a receptacle of soot, cheeks with boxes of whitewash and red lead, or better to say a picturesque palette, the skin of his body with an elongated drum skin, looks more like a monster in his attire than a man, and his dissolute life, marked by the stench emanating from his mouth and his whole body, he is suffocated by a whole pharmacy of fragrant sprays - in a word, he is a fashionable man, completely fulfilling all the rules of the dandy high society science; - he eats, sleeps, wallows in drunkenness and lust, despite his exhausted strength; He changes clothes, talks all sorts of nonsense, shouts, runs from place to place, in short - he is a dandy. - Isn’t this the son of the Fatherland? - or one who in a majestic manner raises his gaze to the firmament of heaven, trampling under his feet all who are before him, tormenting his neighbors with violence, persecution, oppression, imprisonment, deprivation of rank, property, torture, deception, deception and murder itself - in a word, by all means known to him alone, tearing apart those who dare to utter the words: humanity, freedom, peace, honesty, holiness, property and other similar things? - streams of tears, rivers of blood not only do not touch, but delight his soul. - He who dares to oppose his speeches, opinions, deeds and intentions should not exist! Is this the son of the Fatherland? - Or the one who stretches out his arms to seize the wealth and possessions of his entire Fatherland, and if it were possible, the whole world, and who with composure is ready to take away from his most unfortunate compatriots the last crumbs that support their dull and languid life, to rob, to plunder their specks of property; who delights in joy when an opportunity for a new acquisition opens up for him; let it be paid with rivers of blood of his brothers, let him deprive his fellow men of the last shelter and food, let them die of hunger, cold, heat; let them weep, let them kill their children in despair, let them risk their lives for thousands of deaths; none of this will shake his heart; all this means nothing to him; - he multiplies his estate, and that’s enough. - So, isn’t this what the name of the son of the Fatherland belongs to? - Or is it not the same one, sitting at a table filled with works of all four elements, to whose delight the taste and belly are sacrificed by several people taken away from serving the Fatherland, so that, when he is full, he can be transferred to bed, and there he can calmly engage in the consumption of other works, which will he decide until sleep robs him of the strength to move his jaws? So, of course, this one, or one of the above four? (for we rarely find the fifth addition separately). The mixture of these four is visible everywhere, but the son of the Fatherland is not yet visible if he is not one of these! - The voice of reason, the voice of the laws written in nature and the heart of people, does not agree to call the calculated people sons of the Fatherland! Those who are truly such will pronounce judgment (not on themselves, for they do not find themselves that way); but on those like themselves they will be sentenced to exclude such from the number of sons of the Fatherland; since there is no man, no matter how depraved and blinded by himself, who does not at least feel the rightness and beauty of things and deeds<...>
There is no person who would not feel sorrow, seeing himself humiliated, reviled, enslaved by violence, deprived of all means and ways to enjoy peace and pleasure, and not finding his consolation anywhere. - Doesn't this prove that he loves Honor, without which he is like without a soul. There is no need to explain here that this is true honor; for the false one, instead of deliverance, subjugates everything that has been said above, and will never calm the human heart. - Everyone has an innate feeling true honor; but it illuminates the deeds and thoughts of a person as he approaches it, following the lamp of reason, which guides him through the darkness of passions, vices and warnings to its quiet light, that is, honor. - There is not a single mortal who is so rejected by nature who does not have that spring embedded in the heart of every person, directing him to love Honor. Everyone wants to be respected rather than reviled, everyone strives for his further improvement, celebrity and glory: no matter how much the caresser of Alexander the Great, Aristotle, tries to prove the opposite to himself, claiming that nature itself has already disposed the mortal race in such a way that one and the same much most of them must certainly be in a slave state, and therefore not feel that there is Honor? and the other in the dominant, because not many have noble and majestic feelings. - It is not disputed that the much nobler part of the mortal race is immersed in the darkness of barbarity, brutality and slavery; but this does not prove in the least that a person is not born with a feeling that directs him to greatness and to self-improvement, and, consequently, to the love of true glory and Honor. The reason for this is either the type of life led, or the circumstances in which one is forced, or lack of experience, or the violence of the enemies of the righteous and lawful exaltation of human nature, exposing it by force and deceit to blindness and slavery, which weakens the human mind and heart, imposing the heaviest shackles of contempt and oppression. , overwhelming the strength of the eternal spirit. - Do not justify yourself here, oppressors, villains of humanity, that these terrible bonds are an order that requires submission. Oh, if you penetrated the chain of all nature as much as you can, and you can do a lot, then you would feel different thoughts in yourself; They would find that love, and not violence, contains only the beautiful order and subordination in the world. All nature is subject to it, and where it is, there are no terrible disgraces * * that draw tears of compassion from sensitive hearts, and at which the true Friend of humanity shudders. - What would nature be then, other than a discordant mixture (chaos), if it were deprived of this spring? Truly, she would be deprived of the greatest way to both preserve and improve herself. Everywhere and with every person this fiery love of gaining Honor and praise from others. - This comes from man’s innate sense of his limitations and dependence. This feeling is so strong that it always encourages people to acquire for themselves those abilities and advantages through which they deserve love both from people and from the highest being, evidenced by the pleasure of conscience; and having earned the favor and respect of others, a person becomes trustworthy in the means of preserving and improving himself. - And if this is so, then who doubts that this strong love for Honor and the desire to acquire the pleasure of one’s conscience with favor and praise from others is the greatest and most reliable means, without which human well-being and improvement cannot exist? - For what then remains for a person to overcome those difficulties that are inevitable on the path leading to the achievement of blissful peace, and to refute that cowardly feeling that inspires trembling when looking at one’s shortcomings? - What is the remedy for getting rid of the fear of falling forever under the terrible burden of these? if you take away, firstly, refuge filled with sweet hope in the highest being, not as an avenger, but as the source and beginning of all good things; and then to those like ourselves, with whom nature has united us, for the sake of mutual assistance, and who inwardly bow to the readiness to provide it and, with all the muffling of this inner voice, feel that they should not be those sacrileges who interfere with the righteous human desire for improvement yourself, who sowed this feeling in man to seek refuge? - An innate feeling of dependence, clearly showing us this dual means of salvation and pleasure for us. - And what finally prompts him to take this path? What drives him to unite with these two means of human bliss, and to care to please them? - Truly nothing more than an innate fiery urge to acquire for oneself those abilities and beauty through which one deserves the favor of God and the love of one’s fellow humans, the desire to become worthy of their favor and protection. - He who examines human deeds will see that this is one of the main springs of all the greatest works in the world! - and this is the beginning of that impulse to love Honor, which was sown in man at the beginning of his creation! This is the reason for the feeling of that pleasure that is usually always associated with a person’s heart, how quickly God’s favor is poured out on it, which consists in sweet silence and pleasure of conscience, and how quickly he acquires the love of those like himself, which is usually depicted by joy at the sight of him, praises, exclamations. - This is the object to which true people strive and where they find their true pleasure! It has already been proven that a true man and a son of the Fatherland are one and the same; therefore it will be true hallmark him if he is this way Ambitious.
With this, he begins to decorate the majestic name of the son of the Fatherland, the Monarchy. For this he must honor his conscience, love his neighbors; for through love alone love is acquired; one must fulfill one’s calling as prudence and honesty dictate, without caring in the least about reward, honor, exaltation and glory, which is a companion, or rather, a shadow, always following virtue, illuminated by the unevening sun of truth; for those who pursue glory and praise not only do not acquire it for themselves from others, but even more so are deprived of it.
A true man is a true executor of all the laws ordained for his bliss; he religiously obeys them. - Noble modesty, free from holiness and hypocrisy, accompanies all his feelings, words and deeds. With reverence he submits to everything that order, improvement and general salvation require; for him there is no low state in serving the Fatherland; By serving him, he knows that he is contributing to the healthy circulation, so to speak, of the blood of the state body. - He would rather agree to perish and disappear than to set an example of bad behavior to others and thereby take away children from the Fatherland, who could be an adornment and support for it; he is afraid of contaminating the well-being of his fellow citizens; he flames with the most tender love for the integrity and tranquility of his compatriots; There is nothing so eager to mature as mutual love between them; he kindles this beneficial flame in all hearts; is not afraid of the difficulties encountered in this noble feat of his; overcomes all obstacles, tirelessly watches over maintaining honesty, gives good advice and instructions, helps the unfortunate, delivers from the dangers of error and vices, and if he is confident that his death will bring strength and glory to the Fatherland, then he is not afraid to sacrifice his life; if it is needed for the Fatherland, then it is preserved for the full observance of natural and domestic laws; to the extent possible, he averts everything that could tarnish the purity and weaken the good intentions of them, as a detriment to the bliss and improvement of his compatriots. In a word, he well-behaved! Here is another true sign of a son of the Fatherland! The third and, as it seems, the last distinctive sign of the son of the Fatherland, when he noble. Noble is the one who has made himself famous for his wise and philanthropic qualities and actions; who shines in society with reason and virtue and, being inflamed by truly wise curiosity, directs all his strength and efforts towards this only, so that, obeying the laws and their guardians, the authorities who hold him, both himself and everything that he has, will not to honor otherwise than as belonging to the Fatherland, to use it as a pledge of the goodwill of his compatriots and his sovereign, who is the father of the people, entrusted to him, sparing nothing for the good of the Fatherland. He is truly noble, whose heart cannot help but tremble with tender joy at the single name of the Fatherland, and who in no other way feels at that memory (which is incessant in him) as if something was said about his most precious honor in the world. He does not sacrifice the good of the Fatherland to prejudices, which rush like brilliant ones into his eyes; sacrifices everything for its good; His supreme reward lies in virtue, that is, in that inner harmony of all inclinations and desires, which the wise Creator pours into the immaculate heart, and to which, in its silence and pleasure, nothing in the world can be compared. For true nobility there are virtuous deeds, animated by true honor, which is not found anywhere else, as in continuous beneficence to the human race, but mainly to one’s compatriots, rewarding each according to his dignity and according to the prescribed laws of Nature and Government. Those adorned with these only qualities, both in enlightened antiquity and today, are honored with true praise. And here is the third distinctive sign of the son of the Fatherland!
But no matter how brilliant, no matter how glorious, no delightful for every right-thinking heart these qualities of the son of the Fatherland, and although everyone is born to have them, they cannot but be unclean, mixed, dark, confused, without proper education and enlightenment by Sciences and Knowledge, without which this best human ability conveniently, as it always was and is, turns into the most harmful impulses and aspirations and floods entire states with evil, anxiety, discord and disorder. For then human concepts are dark, confused and completely chimerical. - Why, before anyone desires to have the aforementioned qualities of a true person, it is necessary to first accustom his spirit to hard work, diligence, obedience, modesty, intelligent compassion, to the desire to do good to everyone, to the love of the Fatherland, to the desire to imitate the great examples in that world, as well to love for sciences and arts, as much as the rank in the hostel allows; would apply to the exercise of history and philosophy or philosophy; not school, for the sake of word debate, only addressed, but in the true, teaching a person his true duties; and to purify the taste, I would love to look at the paintings of great artists, music, sculptures, architecture or architecture.
Those who consider this reasoning to be that Platonic system of public education, the events of which we will never see, will be very mistaken, when in our eyes a kind of education of this kind, and based on these rules, was introduced by godly monarchs, and enlightened Europe sees with amazement its successes, going back to the intended goal with gigantic steps!
Radishchev A.N. Full collection Op.
M.; L.; 1938. T. I . pp. 213-224.
A.N. Radishchev is a writer and publicist, philosopher. He introduced into Russian literature the idea of a revolutionary transformation of society, an enemy of serfdom. Author of the book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” The article “Conversation about the Son of the Fatherland” was first published in the monthly magazine “Conversing Citizen” (1789. Part III) anonymously for security reasons.
There are names in Russian literature with which the concepts of true, deep patriotism, citizenship, high feeling duty, honor, truth. Such names include the name of Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev. This is a tall man moral qualities and deep convictions.
You want to know: who am I? what am I? where am I going? -
I am the same as I was, and will be all my life:
Not a cattle, not a tree, not a slave, but a man! -
This is what Radishchev said about himself in 1790 on the way to the Ilimsk prison, where he was sent after the death penalty was replaced by exile to Siberia. For what? For the creation of the book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” This will later become a common occurrence in Russia, when writers, poets, “disturbers” of the peace, “underminers” of the foundations of the autocratic system will serve exile in the Caucasus and Vyatka, in Siberia and Astrakhan. In the meantime, Radishchev, the first Russian revolutionary, is going to the Ilimsky prison. It is always more difficult for the first one, especially if you are alone. What kind of love for the Motherland, what kind of faith in the people one had to have, what kind of personality one had to be in order to oppose the powerful autocracy! Having been born into a noble family, having received a good education, and having literary talent, Radishchev could have had an excellent career, lived comfortably and calmly. But as a person living in the interests of the Fatherland, as a true patriot, he fiercely, angrily and convincingly denounced serfdom.
After reading “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” the “enlightened” autocrat Catherine II, known in Europe for her correspondence and personal meetings with French enlighteners, came to the conclusion and wrote: “The rebel is worse than Pugachev.” Rebel? Worse than Pugachev? But the rebel Pugachev opposed the autocracy with arms in hand, and Radishchev only wrote a book “worth the weight of gold” (D. Bedny), which he printed in his own printing house in 1790. Radishchev's word, his book in the history of the development of the revolutionary movement in
Russia played a huge role. What kind of book is this, the story of which is “...an amazing story, almost reminiscent of the story of a living creature”? (N.P. Smirnov-Sokolsky). The innocuous title - “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” - was a common description of the trip at that time; there were many of them. But let's open the book. And on the very first page: “I looked around me - my soul became wounded by the suffering of humanity.” This phrase alone is alarming and makes you think. It is unlikely that just an idle, amusing, curious traveler would become concerned with the “suffering of mankind.” And then the postal stations came one after another: Sofia, Tosna, Lyubani, Spasskaya Polest, Mednoye... Gorodnya... Pawns...
Chapter “Lyubani”: “It’s a hot time. Holiday. And the peasant plows with great diligence” - “There are six days in a week, master, and we go to corvée six times a week. Not only holidays, but the night is ours. If our brother is not lazy, he will not die of hunger.” But they were dying! And hundreds, thousands! Because not a single law could (or wanted!) to protect the serf from the arbitrariness of the landowner. Deep thinker and strong feeling human personality, the bearer of bold progressive thought, Radishchev, exclaims: “Be afraid, hard-hearted landowner, I see your condemnation on the forehead of each of your peasants!” But evil is not in man. (“A person is born neither good nor evil!”) This means that the existing socio-political system needs to be changed. And this is already a call to revolt. Here it is - a rebel! And then, chapter by chapter, Radishchev proves that autocratic power is cruel and inhuman. “Greedy animals, insatiable leeches, what do we leave for the peasant? what we cannot take away is air. Yes, just air."
But the patience of the people is not unlimited, not eternal. “I noticed,” writes Radishchev in the chapter “Zaitsovo,” “from numerous examples that the Russian people are very patient and endure to the very extreme, but when they put an end to their patience, nothing can hold them back...”
I can already hear the voice of nature...
(Ode "Liberty")
“The gloomy firmament began to shake, and freedom shone... (chapter “Tver”),
Here it is, the pathos of freedom, love of freedom, faith in democracy and democracy.
“Not everyone born in the Fatherland is worthy of majestic
the name of the son of the Fatherland (patriot),” stated Radishchev in “A Conversation about the Son of the Fatherland.” - “The Son of the Fatherland is not afraid of the difficulties encountered during his noble feat, overcomes all obstacles... sparing nothing for the good of the Fatherland.” The writer himself was a true son of the Fatherland, a patriot. Performing a noble feat for the good of the Fatherland, he did not spare life itself, until the end of his days retaining within himself the proud consciousness of being a Man (and this word has the deepest meaning).
Radishchev “saw through a whole century.” In the “Historical Song,” which ends with a “prophetic word,” the writer says that the “later descendants” of the glorious people
All barriers, all strongholds
They will crush with a strong hand.
A. N. Radishchev
Conversation about being a son of the Fatherland (*)
(* Placed in “The Discussing Citizen” on pages 308-324 of Part III.)
Shchegolev P. E. Firstborn of Russian freedom / Enter. article and comment. Yu. N. Emelyanova.-- M.: Sovremennik, 1987.-- (B-ka "For lovers of Russian literature. From the literary heritage"). Not everyone born in the Fatherland is worthy of the majestic title of son of the Fatherland (patriot). - Those under the yoke of slavery are not worthy to be adorned with this name. - Hold back, sensitive heart, do not pronounce your judgment on such sayings while you stand in Prague. - Enter and see! Who doesn’t know that the name of the son of the Fatherland belongs to a person, and not to a beast or cattle, or another dumb animal? It is known that man is a free being, since he is gifted with intelligence, reason and free will; that his freedom consists in choosing the best, that he knows and chooses this best through reason, comprehends with the help of the mind, and always strives for the beautiful, majestic, high. - He acquires all this in a single adherence to natural and revealed laws, otherwise called divine, and extracted from the divine and natural, civil or communal. - But in whom these abilities, these human feelings are suppressed, can he be adorned with the majestic name of the son of the fatherland? - He is not a man, but what? he is lower than cattle; for even cattle follow their own laws, and no departure from them has yet been noticed in them. But here the discussion does not concern those most unfortunate, whom deceit or violence deprived of this majestic advantage of man, who were made in such a way that, without coercion and fear, they no longer produce anything from such feelings, who are likened to draft cattle, do not do higher than certain work, from which they cannot free themselves from; who are likened to a horse condemned to pull a cart for life, and having no hope of freeing themselves from their yoke, receiving equal rewards with the horse and suffering equal blows: not about those who do not see the end of their yoke except death, where their labors and their torment, although it sometimes happens that cruel sadness, having declared their spirit to be a reflection, ignites the weak light of their mind and makes them curse their disastrous state and seek an end to it: we are not talking about those here who feel no other thing than their humiliation, who crawl and move in the sleep of death (lethargy), which resemble a person only in appearance, otherwise they are burdened with the weight of their chains, deprived of all benefits, excluded from the entire heritage of people, oppressed, humiliated, despised; which are nothing more than dead bodies buried one next to the other; work necessary for a person out of fear; They do not desire anything other than death, and to whom the slightest desire is denied, and the most unimportant undertakings are executed; they are only allowed to grow, then die; about whom it is not asked what they have done worthy of humanity? what commendable deeds, traces of their past lives, did they leave? What good, what benefit did this great number of hands bring to the state? - It’s not about these things that we’re talking about here; they are not members of the state, they are not human beings, when they are nothing more than machines driven by a tormentor, dead corpses, draft animals! - Man, man is needed to bear the name of the son of the Fatherland! - But where is he? Where is this one worthily adorned with this majestic name? - Are you in the arms of bliss and lust? —Aren’t you engulfed in the flames of pride, lust, violence? - Isn’t he buried in foul profitability, envy, malice, enmity and discord with everyone, even those who feel the same with him and strive for the same thing? - or isn’t he sunk in the mire of laziness, gluttony and drunkenness? - A helipad, flying around from midday (for then he begins his day) the whole city, all the streets, all the houses, for the most senseless empty talk, for seducing chastity, for infecting good morals, for catching simplicity and sincerity, having made his head a flour store, his eyebrows a receptacle soot, cheeks with boxes of whitewash and red lead, or better to say, a painterly varnish, the skin of his body with an elongated drum skin, looks more like a monster in his attire than a man, and his dissolute life, marked by the stench from his lips and his whole body that occurs, is smothered by the whole a pharmacy of fragrant sprays, in a word, he is a fashionable man, completely fulfilling all the rules of dandy, high-society science; - he eats, sleeps, wallows in drunkenness and lust, despite his exhausted strength he changes clothes, talks all sorts of nonsense, shouts, runs from place to place, in short, he is a dandy. - Isn’t this the son of the Fatherland? - or one who lifts his gaze in a majestic manner to the firmament of heaven, trampling under his feet all who are before him, tormenting his neighbors with violence, persecution, oppression, imprisonment, deprivation of rank, property, torture, deception, deception and murder itself, in a word , by all means known to him alone, tearing apart those who dare to utter the words: humanity, freedom, peace, honesty, holiness, property and other similar things? - streams of tears, rivers of blood not only do not touch, but delight his soul. - He should not exist who dares to oppose his speeches, opinions, deeds and intentions? Is this the son of the Fatherland? - Or the one who stretches out his arms to seize the wealth and possessions of his entire Fatherland, and if it were possible, the whole world, and who With with composure he is ready to take away from his most unfortunate compatriots the last crumbs that support their dull and languid life, to rob, to plunder their specks of property; who delights in joy when an opportunity for a new acquisition opens up for him; let it be paid with rivers of blood of his brothers, let him deprive his fellow men of the last shelter and food, let them die of hunger, cold, heat; let them weep, let them kill their children in despair, let them risk their lives for a thousand deaths; none of this will shake his heart; all this means nothing to him; - he multiplies his property, and this is enough. - And so, doesn’t the name of the son of the Fatherland belong to this? - Or is it not the same one sitting at a table filled with the works of all four elements, to whose delight the taste and belly are sacrificed by several people taken away from serving the Fatherland, so that, until satiety, he can be transferred to bed, and there he can calmly engage in the consumption of other works of which he will he take it into his head until sleep robs him of the strength to move his jaws? And so, of course, this one, or one of the above four? (for we rarely find the fifth addition separately). The mixture of these four is visible everywhere, but the son of the Fatherland is not yet visible, if he is not among them! - The voice of reason, the voice of the laws inscribed in the nature and heart of people, does not agree to call the calculated people sons of the Fatherland! Those who are truly such will pronounce judgment (not on themselves, for they do not find themselves like that), but on those like themselves, and will sentence them to be excluded from the number of sons of the Fatherland; since there is no man, no matter how vicious and blinded he is by himself, who does not somehow feel the rightness and beauty of things and deeds. There is no person who would not feel sorrow, seeing himself humiliated, reviled, enslaved by violence, deprived of all means and ways to enjoy peace and pleasure, and not finding his consolation anywhere. - Doesn’t this prove that he loves honor, without which he is like without a soul. There is no need to explain here that this is true honor; for the false, instead of deliverance, subjugates all of the above, and will never calm the human heart. - Everyone has an innate sense of true honor; but it illuminates the deeds and thoughts of a person as he approaches it, following the lamp of reason, leading him through the darkness of passions, vices and prejudices to her quiet, honor, that is, light. - There is not a single mortal who is so rejected from Nature, who would not have that spring embedded in the heart of every person, directing him to love honor. Everyone would rather be respected than reviled; everyone strives for his further improvement, fame and glory; no matter how much the caresser of Alexander the Great, Aristotle, tries to prove the opposite of this, arguing that Nature itself has already arranged the mortal race in such a way that one and, moreover, a much larger part of them must certainly be in a slave state, and therefore not feel that there is honor? and the other in the dominant, because not many have noble and majestic feelings. - It is not disputed that the much nobler part of the mortal race is immersed in the darkness of barbarity, bestiality and slavery; but this does not prove in the least that man is not born with a feeling that directs him to great things and to self-improvement, and therefore to the love of true glory and honor. The reason for this is either the type of life led, circumstances, or in which to be forced, or lack of experience, or the violence of the enemies of the righteous and lawful exaltation of human nature, who by force and deceit subject it to blindness and slavery, which weakens the human mind and heart, imposing the heaviest shackles of contempt and oppression , suppressing the strength of the eternal spirit. - Do not justify yourself here, oppressors, villains of humanity, that these terrible bonds are an order that requires subordination. Oh, if only you could penetrate the chain of all Nature as much as you can, and you can do a lot! then you would feel different thoughts in yourself; They would find that love, and not violence, contains only the beautiful order and subordination in the world. All nature is subject to it, and where it is, there are no terrible disgraces that draw tears of compassion from sensitive hearts, and at which the true friend of humanity shudders. - What would Nature be like then, except for a mixture that is not harmonious (chaos), if it were deprived this spring? - In truth, she would have lost the greatest way to both preserve and improve herself. Everywhere and with every person this fiery love of gaining honor and praise from others. - This comes from man’s innate sense of his limitations and dependence. This feeling is so strong that it always encourages people to acquire for themselves those abilities and advantages through which they deserve love both from people and from the highest Being, evidenced by the pleasure of conscience; and having earned the favor and respect of others, a person becomes trustworthy in the means of preserving and improving himself. - And if this is so, then who doubts that this strong love for honor and the desire to acquire the pleasure of one’s conscience with favor and praise from others is the greatest and most reliable means, without which human well-being and improvement cannot exist? - For then what means remains for a person to overcome those difficulties that are inevitable on the path leading to the achievement of blissful peace, and to refute that cowardly feeling that makes one tremble when looking at one’s shortcomings? - What is the means to get rid of fear, fall forever under the most terrible burden of these? if you take away firstly the refuge filled with sweet hope to the highest Being, not as an avenger, but as the source and beginning of all good things; and then to those like ourselves, with whom Nature has united us, for the sake of mutual assistance, and who inwardly bow to the readiness to provide it and, with all the muffling of this inner voice, feel that they should not be those sacrileges who interfere with the righteous human desire for improvement myself. Who sowed in man this feeling to seek refuge? - An innate feeling of dependence, clearly showing us this dual means of salvation and pleasure for us. - And what, finally, prompts him to enter on these paths? What drives him to unite with these two means of human bliss, and to care to please them? - In truth, nothing more than an innate fiery urge to acquire for oneself those abilities and beauty, through which one deserves the favor of God and the love of one’s fellow humans, the desire to become worthy of their favor and protection. - He who examines human deeds will see that this is one of the main springs of all the greatest works in the world! - And this is the beginning of that impulse to love honor, which was sown in man at the beginning of his creation! This is the reason for the feeling of that pleasure that is usually always associated with a person’s heart, how quickly God’s favor is poured onto it, which consists in sweet silence and delight of conscience, and how quickly he acquires the love of those like himself, which is usually depicted by joy at the sight of him, by praises, exclamations. - This is the object to which one strives true people, and where they find their true pleasure! It has already been proven that a true man and a son of the Fatherland are one and the same; therefore there will be a sure distinctive sign of him if he thus ambitious. With this, he begins to decorate the majestic name of the son of the Fatherland, the Monarchy. For this he must honor his conscience, love his neighbors; for through love alone love is acquired; one must fulfill one’s calling as prudence and honesty command, without caring in the least about reward, honor, exaltation and glory, which is a companion, or, more importantly, a shadow, always following Virtue, illuminated not by the evening sun of Truth; for those who pursue fame and praise not only do not acquire it for themselves from others, but even more so are deprived of it. A true man is a true executor of all his laws provided for bliss; he sacredly obeys them. Noble modesty, alien to holiness and hypocrisy, accompanies all his feelings, words and deeds. With reverence he submits to everything that order, improvement and general salvation require; for him there is no low state in serving the Fatherland; serving him, he knows that he contributes to the healthy circulation, so to speak, of the blood of the State body. He would rather agree to perish and disappear than to set an example of bad behavior for others and thereby take away from the Fatherland children who could be an adornment and support for it; he is afraid of contaminating the well-being of his fellow citizens; he burns with the most tender love for the integrity and tranquility of his compatriots; There is nothing so eager to mature as mutual love between them; he kindles this beneficial flame in all hearts; - is not afraid of the difficulties encountered in this noble feat of his; overcomes all obstacles, tirelessly watches over the preservation of honesty, gives good advice and instructions, helps the unfortunate, delivers from the dangers of error and vices, and if he is confident that his death will bring strength and glory to the Fatherland, then he is not afraid to sacrifice his life; if it is needed for the fatherland, then it is preserved for the full observance of natural and domestic laws; to the extent possible, he averts everything that could tarnish the purity and weaken the good intentions of them, as a detriment to the bliss and improvement of his compatriots. In a word, he well-behaved! Here is another true sign of a son of the Fatherland! The third, and, as it seems, the last, most distinctive sign of the son of the Fatherland, when he noble. Noble is the one who has made himself famous for his wise and philanthropic qualities and actions; who shines in Society with reason and Virtue, and being inflamed with truly wise curiosity, directs all his strength and efforts towards this one thing, so that, obeying the laws and the guardians thereof, the authorities who hold him, both himself and everything that he has, will not to honor otherwise than as belonging to the Fatherland, to use it as a pledge of the goodwill of his Compatriots and his Sovereign, who is the Father of the People, entrusted to him, sparing nothing for the good of the Fatherland. He is truly noble, whose heart cannot help but tremble with tender joy at the single name of the Fatherland, and who feels in no other way the memory (which is incessant in him), as if it were spoken with the most precious honor in the world. He does not sacrifice the good of the Fatherland to prejudices, which rush like brilliant ones into his eyes; sacrifices everything for its good; His supreme reward lies in Virtue, that is, in that inner harmony of all inclinations and desires, which the all-wise Creator pours into the immaculate heart, and to which, in its silence and pleasure, nothing in the world can be compared. For true nobility There are virtuous actions, enlivened by true honor, which is not found anywhere else, as in continuous beneficence to the human race, but mainly to one’s Compatriots, rewarding each according to his dignity and according to the prescribed laws of Nature and Government. Decorated with these only qualities, both in enlightened Antiquity, and now they are honored with true praise. And here is the third distinctive sign of the son of the Fatherland. But no matter how brilliant, no matter how glorious, no delightful for every right-thinking heart these qualities of the son of the Fatherland, and although everyone is born to have them, they cannot but be pure, mixed, dark, confused, without proper education and enlightenment by the Sciences and Knowledge, without which this best ability of a person conveniently, as it always was and is, turns into the most harmful impulses and aspirations, and floods entire States with evil, anxiety, discord and disorder. For then human concepts are dark, confused and completely chimerical. - Why, before anyone desires to have the mentioned qualities of a true man, it is necessary that he first accustom his spirit to hard work, diligence, obedience, modesty, intelligent compassion, who wants to do good to everyone , to the love of the Fatherland, to the desire to imitate great examples, as well as to the love of the Sciences and Arts, as much as the title sent to the hostel allows; would be applied to an exercise in History and Philosophy or Liubomy, not a school one, for the sake of word debate, only addressed, but in the true, teaching a person his true duties; and to purify the taste, I would love to look at the Paintings of great Artists, Music, Statues, Architecture or Architecture. Those who consider this reasoning to be that Platonic system of public education, the events of which we will never see, will be very mistaken, when in our eyes a kind of education of this kind, and based on these rules, was introduced by the God-wise Monarchs, and enlightened Europe sees with amazement its successes, going back to the intended goal with gigantic steps! 1790
