Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich statesman. How Radishchev got abroad. Career and beginning of literary activity

Alexander Radishchev lived a relatively short life - he was born in 1749 (August 31), and died in 1802 (September 12). He was the first child in a wealthy noble family - his grandfather Afanasy Prokopyevich was a large landowner.

Happy childhood

His childhood years were spent on his father’s estate in Nemtsovo, a village belonging to the Borovsky district of the Kaluga province. The family was friendly, the parents were well-educated people. The father, who speaks several languages, including Latin, taught his son himself.

The boy was his mother's favorite. As was customary in noble families, he was taught at home - the children learned the Russian language from liturgical books - the psalter and book of hours, for study foreign languages, mainly French, tutors were invited. Little Alexander no luck - under the guise of a teacher French a fugitive soldier was hired to join them.

The basics of an excellent education

In 1755, Moscow University opened, and Alexander Radishchev went to Moscow, to his mother’s uncle, Mr. Argamakov, brother whom he held at that time as director (in 1755-1757). And this gave the children of the Argomakovs and Sasha Radishchev the right to receive knowledge at home under the guidance of professors and teachers of the university gymnasium. At the age of 13, Alexander Radishchev was granted a page when Catherine II ascended the throne in 1762, and was sent for further training to the Corps of Pages - at that time the most prestigious educational institution Russian Empire, where he studied from 1762 to 1766.

University years

He was rich, came from an old noble family, and most importantly, he studied well and was very diligent. Therefore, when Catherine decided to send a group of young nobles of 12 people abroad, including 6 pages, Alexander Radishchev was one of the first on this list. He went to Leipzig to study law.

However, in addition to the compulsory sciences and in-depth study of languages, students were allowed to additionally become acquainted with other sciences. A. N. Radishchev chose medicine and chemistry as additional classes, in which, as well as in languages, he was very successful. The five years spent in Leipzig were filled with study, and thanks to this A. N. Radishchev becomes one of the most educated people of its time, and not only in Russia. There, abroad, he begins to write. During these years, an indelible impression on him was made by his friendship with Ushakov, who was somewhat older, wiser and more educated than Alexander, and by the death of this friend. In memory of him, Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich wrote a work called “The Life of Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov.”

Years of life in Russia after returning

Upon returning to his homeland in 1771, A. N. Radishchev, together with his friend M. Kutuzov, entered service in the St. Petersburg Senate, where they did not work for a long time for a number of reasons. Radishchev returns from abroad as a freethinker. In 1773, he became a legal adviser at the headquarters of the Finnish Division, located in St. Petersburg, from where he retired in 1775. This was the time of the Pugachev rebellion and its suppression. During these years, Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich completed several translations, including “Reflections on Greek history» Bonneau de Mably. Gradually, Radishchev becomes one of the most convinced and consistent people who consider autocracy and serfdom to be the main evil of Russia. After his retirement, A. N. Radishchev married the sister of a friend with whom he studied in Leipzig. In 1777, he entered the St. Petersburg customs, where he worked until 1790 and rose to the post of its director. Here he became friends with Count A.R. Vorontsov, who would support the Russian philosopher and thinker even in Siberian exile.

The main work of life

Back in 1771, the first excerpts from the main work written by Alexander Radishchev were published. “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” was published in separate chapters in the St. Petersburg magazine “Painter”. In the 80-90s of the 18th century, an unusually large social upsurge was observed in Europe; revolutions, first in the USA, then in France, followed one after another.

Taking advantage of the favorable climate to promote the ideas of freedom, Radishchev opened a printing house at his home (on present-day Marata Street), and in May 1790 he printed 650 copies of the book. Previously, “Letter to a Friend” was published in the same way. Who is not familiar with the phrase “Yes, he is a rebel, worse than Pugachev!”, uttered by Catherine II after reading this work. As a consequence of it, A.N. Radishchev was imprisoned Peter and Paul Fortress and sentenced to death. Then the “merciful” empress replaced her with a 10-year exile to Siberia with deprivation of her noble title, all orders, regalia and fortune.

Book-revealer

The books of the disgraced author were subject to destruction. But the copies released by Radishchev quickly sold out, a lot of copies were made from them, which allowed A.S. Pushkin to state the fact: “Radishchev, the enemy of slavery, escaped censorship!” Or maybe the great Russian poet was referring to the fact that the censor, having leafed through the book, decided that it was a city guide, since it listed settlements located along the highway. Even today, 70 such lists have survived.

Then, in 1888, permission was received to publish 100 copies of this book, supposedly exclusively for connoisseurs and lovers of Russian literature. Why did the book so outrage the enlightened empress? The novel describes the horrors of serfdom, the incredibly difficult life of the peasants, in addition, the book contains direct denunciations of tsarism. Written good language, it is full of witty caustic remarks, and does not leave anyone indifferent. It included “Liberty” and “The Tale of Lomonosov”. And there had never been such denunciations of autocracy before.

Incorrigible lover of life

Radishchev, whose works, poems, philosophical treatises, odes, including “Liberty,” were from then on burned and ground in paper factories, was imprisoned in the Ilimsk prison. But even here, on behalf of him, he was engaged in studying the life of the indigenous inhabitants of Siberia, trade routes in northern regions vast country and the possibility of trade with China. He was even happy here in his own way. In the prison he wrote many wonderful works, and his sister-in-law came there to see him (and he was already a widower) to brighten up his loneliness in exile. Paul I, who ascended the throne and hated his mother, returned the disgraced philosopher, but without the right to leave the family nest in Nemtsov. Alexander I not only gave A. N. Radishchev complete freedom, but also attracted him to work in the Commission for drafting laws.

Suicide or fatal inattention

The exile did not change the writer’s views and, taking part in the drafting of laws, Alexander, who was full of clashes with those in power, wrote the “Draft of a Liberal Code.” It expressed thoughts about the equality of all before the law, the need for freedom of speech and the press, and other “free thoughts” that so outraged the Chairman of the Commission, Count P. V. Zavadsky, that he threatened the author with another exile to Siberia.

Either the rebuke was derogatory, or the thinker’s nerves finally gave way, and his health was severely undermined, or he experienced something very terrible in exile, but A. N. Radishchev, having come home, poisoned himself by taking poison. Very sad story. True, there is another version, which testifies to the strength of spirit greatest man of his time - he did not intend to commit suicide, but by mistake drank a glass of vodka standing in plain sight to calm down. And this was “royal vodka,” deadly to humans, prepared and left by the writer’s eldest son for the restoration of old epaulettes. Quite a sad story.

Good and great man

In his activities, A. N. Radishchev was also concerned with issues of education. He is considered the founder of Russian revolutionary ethics and aesthetics, as well as pedagogy. Along with serious studies, philosophical treatises, menacing denunciations of tsarism and serfdom, Radishchev, whose poems are full of love for people and nature, also wrote children's songs, composed funny rhymes, riddles, and invented different games and competitions.

That is, the man loved life very much, but he wanted it to be fair to all people, so that in Russia there would be no humiliating serfdom. A. S. Pushkin wrote an excellent article about A. N. Radishchev.

RADISHCHEV, ALEXANDER NIKOLAEVICH(1749–1802) writer, philosopher. Born in Moscow into a noble family on August 20 (31), 1749. He studied in Germany, at the University of Leipzig (1766–1770). During these years, Radishchev's passion for philosophy began. He studied the works of representatives of the European Enlightenment, rationalist and empirical philosophy. After returning to Russia, he entered service in the Senate, and later in the Commerce Collegium. Radishchev actively participated in literary life: published a translation of the book by G. Mably Reflections on Greek History(1773), own literary works A word about Lomonosov (1780), Letters to a friend living in Tobolsk(1782), ode Liberty(1783), etc. Everything changed after publication in 1790 Traveling from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Radishchev was arrested and declared a state criminal for his “ungodly writings.” The court sentenced him to death, which was replaced by exile “to Siberia, to the Ilimsk prison for a ten-year hopeless stay.” In exile, Radishchev was engaged in scientific research, wrote An abridged narrative of the acquisition of Siberia, Letter about the Chinese trade, philosophical treatise (1790–1792). In 1796, Emperor Paul I allowed Radishchev to return from Siberia and settle on his Kaluga estate. In 1801, Emperor Alexander I allowed him to move to the capital. In the last year of his life, Radishchev prepared a number of projects ( About the law, Civil Code Project etc.), in which he substantiated the need to eliminate serfdom and civil reforms. Radishchev died in St. Petersburg on September 12 (24), 1802.

Radishchev's philosophical views bear traces of influence various directions European thought of his time. He was guided by the principle of reality and materiality (corporality) of the world, arguing that “the existence of things, regardless of the power of knowledge about them, exists in itself.” According to his epistemological views, “the basis of all natural knowledge is experience.” At the same time, sensory experience, being the main source of knowledge, is in unity with “reasonable experience.” In a world in which there is nothing “beyond corporeality,” man, a being as corporeal as all of nature, takes his place. Man has a special role; he, according to Radishchev, represents the highest manifestation of physicality, but at the same time is inextricably linked with the animal and plant world. “We do not humiliate a person,” Radishchev argued, “by finding similarities in his constitution with other creatures, showing that he essentially follows the same laws as him. How could it be otherwise? Isn’t it real?”

The fundamental difference between a person and other living beings is the presence of a mind, thanks to which he “has the power to know about things.” But an even more important difference lies in the human capacity for moral action and evaluation. “Man is the only creature on earth who knows the bad, the evil,” “a special property of man is the unlimited possibility of both improving and being corrupted.” As a moralist, Radishchev did not accept the moral concept of “reasonable egoism,” believing that it is not “self-love” that is the source of moral feeling: “man is a sympathetic being.” Being a supporter of the idea of ​​“natural law” and always defending the ideas of natural nature man (“the rights of nature never dry up in man”), Radishchev at the same time did not share the opposition outlined by Rousseau between society and nature, the cultural and natural principles in man. For him, human social existence is as natural as natural existence. In fact, there is no fundamental boundary between them: “Nature, people and things are the educators of man; climate, local situation, government, circumstances are the educators of nations.” Criticizing the social evils of Russian reality, Radishchev defended the ideal of a normal “natural” way of life, seeing the injustice reigning in society as literally a social disease. He found this kind of “disease” not only in Russia. Thus, assessing the state of affairs in the slaveholding United States, he wrote that “one hundred proud citizens are drowning in luxury, and thousands do not have reliable food, nor their own shelter from the heat and darkness.”

In the treatise About man, about his mortality and immortality Radishchev, considering metaphysical problems, remained faithful to his naturalistic humanism, recognizing the inextricability of the connection between the natural and spiritual principles in man, the unity of body and soul: “Isn’t it with the body that the soul grows, isn’t it with it that it matures and strengthens, isn’t it wither and dull? ?. At the same time, not without sympathy, he quoted thinkers who recognized the immortality of the soul (I. Herder, M. Mendelssohn, etc.). Radishchev’s position is not that of an atheist, but rather of an agnostic, which fully corresponded to the general principles of his worldview, which was already quite secularized, focused on the “naturalness” of the world order, but alien to godlessness and nihilism.

Radishchev is a writer whose name we are proud of. Of all wonderful people The 18th century is the closest and dearest to a Soviet citizen. It is not for nothing that the first monument erected by the young Soviet Republic was a monument to Radishchev.

Radishchev is dear to us as the first Russian revolutionary, a fighter against autocracy and serfdom, against human oppression. He “was the first to prophesy freedom,” we can say about him in the words of Radishchev himself. Beginning with Radishchev, Russian literature acquires a new, most valuable quality: a direct connection with advanced fiction with the social revolutionary movement.

Radishchev was a widely educated man.

He had great knowledge in chemistry, physics, astronomy, mineralogy, botany, medicine, political economy; he also worked in the field of history, agronomy, and theory of poetry; knew French, German, English, Latin and Italian. But most importantly, he devoted all his vast knowledge, all the strength of his mind, feelings and will to the cause of serving his homeland, the struggle for the people's revolution, for the freedom and happiness of the working people.

Biography of Radishchev.

Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev was born on August 20, 1749 in the family of a large landowner. In the village of Verkhniy Ablyazov, Saratov governorship (now Kuznetsk district, Penza region), in the lap of nature of the Volga region, in a landowner's estate, his childhood passed. The serf nanny and the serf man told him folk tales, introduced him to the world of folk poetry.

Radishchev's father was a cultured man; mother is a kind and sensitive woman.

Their peasants lived much better than other landowners, so during Pugachev’s uprising, the serfs saved Radishchev’s father and his brothers and sisters from the Pugachevites. The landowners who were the neighbors of the Radishchevs were far from being like that. For example, six miles from Ablyazov was Zubov’s estate. This little guy was a real monster; he completely robbed his peasants, took away from them everything they had. he fed them like cattle from common troughs and brutally punished them. Radishchev knew this. Such impressions were forever etched in his memory.

At the age of seven, Radishchev was sent to Moscow. Here he lived with his uncle's family. Together with his children, Radishchev studied with the best professors at Moscow University, and their common tutor was a Frenchman - a republican in his views.

In 1762, during Catherine II’s stay in Moscow, Radishchev, at the request of his uncle, was “granted a page. Soon after this, Radishchev moved to St. Petersburg and began studying in the Corps of Pages. Education was poorly provided here; All attention was paid to the education of court pages from pages. Duty in the palace and presence at all celebrations introduced the pages into the atmosphere of court life. Radishchev took away many impressions from here, which he later used to describe the morals of court society in his “Travel”.

In 1766, in connection with the intentions of Catherine II to convene a commission to draw up a new Code (code of laws), educated lawyers were required. It was decided to send twelve young nobles to Germany (to Leipzig) to study law. Radishchev was among these twelve.

At the beginning of 1767, Radishchev and his comrades arrived in Leipzig. deep love to the people, to native nature, difficult memories of the horrors of serfdom and, finally, pictures of servility and morals of court society that left an indelible mark - this is what raised Radishchev as a citizen, a fighter against tyranny, this is what he brought with him abroad. That vast political literature, which Radishchev studied abroad, was close and understandable to him: it only expanded and formalized those freedom-loving ideas that were already laid down in his homeland.

Radishchev stayed at the university for about five years. He studied legal sciences, languages, philosophy, natural sciences and medicine. In addition, he read a lot, studying the best achievements of advanced Russian and Western European scientific literature, in particular French. At this time, France was brewing bourgeois revolution. With their writings, it was prepared by those advanced writers who were called “enlighteners.” Lenin points out that “at the time when the enlighteners of the 18th century wrote...all public issues boiled down to the fight against serfdom and its remnants.” This anti-serfdom orientation of the works of French enlighteners, their protest against human oppression were close to Radishchev, the freedom-loving son of a country that was exhausted under the yoke of serfdom and autocracy.

After a five-year stay abroad, Radishchev returned to St. Petersburg. What he saw in his fatherland deeply shocked him. In the very first days after his return, there was the spectacle of the public execution of participants in the riot caused by the plague epidemic.

The commission for drawing up the new Code was dissolved. Radishchev did not have to work in it. He was forced to take a modest position as a protocol clerk in the Senate. Here he became acquainted with “cases” about the abuses of landowners. Horrible pictures of cruel torture and even murder of serfs, brutal pacification of rebellious peasants with “small guns and cannons” passed before Radishchev when he read government papers. The work of the protocol officer could not satisfy Radishchev, and he switched to military service, which he also soon abandoned (in 1775).

Radishchev takes part in the “Society Trying to Print Books” organized by Novikov.

In 1777, Radishchev entered the service of the Commerce Collegium, which was in charge of trade and industry. The head of this institution was the educated nobleman A. R. Vorontsov. Soon Vorontsov appreciated Radishchev and began to patronize him* In 1780, Radishchev was appointed assistant manager of the St. Petersburg customs, and in 1790 - manager. But neither the service in which he quickly advanced nor the happily established family life(Radishchev married in 1775) could not distract him from the fight for the freedom of the people. In his works, he invariably pursued freedom-loving ideas, put into what he wrote his whole heart, flaming with love for freedom, and the steadfastness and intransigence of a revolutionary fighter.

Political events unfolding in Russia (Pugachev uprising), in North America(War of Independence 1776-1783), in France (revolution of 1789), raised and strengthened Radishchev’s revolutionary sentiments.

He responds to the struggle of the American colonies for independence with the ode “Liberty” (1781 -1783), which was a greeting to the American people who freed themselves from the rule of England, and a call for revolution in Russia. The ode was not completely published during Radishchev's lifetime; He placed excerpts from it in the chapter “Tver” of his main work - “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.”

But when America became an independent country, Radishchev understood true character American “democracy” and branded it as false. In the chapter “Hotils” of his “Travel” he wrote that in America “one hundred proud citizens are drowning in luxury, and thousands do not have reliable food, nor their own shelter from the heat and frost.” AND

In 1789, Radishchev published the book “The Life of F.V. Ushakov.” In it he talked about his life close friend, with whom he lived and studied in Leipzig (Ushakov died in Leipzig in 1770). The book was full of freedom-loving ideas.

The main work that Radishchev was working on at this time was the book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” He conceived this work a long time ago, soon after arriving home from Leipzig, and worked on it intermittently for about ten years. (One such break was caused by the death of his beloved wife in 1783.) From 1785, he resumed work and finished the book in 1789. In July 1789, Radishchev received permission from the St. Petersburg chief of police to print the book. But the printing house where he turned was afraid to print it. Then Radishchev bought a printing press and set up a printing house in his home. In it he published “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” Having finished printing 650 copies of the book in May 1790, Radishchev gave only 25 copies for sale and distributed a few to friends and acquaintances. The book caused an unprecedented stir. Soon she reached Catherine. Reading “The Journey,” the queen became indignant. In her notes to the book, she wrote: “She puts her hopes in the rebellion of the peasants...” The kings are threatened with the scaffold...” The author’s intentions are “to show the shortcomings of the current way of government and the vices of it (him)”, etc. Catherine told her secretary about Radishchev: “He is a rebel worse than Pugachev.” Although the book was published without the name of the author, he was soon found. On June 30, Radishchev was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Before his arrest, Radishchev managed to order that all remaining copies of the book be burned. The investigation proceeded quickly, and already in July the Trial Chamber sentenced Radishchev to death. The execution was replaced by exile to 10 years in Siberia, in the Ilimsky prison (about 1000 versts north of Irkutsk). The half-ill Radishchev was shackled and sent to Siberia into exile. Catherine II, replacing execution with exile, hoped that Radishchev would not endure a difficult journey or long exile away from his family, in painful thoughts about the fate of the children. This would have happened if Vorontsov had not come to Radishchev’s aid. Thanks to his efforts, the shackles were removed from Radishchev, and he got the opportunity to travel in slightly better conditions! A relative caught up with him in Tobolsk and brought his two younger children to him.

After the death of Catherine II (1796), Paul I allowed Radishchev to return from Siberia. He was ordered to settle on his father’s estate, Nemtsov, Kaluga province, where he stayed for four years,” until the death of Paul I. Essentially, this was also an exile, since Radishchev was under police surveillance and was forbidden to leave the village. After Alexander I ascended the throne in 1801, Radishchev was completely freed from exile. Radishchev moved to St. Petersburg and began working in the Commission for Drafting Laws. He compiled a “Note on New Laws,” where he developed the idea that “it is better to prevent a crime than to punish it,” wrote a “Draft of Civil Code,” in which he spoke about the equality of all classes before the law, the abolition of corporal punishment and torture, and freedom printing, etc.

He remained true to his previous views. But dignitaries of completely different convictions sat on the commission. They looked askance at Radishchev, saw in him a freethinker who was not broken even by exile. “Eh, Alexander Nikolaevich! - the head of the commission, Count Zavadovsky, once told him, “you still want to talk idle talk... Or was Siberia not enough for you?” These words were an unambiguous threat. Radishchev could not come to terms, but he was unable to fight. And he decided to die, protesting with his very death against the inhumane regime of autocracy. On September 11, 1802, he poisoned himself. “Posterity will avenge me,” he wrote shortly before his death.

Updated: 2011-03-03

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Biography, life story of Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich

Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich - Russian prose writer, philosopher, public figure.

Childhood, youth, education

Alexander Radishchev was born on August 31, 1749 (according to the old style - August 20 of the same year) in a small village called Verkhnee Ablyazovo (Saratov Province). Alexander was lucky to be born into a wealthy family - his father, Nikolai Afanasyevich Radishchev, inherited from his father, Alexander’s grandfather, noble title and large areas. So in childhood, the future luminary of Russian literature did not know any hardships.

Alexander Radishchev spent the first years of his life in the village of Nemtsovo (Kaluga province), where his father had an estate. Caring, but strict father tried to give his son an excellent education - he taught him several languages ​​​​at once (Polish, French, German and even Latin), taught him Russian literacy, however, mainly from the psalter (Nikolai Afanasyevich was a very devout person). When Alexander was six years old, a French teacher was hired for him, but the teacher did not stay in their family for long - it soon became clear that he was a fugitive soldier.

At the age of seven, Alexander moved to Moscow, to the house of his great-uncle. There he was able to gain good knowledge and skills (the children in his relative’s house had the opportunity to study only with the best professors).

In 1762, Radishchev entered the Corps of Pages (St. Petersburg). After studying there for four whole years, he was redirected to the University of Leipzig (Germany, Leipzig). In a foreign land, Alexander had to study law. And, it should be noted, he achieved good results - in addition to the fact that he diligently completed the teachers’ assignments, he also showed considerable activity in studying other subjects. In a word, at that time his horizons expanded greatly, which undoubtedly played into his hands in the future.

Service

At the age of twenty-two, Alexander Nikolaevich returned to St. Petersburg. He soon became a recorder in the Senate. A little later, he left this post and was hired as chief auditor at the headquarters of the St. Petersburg general-in-chief. The authorities noted Radishchev’s hard work, his diligence and responsible attitude to work.

CONTINUED BELOW

In 1780, Alexander Radishchev began working at the St. Petersburg customs. In 1790 he was already its boss.

Literary activity

Radishchev took up his pen in 1771, when he returned to St. Petersburg. At that time, she sent a couple of chapters from her future book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” to the editor of the then respected magazine “Painter”. The excerpt was published anonymously - as the author himself wished.

In 1773, Alexander Radishchev translated and published the book “Reflections on Greek History” (author – Gabriel Bonneau de Mably, French writer and philosopher). At the same time, he gave the world his other works - “Diary of One Week”, “Officer Exercises”...

From the beginning of the 1780s, Alexander Nikolaevich began to work hard on “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” The book talked about the difficult situation of serfs, about cruel landowners, about the uselessness of autocracy... For that time, the book was more than scandalous. In May 1790, Radishchev independently printed copies of his book in his own printing house, which he created at home the year before. Radishchev did not sign his creation.

People began to quickly buy up the book. The commotion she caused among ordinary residents excited the empress and she demanded that one copy be delivered to her immediately. After reading the book and finding out who wrote it, the empress became furious. The writer was arrested.

After his arrest, Radishchev was put in a fortress. A series of interrogations began. Alexander Nikolaevich, being a man of honor, did not betray any of those who in any way helped him in publishing the book. The Criminal Chamber, after listening to Radishchev, sentenced him to death. In the fall of 1790, Radishchev’s case was revised - the execution was replaced by a ten-year exile in Siberia. Fortunately, in 1796 the emperor took pity on the talented thinker. The writer returned to his native place. He settled in the village of Nemtsovo, where he spent his childhood.

Personal life

Alexander Radishchev first married in 1775 to Anna Vasilievna Rubanovskaya, the daughter of an official of the Main Palace Chancellery. Anna gave birth to six children to Alexander - three daughters and three sons. Unfortunately, two girls died in early age. But the other children - Vasily (born in 1776), Nikolai (born in 1779), Ekaterina (born in 1782) and Pavel (born in 1783) - turned out to be stronger. Anna Vasilievna herself died during childbirth youngest son Pavel.

When Radishchev was exiled to Siberia, his younger sister Anna Elizaveta came to him. She took Catherine and Pavel with her. It so happened that Elizabeth remained in Siberia. Soon Alexander began to experience very warm feelings for her. Elizabeth reciprocated his feelings. They started living together. New lover Radishchev gave birth to three children - daughters Anna (born in 1792) and Fyokla (born in 1795) and son Afanasy (born in 1796).

When the emperor ordered Radishchev to return home, the happiness of both the writer himself and his beloved woman knew no bounds. No one knew that leaving boring Siberia would bring so much pain to their family... On the way, Elizaveta Vasilievna caught a bad cold. The woman was unable to cope with the disease. She died in 1979.

Death

Alexander Nikolaevich spent the last years of his life being a free and respected person. He was even specially invited to St. Petersburg to join the Commission to draw up laws. Once in St. Petersburg, Radishchev wanted to introduce a bill that would equalize all people before the law, giving everyone the right to freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Upon learning of this, the Chairman of the Commission gave the writer a very severe reprimand. After the chairman’s threats, some historians say, Alexander Nikolaevich decided to take his own life. Radishchev committed suicide by drinking a huge dose of poison on September 24, 1802 (old style - September 12).

According to another version, Alexander Nikolaevich died after accidentally drinking alcohol instead of medicine. Officially (according to documents) it is believed that Radishchev died of natural causes.

By the age of six, a French teacher was assigned to him, but the choice turned out to be unsuccessful: the teacher, as they later learned, was a fugitive soldier. Soon after the opening of Moscow University, around 1756, Alexander's father took him to Moscow, to the house of his maternal uncle (whose brother, A. M. Argamakov, was the director of the university in 1755-1757). Here Radishchev was entrusted to the care of a very good French governor, a former adviser to the Rouen parliament, who fled from persecution by the government of Louis XV. The Argamakov children had the opportunity to study at home with professors and teachers of the university gymnasium, so it cannot be ruled out that Alexander Radishchev prepared here under their guidance and completed, at least in part, the gymnasium course program.

In 1762, after the coronation of Catherine II, Radishchev was granted a page and sent to St. Petersburg to study in the Corps of Pages. The page corps trained not scientists, but courtiers, and the pages were obliged to serve the empress at balls, in the theater, and at state dinners.

Four years later, among twelve young nobles, he was sent to Germany, to the University of Leipzig to study law. During the time spent there, Radishchev expanded his horizons enormously. In addition to thorough scientific school, he adopted the ideas of advanced French enlighteners, whose works greatly prepared the ground for the bourgeois revolution that broke out twenty years later.

Of Radishchev’s comrades, Fyodor Ushakov is especially remarkable for the great influence he had on Radishchev, who wrote his “Life” and published some of Ushakov’s works. Ushakov was a more experienced and mature man than his other comrades, who immediately recognized his authority. He served as an example for other students, guided their reading, and instilled in them strong moral convictions. Ushakov’s health was upset even before his trip abroad, and in Leipzig he further ruined it, partly with poor nutrition, partly with excessive exercise, and fell ill. When the doctor announced to him that “tomorrow he will no longer be involved in life,” he firmly accepted the death sentence. He said goodbye to his friends, then, calling one Radishchev to him, handed over all his papers to him and told him: “remember that you need to have rules in life in order to be blessed.” Ushakov’s last words “marked an indelible mark in the memory” of Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev.

Service in St. Petersburg

Literary and publishing activities

The foundations of Radishchev’s worldview were laid in the very early period his activities. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1771, a couple of months later he sent an excerpt from his future book “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” to the editorial office of the magazine “Painter”, where it was published anonymously. Two years later, Radishchev’s translation of Mably’s book “Reflections on Greek History” was published. Other works of the writer, such as “Officer Exercises” and “Diary of One Week,” also date back to this period.

In the 1780s, Radishchev worked on “The Journey” and wrote other works in prose and poetry. By this time there was a huge social upsurge throughout Europe. The victory of the American Revolution and the French Revolution that followed it created a favorable climate for promoting the ideas of freedom, which Radishchev took advantage of. In 1789, he opened a printing house at his home, and in May 1790 he published his main work, “.”

Arrest and exile 1790-1796

The book began to sell out quickly. His bold thoughts about serfdom and other sad phenomena of the then social and state life attracted the attention of the empress herself, to whom someone delivered “The Journey” and who called Radishchev - “ rebel, worse than Pugachev" A copy of the book has been preserved, which ended up on Catherine’s table, which she covered with her cynical remarks. Where it is described tragic scene selling serfs at auction, the Empress wrote: “ A pathetic story begins about a family sold under the hammer for the master's debts.". Elsewhere in Radishchev’s work, where he talks about a landowner who was killed during the Pugachev rebellion by his peasants because “ every night his messengers brought to him for a sacrifice of dishonor the one he had appointed that day; it was known in the village that he had disgusted 60 girls, depriving them of their purity”, the Empress herself wrote - “ almost the history of Alexander Vasilyevich Saltykov.

Radishchev was arrested, his case was entrusted to S.I. Sheshkovsky. Imprisoned in the fortress, Radishchev led the line of defense during interrogations. He did not name a single name from among his assistants, saved the children, and also tried to save his own life. The Criminal Chamber applied to Radishchev the articles of the Code on “ attack on the sovereign's health”, about “conspiracies and treason” and sentenced him to death. The verdict, transmitted to the Senate and then to the Council, was approved in both instances and presented to Catherine.

On September 4, 1790, a personal decree was passed, which found Radishchev guilty of violating the oath and office of a subject by publishing a book, “filled with the most harmful speculations, destroying public peace, belittling the respect due to the authorities, striving to create indignation among the people against the leaders and authorities, and finally, insulting and violent expressions against the dignity and power of the king.”; Radishchev’s guilt is such that he fully deserves the death penalty, to which he was sentenced by the court, but “out of mercy and for everyone’s joy,” the execution was replaced by a ten-year exile for him in Siberia, in the Ilimsk prison. On the order to expel Radishchev, the Empress with my own hand wrote: “ goes to mourn the deplorable fate of the peasant condition, although it is undeniable that a good landowner has no better fate for our peasants in the whole universe” .

The treatise “On Man, His Mortality and Immortality,” created in exile by Radishchev, contains numerous paraphrases of Herder’s works “A Study on the Origin of Language” and “On Cognition and Sensation.” human soul» .

There is a legend about the circumstances of Radishchev’s suicide: called to the commission to draw up laws, Radishchev drew up a draft liberal code, in which he spoke about the equality of all before the law, freedom of the press, etc. The chairman of the commission, Count P. V. Zavadovsky, gave him a strict reprimand for his way of thinking, sternly reminding him of his previous hobbies and even mentioning Siberia. Radishchev, a man with very poor health, was so shocked by Zavadovsky’s reprimand and threats that he decided to commit suicide: he drank poison and died in terrible agony.

In the book “Radishchev” by D. S. Babkin, published in 1966, a different version of Radishchev’s death was proposed. The sons who were present at his death testified to the severe physical illness that struck Alexander Nikolaevich already during his Siberian exile. The immediate cause of death, according to Babkin, was an accident: Radishchev drank a glass with “strong vodka prepared in it to burn out the old officer’s epaulettes of his eldest son” (royal vodka). The burial documents indicate a natural death. In the register of the church of the Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg on September 13, 1802, “collegiate advisor Alexander Radishchev” is listed among those buried; fifty three years, died of consumption,” priest Vasily Nalimov was present at the removal.

Radishchev's grave has not survived to this day. It is assumed that his body was buried near the Church of the Resurrection, on the wall of which a memorial plaque was installed in 1987.

Perception of Radishchev in the 18th-19th centuries.

The idea that Radishchev was not a writer, but a public figure, distinguished by amazing spiritual qualities, began to take shape immediately after his death and, in fact, determined his further life. posthumous fate. I. M. Born, in a speech to the Society of Lovers of the Fine, delivered in September 1802 and dedicated to the death of Radishchev, says about him: “He loved truth and virtue. His fiery love for mankind longed to illuminate all his fellow men with this unflickering ray of eternity.” How " honest man" ("honnête homme") was characterized by N.M. Karamzin about Radishchev (this oral testimony was given by Pushkin as an epigraph to the article "Alexander Radishchev"). Thought of Advantage human qualities Radishchev’s talent as a writer is especially succinctly expressed by P. A. Vyazemsky, explaining in a letter to A. F. Voeikov the desire to study Radishchev’s biography: “In our country, a person is usually invisible behind a writer. In Radishchev it’s the opposite: the writer is up to his shoulder, but the man is head and shoulders above him.”

Radishchev’s influence on the work of another freethinking writer, A. S. Griboedov (presumably, both were related by blood), who, being a career diplomat, often traveled around the country and therefore actively tried his hand at the genre of literary “travel”, is obvious.

A special page in the perception of Radishchev’s personality and creativity by Russian society was the attitude of A. S. Pushkin towards him. Having become acquainted with “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” in his youth, Pushkin clearly focuses on Radishchev’s ode “Liberty” in his ode of the same name (or), and also takes into account in “Ruslan and Lyudmila” the experience of “heroic songwriting” of Radishchev’s son, Nikolai Alexandrovich, “ Alyosha Popovich” (Pushkin all his life mistakenly considered Radishchev the father to be the author of this poem). “The Journey” turned out to be in tune with the tyrant-fighting and anti-serfdom sentiments of young Pushkin. Despite the change political positions, Pushkin remained interested in Radishchev in the 1830s, acquired a copy of “Travel”, which was in the Secret Chancellery, and sketched “Journey from Moscow to St. Petersburg” (conceived as a commentary on Radishchev’s chapters in reverse order). In 1836, Pushkin tried to publish fragments from Radishchev’s “Travel” in his Sovremennik, accompanying them with the article “Alexander Radishchev” - his most extensive statement about Radishchev. In addition to a bold attempt to acquaint the Russian reader with a forbidden book for the first time since 1790, here Pushkin also gives a very detailed criticism of the work and its author.

We never considered Radishchev a great man. His act always seemed to us a crime, unexcusable, and “Journey to Moscow” was a very mediocre book; but with all this we cannot help but recognize him as a criminal with an extraordinary spirit; a political fanatic, mistaken of course, but acting with amazing selflessness and a kind of knightly conscience.

Criticism of Pushkin, in addition to autocensorship reasons (however, the publication was still not allowed by censorship), reflects “enlightened conservatism” recent years poet's life. In the drafts of the “Monument” in the same 1836, Pushkin wrote: “Following Radishchev, I glorified freedom.”

In the 1830-1850s, interest in Radishchev decreased significantly, and the number of “Travel” lists decreased. A new revival of interest is associated with the publication of “Travel” in London by A. I. Herzen in 1858 (he puts Radishchev among “our saints, our prophets, our first sowers, first fighters”).

The assessment of Radishchev as the forerunner of the revolutionary movement was adopted by the Social Democrats of the early 20th century. In 1918, A.V. Lunacharsky called Radishchev “the prophet and forerunner of the revolution.” G.V. Plekhanov believed that under the influence of Radishchev’s ideas, “the most significant social movements of the late 18th - first third XIX centuries". V.I. Lenin called him “the first Russian revolutionary.”

Until the 1970s, opportunities for the general reader to become familiar with The Journey were extremely limited. After almost the entire circulation of “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” was destroyed by the author before his arrest in 1790, until 1905, when the censorship ban was lifted from this work, the total circulation of several of his publications hardly exceeded one and a half thousand copies. The foreign edition of Herzen was carried out according to a faulty list, where the language of the 18th century was artificially “modernized” and numerous errors were encountered. Several editions were published in 1905-1907, but after that “Journey” was not published in Russia for 30 years. In subsequent years it was published several times, but mainly for the needs of the school, with denominations and scanty circulation by Soviet standards. Back in the 1960s, Soviet readers were known to complain that it was impossible to get “Journey” in a store or district library. It was only in the 1970s that The Journey began to be truly mass produced.

Radishchev's scientific research essentially began only in the 20th century. In 1930-1950, under the editorship of Gr. Gukovsky carried out a three-volume “ Complete collection works of Radishchev”, where many new texts, including philosophical and legal ones, were published for the first time or attributed to the writer. In the 1950-1960s, romantic hypotheses arose, not confirmed by sources, about the “hidden Radishchev” (G.P. Storm and others) - that Radishchev allegedly continued after exile to finalize “The Journey” and distribute the text in a narrow circle of like-minded people. At the same time, there is a plan to abandon the straightforward propaganda approach to Radishchev, emphasizing the complexity of his views and the great humanistic significance of the personality (N. Ya. Eidelman and others). IN modern literature Radishchev's philosophical and journalistic sources are explored - Masonic, moral, educational and others, the multifaceted issues of his main book, which cannot be reduced to the fight against serfdom, are emphasized.

Philosophical views

Basics philosophical work- treatise “On Man, His Mortality and Immortality,” written in Ilimsk exile.

“Radishchev’s philosophical views bear traces of the influence of various trends in European thought of his time. He was guided by the principle of reality and materiality (corporality) of the world, arguing that “the existence of things is independent of the power of knowledge about them and exists in itself.” According to his epistemological views, “the basis of all natural knowledge is experience.” At the same time, sensory experience, being the main source of knowledge, is in unity with “reasonable experience.” In a world in which there is nothing “other than corporeality,” man, a being as corporeal as all of nature, takes his place. Man has a special role; he, according to Radishchev, represents the highest manifestation of physicality, but at the same time is inextricably linked with the animal and plant world. “We do not humiliate a person,” Radishchev argued, “by finding similarities in his constitution with other creatures, showing that he essentially follows the same laws as him. How could it be otherwise? Isn’t it real?”

The fundamental difference between a person and other living beings is the presence of a mind, thanks to which he “has the power to know about things.” But an even more important difference lies in the human capacity for moral action and evaluation. “Man is the only creature on earth who knows the bad, the evil,” “a special property of man is the unlimited possibility of both improving and being corrupted.” As a moralist, Radishchev did not accept the moral concept of “reasonable egoism,” believing that “self-love” is by no means the source of moral feeling: “man is a sympathetic being.” Being a supporter of the idea of ​​“natural law” and always defending ideas about the natural nature of man (“the rights of nature never dry up in man”), Radishchev at the same time did not share the opposition outlined by Rousseau between society and nature, the cultural and natural principles in man. For him, human social existence is as natural as natural existence. In essence, there is no fundamental boundary between them: “Nature, people and things are the educators of man; climate, local situation, government, circumstances are the educators of nations.” Criticizing the social vices of Russian reality, Radishchev defended the ideal of a normal “natural” way of life, seeing the injustice reigning in society as literally a social disease. He found this kind of “disease” not only in Russia. Thus, assessing the state of affairs in the slave-owning United States of America, he wrote that “one hundred proud citizens are drowning in luxury, and thousands do not have reliable food, nor their own shelter from the heat and filth (frost). In the treatise “On Man, on His Mortality and Immortality,” Radishchev, considering metaphysical problems, remained true to his naturalistic humanism, recognizing the inextricability of the connection between the natural and spiritual principles in man, the unity of body and soul: “Doesn’t the soul grow with the body, not with it?” does he mature and grow stronger, or does he wither and grow dull? At the same time, not without sympathy, he quoted thinkers who recognized the immortality of the soul (Johann Herder, Moses Mendelssohn and others). Radishchev’s position is not that of an atheist, but rather of an agnostic, which fully corresponded to the general principles of his worldview, which was already quite secularized, focused on the “naturalness” of the world order, but alien to godlessness and nihilism.”

Family

Alexander Radishchev was married twice. He married for the first time in 1775 to Anna Vasilyevna Rubanovskaya (1752-1783), who was the niece of his fellow student in Leipzig, Andrei Kirillovich Rubanovsky, and the daughter of an official of the Main Palace Chancellery, Vasily Kirillovich Rubanovsky. This marriage produced four children (not counting two daughters who died in infancy):

• Vasily (1776-1845) - staff captain, lived in Ablyazov, where he married his serf Akulina Savvateevna. His son Alexey Vasilyevich became a court councilor, leader of the nobility and mayor of Khvalynsk.
• Nikolai (1779-1829) - writer, author of the poem “Alyosha Popovich”.
• Catherine (1782)

Anna Vasilievna died at the birth of her son Pavel in 1783. Soon after Radishchev was expelled, the younger sister of his first wife, Elizaveta Vasilievna Rubanovskaya (1757-1797), came to him in Ilimsk, along with his two youngest children (Ekaterina and Pavel). In exile they soon began to live as husband and wife. Three children were born in this marriage:

• Anna (1792)
• Thekla (1795-1845) - married Pyotr Gavrilovich Bogolyubov and became the mother of the famous Russian marine painter A.P. Bogolyubov.
• Afanasy (1796-1881) - major general, Podolsk, Vitebsk and Kovno governor.

Memory

•   Village of Radishchevo, Ulyanovsk region, former Noble Tereshka, estate of the Kolyubakin nobles
• In Kyiv there is Radishcheva Street
• In Moscow there are Verkhnyaya and Nizhnyaya Radishchevskaya streets, on Verkhnyaya there is a monument to the writer and poet.
• Radishcheva Street is in Central region St. Petersburg.
• Also named after Radishchev are streets in Kursk, Ust-Kut, Ryazan, Kaluga, Maloyaroslavets, Petrozavodsk, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk, Murmansk, Tula, Tobolsk, Yekaterinburg, Saratov, Kuznetsk, Barnaul, Biysk, Alchevsk, Gatchina, Tambov, Smolensk, and , boulevard in Tver, as well as in the city of Tolyatti.
• In Irkutsk, one of the city suburbs is called Radishchevo.
• In the village of Firstovo, Bolsheukovsky district, Omsk region, an obelisk was erected in 1967, in honor of Radishchev, who passed through and visited the village in 1790.
• In the village of Artyn, Muromtsevo district, Omsk region, an obelisk was erected in 1952 in memory of his journey into Siberian exile and return from exile in 1797.
• In honor of the passage of A.N. Radishchev, one of the villages was renamed, and was given the name - the village of Radishchevo, Nizhneomsky district, Omsk region.
• In the village of Evgashchino, Bolsherechensky district, Omsk region, Radishcheva Street is named.
• In the village of Takmyk, Bolsherechensky district, Omsk region, Radishcheva Street is named.
• Radishcheva Street has existed in Ulyanovsk from 1918 to the present.
• Annual Radishchev readings are held in Maloyaroslavets and Kuznetsk
• State art museum named after Radishchev (Saratov).
• Platform Radishchevo Oktyabrskaya railway in the Solnechnogorsk district of the Moscow region.
• In Rostov-on-Don there is Radishchev Street.
• In Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo region, there is a street. Radishcheva (Ordzhonikidze district).
• In Khabarovsk there is Radishcheva Street (Industrial District).
• In Simferopol there is a street. Radishchev (not far from Vernadsky Ave.)
• In Krivoy Rog there is a street. Radishcheva (Zhovtnevy district)
• In Ust-Ilimsk Irkutsk region in 1991, an obelisk in memory of A.N. Radishchev was erected.
• In Zheleznogorsk-Ilimsky (Irkutsk region, Nizhneilimsky district) there is Radishchev Street, a school named after. A.N. Radishchev, Central Intersettlement Library named after A.N. Radishchev
• In the Nizhneilimsky district of the Irkutsk region there is the village of Radishchev.

See also

Bibliography

• Radishchev A. N. Travel from Petersburg to Moscow - St. Petersburg: b. i., 1790. - 453 p.
• Radishchev A. N. Prince M. M. Shcherbatov, “On the damage to morals in Russia”; A. N. Radishchev, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.” With a foreword by Iskander (A.I. Herzen). - London, Trübner, 1858.
• Radishchev A. N. Essays. In two volumes./ Ed. P. A. Efremova. - St. Petersburg, ed. Cherkesov, 1872. (edition destroyed by censorship)
• Radishchev A. N. Complete works of A. Radishchev / Ed., intro. Art. and approx. V. V. Kallash. T. 1. - M.: V. M. Sablin, 1907. - 486 p.: p., The same T. 2. - 632 p.: ill.
• Radishchev A. N. Complete set of works. T. 1 - M.; L.: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1938. - 501 p.: p. The same T. 2 - M.; L.: Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1941. - 429 p.
• Radishchev A. N. Poems / Intro. art., ed. and note. G. A. Gukovsky. Ed. board: I. A. Gruzdev, V. P. Druzin, A. M. Egolin [and others]. - L.: Sov. writer, 1947. - 210 p.: p.
• Radishchev A. N. Selected Works/ Intro. Art. G. P. Makogonenko. - M.; L.: Goslitizdat, 1949. - 855 pp.: P, k.
• Radishchev A. N. Favorites philosophical works/ Under the general editorship. and with a preface. I. Ya. Shchipanova. - L.: Gospolitizdat, 1949. - 558 p.: p.
• Radishchev A. N. Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow. 1749-1949 / Enter. article by D. D. Blagoy. - M.; L.: Goslitizdat, 1950. - 251 p.: ill.
• Radishchev A. N. Selected philosophical and socio-political works. [To the 150th anniversary of his death. 1802-1952] / Under the general. ed. and will join in. article by I. Ya. Shchipanov. - M.: Gospolitizdat, 1952. - 676 ​​p.: p.
• Radishchev A. N. Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow / [Introduction. article by D. Blagoy]. - M.: Det. lit., 1970. - 239 p. The same - M.: Det. lit., 1971. - 239 p.

Notes

1. Brief literary encyclopedia - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1962. - T. 6. - P. 143–148.
2. / ed. I. E. Andreevsky, K. K. Arsenyev, F. F. Petrushevsky - St. Petersburg. : Brockhaus - Efron, 1907.
3. / ed. A. A. Polovtsov, N. P. Chulkov, N. D. Chechulin and others - St. Petersburg. , M.
4. Radishchev Alexander Nikolaevich // Great Soviet encyclopedia: [in 30 volumes] / ed. A. M. Prokhorov - 3rd ed. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969.
5. Gukovsky G. A. Radishchev // History of Russian literature: In 10 volumes / Academy of Sciences of the USSR. - M.; L.: Publishing House of the USSR Academy of Sciences, 1941-1956. T. IV: Literature XVIII century. Part 2. - 1947. - pp. 507-570.
6. Khrabrovitsky A. V. Where was A. N. Radishchev born and where did he spend his childhood?  // Russian literature.  L., 1974. No. 3. P. 180-181.
7. A. Startsev. Questions of literature, No. 2. - M., 1958. - P. 172-175. - 243 p.
8. Complete collection of laws of the Russian Empire.  First meeting.  Volume XXIII
9. Lecture by Professor A. B. Zubov on the topic: “Serfdom in Imperial Russia and its lessons today”
10. GERDER
11. A. Lossky. Russian biographical dictionary (1910)
12. Kobak A.V., Piryutko Yu.M.. - Second edition. - M.-St. Petersburg: Tsentrpoligraf, 2011. - P. 402. - 797, p. - 1500 copies. -