Alexander Radishchev

For more information on Aleksandr Nikolayevich Radishchev, visit Britannica.com.

(1749 - 1802), poet, thinker, and radical critic of Russian society.

Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev was arrested for sedition by Catherine II in 1790 for the publication of a fictional travelogue. Newly promoted from assistant director to director of the St. Petersburg Customs and Excise Department, he had benefited from Catherine's earlier enthusiasm for the European Enlightenment. Following service as a page at the Imperial Court from 1762 to 1767, he had been selected as one of an elite group of students sent to study law at Leipzig University, where he had absorbed the progressive thinking of the leading French philosophes. After completing his studies in 1771 he returned to Russia, where he responded to Catherine's encouragement for translating the works of the European thinkers of the Enlightenment. His first literary venture, in 1773, was a translation of Gabriel Bonnot de Mably's Observations sur l'histoire de la Grèce, which idealized republican Sparta. Radishchev's first significant original work, published in 1789, was his memoir, Zhitie Fedora Vasilevicha Ushakova (The Life of Fedor Vasilevich Ushakov), recalling idealistic conversations with a fellow student in Leipzig on oppression, injustice, and the possibilities for reform. This was a prelude for Puteshestvie iz Peterburga v Moskvu (A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow), in which an observant, sentimental traveler discovers the various deficiencies in contemporary Russian society.

At each staging post, an aspect of the state of Russian society is revealed. For example, at Tosna, the traveler observes feudalism; at Liubani, it is forced peasant labor. Chudovo brings unchecked bureaucratic power to his attention; he learns of autocracy at Spasskaya Polest; and at Vydropusk his attention is taken by the imperial court and courtiers. Other stops along the road illuminate issues such as religion, education, health, prostitution, poverty, and censorship in an encyclopedic panorama of a sick society. No single cure is proposed for Russia's ills, but the underlying message is that wrongs must be righted by whatever means prove to be effective.

Deeply affected by the French Revolution of 1789, Catherine now read the work as an outrageous attempt to undermine her imperial authority. An example was made of Radishchev in a show trial that exacted a death sentence, later commuted to Siberian exile. He was permitted to return to European Russia in 1797, but he remained in exile until 1801. Crushed by his experiences, he committed suicide the following year. His Journey remained officially proscribed until 1905. Its author's fate, however, as much as the boldness of its criticism, had won Radishchev the reputation of being the precursor of the radical nineteenth-century intelligensia.

Bibliography

Clardy, Jesse V. (1964). The Philosophical Ideas of Alexander Radishchev. New York: Astra Books.

Lang, David M. (1959). The First Russian Radical: Alexander Radishchev (1749 - 1802). London: Allen and Unwin.

McConnell, Allen. (1964). A Russian Philosophe: Alexander Radishchev 1749 - 1802. The Hague: Nijhoff.

—W. GARETH JONES

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

Aleksandr Nikolayevich Radishchev
Earlier than 1790. By unknown author
Born	August 31, 1749(1749-08-31) Moscow, Russian Empire
Died	September 24, 1802 (aged 53) Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire
Occupation	Writer

Aleksandr Nikolayevich Radishchev (Russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Ради́щев) (August 31, 1749 – September 24, 1802) was a Russian author and social critic who was arrested and exiled under Catherine the Great. He brought the tradition of radicalism in Russian literature to prominence with the publication in 1790 of his Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. His depiction of socio-economic conditions in Russia earned him exile to Siberia until 1797.

Radishchev was born into a minor noble family on an estate just outside of Moscow. His youth was spent with a relative in Moscow, where he was allowed to spend time at the newly established Moscow University. His family connections provided him with an opportunity to serve as a page in Catherine's court, where his exceptional service and intellectual capabilities set him apart. Because of his exceptional academic promise, Radishchev was chosen of one of a dozen young students to be sent abroad to acquire Western learning. For several years he studied at the University of Leipzig. His foreign education influenced his approach to Russian society, and upon his return he hoped to incorporate Enlightenment philosophies such as natural law and the social contract to Russian conditions. He lauded revolutionaries like George Washington and praised the early stages of the French Revolution. His most famous work - A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow - is a critique of Russian society. He was especially critical of serfdom and the limits to personal freedom imposed by the autocracy.

Catherine the Great read the work, viewed Radishchev's calls for reform as evidence of Jacobin-style radicalism, and ordered copies of the text confiscated and destroyed. He was arrested and condemned to death. This sentence was later commuted to exile to Ilimsk in Siberia, though before his exile he underwent both physical and psychological torture.

Radishchev was freed by Catherine's successor Tsar Paul, and attempted again to push for reforms in Russia's government. Under the reign of Alexander I, Radishchev was briefly employed to help revise Russian law, a realization of his lifelong dream. Unfortunately, his tenure in this administrative body was short and unsuccessful. In 1802 a despondent Radishchev - possibly threatened with another Siberian exile - committed suicide by drinking poison.

See also

• Nikolay Novikov
• the Decembrists

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Persondata
NAME	Radishchev, Aleksandr Nikolayevich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Writer
DATE OF BIRTH	August 31, 1749
PLACE OF BIRTH	Moscow
DATE OF DEATH	September 24, 1802
PLACE OF DEATH

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