Aleksandr Radishchev
born Aug. 20 [Aug. 31, New Style],
1749, Moscow, Russia
died Sept. 12 [Sept. 24], 1802, St.
Petersburg
writer who founded the revolutionary
tradition in Russian literature and
thought.
Radishchev, a nobleman, was educated
in Moscow (1757–62), at the St.
Petersburg Corps of Pages (1763–66), and
at Leipzig, where he studied law
(1766–71). His career as a civil servant
brought him into contact with people
from all social strata. Under the
influence of the cult of sentiment
developed by such writers as
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, he wrote his most
important work, Puteshestvie iz
Peterburga v Moskvu (1790; A Journey
from St. Petersburg to Moscow), in which
he collected, within the framework of an
imaginary journey, all the examples of
social injustice, wretchedness, and
brutality he had seen. Though the book
was an indictment of serfdom, autocracy,
and censorship, Radishchev intended it
for the enlightenment of Catherine the
Great, who he assumed was unaware of
such conditions. Its unfortunate timing
(the year after the French Revolution)
led to his immediate arrest and sentence
to death. The sentence was commuted to
10 years’ exile in Siberia, where he
remained until 1797.
Radishchev’s harsh treatment chilled
liberal hopes for reform. In 1801 he was
pardoned by Alexander I and employed by
the government to draft legal reforms,
but he committed suicide a year later.
Though his work has slight claim to
literary quality, his fame was great and
his thought inspired later generations,
especially the Decembrists, an elite
group of intellectuals and noblemen who
staged an abortive rebellion against
autocracy in 1825.
Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev
(Russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич
Ради́щев; 31 August [O.S. 20 August]
1749 – 24 September [O.S. 12 September]
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.
The Journey From St. Petersburg to
Moscow (in Russian: Путешествие из
Петербурга в Москву), published in 1790,
was the most famous work by the Russian
writer Aleksandr Nikolayevich
Radishchev.
The work, often described as a
Russian Uncle Tom's Cabin, is a
polemical study of the problems in the
Russia of Catherine the Great - serfdom,
the powers of the nobility, the issues
in government and governance, social
structure and personal freedom and
liberty.
The book was immediately banned and
Radishchev sentenced, first to death,
then to banishment in eastern Siberia.
It was not freely published in Russia
until 1905.
In the book Radishchev takes an
imaginary journey between Russia's two
principal cities; each stop along the
way reveals particular problems for the
traveller through the medium of story
telling.
The book itself represented a
challenge to Catherine in Russia,
despite the fact that Radishchev was no
revolutionary - merely an observer of
the ills he saw within Russian society
and government at the time.
Published during the period of the
French Revolution, the book borrows
ideas and principles from the great
philosophes of the day relating to an
enlightened outlook and the concept of
Natural Law.
