home › Cooling system › Chernyshevsky short biography is the most interesting. Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky: biography, activities, life story and quotes

Chernyshevsky short biography is the most interesting. Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky: biography, activities, life story and quotes

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky (1828-1889) - literary critic, publicist, writer.

Chernyshevsky was born on July 12, 1828 in Saratov. Father, both grandfathers and maternal great-grandfather were priests. From childhood, he grew up in an atmosphere of a patriarchal family and did not need anything.

According to family tradition, in 1842 Nikolai Chernyshevsky entered the Saratov Theological Seminary. However, he was not interested in cramming church texts. He was mainly engaged in self-education, studying languages, history, geography, and literature.

In the end, he left the seminary and in May 1846 entered St. Petersburg University in the historical and philological department of the philosophical faculty. Church commandments were replaced by the ideas of the French utopian socialists.

In 1850, Chernyshevsky graduated from the university and was assigned to the Saratov gymnasium, where he appeared in the spring of the following year. However, the gymnasium audience is clearly not enough to present ideas about the reorganization of society, and the authorities do not welcome this.

In the spring of 1853, Chernyshevsky married the daughter of a Saratov doctor, Olga Sokratovna Vasilyeva. There was love on his part. From her - the desire to free herself from the guardianship of her parents, who considered her "an overly lively girl." Chernyshevsky understood this. In turn, he warned the bride that he did not know how long he would be free, that on any day he could be arrested and put in a fortress. A few days after the wedding, Chernyshevsky and his wife left for St. Petersburg.

Ideas N.G. Chernyshevsky bored Olga Sokratovna. She aspired to female happiness, as she herself understood it. Chernyshevsky gave his wife complete freedom. Moreover, he did everything possible to ensure this freedom.

At the beginning of 1854, Chernyshevsky joined the Sovremennik magazine and soon became one of the leaders, together with N.A. Nekrasov and N.A. Dobrolyubov. Having survived from the magazine of liberal writers, he took up the rationale for the peasant socialist revolution. To bring a "bright future" closer, in the early 1860s. took part in the creation of the underground organization "Land and Freedom".

Since 1861, Chernyshevsky was under the secret supervision of the gendarmerie, as he was suspected of "constantly inciting hostile feelings towards the government." In the summer of 1862 he was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In solitary confinement, Chernyshevsky wrote the novel "What Is To Be Done?" in four months. It was published in 1863 in Sovremennik. Before publication, the novel passed an investigation commission on the Chernyshevsky case and censorship, that is, there was no blanket ban on printing the works of the "guilty" author in despotic Russia. He appeared in the "bright future". True, later the censor was fired, and the novel was banned.

In 1864, Chernyshevsky was found guilty "of taking measures to overthrow the existing order of government." After the civil execution, he was sent to Siberia. Release was offered in 1874, but he refused to petition for clemency. In 1883 Chernyshevsky was allowed to settle in Astrakhan under police supervision. It was a mercy: recently the Narodnaya Volya killed Alexander II. He was met by the aged Olga Sokratovna and adult sons. All around was a new, alien life.

After much trouble, in the summer of 1889, Chernyshevsky was allowed to move to his homeland, to Saratov. He left her full of hope, and returned old, sick, useless. Of the last 28 years of his life, he spent more than twenty in prison and exile.

On October 17, 1889, the utopian philosopher and democratic revolutionary Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Biography of Chernyshevsky

1828. July 12 (July 24) - Nikolai Chernyshevsky was born in Saratov, in the family of the priest Gabriel Ivanovich Chernyshevsky.
1835. Summer - the beginning of studies under the guidance of his father.
1836. December - Nikolai Chernyshevsky was enrolled in the Saratov Theological School.
1842. September - Chernyshevsky entered the Saratov Theological Seminary.
1846. May - Chernyshevsky left Saratov for St. Petersburg to enter the university. Summer - Chernyshevsky was enrolled in the historical and philological department of the philosophical faculty of St. Petersburg University.
1848. Spring - Chernyshevsky's interest in revolutionary events in France and other European countries. Belief in the proximity and inevitability of revolution in Russia.
1850. Graduation from the university. Appointment to the Saratov gymnasium as a senior teacher of Russian literature.
1851. Spring - departure to Saratov.
1853. Spring - marriage to O.S. Vasilyeva. May - departure with his wife to St. Petersburg. Admission as a teacher of literature in the 2nd St. Petersburg Cadet Corps.
1854. Beginning of work with Nekrasov in Sovremennik.
1855. May - public defense of Chernyshevsky's master's thesis "Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality".
1856. Acquaintance and rapprochement with N.A. Dobrolyubov. Nekrasov, going abroad for treatment, transferred editorial rights to Sovremennik to Chernyshevsky.
1857. Chernyshevsky handed over to Dobrolyubov the literary-critical department of the journal and took up philosophical, historical, political and economic issues, in particular, the issue of the liberation of the peasants from serfdom.
1858. In No. 1 of Sovremennik, the article "Cavaignac" was published, in which Chernyshevsky scolded the liberals for betraying the people's cause.
1859 Chernyshevsky began publishing reviews of foreign political life in the Sovremennik magazine. June - a trip to London to Herzen to explain about the article "Very dangerous!", printed in the "Bell".
1860. Article "Capital and Labor". From the second issue of Sovremennik, Chernyshevsky began to publish his translation in the journal with comments on D.S. Mill.
1861. August - proclamations were received by the Third Department: "To the lord's peasants" (N.G. Chernyshevsky) and "Russian soldiers" (N.V. Shelgunov). Autumn - Chernyshevsky, according to A.A. Sleptsov, discussed with him the organization of the secret society "Land and Freedom". The police established surveillance of Chernyshevsky and instructed the governors not to issue a foreign passport to Chernyshevsky.
1862. Censorship forbade the printing of Chernyshevsky's "Letters without an Address", since the article contained sharp criticism of the peasant reform and the situation in the country. June - Sovremennik was banned for eight months. July 7 - Chernyshevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
1863. In No. 3 of Sovremennik, the beginning of the novel What Is To Be Done? is printed. Subsequent parts are printed in Nos. 4 and 5.
1864. May 19 - public "civil execution" of Chernyshevsky on Mytninskaya Square in St. Petersburg and exile to Siberia. August - Chernyshevsky arrived at the Kadai mine in Transbaikalia.
1866. August - O.S. Chernyshevskaya with her son Mikhail came to Kadai to meet with N.G. Chernyshevsky. September - Nikolai Chernyshevsky was sent from the Kadai mine to the Aleksandrovsky plant.
1871. February - the revolutionary populist German Lopatin, who came to Russia from London to free Chernyshevsky, was arrested in Irkutsk. December - Chernyshevsky was sent from the Aleksandrovsky plant to Vilyuisk.
1874. Refusal of Chernyshevsky to write a petition for pardon.
1875. I. Myshkin's attempt to release Chernyshevsky.
1883. Chernyshevsky was transferred from Vilyuisk to Astrakhan under police supervision.
1884-1888. In Astrakhan, Chernyshevsky prepared "Materials for the biography of Dobrolyubov", eleven volumes of Weber's "General History" were translated from German.
1889. June - Chernyshevsky moved to Saratov. October 17 (October 29) - Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Chernyshevsky - "What to do?"

In Soviet biographical literature, N.G. Chernyshevsky, along with N.A. Dobrolyubov, was famous as a talented critic, philosopher, courageous publicist, "revolutionary democrat" and fighter for the bright socialist future of the Russian people. Today's critics, doing the hard work on historical mistakes that have already been made, sometimes fall into the other extreme. Completely overturning the previous positive assessments of many events and ideas, denying the contribution of this or that person to the development of national culture, they only anticipate future mistakes and prepare the ground for the next overthrow of the newly created idols.

Nevertheless, I would like to believe that in relation to N.G. Chernyshevsky and similar "blowers of world fire", history has already said its final weighty word.

It was the ideas of the utopian revolutionaries, who largely idealized the very process of changing the state system, calling for universal equality and fraternity, that already in the 50s of the 19th century planted seeds of discord and subsequent violence in Russian soil. By the beginning of the 1880s, with the criminal connivance of the state and society, they gave their bloody sprouts, sprouted significantly by 1905 and boomed after 1917, almost drowning one-sixth of the land in the wave of the most brutal fratricidal war.

Human nature is such that sometimes entire nations tend to keep the memory of already accomplished national catastrophes for a long time, to experience and evaluate their disastrous consequences, but not always and not everyone manages to remember how it all began? What was the reason, the beginning? What was the “first small pebble” that rolled down the mountain and caused a destructive, merciless avalanche? White Movement, but he is unlikely to be able to answer something intelligible about the current "anti-heroes" - Lavrov, Nechaev, Martov, Plekhanov, Nekrasov, Dobrolyubov or the same Chernyshevsky. Today, N.G. Chernyshevsky is included in all the “black lists” of names that have no place on the map of our country. His works have not been republished since Soviet times, because this is the most unclaimed literature in libraries, and the most unclaimed texts on Internet resources. Such “selectivity” in shaping the worldview of the younger generation, unfortunately, every year makes our long and recent past more and more unpredictable. So let's not make it worse...

Biography of N.G. Chernyshevsky

early years

N.G. Chernyshevsky was born in Saratov in the family of a priest and, as his parents expected of him, he studied for three years (1842–1845) at the theological seminary. However, for the young man, as well as for many other of his peers, who came from a spiritual environment, seminary education did not become a path to God and the church. Rather, on the contrary, like many seminarians of that time, Chernyshevsky did not want to accept the doctrine of official Orthodoxy instilled in him by his teachers. He refused not only from religion, but also from the recognition of the orders that existed in Russia as a whole.

From 1846 to the 1850s, Chernyshevsky studied at the historical and philological department of St. Petersburg University. During this period, a circle of interests developed that would later determine the main themes of his work. In addition to Russian literature, the young man studied the famous French historians - F. Guizot and J. Michelet - scientists who made a revolution in historical science in the 19th century. They were among the first to look at the historical process not as the result of the activities of exceptionally great people - kings, politicians, military men. The French historical school of the middle of the 19th century put the masses of the people at the center of its research - a view, of course, already at that time close to Chernyshevsky and many of his associates. No less significant for the formation of the views of the young generation of Russian people was Western philosophy. Chernyshevsky's worldview, which was formed mainly in his student years, was formed under the influence of the works of the classics of German philosophy, English political economy, French utopian socialism (G. Hegel, L. Feuerbach, C. Fourier), the works of V.G. Belinsky and A.I. Herzen. Of the writers, he highly appreciated the works of A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, but the best modern poet, oddly enough, was considered by N.A. Nekrasov. (Maybe because there was no other rhymed journalism yet? ..)

At the university, Chernyshevsky became a convinced Fourierist. All his life he remained faithful to this most dreamy of the doctrines of socialism, trying to link it with the political processes that took place in Russia during the era of the reforms of Alexander II.

In 1850, Chernyshevsky successfully completed the course as a candidate and left for Saratov, where he immediately received a position as a senior gymnasium teacher. Apparently, already at that time he dreamed more about the coming revolution than he was engaged in teaching his students. In any case, the young teacher clearly did not hide his rebellious moods from the gymnasium students, which inevitably caused dissatisfaction with the authorities.

In 1853, Chernyshevsky married Olga Sokratovna Vasilyeva, a woman who subsequently evoked the most conflicting feelings among her husband's friends and acquaintances. Some considered her an extraordinary personality, a worthy friend and inspirer of the writer. Others sharply condemned for frivolity and neglect of the interests and creativity of her husband. Be that as it may, Chernyshevsky himself not only loved his young wife very much, but also considered their marriage a kind of "testing ground" for testing new ideas. In his opinion, a new, free life had to be approached and prepared. First of all, of course, one should strive for revolution, but liberation from any form of slavery and oppression, including family oppression, was also welcomed. That is why the writer preached the absolute equality of spouses in marriage - a truly revolutionary idea for that time. Moreover, he believed that women, as one of the most oppressed groups of the then society, should have been given maximum freedom in order to achieve true equality. This is exactly what Nikolai Gavrilovich did in his family life, allowing his wife everything, up to adultery, believing that he could not consider his wife as his property. Later, the personal experience of the writer, of course, was reflected in the love line of the novel What Is To Be Done?. In Western literature, for a long time he appeared under the name "Russian triangle" - one woman and two men.

N.G. Chernyshevsky married, contrary to the will of his parents, not even having endured the period of mourning for his recently deceased mother before the wedding. The father hoped that his son would stay with him for some time, but in the young family everything was subordinated only to the will of Olga Sokratovna. At her insistence, the Chernyshevskys hastily move from provincial Saratov to St. Petersburg. This move was more like an escape: an escape from parents, from family, from worldly gossip and prejudice to a new life. In St. Petersburg, Chernyshevsky began his career as a publicist. At first, however, the future revolutionary tried to work modestly in the public service - he took the place of a Russian language teacher in the Second Cadet Corps, but lasted no more than a year. Fascinated by his ideas, Chernyshevsky, obviously, was not too demanding and diligent in the education of military youth. Left to their own devices, his wards did almost nothing, which caused a conflict with the educator officers, and Chernyshevsky was forced to leave the service.

Aesthetic views of Chernyshevsky

Chernyshevsky's literary activity began in 1853 with small articles in the St. Petersburg Vedomosti and Otechestvennye Zapiski. Soon he met N.A. Nekrasov, and at the beginning of 1854 he moved to a permanent job in the Sovremennik magazine. In 1855 - 1862, Chernyshevsky was one of its leaders along with N.A. Nekrasov and N.A. Dobrolyubov. In the first years of his work in the journal, Chernyshevsky concentrated mainly on literary problems - the political situation in Russia in the mid-fifties did not provide an opportunity to express revolutionary ideas.

In 1855, Chernyshevsky took the exam for a master's degree, presenting as a dissertation the discourse "The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality", where he abandoned the search for beauty in the abstract sublime spheres of "pure art", formulating his thesis - "beautiful is life." Art, according to Chernyshevsky, should not revel in itself - whether it be beautiful phrases or paint thinly applied to the canvas. A description of the bitter life of a poor peasant can be much more beautiful than wonderful love poems, as it will benefit people ...

The dissertation was accepted and allowed to be defended, but Chernyshevsky was not given a master's degree. In the middle of the 19th century, obviously, there were different requirements for dissertations than now, only scientific activity, even humanitarian, always involves research and testing (in this case, proof) of its results. There is no mention of either the first or the second in the dissertation of the philologist Chernyshevsky. The applicant's abstract arguments about materialistic aesthetics and the revision of the philosophical principles of the approach to evaluating the "beautiful" in the scientific community were perceived as complete nonsense. University officials even regarded them as a revolutionary performance. However, Chernyshevsky's dissertation, rejected by his fellow philologists, found a wide response among the liberal-democratic intelligentsia. The same university professors - moderate liberals - criticized in detail in journals a purely materialistic approach to the problem of understanding the goals and objectives of contemporary art. And that was a mistake! If the arguments about the “usefulness of describing the bitter life of the people” and calls to make it better were completely ignored by the “specialists”, they would hardly have caused such heated discussions in the artistic environment of the second half of the 19th century. Perhaps Russian literature, painting, and musical art would have avoided the dominance of “lead abominations” and “groans of the people”, and the whole history of the country would have taken a different path ... Nevertheless, after three and a half years, Chernyshevsky's dissertation was approved. In Soviet times, it became almost the catechism of all adherents of socialist realism in art.

Thoughts about the relationship of art to reality Chernyshevsky also developed in his "Essays on the Gogol period of Russian literature" published in Sovremennik in 1855. The author of the Essays was fluent in the Russian literary language, which even today looks modern and is easily perceived by the reader. His critical articles are written lively, polemically, and interestingly. They were enthusiastically received by the liberal democratic public and the writing community of those days. Having analyzed the most outstanding literary works of previous decades (Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol), Chernyshevsky considered them through the prism of his own ideas about art. If the main task of literature, as well as art in general, is a true reflection of reality (according to the method of the akyn singer: “what I see, I sing”), then only those works that fully reflect the “truth of life” can be recognized "good". And those in which this “truth” is lacking are considered by Chernyshevsky as inventions of aesthetic idealists, which have nothing to do with literature. Chernyshevsky took the work of N.V. Gogol - one of the most mystical and to this day unsolved Russian writers of the 19th century. It was Chernyshevsky, following Belinsky, who labeled him and other authors who were completely misunderstood by democratic criticism as "severe realists" and "denouncers" of the vices of Russian reality. Within the narrow framework of these ideas, the work of Gogol, Ostrovsky, Goncharov was considered by domestic literary critics for many years, and then entered into all school textbooks on Russian literature.

But as V. Nabokov, one of the most attentive and sensitive critics of Chernyshevsky's legacy, later noted, the author himself was never a "realist" in the truest sense of the word. The ideal nature of his worldview, prone to creating various kinds of utopias, constantly needed Chernyshevsky to force himself to look for beauty not in his own imagination, but in real life.

The definition of the concept of “beautiful” in his dissertation is completely as follows: “Beautiful is life; beautiful is that being in which we see life such as it should be according to our concepts; beautiful is the object that shows life in itself or reminds us of life.

What exactly this “real life” should be, the dreamer Chernyshevsky, perhaps, himself had no idea. Chasing the ghostly "reality", which seemed to him an ideal, he did not call on his contemporaries, but persuaded, first of all, himself to return from an imaginary world, where he was much more comfortable and interesting, to the world of other people. Most likely, Chernyshevsky failed to do this. Hence - and his "revolution" as an ideal end in itself, and utopian "dreams" about a just society and universal happiness, and the fundamental impossibility of a productive dialogue with real-minded people.

"Contemporary" (late 1850s - early 60s)

Meanwhile, the political situation in the country in the late 1850s changed fundamentally. The new sovereign, Alexander II, having ascended the throne, clearly understood that Russia needed reforms. From the first years of his reign, he began preparations for the abolition of serfdom. The country lived in anticipation of change. Despite the persistence of censorship, the liberalization of all aspects of society's life has fully affected the media, causing the emergence of new periodicals of various kinds.

The editors of Sovremennik, whose leaders were Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov and Nekrasov, of course, could not stay away from the events taking place in the country. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Chernyshevsky published a great deal, using any pretext to openly or covertly express his "revolutionary" views. In 1858-1862, the journalistic (Chernyshevsky) and literary-critical (Dobrolyubov) departments came to the fore in Sovremennik. The Literary and Art Department, despite the fact that Saltykov-Shchedrin, N. Uspensky, Pomyalovsky, Sleptsov and other famous authors published in it, faded into the background during these years. Gradually Sovremennik became an organ of representatives of revolutionary democracy and ideologists of the peasant revolution. Authors-nobles (Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, Grigorovich) felt uncomfortable here and forever departed from the activities of the editorial board. It was Chernyshevsky who became the ideological leader and the most published author of Sovremennik. His sharp, controversial articles attracted readers, maintaining the competitiveness of the publication in the changing market conditions. Sovremennik during these years acquired the authority of the main organ of revolutionary democracy, significantly expanded its audience, and its circulation grew continuously, bringing considerable profits to the editors.

Modern researchers admit that the activities of the Sovremennik, headed by Chernyshevsky, Nekrasov and Dobrolyubov, had a decisive influence on the formation of literary tastes and public opinion in the 1860s. It gave rise to a whole generation of so-called "nihilists of the sixties", which found a very caricature reflection in the works of the classics of Russian literature: I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy.

Unlike the liberal thinkers of the late 1850s, the revolutionary Chernyshevsky believed that the peasants should receive freedom and allotments without any redemption, since the power of the landlords over them and their ownership of land is not fair by definition. Moreover, the peasant reform was supposed to be the first step towards a revolution, after which private property would disappear altogether, and people, appreciating the charm of joint labor, would live united in free associations based on universal equality.

Chernyshevsky, like many others of his like-minded people, had no doubt that the peasants would eventually share their socialist ideas. As proof of this, they considered the commitment of the peasants to the "peace", the community, which solved all the main issues of village life, and was formally considered the owner of all peasant land. The community members, according to the revolutionaries, had to follow them to a new life, despite the fact that in order to achieve the ideal, of course, it was necessary to carry out an armed coup.

At the same time, neither Chernyshevsky himself nor his radical supporters were at all embarrassed by the “side” phenomena that, as a rule, accompany any coup or redistribution of property. The general decline of the national economy, famine, violence, executions, murders, and even a possible civil war were already foreseen by the ideologists of the revolutionary movement, but for them the great goal always justified the means.

It was impossible to openly discuss such things in the pages of Sovremennik, even in the liberal atmosphere of the late 1950s. Therefore, Chernyshevsky in his articles used many ingenious ways to deceive the censorship. Almost any topic he took on - whether it was a literary review or an analysis of a historical study on the French Revolution, or an article on the situation of slaves in the United States - he managed to explicitly or implicitly connect with his revolutionary ideas. The reader was extremely interested in this "reading between the lines", and thanks to a bold game with the authorities, Chernyshevsky soon became the idol of the revolutionary-minded youth, who did not want to stop there as a result of liberal reforms.

Confrontation with authority: 1861-1862

What happened next is perhaps one of the most difficult pages in the history of our country, evidence of a tragic misunderstanding between the authorities and the majority of educated society, which almost led to a civil war and a national catastrophe already in the mid-1860s ...

The state, having freed the peasants in 1861, began preparing new reforms in almost every area of state activity. And the revolutionaries, largely inspired by Chernyshevsky and his like-minded people, were waiting for a peasant uprising, which, to their surprise, did not happen. From here, young impatient people drew a clear conclusion: if the people do not understand the need for a revolution, they need to explain this, call on the peasants to take active actions against the government.

The beginning of the 1860s was the time of the emergence of numerous revolutionary circles, striving for vigorous action for the benefit of the people. As a result, proclamations began to circulate in St. Petersburg, sometimes quite bloodthirsty, calling for an uprising and the overthrow of the existing system. From the summer of 1861 to the spring of 1862, Chernyshevsky was the ideological inspirer and adviser to the revolutionary organization Land and Freedom. From September 1861 he was under secret police surveillance.

Meanwhile, the situation in the capitals and throughout the country has become quite tense. Both the revolutionaries and the government believed that an explosion could occur at any moment. As a result, when fires broke out in St. Petersburg in the stuffy summer of 1862, rumors immediately spread around the city that this was the work of the “nihilists”. Supporters of tough actions immediately reacted - the publication of Sovremennik, which was reasonably considered a distributor of revolutionary ideas, was suspended for 8 months.

Shortly thereafter, the authorities intercepted a letter from A.I. Herzen, who had been in exile for fifteen years. Upon learning of the closure of Sovremennik, he wrote to the magazine's employee, N.A. Serno-Solov'evich, offering to continue publishing abroad. The letter was used as a pretext, and on July 7, 1862, Chernyshevsky and Serno-Solovyevich were arrested and placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress. However, no other evidence was found that would confirm the close ties of the editors of Sovremennik with political emigrants. As a result, N.G. Chernyshevsky was charged with writing and distributing a proclamation “Bow to the lordly peasants from their well-wishers.” Scholars to this day have not come to a unified conclusion as to whether Chernyshevsky was the author of this revolutionary appeal. One thing is clear - the authorities did not have such evidence, so they had to convict the accused on the basis of false testimony and falsified documents.

In May 1864, Chernyshevsky was found guilty, sentenced to seven years hard labor and exiled to Siberia for the rest of his life. On May 19, 1864, the rite of "civil execution" was publicly performed over him - the writer was taken to the square, a board with the inscription "state criminal" hung on his chest, a sword was broken over his head and forced to stand for several hours, chained to a post.

"What to do?"

While the investigation was going on, Chernyshevsky wrote his main book in the fortress - the novel What Is To Be Done? The literary merit of this book is not too high. Most likely, Chernyshevsky did not even imagine that they would evaluate it as a truly work of art, include it in the school curriculum on Russian literature (!) And force innocent children to write essays about Vera Pavlovna's dreams, to compare the image of Rakhmetov with an equally magnificent caricature Bazarov, etc. For the author - a political prisoner under investigation - at that moment it was most important to express his ideas. Naturally, it was easier to dress them in the form of a "fantastic" novel than a journalistic work.

In the center of the plot of the novel is the story of a young girl, Vera Rozalskaya, Vera Pavlovna, leaving her family in order to free herself from the oppression of her despotic mother. The only way to take such a step at that time could be marriage, and Vera Pavlovna enters into a fictitious marriage with her teacher Lopukhov. Gradually, a real feeling arises between young people, and a fictitious marriage becomes real, however, family life is organized in such a way that both spouses feel free. Neither of them can enter the other's room without his permission, each respects the human rights of his partner. That is why, when Vera Pavlovna falls in love with Kirsanov, a friend of her husband, Lopukhov, who does not consider his wife as his property, fakes his own suicide, thus giving her freedom. Later, Lopukhov, already under a different name, will settle in the same house with the Kirsanovs. He will not be tormented by either jealousy or wounded pride, since he values the freedom of the human person most of all.

However, the love affair of the novel "What is to be done?" is not exhausted. Having told the reader how to overcome difficulties in human relations, Chernyshevsky also offers his own version of solving economic problems. Vera Pavlovna starts a sewing workshop, organized on the basis of an association, or, as we would say today, a cooperative. According to the author, this was no less important step towards the restructuring of all human and social relations than the liberation from parental or marital oppression. What humanity must come to at the end of this road appears to Vera Pavlovna in four symbolic dreams. So, in the fourth dream, she sees a happy future for people, arranged the way Charles Fourier dreamed about it: everyone lives together in one big beautiful building, work together, relax together, respect the interests of each individual, and at the same time work for the good of society.

Naturally, a revolution was supposed to bring this socialist paradise closer. Of course, the prisoner of the Peter and Paul Fortress could not write about this openly, but he scattered allusions throughout the text of his book. Lopukhov and Kirsanov are clearly connected with the revolutionary movement, or at least sympathize with it.

A man appears in the novel, although not called a revolutionary, but singled out as "special". This is Rakhmetov, leading an ascetic lifestyle, constantly training his strength, even trying to sleep on nails to test his endurance, obviously in case of arrest, reading only “capital” books so as not to be distracted by trifles from the main business of his life. The romantic image of Rakhmetov today can only cause Homeric laughter, but many mentally healthy people of the 60s and 70s of the 19th century sincerely admired him and perceived this “superman” almost as an ideal personality.

The revolution, as Chernyshevsky hoped, was to happen very soon. From time to time, a lady in black appears on the pages of the novel, grieving for her husband. At the end of the novel, in the chapter "Change of Scenery", she no longer appears in black, but in pink, accompanied by a certain gentleman. Obviously, while working on his book in the cell of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the writer could not help but think about his wife, and hoped for his early release, knowing full well that this could only happen as a result of the revolution.

The emphatically entertaining, adventurous, melodramatic beginning of the novel, according to the author's calculations, should not only attract the broad masses of readers, but also confuse censorship. Since January 1863, the manuscript was handed over in parts to the commission of inquiry in the case of Chernyshevsky (the last part was handed over on April 6). As the writer expected, the commission saw only a love line in the novel and gave permission for publication. The censor of Sovremennik, impressed by the “permissive” conclusion of the commission of inquiry, did not read the manuscript at all, handing it over without changes to N.A. Nekrasov.

The oversight of censorship, of course, was soon noticed. The responsible censor Beketov was removed from his post, but it was too late...

However, the publications "What to do?" preceded by one dramatic episode, known from the words of N.A. Nekrasov. Having taken the only copy of the manuscript from the censors, the editor Nekrasov mysteriously lost it on the way to the printing house and did not immediately discover the loss. But it was as if Providence itself wanted Chernyshevsky's novel to see the light of day! Having little hope of success, Nekrasov placed an ad in the Vedomosti of the St. Petersburg City Police, and four days later some poor official brought a bundle with the manuscript directly to the poet’s apartment.

The novel was published in the Sovremennik magazine (1863, No. 3-5).

When the censorship came to their senses, the issues of Sovremennik, in which What Is to Be Done? were printed, were immediately banned. Only to seize the entire already dispersed circulation of the police turned out to be beyond their power. The text of the novel in handwritten copies scattered around the country at the speed of light and caused a lot of imitations. Certainly not literary.

The writer N.S. Leskov later recalled:

The date of the publication of the novel What Is to Be Done?, by and large, should be included in the calendar of Russian history as one of the blackest dates. For a kind of echo of this "brainstorming" is heard in our minds to this day.

To the comparatively “innocent” consequences of the publication of What Is to Be Done? can be attributed to the emergence in society of the keenest interest in the women's issue. There were more than enough girls who wanted to follow the example of Verochka Rozalskaya in the 1860s. “Fictitious marriages with the aim of freeing generals and merchants' daughters from the yoke of family despotism in imitation of Lopukhov and Vera Pavlovna have become a common occurrence in life,” a contemporary argued.

What was previously considered ordinary depravity was now beautifully called "following the principle of reasonable selfishness." By the beginning of the 20th century, the ideal of “free relations” introduced in the novel led to the complete leveling of family values in the eyes of educated youth. The authority of parents, the institution of marriage, the problem of moral responsibility to close people - all this was declared "remnants" incompatible with the spiritual needs of the "new" person.

The entry of a woman into a fictitious marriage was in itself a bold civil act. At the heart of such a decision lay, as a rule, the most noble thoughts: to free themselves from the family yoke in order to serve the people. In the future, the paths of liberated women diverged depending on the understanding of each of them of this ministry. For some, the goal is knowledge, in order to have a say in science or to become an educator of the people. But another path was more logical and widespread, when the struggle against family despotism directly led women into the revolution.

A direct consequence of "What to do?" the later revolutionary theory of the general's daughter Shurochka Kollontai about the "glass of water" appears, and the poet V. Mayakovsky, who for many years formed a "triple alliance" with the Brik spouses, made Chernyshevsky's novel his reference book.

“The life described in it echoed ours. Mayakovsky, as it were, consulted with Chernyshevsky about his personal affairs, found support in him. “What to do?” was the last book he read before his death…”,- recalled the cohabitant and biographer of Mayakovsky L.O. Brik.

However, the most important and tragic consequence of the publication of Chernyshevsky's work was the indisputable fact that a myriad of young people of both sexes, inspired by the novel, decided to become revolutionaries.

The ideologist of anarchism P.A. Kropotkin stated without exaggeration:

The younger generation, brought up on a book written in a fortress by a political criminal and banned by the government, turned out to be hostile to the royal power. All the liberal reforms carried out "from above" in the 1860s and 70s failed to create grounds for a reasonable dialogue between society and the authorities; failed to reconcile the radical youth with Russian reality. The “nihilists” of the 60s, under the influence of Vera Pavlovna’s “dreams” and the unforgettable image of the “superman” Rakhmetov, smoothly evolved into those very revolutionary “demons” armed with bombs that killed Alexander II on March 1, 1881. At the beginning of the 20th century, taking into account the criticism of F.M. Dostoevsky and his reflections on the “tear of a child”, they have already terrorized the whole of Russia: with virtually impunity they shot and blew up the grand dukes, ministers, high government officials, in the words of the long-dead Marx, Engels, Dobrolyubov, Chernyshevsky led revolutionary agitation among the masses ...

Today, from the height of centuries, one can only regret that the tsarist government did not guess in the 1860s to completely abolish censorship and allow every bored graphomaniac to create works like “What is to be done?” Moreover, the novel had to be included in the educational program, forcing high school students and students to write essays on it, and “Vera Pavlovna’s fourth dream” to be memorized for playback at the exam in the presence of the commission. Then it would hardly have occurred to anyone to print the text “What to do?” in underground printing houses, distribute it in lists, and even more so - read it ...

Years in exile

N. G. Chernyshevsky himself practically did not participate in the turbulent social movement of the following decades. After the rite of civil execution on Mytninskaya Square, he was sent to Nerchinsk penal servitude (Kadai mine on the Mongolian border; in 1866 he was transferred to the Alexander Plant of the Nerchinsk district). During his stay in Kadai, he was allowed a three-day visit with his wife and two young sons.

Olga Sokratovna, unlike the wives of the "Decembrists", did not follow her revolutionary husband. She was neither an associate of Chernyshevsky, nor a member of the revolutionary underground, as some Soviet researchers tried to present in their time. Mrs. Chernyshevskaya continued to live with her children in St. Petersburg, did not shy away from secular entertainment, and started romances. According to some contemporaries, despite a stormy personal life, this woman never loved anyone, so for the masochist and henpecked Chernyshevsky, she remained an ideal. In the early 1880s, Olga Sokratovna moved to Saratov, in 1883 the couple reunited after a 20-year separation. As a bibliographer, Olga Sokratovna provided invaluable assistance in the work on the publications of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov in St. Petersburg journals of the 1850s and 60s, including Sovremennik. She managed to inspire her sons, who practically did not remember their father (when Chernyshevsky was arrested, one was 4, the other 8 years old), with deep respect for the personality of Nikolai Gavrilovich. The younger son of N.G. Chernyshevsky, Mikhail Nikolayevich, did a lot to create and preserve the current Chernyshevsky house-museum in Saratov, as well as to study and publish the creative heritage of his father.

In the revolutionary circles of Russia and political emigration around N.G. Chernyshevsky, an aura of a martyr was immediately created. His image has become almost a revolutionary icon.

Not a single student gathering was complete without mentioning the name of the sufferer for the cause of the revolution and reading his forbidden works.

"In the history of our literature...- G.V. Plekhanov wrote later, - there is nothing more tragic than the fate of N. G. Chernyshevsky. It’s hard to even imagine how much severe suffering this literary Prometheus proudly endured during that long time when he was so methodically tormented by a police kite ... "

Meanwhile, no "kite" tormented the exiled revolutionary. Political prisoners at that time did not perform real hard labor, and in material terms, Chernyshevsky's life in hard labor was not particularly hard. At one time he even lived in a separate house, constantly receiving money from N.A. Nekrasov and Olga Sokratovna.

Moreover, the tsarist government was so merciful to its political opponents that it allowed Chernyshevsky to continue his literary activity in Siberia as well. For the performances that were sometimes staged at the Alexander Factory, Chernyshevsky composed short plays. In 1870, he wrote the novel Prologue, dedicated to the life of revolutionaries in the late fifties, just before the start of the reforms. Here, under fictitious names, real people of that era were bred, including Chernyshevsky himself. The Prologue was published in 1877 in London, but in terms of its impact on the Russian reading public, of course, it was much inferior to What Is To Be Done?

In 1871, the term of hard labor ended. Chernyshevsky was supposed to move into the category of settlers, who were given the right to choose their own place of residence within Siberia. But the chief of the gendarmes, Count P.A. Shuvalov insisted on settling him in Vilyuisk, in the harshest climate, which worsened the writer's living conditions and health. Moreover, in Vilyuisk of that time, of decent stone buildings, there was only a prison in which the exiled Chernyshevsky was forced to settle.

The revolutionaries did not give up their attempts to rescue their ideological leader for a long time. At first, members of the Ishutinsk circle, from which Karakozov left, thought about organizing Chernyshevsky's escape from exile. But Ishutin's circle was soon defeated, and the plan to save Chernyshevsky remained unfulfilled. In 1870, one of the prominent Russian revolutionaries, German Lopatin, who was closely acquainted with Karl Marx, tried to save Chernyshevsky, but was arrested before he reached Siberia. The last attempt, striking in its courage, was made in 1875 by the revolutionary Ippolit Myshkin. Dressed in the uniform of a gendarmerie officer, he appeared in Vilyuisk and presented a fake order for the extradition of Chernyshevsky to him to accompany him to Petersburg. But the false gendarme was suspected by the Vilyui authorities and had to flee for his life. Shooting back from the chase sent for him, hiding for days in the forests and swamps, Myshkin managed to escape almost 800 miles from Vilyuisk, but he was still captured.

Did Chernyshevsky himself need all these sacrifices? I think no. In 1874, he was asked to apply for a pardon, which, no doubt, would have been granted by Alexander II. A revolutionary could leave not only Siberia, but Russia in general, go abroad, reunite with his family. But Chernyshevsky was more attracted by the halo of a martyr for an idea, so he refused.

In 1883, the Minister of the Interior, Count D.A. Tolstoy petitioned for the return of Chernyshevsky from Siberia. Astrakhan was assigned to him as a place of residence. A transfer from the cold Vilyuisk to the hot southern climate could have a detrimental effect on the health of the elderly Chernyshevsky, and even kill him. But the revolutionary safely moved to Astrakhan, where he continued to be in the position of an exile under police supervision.

All the time spent in exile, he lived on funds sent by N.A. Nekrasov and his relatives. In 1878, Nekrasov died, and there was no one else to support Chernyshevsky. Therefore, in 1885, in order to somehow financially support the distressed writer, friends arranged for him to translate the 15-volume "General History" by G. Weber from the famous publisher-philanthropist K.T. Soldatenkov. In a year, Chernyshevsky translated 3 volumes, each with 1000 pages. Until volume 5, Chernyshevsky still translated literally, but then he began to make large cuts in the original text, which he did not like because of its obsolescence and narrow German point of view. Instead of the discarded passages, he began to add a number of ever-growing essays of his own composition, which naturally caused the displeasure of the publisher.

In Astrakhan, Chernyshevsky managed to translate 11 volumes.

In June 1889, at the request of the Astrakhan governor - Prince L.D. Vyazemsky, he was allowed to settle in his native Saratov. There Chernyshevsky translated two thirds of the 12th volume of Weber, it was planned to translate the 16-volume "Encyclopedic Dictionary" of Brockhaus, but excessive work tore the senile organism. A long-standing illness has become aggravated - catarrh of the stomach. Having been ill for only 2 days, Chernyshevsky, on the night of October 29 (according to the old style - from October 16 to October 17), 1889, died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Chernyshevsky's writings remained banned in Russia until the revolution of 1905-1907. Among his published and unpublished works are articles, short stories, short stories, novels, plays: "The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality" (1855), "Essays on the Gogol Period of Russian Literature" (1855 - 1856), "On Land Property" (1857), “A look at the internal relations of the United States” (1857), “Criticism of philosophical prejudices against communal ownership” (1858), “Russian man on rendez-vous” (1858, about the story of I.S. Turgenev “Asya”), “On new conditions of rural life "(1858)," On the methods of redemption of serfs "(1858)," Is it difficult to buy land? (1859), "The arrangement of the life of the landlord peasants" (1859), "Economic activity and legislation" (1859), "Superstition and the rules of logic" (1859), "Politics" (1859 - 1862; monthly reviews of international life), "Capital and Labor” (1860), “Notes to the Foundations of Political Economy” by D.S. Mill" (1860), "The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy" (1860, an exposition of the ethical theory of "reasonable egoism"), "Preface to present Austrian affairs" (February 1861), "Essays on political economy (according to Mill)" (1861), " Politics" (1861, about the conflict between the North and the South of the USA), "Letters without an address" (February 1862, published abroad in 1874), "What is to be done?" (1862 - 1863, novel; written in the Peter and Paul Fortress), "Alferyev" (1863, story), "Tales in the story" (1863 - 1864), "Small stories" (1864), "Prologue" (1867 - 1869, novel ; written in penal servitude; 1st part published in 1877 abroad), "Reflections of Radiance" (novel), "The Story of a Girl" (novel), "Mistress of Cooking Porridge" (play), "The Character of Human Knowledge" (philosophical work ), works on political, economic, philosophical topics, articles about the work of L.N. Tolstoy, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I.S. Turgenev, N.A. Nekrasova, N.V. Uspensky.

You will learn interesting facts from life in this article.

Nikolai Chernyshevsky interesting facts

In childhood, Nikolai was addicted to reading and amazed those around him with his erudition.

In official documentation and correspondence between the gendarmerie and the secret police, Chernyshevsky was called "enemy number one of the Russian Empire."

In July 1862, Chernyshevsky was arrested for ties with anti-government emigration, as well as on suspicion of revolutionary propaganda, and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Here he wrote (and was uncensored!) the novel What Is to Be Done?, which became a reference book for revolutionary-minded youth.

For 678 days of arrest, Chernyshevsky wrote text materials in the amount of at least 200 author's sheets.

In general, Chernyshevsky spent time in prison, in hard labor and in exile. over twenty years.

In 1874, he was officially offered release, but he refuses to petition for clemency.

Chernyshevsky's personal life

In 1853 he met his future wife, Olga Sokratovna Vasilyeva, with whom, after the wedding, he moved from his native Saratov to St. Petersburg. She was successful at all Saratov balls, she had no end to her fans, but Olga chose the awkward and quiet Nikolai Chernyshevsky. They had two sons.

This beautiful young woman lived her life. Fifty-degree frost in winter and unbearable heat in summer were not for her. Did Chernyshevsky know about her life? Most likely, he knew, since there was a period when he stopped writing letters, wishing Olga would forget about him. But he never stopped loving her.

Here is one of his letters:- ... My dear friend, My joy, my only love and thought, Lyalechka. It's been a long time since I wrote to you the way my heart yearned. And now, my dear, I restrain the expression of my feelings, because this letter is not for reading to You alone, but also to others, perhaps. I am writing on our wedding day. My dear joy, I thank You that my life has been illuminated by You. I have done a lot of grief to You. Sorry. You are generous. I hug you tightly and kiss your hands. In these long years, there was not, as there never will be, a single hour in which the thought of You would not give me strength. Forgive the person who has done a lot of heavy suffering to You, but who is devoted to You without limit, my dear friend. I'm perfectly healthy, as usual. Take care of your health - the only thing that is dear to me in the world ".

During his exile, Chernyshevsky was not interested in his own difficulties. He was troubled by the hardships that had fallen through his fault on the shoulders of his wife. In his letters, he asked his wife to take care of her health and hygiene. He wrote that sexual abstinence is contraindicated for women and negatively affects them. Olga was not a faithful wife..

But, in spite of everything, Nikolai Chernyshevsky loved his wife. Even in exile, he did not stop thinking about how to please her, so, snatching out crumbs of money from his meager food, he managed to save money and buy her a wonderful fox fur. Twenty long years passed before they met again. Through all these years, Nikolai Gavrilovich carried his love, he knew how to wait and love like no other.

Writer, philosopher and journalist Nikolai Chernyshevsky was popular during his lifetime in a narrow circle of readers. With the advent of Soviet power, his works (especially the novel What Is to Be Done?) became textbooks. Today his name is one of the symbols of Russian literature of the 19th century.

Childhood and youth

Nikolai Chernyshevsky, whose biography began in Saratov, was born into the family of a provincial priest. The father himself was engaged in the education of the child. From him, Chernyshevsky was transferred to religiosity, which faded away in his student years, when the young man became interested in revolutionary ideas. From childhood, Kolenka read a lot and swallowed book after book, which surprised everyone around him.

In 1843 he entered the theological seminary of Saratov, but, without graduating from it, he continued his education at the University of St. Petersburg. Chernyshevsky, whose biography was connected with the humanities, chose the Faculty of Philosophy.

At the university, the future writer was formed. He became a utopian socialist. His ideology was influenced by members of the circle of Irinarkh Vvedensky, with whom the student talked and argued a lot. At the same time, he began his literary activity. The first works of fiction were only training and remained unpublished.

Teacher and journalist

Having received an education, Chernyshevsky, whose biography was now connected with pedagogy, became a teacher. He taught in Saratov, and then returned to the capital. In the same years, he met his wife Olga Vasilyeva. The wedding took place in 1853.

The beginning of Chernyshevsky's journalistic activity was connected with Petersburg. In the same 1853, he began to publish in the newspapers Otechestvennye Zapiski and St. Petersburg Vedomosti. But most of all, Nikolai Gavrilovich was known as a member of the editorial board of the Sovremennik magazine. There were several circles of writers, each of which defended its position.

Work at Sovremennik

Nikolai Chernyshevsky, whose biography was already known in the literary environment of the capital, became closest to Dobrolyubov and Nekrasov. These authors were passionate about the revolutionary ideas they wanted to express in Sovremennik.

A few years earlier, civil riots had erupted across Europe, echoing through Russia. For example, Louis-Philippe was overthrown by the bourgeoisie in Paris. And in Austria, the nationalist movement of the Hungarians was suppressed only after Nicholas I came to the rescue of the emperor, who sent several regiments to Budapest. The tsar, whose reign began with the suppression of the Decembrist uprising, was afraid of revolutions and increased censorship in Russia.

This caused concern among the liberals in Sovremennik. They Vasily Botkin, Alexander Druzhinin and others) did not want the journal to be radicalized.

Chernyshevsky's activities increasingly attracted the attention of the state and officials responsible for censorship. A striking event was the public defense of a dissertation on art, at which the writer delivered a revolutionary speech. In protest, Minister of Education Avraam Norov did not allow Nikolai Gavrilovich to be awarded the prize. Only after he was replaced in this position by the more liberal Yevgraf Kovalevsky, did the writer become a master of Russian literature.

Chernyshevsky's views

It is important to note some features of Chernyshevsky's views. They were influenced by schools such as French materialism and Hegelianism. As a child, the writer was a zealous Christian, but in adulthood he began to actively criticize religion, as well as liberalism and the bourgeoisie.

Especially fiercely he stigmatized serfdom. Even before the Manifesto on the Liberation of the Peasants of Alexander II was published, the writer described the future reform in many articles and essays. He proposed drastic measures, including the transfer of land to peasants free of charge. However, the Manifesto had little to do with these utopian programs. Since they were established that prevented the peasants from becoming completely free, Chernyshevsky regularly scolded this document. He compared the situation of Russian peasants with the life of black slaves in the USA.

Chernyshevsky believed that in 20 or 30 years after the liberation of the peasants, the country would get rid of capitalist agriculture, and socialism would come with a communal form of ownership. Nikolai Gavrilovich advocated the creation of phalanstery - premises in which the inhabitants of future communes would work together for mutual benefit. This project was utopian, which is not surprising, because its author was Phalanster, which was described by Chernyshevsky in one of the chapters of the novel What Is To Be Done?

"Land and Freedom"

Revolutionary propaganda continued. One of her inspirations was Nikolai Chernyshevsky. A short biography of the writer in any textbook necessarily contains at least a paragraph stating that it was he who became the founder of the famous Land and Freedom movement. It really is. In the second half of the 1950s, Chernyshevsky began to have many contacts with Alexander Herzen. went into exile due to pressure from the authorities. In London, he began publishing the Russian-language newspaper The Bell. She became the mouthpiece of revolutionaries and socialists. It was sent in secret editions to Russia, where the numbers were very popular among radical students.

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky also published in it. The biography of the writer was known to any socialist in Russia. In 1861, with his ardent participation (as well as the influence of Herzen), Land and Freedom appeared. This movement united a dozen circles in the largest cities of the country. It included writers, students and other supporters of revolutionary ideas. It is interesting that Chernyshevsky even managed to drag the officers with whom he collaborated by publishing in military magazines there.

Members of the organization were engaged in propaganda and criticism of the tsarist authorities. "Going to the People" has become a historical anecdote over the years. The agitators, who tried to find a common language with the peasants, were handed over to the police by them. For many years, revolutionary views did not find a response among the common people, remaining the lot of a narrow stratum of the intelligentsia.

Arrest

Over time, the biography of Chernyshevsky, in short, interested the agents of the secret investigation. On Kolokol's business, he even went to see Herzen in London, which, of course, only drew more attention to him. From September 1861, the writer was under covert surveillance. He was suspected of provocations against the authorities.

In June 1862, Chernyshevsky was arrested. Even before this event, clouds began to gather around him. In May, the Sovremennik magazine was closed. The writer was accused of compiling a proclamation discrediting the authorities, which ended up in the hands of provocateurs. The police also managed to intercept a letter from Herzen, where the emigrant offered to publish the closed Sovremennik again, only in London.

"What to do?"

The accused was placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he stayed during the investigation. It went on for a year and a half. At first, the writer tried to protest against the arrest. He announced hunger strikes, which, however, did not change his position in any way. On days when the prisoner was getting better, he took up the pen and began to work on a sheet of paper. So the novel “What is to be done?” Was written, which became the most famous work published by Chernyshevsky Nikolai Gavrilovich. A brief biography of this figure, printed in any encyclopedia, necessarily contains information about this book.

The novel was published in the newly opened Sovremennik in three issues in 1863. Interestingly, there might not have been any publication. The only original was lost on the streets of St. Petersburg during transportation to the editorial office. The papers were found by a passer-by and only out of his spiritual kindness returned them to Sovremennik. Nikolai Nekrasov, who worked there and literally went crazy with the loss, was beside himself with happiness when the novel was returned to him.

Sentence

Finally, in 1864, the verdict was announced to the disgraced writer. He went to hard labor in Nerchinsk. The verdict also contained a clause according to which Nikolai Gavrilovich was to spend the rest of his life in eternal exile. Alexander II changed the term of hard labor to 7 years. What else can Chernyshevsky's biography tell us? Briefly, literally in a nutshell, let's talk about the years spent by the materialist philosopher in captivity. The harsh climate and difficult conditions greatly worsened his health. Despite having survived hard labor. Later he lived in several provincial towns, but never returned to the capital.

Even in hard labor, like-minded people tried to free him, who came up with various escape plans. However, they were never implemented. From 1883 to 1889, Nikolai Chernyshevsky (his biography says that it was at the end of the life of a democratic revolutionary) spent in Astrakhan. Shortly before his death, he returned to Saratov thanks to the patronage of his son.

Death and meaning

On October 11, 1889, N. G. Chernyshevsky died in his native city. The biography of the writer has become the subject of imitation of many followers and supporters.

Soviet ideology put him on a par with the figures of the 19th century, who were the harbingers of the revolution. The novel "What to do?" became a mandatory element of the school curriculum. In modern literature lessons, this topic is also studied, only fewer hours are allocated to it.

In Russian journalism and journalism there is a separate list of the founders of these areas. It included Herzen, Belinsky and Chernyshevsky. Biography, a summary of his books, as well as the impact on social thought - all these issues are being investigated by writers today.

Quotes Chernyshevsky

The writer was known for his sharp language and ability to build sentences. Here are Chernyshevsky's most famous quotes:

Personal happiness is impossible without the happiness of others.
Youth is the time of freshness of noble feelings.
Scholarly literature saves people from ignorance, and elegant literature from rudeness and vulgarity.
They flatter in order to dominate under the guise of humility.
Only in truth is the power of talent; wrong direction destroys the strongest talent.

The parents of the future revolutionary were Evgenia Yegorovna Golubeva and Archpriest Gabriel Ivanovich Chernyshevsky.

Until the age of 14, he was tutored at home by his father, who possessed encyclopedic knowledge and a strongly pious man. He was assisted by the cousin of Nikolai Gavrilovich L. N. Pypin. In childhood, a tutor from France was assigned to Chernyshevsky. As a child, young Kolya was very fond of reading and spent most of his free time reading books.

Formation of views

In 1843, Chernyshevsky took the first step in obtaining a higher education, entering the theological seminary of the city of Saratov. After studying there for three years, Nikolai Gavrilovich decides to quit his studies.

In 1846, he passed the exams and entered the Faculty of History and Philology at the University of St. Petersburg. Here, absorbing the thoughts and scientific knowledge of ancient authors, studying the works of Isaac Newton, Pierre-Simon Laplace and advanced Western materialists, the formation of the future revolutionary took place. According to a brief biography of Chernyshevsky, it was in St. Petersburg that the transformation of Chernyshevsky, a subject, into Chernyshevsky, a revolutionary, took place.

The formation of the socio-political views of Nikolai Gavrilovich took place under the influence of the circle of I. I. Vvedensky, in which Chernyshevsky begins to comprehend the basics of writing.

In 1850, his studies at the university ended and the young graduate was assigned to the Saratov Gymnasium. This educational institution already in 1851 began to be used as a launching pad for cultivating advanced social revolutionary ideas in its students.

Petersburg period

In 1853, Chernyshevsky met the daughter of a Saratov doctor, Olga Sokratovna Vasilyeva, with whom he married. She gave her husband three sons - Alexander, Victor and Mikhail. After the wedding, the family changed the county Saratov to the capital St. Petersburg, where the head of the family worked for a short time in the cadet corps, but soon quit because of a quarrel with an officer. Chernyshevsky worked in many literary journals, which are reflected in the chronological table.

After the “Great Reforms” were carried out in Russia, Chernyshevsky acts as the ideological inspirer of populism and going to the people. In 1863, he published in Sovremennik the main novel of his life, which is called What Is To Be Done?

". This is the most important work of Chernyshevsky.

Link and death

Chernyshevsky's biography is replete with difficult moments of life. In 1864, for his social revolutionary activities and involvement in the People's Will, Nikolai Gavrilovich was sent to a 14-year exile to work in hard labor. After a while, the sentence was halved thanks to the decree of the emperor. After hard labor Chernyshevsky was ordered to stay in Siberia for life. After serving hard labor, in 1871 he was prescribed the city of Vilyuysk as his place of residence.

In 1874, he was offered freedom and the abolition of the sentence, but Chernyshevsky did not send his petition for pardon to the emperor.

His youngest son did a lot to return his father to his native Saratov, and only 15 years later Chernyshevsky nevertheless moved to live in his small homeland. Not having lived in Saratov for even six months, the philosopher falls ill with malaria. Chernyshevsky's death was due to a cerebral hemorrhage. The great philosopher was buried at the Resurrection Cemetery.