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Information about the life and work of Radishchev. Alexander radishchev - biography, information, personal life

Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev. Born on August 20 (31), 1749 in Upper Ablyazovo (Saratov province) - died on September 12 (24), 1802 in St. Petersburg. Russian prose writer, poet, philosopher, de facto head of the St. Petersburg customs, member of the Commission for drafting laws under Alexander I. He became best known for his main work, Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, which he published anonymously in 1790.

Alexander Radishchev was the first-born in the family of Nikolai Afanasyevich Radishchev (1728-1806), the son of the Starodub colonel and large landowner Afanasy Prokopyevich.

He spent his childhood in his father's estate in the village of Nemtsovo, Borovsky district, Kaluga province. Apparently, his father, a pious man who was fluent in Latin, Polish, French and German.

As was customary at that time, the child was taught Russian literacy according to the hour book and the psalter. By the age of six, he was assigned a French teacher, but the choice was unsuccessful: the teacher, as they later learned, was a runaway soldier.

Shortly after the opening of Moscow University, around 1756, his father took Alexander to Moscow, to the house of his maternal uncle ( brother whom, A. M. Argamakov, was the director of the university in 1755-1757). Here Radishchev was entrusted to the care of a very good French tutor, a former adviser to the Rouen parliament, who fled from the persecution of 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 trained here under their guidance and passed, at least in part, the program of the gymnasium course.

In 1762, after the coronation, Radishchev was granted a page and sent to St. Petersburg to study in the Corps of Pages. The page corps did not train scientists, but courtiers, and the pages were obliged to serve the empress at balls, in the theater, at ceremonial 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 vastly expanded his horizons. In addition to a solid scientific school, he adopted the ideas of the leading French enlighteners, whose works to a large extent 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 man more experienced and mature than his other associates, who immediately recognized his authority. He served as an example for other students, guided their reading, inspired them with strong moral convictions. Ushakov's health was upset even before the trip abroad, and in Leipzig he spoiled it, partly by poor nutrition, partly by excessive exercise, and fell ill. When the doctor announced to him that “tomorrow he will no longer be involved in life,” he firmly met the death sentence. He said goodbye to his friends, then, calling only Radishchev to his place, handed over all his papers at his disposal and told him: “Remember that you need to have rules in life in order to be blessed.” Last words Ushakov "were marked in the memory" by Radishchev.

In 1771, Radishchev returned to St. Petersburg and soon entered the service of the Senate, as a recorder, with the rank of titular adviser. He did not serve long in the Senate: the comradeship of the clerks, the rude treatment of the authorities, weighed heavily. Radishchev entered the headquarters of General-in-Chief Bruce, who commanded in St. Petersburg, as chief auditor and stood out for his conscientious and courageous attitude to his duties. In 1775 he retired and married, and two years later he entered the service of the College of Commerce, which was in charge of trade and industry. There he became very close friends with Count Vorontsov, who subsequently helped Radishchev in every possible way during his exile to Siberia.

From 1780 he worked in the St. Petersburg customs, having risen to the position of its head by 1790. From 1775 to June 30, 1790, he lived in St. Petersburg at 14, Gryaznaya Street (now Marat Street).

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" where it was anonymously printed. Two years later, Radishchev's translation of Mably's book Reflections on Greek history". Other works of the writer belong to this period, such as "Officer's exercises" and "Diary of one week".

In the 1780s, Radishchev worked on Journey and wrote other works in prose and verse. By this time there is a huge social upsurge throughout Europe. The victory of the American Revolution and the French Revolution that followed it created a favorable climate for the promotion of the ideas of freedom, which Radishchev took advantage of.

In 1789, he set up a printing house at home, and in May 1790 he published his main work, Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. His treatise On Man, His Mortality and Immortality contains numerous paraphrases of Herder's writings An Inquiry into the Origin of Language and On the Cognition and Feeling of the Human Soul.

The book sold out quickly. His bold arguments about serfdom and other sad phenomena of the then social and public life attracted the attention of the Empress herself, to whom someone delivered the "Journey" and who called Radishchev - "a rebel, worse than Pugachev."

Radishchev was arrested, his case was entrusted to S. I. Sheshkovsky. Planted in a fortress, during interrogations, Radishchev led the line of defense. 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 "assault on the sovereign's health", on "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 issued, which found Radishchev guilty of a crime of oath and the position of a subject by publishing a book “filled with the most harmful philosophies, destroying public peace, detracting from due respect for the authorities, striving to produce indignation among the people against the bosses and bosses and finally, insulting and frantic expressions against the rank 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 “by mercy and for everyone’s joy” the execution was replaced by a ten-year exile to Siberia, to the Ilimsk prison.

Soon after his accession (1796), Emperor Paul I returned Radishchev from Siberia. Radishchev was ordered to live in his estate in the Kaluga province, the village of Nemtsov.

After accession Radishchev received complete freedom; he was summoned to Petersburg and appointed a member of the Commission for the drafting of laws.

There is a legend about the circumstances of Radishchev's suicide: summoned to the commission to draw up laws, Radishchev drew up the "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, made him a strict reprimand for his way of thinking, sternly reminding him of his former hobbies and even mentioning Siberia. Radishchev, a man with severely disturbed health, was so shocked by Zavadovsky's reprimand and threats that he decided to commit suicide: he drank poison and died in terrible agony.

On September 13, 1802, in the list of the Volkovsky cemetery church in St. Petersburg, “collegiate adviser Alexander Radishchev” is listed among the buried; fifty three years, died of consumption, ”priest Vasily Nalimov was at the removal.

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

Family and personal life of Radishchev:

Alexander Radishchev was married twice.

The first time he married in 1775 was Anna Vasilievna 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 Ablyazovo, where he married his serf Akulina Savvateevna. His son Alexei Vasilyevich became court councilor, leader of the nobility and mayor of Khvalynsk.
Nikolai (1779-1829) - writer, author of the poem "Alyosha Popovich".
Catherine (1782)
Pavel (1783-1866).

Anna Vasilievna died at the birth of her son Pavel in 1783. Soon after the expulsion of Radishchev, to him in Ilimsk, together with his two younger children (Ekaterina and Pavel) came younger sister his first wife Elizaveta Vasilievna Rubanovskaya (1757-97). In exile, they soon began to live as husband and wife. This marriage produced three children:

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

Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev(August 20, 1749, the village of Verkhnee Ablyazovo, Saratov province - September 12, 1802, St. Petersburg) - Russian writer, philosopher, poet, de facto head of the St. Petersburg customs, member of the Commission for drafting laws under Alexander I.

He became best known for his main work, Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, which he published anonymously in 1790.

Biography

Alexander Radishchev was the first-born in the family of Nikolai Afanasyevich Radishchev (1728-1806), the son of the Starodub colonel and large landowner Afanasy Prokopyevich.

Apparently, his father, a devout man who was fluent in Latin, Polish, French and German, took direct part in Radishchev's initial education. As was customary at that time, the child was taught Russian literacy according to the hour book and the psalter. By the age of six, he was assigned a French teacher, but the choice was unsuccessful: the teacher, as they later learned, was a runaway soldier. Shortly after the opening of Moscow University, around 1756, his father took Alexander to Moscow, to the house of his maternal uncle (whose brother, A. M. Argamakov, was director of the university in 1755-1757). Here Radishchev was entrusted with the cares of a very a good French tutor, a former adviser to the Rouen parliament, who fled from the persecution of 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 trained here under their guidance and passed, at least in part, the program of the gymnasium course.

In 1762, after the coronation of Catherine II, Radishchev was granted a page and sent to St. Petersburg to study in the page corps. The page corps did not train scientists, but courtiers, and the pages were obliged to serve the empress at balls, in the theater, at ceremonial dinners. Four years later, among twelve young nobles, he was sent to Germany, to the University of Leipzig to study law. Of Radishchev's comrades, Fyodor Ushakov is especially remarkable for the enormous influence he had on Radishchev, who wrote his Life and published some of Ushakov's writings.

Service in St. Petersburg

In 1771, Radishchev returned to St. Petersburg and soon entered the service of the Senate, as a recorder, with the rank of titular adviser. He did not serve long in the Senate: his poor knowledge of the Russian language interfered, the camaraderie of the clerks, and the rude treatment of his superiors weighed him down. Radishchev entered the headquarters of General-in-Chief Bruce, who commanded in St. Petersburg, as chief auditor and stood out for his conscientious and courageous attitude to his duties. In 1775, he retired, and in 1778 he again entered the service of the Commerce Collegium, later (in 1788) moving to the St. Petersburg customs. Studying the Russian language and reading led Radishchev to his own literary experiments. First, he published a translation of Mably's "Reflections on Greek History" (1773), then began to compile the history of the Russian Senate, but destroyed the written one.

Literary and publishing activities

Undoubtedly literary activity Radishchev begins only in 1789, when he published "The Life of Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov with the addition of some of his writings." Taking advantage of the decree of Catherine II on free printing houses, Radishchev set up his own printing house at his home and in 1790 printed his “Letter to a friend living in Tobolsk, on duty of his rank” in it.

Following him, Radishchev released his main work, "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow." The book begins with a dedication to comrade Radishchev, A. M. Kutuzov, in which the author writes: “I looked around me - my soul became wounded by human suffering.” He realized that the person himself is to blame for these sufferings, because "he does not look directly at the objects surrounding him." To achieve bliss, one must take away the veil that closes natural feelings. Everyone can become an accomplice in the bliss of his own kind, resisting delusions. “This is the thought that prompted me to draw what you will read.”

The book sold out quickly. Her bold discussions about serfdom and other sad phenomena of the then public and state life attracted the attention of the empress herself, to whom someone delivered the Journey. Although the book was published with the permission of the established censorship, persecution was raised against the author. Radishchev was arrested, his case was "entrusted" to S. I. Sheshkovsky. Imprisoned in a fortress, during interrogations, Radishchev declared his repentance, refused his book, but at the same time, in his testimony, he often expressed the same views that were cited in Journey. The Criminal Chamber applied to Radishchev the articles of the Code on "assault on the sovereign's health", on "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 issued, which found Radishchev guilty of a crime of oath and the position of a subject by publishing a book “filled with the most harmful philosophies, destroying public peace, detracting from due respect for the authorities, striving to produce indignation among the people against the bosses and bosses and finally, insulting and frantic expressions against the rank 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 “by mercy and for everyone’s joy” the execution was replaced by a ten-year exile to Siberia, to the Ilimsk prison. Soon after his accession (1796), Emperor Paul I returned Radishchev from Siberia. Radishchev was ordered to live in his estate in the Kaluga province, the village of Nemtsov.

Last years. Death

After the accession of Alexander I, Radishchev received complete freedom; he was summoned to Petersburg and appointed a member of the commission to draw up laws. There is a legend about the circumstances of Radishchev's suicide: summoned 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, made him a strict suggestion for his way of thinking, sternly reminding him of his former hobbies and even mentioning Siberia. Radishchev, a man with severely disturbed health, was so shocked by Zavadovsky's reprimand and threats that he decided to commit suicide, drank poison and died in terrible agony.

In the book "Radishchev" by D.S. Babkin, published in 1966, a different version of the death of Radishchev is proposed. The sons who were present at his death testified to a severe physical illness that struck Alexander Nikolayevich already during his Siberian exile. According to Babkin, the immediate cause of death was an accident: Radishchev drank a glass with “strong vodka prepared in it to burn out the old officer epaulettes of his eldest son” (aqua regia). Burial documents speak of natural death. On September 13, 1802, the register of the church of the Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg listed among the buried “colleague adviser Alexander Radishchev; fifty-three years old, died of consumption, ”priest Vasily Nalimov was carried out.

Perception of Radishchev in the XIX-XX centuries

The idea that Radishchev is not a writer, but public figure, distinguished by amazing spiritual qualities, began to take shape immediately after his death and, in fact, determined his further posthumous fate. I. M. Born in a speech to the Society of Fine Arts, delivered in September 1802 and consecrated death Radishcheva, says about him: “He loved truth and virtue. His ardent philanthropy longed to illuminate all his fellows with this unflickering ray of eternity. How " an honest man” (“honnête homme”) characterized Radishchev N. M. Karamzin (this oral testimony is given by Pushkin as an epigraph to the article “Alexander Radishchev”). Thought of Advantage human qualities Radishchev, P. A. Vyazemsky especially succinctly expresses his writing talent, explaining in a letter to A. F. Voeikov the desire to study Radishchev’s biography: “Usually, a person is invisible behind a writer. In Radishchev, it’s the other way around: the writer is on the shoulder, and the man is head and shoulders above him.”

During interrogations of the Decembrists, to the question “since when and from where did they borrow the first free-thinking thoughts,” many Decembrists called the name of Radishchev.

The influence of Radishchev on the work of another freethinker writer, A.S. Griboedov (presumably, both were connected by blood relationship), 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 the personality and creativity of Radishchev by Russian society was the attitude of A.S. Pushkin towards him. Acquainted with the "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" in his youth, Pushkin clearly focuses on Radishchev's ode "Liberty" in his ode of the same name (1817 or 1819), and also takes into account in "Ruslan and Lyudmila" the experience of "heroic songwriting" of Radishchev's son, Nikolai Alexandrovich , “Alyosha Popovich” (Pushkin mistakenly considered the author of this poem to be Radishchev the father all his life). The Journey turned out to be in tune with the tyrannical and anti-serfdom moods of the young Pushkin. Despite the change political positions, Pushkin, even in the 1830s, retained an interest in Radishchev, acquired a copy of the Journey, which was in the Secret Chancellery, sketched a 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 Journey in his Sovremennik, accompanying them with the article "Alexander Radishchev" - his most detailed statement about Radishchev. In addition to a bold attempt for the first time since 1790 to acquaint the Russian reader with a forbidden book, here Pushkin also gives a very detailed criticism essays and its author: “We never considered Radishchev a great man. His act always seemed to us a crime, in no way excusable, and "Journey to Moscow" a very mediocre book; but with all that, we cannot but recognize in him a criminal with an extraordinary spirit; political fanatic, mistaken, of course, but acting with amazing selflessness and with some kind of chivalrous conscience.

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

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

Assessment of Radishchev as a forerunner 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 of the 19th century". V. I. Lenin called him "the first Russian revolutionary."

Until the 1970s, the opportunities for the general reader to get acquainted with the Journey were extremely limited. After in 1790 almost the entire circulation of Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow was destroyed by the author before his arrest, until 1905, when the censorship 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. In 1905-1907, several editions were published, 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 cuts and scanty circulations by Soviet standards. Back in the 1960s, complaints from Soviet readers were known that it was impossible to get The Journey in a store or a district library. It wasn't until the 1970s that Journey began to be produced on a truly massive scale.

The scientific study of Radishchev, in fact, 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 for the first time many new texts, including philosophical and legal ones, were published or attributed to the writer. In the 1950s-1960s, romantic hypotheses about the “hidden Radishchev” (G.P. Shtorm and others) arose, which were not confirmed by the sources - that Radishchev continued, allegedly after the exile, to refine the Journey and distribute the text in a narrow circle of like-minded people. At the same time, it is planned to abandon the straightforward propaganda approach to Radishchev, emphasizing the complexity of his views and the great humanistic significance of the individual (N. Ya. Eidelman and others). IN contemporary literature Radishchev's philosophical and journalistic sources - Masonic, moralizing and educational and others - are studied, the multilateral problems of his main book, which cannot be reduced to the struggle against serfdom, are emphasized.

Philosophical views

“The philosophical views of Radishchev 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, regardless of the power of knowledge about them, exists on its own." 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 “besides corporality”, man also takes his place, a being as corporeal as all nature. A person has a special role, he, according to Radishchev, is the highest manifestation of corporality, but at the same time is inextricably linked with the animal and plant world. “We do not humiliate man,” Radishchev asserted, “by finding similarities in his composition with other creatures, showing that he essentially follows the same laws as him. And how else could it be? Isn't he real?'

The fundamental difference between man and other living beings is the presence of his mind, thanks to which he "has the power of things known." But an even more important difference lies in the ability of a person to moral actions and assessments. “Man is the only creature on earth who knows the evil, evil”, “a special property of man is an unlimited opportunity to both improve and corrupt.” As a moralist, Radishchev did not accept the moral concept of "reasonable egoism", believing that it is by no means "selfishness" 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 idea of the natural nature of man (“the rights of nature never run out in man”), Radishchev at the same time did not share the opposition of society and nature, cultural and natural principles in man, outlined by Rousseau. For him, the social being of man is as natural as natural. According to the meaning of the case, there is no fundamental boundary between them: “Nature, people and things are the educators of man; climate, local position, government, circumstances are the educators of peoples. Criticizing the social vices of Russian reality, Radishchev defended the ideal of a normal “natural” way of life, seeing in the injustice reigning in society, in the literal sense, a social disease. He found such “diseases” 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 scum (frost)". In the treatise “On Man, on His Mortality and Immortality”, Radishchev, considering metaphysical problems, remained true to his naturalistic humanism, recognizing the inseparability of the connection between the natural and spiritual principles in man, the unity of body and soul: “Does the soul grow with the body, not with it? does it grow manly and strong, does it wither and grow dull with it? At the same time, not without sympathy, he quoted thinkers who recognized the immortality of the soul (Johann Herder, Moses Mendelssohn and others). The position of Radishchev is not the position of an atheist, but rather an agnostic, which fully corresponded general principles his worldview, already quite secularized, focused on the “naturalness” of the world order, but alien to theomachism and nihilism.

Date of birth: August 31, 1749
Date of death: September 24, 1802
Place of birth: Verkhnee Ablyazovo village, Saratov province

Alexander Radishchev- famous Russian writer, Radishchev A.N.- poet, lawmaker, lawyer and one of the leaders of the St. Petersburg customs. Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev was born on August 31, 1749 in the small village of Verkhnee Ablyazovo in the Saratov Province.

Childhood:

Nikolai Afanasyevich Radishchev, the writer's father, was a very wealthy landowner. The writer's mother, Thekla Savvichna Argamakova, was also of very high birth. Alexander himself was the oldest child in big family, in which, besides him, there were 6 more boys and 4 girls. The Radishchevs were known for their very mild, almost liberal attitude towards their serfs. Alexander himself was brought up by the serf Pyotr Mamontov.

Education:

At the age of 7, Alexander was taken to Moscow, where he was educated at home in the house of his mother's relatives. Big house hosted the most different people among which were professors. The boy's tutor was a French Republican. As a teenager, he became a page under Empress Catherine II. The Arkamakovs assigned him to this position.

Although the page corps itself could not be called excellent educational institution, but it was there that Radishchev first got acquainted with the royal life and received a court education. His efforts in the new place did not go unnoticed and at the age of 17 he was sent to the University of Leipzig, where he received an excellent humanitarian and legal education, which became an excellent help in his subsequent work for the benefit of the state.

In 1771 he returned to the capital Russian Empire to take their place in the state apparatus of the country.

Service to the State:

Immediately upon his return from Germany, he received the rank of titular councilor and became an ordinary recorder in the Senate. This position did not at all correspond to his requirements, and therefore he left the service shortly after his appointment. Ya.A. took him under his wing. Bruce, appointing the governor-general of St. Petersburg to the headquarters.

Here Radishchev again faced the horrors of serfdom and resigned after only a few years. In 1778, Radishchev returned to the civil service, but now to the College of Commerce, ten years later he became the head of customs and successfully managed the department for several years.

Creation:

Throughout his life, Radishchev writes a lot, but his first success was "The Life of Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov", which he dedicated to his close friend who shared housing with him in Leipzig during his studies. After the release of the imperial decree on the permission of free printing houses, Radishchev opened his own printing house at home. It was from here that "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" was published, in which much was said about what serf Russia really is and how this affects the state.

This book has become very important point in the writer's life. It was not only a resounding success, but also the beginning of lengthy proceedings with the authorities. The Empress, of course, did not like Radishchev's work. He was soon arrested and imprisoned Peter and Paul Fortress. The trial itself was very short and ended with an unequivocal verdict: the death penalty. The Empress nevertheless did not put the imperial seal on the verdict, it was decided to send a successful state official and freethinker to Siberia, exile for ten years.

Personal life:

In 1775, Radishchev married Anna Vasilievna Rubanovskaya, who was the niece of friends from the University of Leipzig. She also caused her to leave the public service. His wife gave him 4 children, but died during the next birth. The death of his beloved wife caused a long depression. For a long time, he and his family were carefully cared for by Native sister his wife, Elizaveta Vasilievna. Having become his support in difficult years, she was an excellent replacement for his wife and a reliable friend.

It was she who followed him to hard labor when Radishchev was exiled to Siberia. Secular society was strongly against such an act, and Elizaveta Vasilievna was criticized by friends and relatives. However, this did not become an obstacle to an early marriage and the birth of three more children. Unfortunately, upon returning back to the Nemtsovo estate after the end of exile under Emperor Paul I, she died due to poor health.

Last years:

Radishchev was returned from exile by decree of Paul I. His correspondence was under control, but he could live in peace on the Nemtsovo estate. Under Alexander I and the beginning of a slightly more liberal policy of the state, he received complete freedom. Given his extensive experience in the field of jurisprudence and state structure, they invited him to the commission on lawmaking. The commission's career was short. He drew up a draft on equality before the law, looking back at liberal European views, for which he received the strictest reprimand from his superiors.

Death:

After leaving the commission, Radishchev died. The circumstances of his death are still being discussed by researchers. Some of his friends spoke of poor mental health after the loss of two wives and the difficult exile. Official version states that his death was the result of suicide. It is believed that the writer drank a glass of poison and died long and painfully. Documents of the Volokolamsk cemetery claim that the writer died of consumption.

An important achievement of Radishchev was precisely "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow". The work opened the eyes of many contemporaries to how disgusting and stagnant the serfdom system itself is and how terrible Russia looks from the point of view of contemporary morality. In many ways, it was this work that brought the uprising on Senate Square closer.

Important milestones life of Nikolai Radishchev:

Born in 1749
- Moving to St. Petersburg to the Argamakovs in 1756
- Appointment to the pages of the Empress in 1762
- Trip to study at the University of Leipzig 1766-1771
- Appointment to the Senate as recorder in 1771
- Appointment to the headquarters of the St. Petersburg Governor-General in 1773
- Marriage to Anna Rubanovskaya in 1775 and leaving the civil service
- Appointment to the College of Commerce in 1778
- Death of his wife Anna Rubanovskaya in 1783
- Appointment to the post of head of the St. Petersburg customs in 1788
- Publication of "The Life of Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov" in 1789
- Publication of "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" in the home printing house, arrest, exile to Siberia in 1790
- Return from Siberia in 1796
- Restoration of all rights in 1801 and invitation to the legislative commission

Interesting facts from the biography of Nikolai Radishchev:

Catherine II wrote on the margins of "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow": "A rebel, worse than Pugachev."
- The book "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" was sentenced to public burning; many foresaw this, handwritten copies were made, some of the books were secretly exported abroad
- Pushkin proposed to his cousin Radishchev's niece, but was refused.

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 European Enlightenment, rationalistic and empirical philosophy. After returning to Russia, he entered the 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 Word about Lomonosov (1780), Letters to a friend living in Tobolsk(1782), an ode liberty(1783), etc. Everything changed after the publication in 1790 Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Radishchev was arrested and declared a state criminal for his "blameless writings." The court sentenced him to death, replaced by exile "to Siberia, to the Ilim prison for a ten-year hopeless stay." In exile, Radishchev was engaged in scientific research, wrote An abbreviated narrative of the acquisition of Siberia, Letter on Chinese Trade, philosophical treatise (1790–1792). In 1796, Emperor Paul I allowed Radishchev to return from Siberia and settle in 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 statute, Draft civil code and others), in which he substantiated the need to eliminate serf relations and civil reforms. Radishchev died in St. Petersburg on September 12 (24), 1802.

The philosophical views of Radishchev 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, regardless of the power of knowledge about them, exists on its own." 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 “besides corporeality”, man also takes his place, a being as corporeal as all nature. A person has a special role, he, according to Radishchev, is the highest manifestation of corporality, but at the same time is inextricably linked with the animal and plant world. “We do not humiliate man,” Radishchev argued, “by finding similarities in his composition with other creatures, showing that he essentially follows the same laws as him. And how else could it be? Isn't he real?

The fundamental difference between man and other living beings is that he has a mind, thanks to which he "has the power of knowing things." But an even more important difference lies in the ability of a person to moral actions and assessments. “Man is the only creature on earth who knows what is bad, evil”, “a special property of man is an unlimited opportunity to both improve and corrupt.” As a moralist, Radishchev did not accept the moral concept of "reasonable egoism", believing that it was by no means "selfishness" that was the source of the moral feeling: "man is a sympathetic being." Being a supporter of the idea of “natural law” and always defending the idea of the natural nature of man (“the rights of nature never run out in man”), Radishchev at the same time did not share the opposition of society and nature, cultural and natural principles in man, outlined by Rousseau. For him, the social being of man is as natural as natural. In fact, there is no fundamental boundary between them: “Nature, people and things are the educators of man; climate, local position, government, circumstances are the educators of peoples. Criticizing the social vices of Russian reality, Radishchev defended the ideal of a normal “natural” way of life, seeing in the injustice reigning in society, in the literal sense, a social disease. He found such "diseases" not only in Russia. Thus, assessing the state of affairs in the slave-owning United States, he wrote that "a hundred proud citizens are drowning in luxury, and thousands do not have reliable food, nor their own from the heat and darkness of ukrov."

In the treatise About man, about his mortality and immortality Radishchev, considering metaphysical problems, remained true to his naturalistic humanism, recognizing the inseparability of the connection between the natural and spiritual principles in man, the unity of the body and soul: ? 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 an atheist's, but rather an agnostic's, which fully corresponded to the general principles of his worldview, already quite secularized, oriented towards the "naturalness" of the world order, but alien to theomachism and nihilism.

The future author of "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", famous writer, educator and philosopher Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev was born on August 20 (31), 1749 in a wealthy landowner's family in the village of Verkhny Ablyazovo (now the village of Radishchevo, Kuznetsk district, Penza region).

Childhood and youth

Alexander Nikolaevich was the eldest of eleven children. Radishchev's father, Nikolai Afanasyevich, received a good upbringing: he knew languages, theology, history, and loved agriculture. The writer's mother, Fekla Stepanovna, came from an old noble family.

Radishchev's first educators were his father's serfs: nanny Praskovya Klementyevna, whom he warmly recalls in one of the chapters of Journey, and uncle Pyotr Mamontov, nicknamed Suma (it was he who taught the boy to read and write). When Alexander was six years old, a French tutor was hired to him, but he was just a runaway soldier and did not have sufficient knowledge.

Wishing to continue their son's education, his parents sent him to Moscow to live with his uncle Mikhail Fedorovich Argamakov, who was a relative of the director of the newly opened Moscow University. Radishchev began to be brought up and studied together with the children of the Argamakovs. Lessons were given to them by the best university professors.

Soon after the palace coup of 1762, which placed Catherine II on the throne, Radishchev was enrolled in the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages. Serving at the court, which was part of the duties of a page, allowed Radishchev to get to know palace life in detail. In 1766, Catherine decided to send 12 young people aged 12 to 21 abroad to the University of Leipzig to learn serious science from the Germans. Among them was Radishchev.

Radishchev, together with his comrades, listened to the lectures of professors, studied verbal sciences with the famous philosopher and poet Gellert with particular interest. Like others, Radishchev read a lot, being carried away mainly by French philosophers and writers.

Radishchev was greatly influenced by his elder friend Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov, who was among the students, a man with a great thirst for knowledge, whose early death Radishchev was very upset. Wanting to preserve the memory of his friend, Radishchev wrote down the facts of his life known to him, conversations with him, carefully preserved his student works and then translated them into Russian and printed them in Russia. In 1789, The Life of Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov was published without the signature of the author.

Service in St. Petersburg

After studying in Leipzig, which lasted four years, Radishchev returned to Russia with two comrades - Alexei Mikhailovich Kutuzov and Andrei Kirillovich Rubanovsky. Radishchev and Kutuzov were accepted into the service of the Senate with the rank of recorders with the rank of titular advisers.

After staying in the Senate for two years, Alexander Nikolayevich took the position of chief auditor in the staff of the commander-in-chief in St. Petersburg, Count Yakov Alexandrovich Bruce. He was loved by his boss, and gradually they began to accept him in the best Petersburg societies.

In 1775, Radishchev retired as a second major and married Anna Vasilyevna Rubanovskaya, the niece of his Leipzig comrade (see for more details). At the same time, he acquired some connection with the highest circles of society, since his wife's father was a prominent palace official.

A year after his marriage, in 1776, Radishchev was appointed as an assessor to the College of Commerce, whose president was Count Alexander Romanovich Vorontsov. Radishchev greedily rushed to study everything related to trade, and his efforts were appreciated. He became Vorontsov's household man and the first adviser on commercial matters, and soon after that he received the rank of court adviser. The count himself forever remained his patron.

In 1780, Radishchev, with the rank of adviser to the Treasury, was appointed assistant to the customs adviser German Yuryevich von Dahl, but the well-being of his life was soon overshadowed by a heavy loss. His wife Anna, who gave her husband three sons (Vasily, Nikolai and Pavel) and one daughter (Catherine), died in August 1783, shortly after the birth of her third son. The sister-in-law of Radishcheva, the sister of his wife Elizaveta Vasilievna Rubanovskaya, took care of the children.

For success in his service, Radishchev received the rank of collegiate adviser, and then the recently established Order of St. Vladimir, 4th degree. In 1790, Radishchev completely replaced his retired boss Dahl.

Responsible public service did not interfere with Radishchev's literary pursuits. He joined the "Society of Friends of the Literary Sciences" and took part in the printed organ of the society - the magazine "Conversing Citizen" (for more details, see).

"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow"

Radishchev, in his own words, began working on his main work "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" as early as 1780-1781. (for details see). The manuscript was completed in full at the end of 1788. Permission to print the book was given by the chairman of the Deanery Council, St. Petersburg Chief of Police Nikita Ryleev, who did not even read the essay, reassured by the harmless title.

Having received consent to print, the writer first offered to publish the manuscript to the Moscow printer Semyon Ioannikevich Selivanovskii, but he refused. Then Radishchev bought a printing press on credit and organized a printing house at home.

As a first experiment, Radishchev printed in his home printing house at the beginning of 1790 "A letter to a friend living in Tobolsk, on the duty of his rank." Immediately after the publication of the Letter, Radishchev, at the very beginning of 1790, began typing and printing the book Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The printing of the book was completed in May 1790. The book appeared in Zotov's shop and after some time fell into the hands of the Empress.

On June 26, after reading the first thirty pages of the book, Catherine II told her secretary that she saw in it the dispersal of the French infection, disgust from the authorities. The next day, Vorontsov was sent an order from the empress to interrogate Radishchev about all the circumstances of writing and publishing the book. Realizing the danger, Radishchev ordered that all other copies of the Journey be burned, but it was already too late.

Investigation, sentence and pardon

On June 30, Radishchev was captured and thrown into the casemates of the Peter and Paul Fortress. Catherine II instructed one of the masters of detective affairs, Stepan Ivanovich Sheshkovsky, who was famous for his cruelty, to conduct the investigation. During July, the writer was tortured almost daily with interrogations. Starvation and threats were replaced by promises of complete forgiveness if the prisoner frankly confesses and betrays all his accomplices (for more details, see).

Two weeks after the start of the investigation, the empress referred the case of Radishchev to the St. Petersburg Criminal Chamber, accusing the writer of publishing a book filled, in her words, with the most harmful philosophies. The Criminal Chamber sentenced Radishchev to deprivation of rank and nobility, to the removal of the order and to death. The verdict was first transferred to the Senate, and then sent to the empress herself, who submitted it for consideration to the State Council. On August 19, the verdict was approved. In anticipation of its execution, Radishchev stayed whole month in the Peter and Paul Fortress and wrote several papers, including a will. On September 4, a personal Decree to the Senate on the punishment of Radishchev followed. Catherine II, on the occasion of peace with Sweden, replaced the execution with a deportation to the Ilim prison for a ten-year hopeless stay.

Siberian link

From the accused, who was shackled while still in the courthouse, the shackles were removed on the way only at the request of Vorontsov. The count wrote to the governors of all big cities, through which Radishchev passed, with a request to provide assistance to the exiled writer.

Radishchev was traveling sick and in Moscow was forced to stay a little longer until he recovered. He spent several days at the house of his old father, who had then arrived in Moscow. The mother, paralyzed from the day she found out about the fate of her son, remained in the Saratov province. Radishchev and his former serfs, who had been set free by him, went to Siberia from Moscow with Radishchev: Stepan Alekseevich Dyakonov and his wife Anastasia.

In mid-December, Radishchev reached Tobolsk. Here he stayed for more than six months, waiting for Elizaveta Vasilievna with two small children - Ekaterina and Pavel, with whom she went to Siberia to share the fate of Radishchev (for details, see). Together they continued the way from Tobolsk to their destination. The eldest sons of Radishchev, Vasily and Nikolai, lived in Arkhangelsk with his brother Moisei Nikolaevich during their father's exile.

Radishchev wrote down his travel impressions in a diary, which he called Notes of a Journey to Siberia, and set out in letters to Vorontsov.

On January 3, 1791, Radishchev arrived in Ilimsk, where he lived for the next five years. Here he was married in a civil marriage with Elizaveta Vasilievna, and they had three children - two daughters, Anna and Thekla, and a son, Athanasius.

During the years of exile, the inhabitants of Ilimsk imbued with great respect for Radishchev - he was engaged in agriculture, helped to treat the sick, arranged holidays. Almost five years had passed since the beginning of the settlement, when the Empress died on November 6, 1796. The very next day, a paper flew to Siberia with an inquiry about Radishchev.

Return from Siberia and recent years

In mid-January 1797, a decree came to Irkutsk about the release of Radishchev, who was allowed to settle in the countryside. Radishchev left Ilimsk for Nemtsovo at the end of February 1797. On the way, Elizaveta Vasilievna fell ill and, despite all the efforts made, died in Tobolsk. Radishchev buried his wife at the Tobolsk cemetery and, after spending several days in the city, went on with the children.

From Nemtsov, Radishchev, who continued to be under supervision, signed a petition to the governor with a request to be allowed to go to the Saratov province to his father and, having received permission to visit there no more than once, at the beginning of 1798 he went with his family to his parents in Upper Ablyazovo. There he was actively engaged in research in the field of agronomy (for more details, see), and a year later he returned to Nemtsovo and lived there without a break until his full release, given to him by Alexander I by decree on March 15, 1801.

Having received his freedom, Radishchev returned to St. Petersburg. He was returned civil rights and an order. Moreover, Alexander I attracted him to participate in the work of the Law Drafting Commission. Radishchev even drew up a draft of the "Civil Code", but his ideas about the abolition of serfdom did not please the chairman of the Commission, Pyotr Vasilyevich Zavadovsky. The count hinted to Radishchev that an overly enthusiastic way of thinking had already once brought misfortune upon him, and even mentioned Siberia. From that moment on, Radishchev's health began to deteriorate, he began to be overcome by severe anxiety. On September 11 (23), 1802, Radishchev drank a glass of poison and died in agony the next day. There are versions that he did not plan suicide and died by accident.

The writer was buried in St. Petersburg at the Volkovo cemetery. Emperor Alexander I took part in the position of the Radishchev family, allocating money to pay off his debts. His eldest daughter was given a pension of 500 rubles. Two young girls were sent to the Smolny Monastery, and a six-year-old son was assigned to the Second cadet corps.

Perpetuation of the memory of Radishchev

Radishchev continued to be remembered after his death. In St. Petersburg, the "Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts" became the successor to the ideas of the writer. In 1868, the ban on the book "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" was officially lifted.

In all large enough settlements along the route of Radishchev to the Siberian exile there are streets named after him, memorial signs and memorial plaques on the houses where he stayed. Special exhibitions dedicated to the biography of the writer, his famous book"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" and Radishchev's stay in Siberia are found in many local history museums and libraries of cities located along the Siberian tract. In addition, in our country there are two "Radishchev" museums that have not regional, but all-Russian significance.

The first of them is the Saratov Art Museum named after A.N. Radishchev, founded on June 29, 1885 by the writer's grandson, marine painter Alexei Petrovich Bogolyubov.

The second one was opened on October 28, 1945 by the State Museum of A.N. Radishchev in the village of Radishchev (former Upper Ablyazovo - the family estate of the writer).

Sources

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