Short answers, pulled from the story.
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was born in Moscow on the 24th of December 1812 during the chaos of Napoleon's army advancing. He entered the world as an illegitimate son of Ivan Yakovlev, a wealthy Russian landowner, and Henriette Wilhelmina Luisa Haag from Stuttgart.
Herzen established the Free Russian Press in London after years of wandering through Italy, Paris, and Switzerland to print materials challenging the Russian autocracy. Baron Rothschild negotiated the release of his frozen assets, allowing him to fund this operation from across the English Channel.
Herzen published The Polar Star and The Bell at his personal expense, with both publications acquiring great influence via illegal circulation within Russian territory. By May 1858, The Bell restarted its campaign for comprehensive emancipation of the serfs after full freedom had not yet been achieved.
Herzen died in Paris in 1870 from tuberculosis complications and was originally buried there before his remains were taken to Nice a month later. His death marked a point where he was almost forgotten until a rise in populism by 1880 led to favorable re-evaluation of his writings.
Herzen promoted ideas influenced by Voltaire, Schiller, Saint-Simon, Proudhon, Hegel, and Feuerbach throughout his life. He combined key ideas of the French Revolution with German idealism while rejecting bourgeois or middle-class values in favor of authenticity among the peasantry.