Alexander Herzen
Moscow, 1812. The city burned as Napoleon's army advanced, and a child named Alexander Ivanovich Herzen was born into chaos. He entered the world as an illegitimate son of Ivan Yakovlev, a wealthy Russian landowner, and Henriette Wilhelmina Luisa Haag from Stuttgart. His father gave him the surname Herzen, which means heart in German, calling him a "child of his heart." This secret lineage shaped his early years before he ever stepped onto a political stage.
Herzen spent his childhood in Moscow until after completing studies at Moscow University. In 1834, he and his lifelong friend Nikolay Ogarev were arrested for attending a festival where verses by Sokolovsky mocked the tsar. A court found them guilty, and in 1835, Herzen was banished to Vyatka, now Kirov, in north-eastern European Russia. He remained there until 1837 when Grand Duke Alexander intervened on his behalf. The future tsar Alexander II allowed Herzen to leave for Vladimir, where he became editor of the city's official gazette.
In 1839, Herzen gained freedom and returned to Moscow. There he met literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, who would be strongly influenced by him. By 1840, he served as secretary to Count Alexander Stroganov in the ministry of the interior at St Petersburg. Complaints about a death caused by a police officer led to his transfer to Novgorod, where he worked as a state councillor until 1842. When his father died in 1846, Herzen inherited a large fortune that would later fund his revolutionary activities.
London, 1853. Herzen established the Free Russian Press here after years of wandering through Italy, Paris, and Switzerland. His assets in Russia had been frozen due to emigration, but Baron Rothschild negotiated their release, transferring them nominally to the banking family. This financial lifeline allowed him to print materials that challenged the Russian autocracy from across the English Channel.
The press began printing without selling a single copy for its first three years. It was so difficult to get even one book into Russia that when a bookseller finally bought 10 shillings worth of Baptized Property, the editors set aside the half-sovereign coin in a special place of honor. The death of Emperor Nicholas I in 1855 changed everything. Herzen's writings and magazines were smuggled wholesale into Russia, and their words resounded throughout the country and all over Europe.
Herzen published several periodicals including The Polar Star and The Bell, which ran between 1857 and 1867 at his personal expense. Both publications acquired great influence via illegal circulation within Russian territory; it was said the Emperor himself read them. These journals reported from a liberal perspective about the incompetence of the Tsar and the Russian bureaucracy. By May 1858, The Bell restarted its campaign for comprehensive emancipation of the serfs after full freedom had not yet been achieved.
Herzen started as a liberal but increasingly adopted socialism throughout his life. He promoted ideas influenced by Voltaire, Schiller, Saint-Simon, Proudhon, Hegel, and Feuerbach. His political evolution saw him combine key ideas of the French Revolution with German idealism. He disliked bourgeois or middle-class values and sought authenticity among the peasantry he idolized.
After the Emancipation reform of 1861 freed Russian serfs, Herzen escalated his demands regarding constitutional rights, common ownership of land, and government by the people. He became disillusioned with the Revolutions of 1848 but remained committed to revolutionary thought itself. He criticized revolutionaries who fled Europe for places like Kansas or California rather than fighting for change.
Herzen argued that the full flowering of the individual could best be realized in a socialist order while rejecting grand narratives such as predestined positions for society. His writings in exile promoted small-scale communal living protected by a non-interventionist government. He believed complex questions of society could not be answered definitively and that Russians must live for the moment rather than a cause. Life itself was an end, not a means to some future goal.
His literary career began in 1842 with an essay on Dilettantism in Science published under the pseudonym Iskander. In 1847 appeared his novel Who is to Blame?, which told how domestic happiness of a young tutor was troubled by conflicting Russian sensibilities. The story ended tragically with no clear culprit identified for the tragedy.
Also in 1847 he published stories later collected in London in 1854 under the title Interrupted Tales. Two works appeared in 1850 translated from Russian manuscripts: From the Other Shore and Letters from France and Italy. His Memoirs were printed in Russian then translated into French as Le Monde russe et la Révolution across three volumes between 1860 and 1862.
The autobiography My Past and Thoughts written between 1852 and 1870 stands as one of the best examples of its genre in Russian literature. Isaiah Berlin called it "one of the great monuments to Russian literary and psychological genius." Tolstoy declared he had never met another man with such rare combination of brilliance and depth. Herzen's writings included essays like Baptized Property attacking serfdom alongside periodical publications that shaped public opinion.
Herzen maintained complex friendships and conflicts with figures like Bakunin, Marx, Ogarev, and Tolstoy. In London he organized with the International Workingmen's Association and became well acquainted with revolutionary circles including Mikhail Bakunin and Karl Marx. He once told Bakunin that Marx had accused him of being a Russian agent, though the two were actually on very good terms.
His old friend Nikolay Ogarev joined him in London in 1856. They worked together on their Russian periodical Kolokol or Bell. Soon Alexandr began an affair with Natalia Tuchkova, Ogarev's wife, daughter of war hero general Tuchkov. Tuchkova and Alexandr had three children while Ogarev found a new wife. The friendship between Herzen and Ogarev survived despite these complications.
Radicals such as Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolay Dobrolyubov disliked Herzen as too moderate. They wanted more commitment to violent revolution and withdrawal of hope in reformist Tsar. Herzen rejected requests to use The Bell as mouthpiece for violent radical revolution. Liberals led by Boris Chicherin and Konstantin Kavelin believed individual freedom would be achieved through rationalization of social relations, opposing Herzen's view.
Herzen died in Paris in 1870 from tuberculosis complications. Originally buried there, his remains were taken to Nice a month later. By his death he was almost forgotten, but a rise in populism by 1880 led to favorable re-evaluation of his writings. He opposed the aristocracy that ruled 19th century Russia and supported agrarian collectivist model of social structure.
The 20th-century philosopher Isaiah Berlin made Herzen a hero of modern thought. Berlin repeated most insistently Herzen's words condemning sacrifice of human beings on altar of abstractions. He believed end of life is life itself and each age should be regarded as its own end not means to future goal. Russian Thinkers collection featuring Herzen inspired Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia trilogy performed at London's National Theatre in 2002.
Stoppard's plays examined lives and intellectual development of Russians including anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, novelist Ivan Turgenev, and Herzen whose character dominates the works. Set against background of early development of Russian socialist thought and Revolutions of 1848, these theatrical adaptations kept Herzen's ideas alive for new generations.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
When and where was Alexander Herzen born?
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.
Why did Alexander Herzen leave Russia for London in 1853?
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.
What periodicals did Alexander Herzen publish between 1857 and 1867?
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.
How did Alexander Herzen die and when did he pass away?
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.
Who influenced Alexander Herzen's political evolution toward socialism?
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.