RUSSIAN CULTURE NAVIGATOR

english
win1251
KOI8
By Lyubov Kuznetsova
When the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) read the book "A Trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow" by Alexander Radishchev, he exclaimed: "The ignorant contempt of all that has passed and a blind bias for the new - that's what we can see in Radishchev". A different opinion was voiced by the Russian writer and publicist Alexander Herzen (1812-1870), who appreciated the author of "A Trip" and published his work at his printing shop in London. The two opinions are diametrically opposed, both being biased and involved. However, this is easy to understand: Radishchev was a bright and contradictory figure in the history of Russian culture.
The 20th century saw an upsurge of interest in Radishchev, who became an ideological symbol of the struggle against the czar's regime. After the 1917 October Revolution the new regime pinned a label on him as the first revolutionary writer in Russian literature, while Radishchev's principal book "A Trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow" stopped being a literary artifact and became a required work on all school programs.
Alexander Radishchev was born on August 20, 1749, into a well-to-do family of the gentry. He received a brilliant education, studying the sciences, law and medicine at Leipzig University in Germany. There he developed an interest in philosophers of the French Enlightment, such as Helvetius, Diderot, Rousseau and Voltaire, whose ideas about a new social structure based on the equality of all people had a great impact on Radishchev. It was also during his student years that Radishchev first tried his hand at writing. Back in St. Petersburg he entered the public service and continued his literary work. His career as a civil servant was a great success. He served to be a counselor and head of the St. Petersburg customs house. This brought him a comfortable income. This prosperous period lasted until 1790, when at the age of 40 this respectable member of society turned overnight into a criminal dangerous to the state.
In 1790 in a master stroke he managed to avoid censorship and publish his book of sketches "A Trip from St. Petersburg to Moscow" in his own printing shop. The book fell into the hands of Catherine the Great. The Empress immediately issued orders for the book to be confiscated from sale, the whole edition destroyed, and the author sent to St. Peter and St. Paul Fortress. After a thorough investigation and trial Radishchev received a death sentence, which was later commuted to an exile in Siberia. He left the prison where he had spent a month and a half with a grey head and set out for the place of exile located five and a half thousand kilometers from the capital.
Catherine the Great ruled the country for 34 years. During her reign bloody wars were waged, and peasant uprisings suppressed (the largest being that of Pugachev). Meanwhile Russian peasants remained serfs for many more years to come, until 1861. At the same time during the same reign the country went through an upsurge, with new towns being built, new laws passed and the army strengthened. This was the time when Russia began to exert influence on the world scene.
Catherine the Great enjoyed the reputation of an educated ruler. She went in for advanced philosophic and scientific ideas, kept pace with literary novelties, wrote plays and maintained correspondence with the French encyclopaedists Grimm, Diderot and Voltaire. The plays of the latter ran at the court theater. Yet the Empress would not tolerate free-thinking in Russia, which posed a threat to her throne. Another outstanding Russian personality, publisher Novikov, was also sent to prison. Catherine the Great expressed fear and indignation at the news about the Great French Revolution of 1789 and took steps to prevent revolutionary ideas from spreading across the Russian Empire.
In reminiscences of his contemporaries Alexander Radishchev is described as a quiet and modest person, an exemplary family man, with not a trace of bellicosity about him. It was out of the blue that this armchair scholar, author of articles on law, dared to encroach upon the foundations of the regime, and with such an unprecedented audacity at that. His book not only described the horrors of serfdom and the hard life of peasants but also ventured a risky question: "Does a country have a future with two thirds of its population being slaves?" The main character of the book travels from one place to another, meets people and reveals to the reader more and more faults and misfortunes of society, with ordinary people deprived of all rights, prosecuted and treated with injustice by courts, with the degradation of the gentry, and total ignorance and immorality. The author does not let a single human vice go unnoticed and lashes evil with passion and indignation. His purpose is to draw the reader's attention to the flagrant injustice and arouse compassion for the oppressed. And peasants in the book possess every virtue. They are honest, generous and selfless - all beyond measure. More than this, the writer dared to shoot critical arrows at the throne. One of the chapters gives an allegorical portrayal of a royal character that puts one in mind of Catherine the Great. This was something the Empress would not bear. Perhaps it was this episode that decided the writer's fate.
However, the writer not only leveled scathing criticism at the existing regime. He offered a draft of an ideal society of the future, where sciences, arts and crafts reach perfection, hostility among people is non-existent, and all people are like brothers. Radishchev writes: "The laws of the supreme power are honored as instructions of tender parents given to their children. Punishments are moderate, mutual abuse is rare, gentleness and mildness prevail. All property is justly divided among people. There are no foreign enemies." Like many other thinkers of different epochs, Radishchev dreamt of a happiness for everyone and created an Utopia of his own.
The writer and his family spent nearly six years in Siberian exile. He went in for natural sciences, including mineralogy, agronomy, chemistry and physics, wrote a work on the prospects for trade with China, set up a small laboratory in his house. Though Radishchev had high protectors in the capital, who tried to ease his life, things did not change for the better.
In 1796 Catherine the Great died. Her successor Pavel I issued orders for many who fell in disfavor during his mother's reign to come back from exile. Radishchev returned to his estate in central Russia but was not restored either in his rank of gentleman or in civil rights. These were returned to him only in 1801 during the reign of the next czar - Alexander I. Only then could Radishchev see St. Petersburg again. He joined a commission that drew up laws to work on it for a year or less. But he never saw a single bill prepared by him passed. In 1802 his health deteriorated as he suffered from a mental disease. Perhaps this or some other dramatic events of his life drove him to commit suicide. Radishchev drank some poison and died on September 12, 1802. He was buried in St. Petersburg.
Radishchev was first mentioned in foreign literature in 1800 in the book "A History of Catherine the Great" by the French writer Caster. Then followed other editions in French and German that carried respectful comments about the Russian philosopher and writer. Even half a century after Radishchev's death Russia remained suspicious of his work. It was not until 1885 that his grandson, painter Bogolyubov received the highest permission to set up a museum in the city of Saratov on the Volga River. Today it's one of the most interesting museums in Russia, boasting a rich collection of Russian art works, rare books, documents, and historical relics that once belonged to the Radishchev family .
 
 
 
 
 
 

BACK TO MAIN PAGE