Biography of Radishchev. Radishchev's biography briefly the most important Plan of the article alexander nikolaevich radishchev

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Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev- Russian writer, poet, philosopher - was born on August 31 (August 20, O.S.) 1749 in Moscow, was the son of a large landowner. It was in his estate near Moscow, with. Nemtsovo, Radishchev's childhood passed; for some time he lived in Verkhniy Ablyazov. The boy's home education was excellent, and in Moscow, where he ended up at the age of 7, Sasha had the opportunity to work with the children of his uncle A.M. Argamakov, who for several years was the director of the recently opened Moscow University. Here, with Alexander and his cousins, professors and teachers from the gymnasium at the university studied, and the French tutor, who was fleeing the persecution of his government, a former councilor of parliament, personally dealt with the boy. Therefore, without visiting an educational institution, the future famous writer, most likely, passed, if not the entire program of the gymnasium course, then at least partially.

At the age of 13, Radishchev became a graduate of a privileged educational institution - the Corps of Pages, where he studied until 1766, after which he was among 13 young nobles who were sent to Leipzig University to study law. In addition to law, Radishchev studied literature, medicine, natural sciences, studied several foreign languages. The worldview of the young Radishchev was largely formed under the influence of the works of Helvetius and other French encyclopedic educators.

Upon his return to St. Petersburg in 1771, Radishchev was appointed to work in the Senate as a protocol officer. During 1773-1775. he served at the headquarters of the Finnish division as chief auditor, thanks to which he had the opportunity to learn firsthand about the slogans proclaimed by Pugachev (his uprising was just going on), to get acquainted with the orders of the military department, the affairs of the soldiers, etc., which left a noticeable imprint on him ideological development. He soon retired, although he treated his duties conscientiously.

Since 1777, Radishchev has served in the Commerce Collegium headed by A. Vorontsov, who had a negative attitude towards the policy of Catherine II. A liberal official made him his confidant, and in 1780, thanks to his recommendation, Radishchev began to work in the Petersburg customs; being a civil servant, he in the 80s. supported the educators Novikov, Krechetov, Fonvizin. In parallel, Radishchev acts as a writer: for example, in 1770 his philosophical article "The Lay of Lomonosov" appeared, in 1783 - the ode "Liberty". Radishchev was a member of the Society of Friends of Verbal Sciences, organized in 1784 in St. Petersburg, which included former university students.

Since 1790, Radishchev worked as a director of customs, at the end of the 90s. saw the light of the main work in the creative biography of Radishchev - the philosophical and journalistic story "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", denouncing the socio-political system of serfdom that existed at that time, sympathetically depicting the life of the common people. The book was immediately confiscated, and 3 weeks after its publication, an investigation was launched under the personal supervision of the empress herself. The words of Catherine II went down in history that Radishchev was a rebel worse than Pugachev. The author of the seditious book was sentenced to death, but at the behest of the empress, the punishment was replaced by 10 years of exile in a distant prison in Siberia.

During the years of exile, Radishchev was not idle: fulfilling the instructions of A. Vorontsov, he studied the economy of the region, folk crafts, and peasant life. He also wrote a number of works, in particular, the philosophical work "About man, about his mortality and immortality." In 1796, Paul I, who took the throne, gave permission to Radishchev to live in Nemtsovo, his own estate, under strict police supervision. He acquired true freedom only under Alexander I.

In March 1801, this emperor attracted Radishchev to the work of the commission for drawing up laws, however, in his new position, Radishchev proposed abolishing serfdom and class privileges. Count Zavadovsky, who headed the work of the commission, put the presumptuous employee in his place, hinting to him about a new exile. Being in great mental confusion, Radishchev on September 24 (September 12, O.S.), 1802, took poison and took his own life. There are other versions of his death: tuberculosis and an accident associated with the fact that the writer mistakenly drank a glass of aqua regia. Where the grave of Alexander Nikolaevich is located is unknown.

Biography from Wikipedia

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

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

He spent his childhood on his father's estate in the village of Nemtsovo, Borovsky district, Kaluga province. In the initial training of Radishchev, apparently, his father, a devout man, who was fluent in Latin, Polish, French and German, was directly involved. As was customary at that time, the Russian reading and writing of the child was taught by the Book of Hours and the Psalter. By the age of six, a French teacher was assigned to him, but the choice was unsuccessful: the teacher, as they later learned, was a fugitive soldier. Soon 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 the director of the university in 1755-1757). Here Radishchev was entrusted with the care of a very good French governor, a former adviser to the Rouen parliament, who fled from the persecution of the government of Louis XV. The children of the Argamakovs had the opportunity to study at home with professors and teachers of the university gymnasium, so it cannot be ruled out that Alexander Radishchev prepared here under their leadership and went through, 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 Corps of Pages. The corps of pages trained not scientists, but courtiers, and 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 expanded his horizons enormously. In addition to a solid scientific school, he adopted the ideas of the leading French enlighteners, whose works to a great extent paved the way 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 more experienced and mature person than his other associates, who immediately recognized his authority. He served as an example for other students, guided their reading, instilled in them strong moral convictions. Ushakov's health was upset even before the trip abroad, and in Leipzig he still spoiled it, partly by poor nutrition, partly by excessive activities, 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, summoning one Radishchev to him, 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." The last words of Ushakov "were marked by an indelible mark in the memory" of Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev.

Service in St. Petersburg

In 1771, Radishchev returned to St. Petersburg and soon entered the service in the Senate, as a protocol officer, with the rank of titular councilor. He did not serve for long in the Senate: the comradeship of clerks, the rude treatment of his superiors, weighed heavily. Radishchev entered the headquarters of General-in-Chief Bruce, who was in command 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 Commerce Collegium 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 chief by 1790. From 1775 to June 30, 1790 he lived in St. Petersburg at 24 Gryaznaya Street (now Marata Street).

Literary and publishing activities

The foundations of Radishchev's outlook were laid in the earliest period of his activity. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1771, a couple of months later he sent to the editorial office of the Zhivopisets magazine an excerpt from his future book A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, where it was published anonymously. Two years later, Radishchev's translation of Mably's book Reflections on Greek History was published. Other works of the writer belong to this period, such as "Officer Exercises" and "Diary of a Week".

In the 1780s, Radishchev worked on The Journey and wrote other works in prose and poetry. By this time there was a huge social upsurge throughout Europe. The victory of the American Revolution and the French Revolution that followed created a favorable climate for promoting the ideas of freedom, which Radishchev took advantage of. In 1789 he opened a printing house at his home, and in May 1790 he published his main work, A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Arrest and exile 1790-1796

The book began to sell out quickly. His bold discourses on serfdom and other sad phenomena of the then social and state life attracted the attention of the empress herself, to whom someone delivered the "Journey" and who called Radishcheva - " rebel, worse than Pugachev". A copy of the book has survived, which fell on the table to Catherine, which she dotted with her cynical remarks. Where the tragic scene of the sale of serfs at an auction is described, the Empress wrote: “ The old story begins about a family sold under the hammer for the lord's debts". Elsewhere in Radishchev's work, where he tells about a landowner who was killed during the Pugachev riot by his peasants for the fact that “ every night his sent ones brought him to him for the sacrifice of dishonor that he had appointed that day, it was known in the village that he disgusted 60 girls, depriving them of their integrity", The Empress herself wrote -" almost the history of Alexander Vasilyevich Saltykov».

Radishchev was arrested, his case was delegated to SI Sheshkovsky. Imprisoned in the 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 life. The Criminal Chamber applied to Radishchev articles of the Code on “ attempt on the sovereign's health", About" 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 the crime of oath and the position of a subject by publishing a book, "Filled with the most harmful speculations, destroying public peace, belittling the respect due to the authorities, striving to generate indignation among the people against the bosses and superiors, and finally with insulting and violent expressions against the dignity and power of the tsarist"; Radishchev's guilt is such that he fully deserves the death penalty, to which he was sentenced by the court, but "out of mercy and for everyone's joy" the execution was replaced by him with a ten-year exile to Siberia, to the Ilimsky prison. On the order to expel Radishchev, the Empress wrote in her own hand: “ goes to mourn the deplorable fate of the peasant state, although it is indisputable that a good landowner does not have a better fate for our peasants in the whole universe».

The treatise "On Man, His Mortality and Immortality" created in exile by Radishchev contains numerous paraphrases of Herder's works "A Study on the Origin of Language" and "On the Knowledge and Sensation of the Human Soul."

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

Last years

After the accession of Alexander I, Radishchev received complete freedom; he was summoned to Petersburg and appointed a member of the Commission to draft laws. Together with his friend and patron Vorontsov, he worked on a constitutional project entitled "The Most Merciful Letter of Appreciation."

There is a legend about the circumstances of Radishchev's suicide: summoned to the commission to draw up laws, Radishchev drew up a draft of the liberal code, in which he spoke about the equality of all before the law, freedom of the press, etc. a way of thinking, sternly reminding him of his previous hobbies and even mentioning Siberia. Radishchev, a man with severe health problems, was so shocked by the reprimand and threats of Zavadovsky that he decided to commit suicide: he drank poison and died in terrible agony. The inconclusiveness of this version is obvious: Radishchev was buried in a cemetery near the church according to the Orthodox rite with a priest, At that time, they were buried in special places outside the fence of the cemetery.

In the book "Radishchev" by D. S. Babkin, published in 1966, a different version of Radishchev's death is proposed. The sons who were present at his death testified about a serious physical illness that struck Alexander Nikolaevich already during his Siberian exile. The immediate cause of death, according to Babkin, was an accident: Radishchev drank a glass with "strong vodka prepared in it to burn out the old officer's epaulettes of his eldest son" (royal vodka). The burial documents speak of natural death. In the statement of the church of the Volkovskoe cemetery in St. Petersburg on September 13, 1802, the list of those buried included “the collegiate councilor Alexander Radishchev; fifty-three years old, died of consumption ", priest Vasily Nalimov was at the removal.

The grave of Radishchev has not survived 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.

Perception of Radishchev in the 18th-19th centuries.

The idea that Radishchev was not a writer, but a public figure, distinguished by striking spiritual qualities, began to take shape immediately after his death and, in fact, determined his further posthumous fate. IM Born in a speech to the Society of Lovers of the Fine, delivered in September 1802 and dedicated to the death of Radishchev, says about him: “He loved truth and virtue. His fiery love of mankind longed to illuminate all his brothers with this flickering ray of eternity. " NM Karamzin described Radishchev as an “honest man” (“honnête homme”) (this oral testimony is given by Pushkin as an epigraph to the article “Alexander Radishchev”). The idea of the superiority of Radishchev's human qualities over his writing talent is expressed especially succinctly by PA Vyazemsky, explaining in a letter to AF Voeikov the desire to study Radishchev's biography: “In our country, a person is usually invisible behind a writer. In Radishchev, on the contrary: the writer falls on the shoulder, and the man is taller with his head. "

When interrogating the Decembrists, when asked "since when and where did they borrow their first free-thinking thoughts," many Decembrists called the name of Radishchev.

Obviously, Radishchev's influence on the work of another freethinker writer - A.S. Griboyedov (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".

A special page in the perception of the personality and work of Radishchev by Russian society was the attitude of A.S. Pushkin towards him. Acquainted with "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", Pushkin is obviously guided by Radishchev's ode "Liberty" in his eponymous ode (1817 or 1819), and also takes into account in "Ruslan and Lyudmila" the experience of "heroic song-making" of Radishchev's son, Nikolai Alexandrovich, " Alyosha Popovich ”(he mistakenly considered Radishchev the father to be the author of this poem). "Journey" was consonant with the oppressive and anti-serfdom sentiments of Pushkin before the Decembrist uprising. In a letter to A.A. Bestuzhev (1823), he wrote:

How can one forget Radishchev in an article about Russian literature? who will we remember? This silence is not forgivable ... you ...

Despite the change in political positions, Pushkin remained interested in Radishchev in the 1830s, acquired a copy of Travel, which was in the Secret Chancellery, and sketched 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 "Travel" 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 after 1790, to acquaint the Russian reader with the forbidden book, here Pushkin also gives a very detailed criticism of the work and its author.

We have never considered Radishchev a great person. His act always seemed to us a crime, no excuse, and "Journey to Moscow" a very mediocre book; but with all this we cannot but recognize in him a criminal with an extraordinary spirit; a political fanatic, erring, of course, but acting with amazing dedication and with some kind of chivalrous conscience.

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

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

The assessment of Radishchev as the forerunner of the revolutionary movement was also adopted by the social democrats of the early 20th century. In 1918, A. V. Lunacharsky called Radishchev "the prophet and forerunner of the revolution." GV Plekhanov believed that under the influence of Radishchev's ideas "the most significant social movements of the late 18th - first third of the 19th centuries took place." V. I. Lenin called him "the first Russian revolutionary."

Until the 1970s, opportunities for the general reader to familiarize themselves with The Journey were extremely limited. After in 1790 almost the entire circulation of Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow was destroyed by the author before his arrest, until 1905, when the censorship ban was removed from this work, the total circulation of several of his publications hardly exceeded one and a half thousand copies. Herzen's foreign publication 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 30 years "Travel" was not published in Russia. In subsequent years, it was published several times, but mainly for the needs of the school, with banknotes and scanty by Soviet standards, circulation. Back in the 1960s, Soviet readers were known to complain that it was impossible to get the Journey from a store or a district library. Only in the 1970s, "Journey" began to be released on a truly massive scale.

In fact, Radishchev's scientific research began only in the 20th century. In 1930-1950, under the editorship of Gr. Gukovsky carried out the three-volume "Complete 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 "secret Radishchev" (G.P. Shtorm et al.) Arose that were not supported by sources - that Radishchev, allegedly after exile, continued to refine "Journey" and distribute the text in a narrow circle of like-minded people. At the same time, it is planned to abandon the straightforward agitational approach to Radishchev, emphasizing the complexity of his views and the great humanistic significance of the individual (N. Ya. Eidelman and others). In modern literature, the philosophical and journalistic sources of Radishchev are investigated - Masonic, moralizing and educational, and others, the multifaceted problems of his main book, which cannot be reduced to the struggle against serfdom, are emphasized.

Philosophical views

The main philosophical work is the treatise On Man, His Mortality and Immortality, written in exile in Ilim.

“Radishchev's philosophical views bear traces of the influence of various directions of European thought of his time. He was guided by the principle of reality and materiality (corporeality) of the world, arguing that "the existence of things, regardless of the power of knowledge about them, exists by itself." 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 “rational experience”. In a world in which there is nothing “to define corporeality,” man, a being as corporeal as all nature, takes his place. Man has a special role, he, according to Radishchev, is the highest manifestation of corporeality, but at the same time is inextricably linked with the animal and plant world. “We do not humiliate man,” said Radishchev, “finding similarities in his constitution with other creatures, showing that he essentially follows the same laws with him. And how could it be otherwise? Isn't he real? "

The fundamental difference between a person and other living beings is that he has reason, thanks to which he “has the power to know about things”. But an even more important difference lies in a person's ability for moral actions and evaluations. “Man is the only creature on earth who knows the bad, the evil,” “a special human property is the unlimited possibility of both perfection and corruption”. As a moralist, Radishchev did not accept the moral concept of "reasonable egoism", believing that it is not "selfishness" that is the source of moral feelings: "a person is a compassionate being." Being a supporter of the idea of "natural law" and always defending ideas about the natural nature of man ("the rights of nature never dry up in man"), Radishchev at the same time did not share the intended opposition of society and nature, cultural and natural principles in man. For him, the social being of a person is as natural as natural. In the sense of the matter, there is no fundamental boundary between them: “Nature, people and things are human educators; climate, local situation, government, circumstances are the educators of nations. " Criticizing the social vices of Russian reality, Radishchev defended the ideal of a normal “natural” life arrangement, seeing in the injustice reigning in society, in the literal sense, a social disease. He found this kind of "illness" not only in Russia. So, assessing the state of affairs in the slave-owning United States of America, he wrote that “a hundred proud citizens are drowning in luxury, and thousands have no reliable food, no shelter of their own from the heat and gloom (frost).” In his treatise On Man, on His Mortality and Immortality, Radishchev, considering metaphysical problems, remained faithful to his naturalistic humanism, recognizing the indissolubility of the connection between the natural and spiritual principles in man, the unity of body and soul: “Is it not with the body that the soul grows, not with it? does it mature and grow strong, does it not wither and grow dull with him? " At the same time, not without sympathy, he quoted thinkers who recognized the immortality of the soul (Johann Herder, Moses Mendelssohn and others). Radishchev's position is not an atheist, but rather an agnostic, which fully corresponded to the general principles of his worldview, which was already sufficiently secularized, oriented towards the “naturalness” of the world order, but alien to the fight against God and nihilism. "

A family

Unknown artist... Portrait of Anna Vasilievna Radishcheva. 1780s

A. P. Bogolyubov... Portrait of Afanasy Alexandrovich Radishchev. 1855 year

Alexander Radishchev was married twice. The first time he married in 1775, Anna Vasilyevna 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. In this marriage, four children were born (not counting two daughters who died in infancy):

Vasily (1776-1845) - staff captain, lived in Ablyazov, where he married his serf Akulina Savvateevna. His son Aleksey Vasilyevich became a court councilor, leader of the nobility and mayor of Khvalynsk.
Nikolay (1779-1829) - writer, author of the poem "Alyosha Popovich".
Catherine (1782).
Paul (1783-1866).

Anna Vasilievna died at the birth of her son Pavel in 1783. Soon after the expulsion of Radishchev, the younger sister of his first wife Elizaveta Vasilievna Rubanovskaya (1757-1797) came to Ilimsk with his two youngest children (Ekaterina and Pavel). In exile, they soon began to live as husband and wife. Three children were born in this marriage:

Anna (1792).
Thekla (1795-1845) - married Pyotr Gavrilovich Bogolyubov and became the mother of the famous Russian marine painter A.P. Bogolyubov.
Afanasy (1796-1881) - Major General, Podolsk, Vitebsk and Covenian Governor.

Memory

The village of Radishchevo, Ulyanovsk region, the former Noble Tereshka, the estate of the Kolyubakins nobles
There is Radishchev street in Kiev
In Moscow there are Verkhnyaya and Nizhnyaya Radishchevskaya streets, on the Verkhnyaya there is a monument to the writer and poet.
There is Radishcheva Street in the Central District of St. Petersburg.
Streets in Kursk, Ust-Kut, Ryazan, Kaluga, Maloyaroslavets, Petrozavodsk, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk, Murmansk, Tula, Tobolsk, Yekaterinburg, Saratov, Kuznetsk, Barnaul, Biysk, Alchevsk, Gatchina, Smolensk, Tambov are also named in honor of Radishchev. , a boulevard in Tver, as well as in the city of Togliatti.
In Irkutsk, one of the city's suburbs is called Radishchevo.
In the village of Firstovo, Bolsheukovsky district of the Omsk region, an obelisk was erected in 1967, in honor of Radishchev, who passed and visited the village in 1790.
In the village of Artyn, Muromtsevsky district of the Omsk region, in 1952, an obelisk was erected in memory of his succession to Siberian exile and his return from exile in 1797.
In honor of A.N. Radishchev's passage, one of the villages was renamed, which received the name - the village of Radishchevo, Nizhneomsky district of the Omsk region.
In the village of Evgashchino, Bolsherechensky District, Omsk Region, Radishcheva Street is named.
In the village of Takmyk, Bolsherechensky District, Omsk Region, Radishcheva Street is named.
In Ulyanovsk, from 1918 to the present, there is a Radishchev street.
Annual Radishchev Readings are held in Maloyaroslavets and Kuznetsk
State Art Museum named after Radishchev (Saratov).
There is Radishchev street in Saratov.
Radishchevo platform of the Oktyabrskaya railway in the Solnechnogorsk district of the Moscow region.
There is Radishchev street in Rostov-on-Don.
In Novokuznetsk, Kemerovo region, there is a street. Radishcheva (Ordzhonikidze district).
In Khabarovsk there is Radishcheva Street (Industrial District).
In Simferopol there is a street. Radishchev (not far from Vernadsky Ave.)
In Kryvyi Rih there is a street. Radishcheva (Zhovtnevyi district)
In the city of Ust-Ilimsk, Irkutsk Region, in 1991, an obelisk in memory of A.N. Radishchev was erected.
In Zheleznogorsk-Ilimsky (Irkutsk region. Nizhneilimsky district) there is a Radishchev street, a school named after V.I. A.N. Radishchev, Central Intersettlement Library named after A.N. Radishchev
In the Nizhneilimsky district of the Irkutsk region there is the village of Radishchev.
There is a street in Veliky Novgorod. Radishchev (runs perpendicular from Rabochaya 19 to B. St. Petersburg, 116).

The protagonist of the science fiction novel "Travel Signs" of the Universe Metro 2033, which traveled from Moscow to St. Petersburg and back, is the poet's full namesake.

Biography Russian writer, one of the main representatives of "educational philosophy" in Russia. Alexander, the eldest son and mother's favorite, was born on August 31 (August 20, old style) 1749. His grandfather, Afanasy Prokofievich Radishchev, one of the amusing Peter the Great, rose to the rank of brigadier and gave his son Nikolai a good upbringing for that time. Father, Nikolai Afanasevich, was a Saratov landowner, mother, Fekla Stepanovna, came from an old noble family of the Argamakovs. The father's estate was located in Verkhniy Ablyazov. Alexander learned Russian reading and writing from the book of hours and the psalter. When he was 6 years old, a French teacher was assigned to him, but the choice was unsuccessful: the teacher, as they later learned, was a fugitive soldier. Then the father decided to send the boy to Moscow, where he was entrusted with the care of a good French tutor, a former adviser to the Rouen parliament, who fled from the persecution of the government of Louis XV. In 1756 Alexander was sent to the noble grammar school of Moscow University. Gymnasium life lasted six years. In September 1762, the coronation of Catherine II took place in Moscow, on the occasion of which Catherine raised many nobles in the ranks. On November 25, Radishchev was granted the page. In January 1764 he arrived in St. Petersburg and until 1766 studied in the page corps. When Catherine ordered to send to Leipzig, for scientific studies, twelve young nobles, including six pages of the most distinguished in behavior and success in learning, among whom was also Radishchev. When sending students abroad, instructions were given regarding their studies, written in her own hand by Catherine II. Significant funds were allocated for the maintenance of students - 800 rubles each. (from 1769 - 1000 rubles) per year for each. But assigned to the nobles as a chamberlain and educator, Major Bokum concealed a significant part of the sums in his favor, so the students were in great need. Radishchev's stay abroad was described in his "Life of FV Ushakov". The student activities in Leipzig were quite varied. They listened to philosophy, history, law. In accordance with the instructions of Catherine II, students could study "other sciences" at their request. Radishchev was engaged in medicine and chemistry, not as an amateur, but seriously, so that he could pass the exam for a doctor and then successfully engaged in treatment. Chemistry also forever remained one of his favorite things. Radishchev knew German, French and Latin well, and later he learned English and Italian. After spending five years in Leipzig, he, like his comrades, greatly forgot the Russian language, so upon returning to Russia he studied it under the guidance of the famous Khrapovitsky, Catherine's secretary. Upon graduation, Radishchev became one of the most educated people of his time, not only in Russia. In 1771 he returned to St. Petersburg and soon entered the service in the Senate as a protocol clerk, with the rank of titular councilor, where he did not serve for long. the poor knowledge of the Russian language interfered, the comradeship of clerks, the rude treatment of the authorities, weighed down. Radishchev entered the headquarters of General-in-Chief Bruce, who was in command in St. Petersburg, as chief auditor. In 1775 Radishchev retired with the rank of Major Seconds. One of Radishchev's comrades in Leipzig, Rubanovsky, introduced him to the family of his older brother, whose daughter, Anna Vasilievna, Alexander married. In 1778 he was again determined to serve in the state chamber collegium for an assessor's vacancy. In 1788 he was transferred to the service in the St. Petersburg customs, assistant manager, and then manager. Both in the chamber collegium and in customs, Radishchev stood out for his disinterestedness, devotion to duty, and a serious attitude to business. Studying the Russian language and reading led Radishchev to his own literary experiments. In 1773 he published a translation of Mably's work, then began to compose the history of the Russian Senate, but he destroyed what he had written. In 1783, after the death of his beloved wife, he began to seek solace in literary work. In 1789 he published The Life of Fyodor Vasilyevich Ushakov with the addition of some of his works. Taking advantage of the decree of Catherine II on free printing houses, Radishchev opened his own printing house at his home and in 1790 published his main work: "A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow". The book began to sell out quickly. Her bold reflections on serfdom and other sad phenomena of the then social and state life attracted the attention of the empress herself, to whom someone had brought the "Journey". Although the book was published "with the permission of the Deanery Council," that is, with the permission of the established censorship, persecution was nevertheless raised against the author. At first, they did not know who the author was, since his name was not displayed on the book; but, having arrested the merchant Zotov, in whose shop "Travel" was on sale, they soon learned that the book had been written and published by Radishchev. He was also arrested, his case was "entrusted" to the well-known Sheshkovsky. Catherine forgot that Radishchev, both in the corps of pages and abroad, studied "natural law" at the highest command, and that she herself preached and allowed to preach principles similar to those conducted by "Journey". She reacted to Radishchev's book with strong personal irritation, she herself drew up question points for Radishchev, and through Bezborodko herself led the whole matter. Imprisoned in the fortress and interrogated by the terrible Sheshkovsky, Radishchev declared his repentance, rejected his book, but at the same time, in his testimony, he often expressed the same views that were cited in Travel. By an expression of remorse, Radishchev hoped to mitigate the punishment that threatened him, but at the same time he was unable to hide his convictions. The fate of Radishchev was decided in advance: he was found guilty of the decree itself on bringing him to trial. The Criminal Chamber carried out a very brief investigation, the content of which was determined in a letter from Bezborodko to the Commander-in-Chief in St. Petersburg, Count Bruce. The Criminal Chamber applied to Radishchev the articles of the Code on attempted assassination of the sovereign's health, on conspiracies, 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, according to the old style, in 1790, a personal decree was passed, which found Radishchev guilty of the crime of oath and the position of a subject, by publishing a book; Radishchev's guilt is such that he fully deserves the death penalty, to which he was sentenced by the court, but "out of mercy and for everyone's joy", on the occasion of the conclusion of peace with Sweden, the death penalty was replaced by him by exile to Siberia, to the Ilimsky prison, "for ten years of hopeless stay ". The decree was carried out at the same time. The sad fate of Radishchev attracted everyone's attention: the sentence seemed incredible, rumors arose more than once in society that Radishchev was forgiven, returned from exile, but these rumors were not justified, and Radishchev stayed in Ilimsk until the end of Catherine's reign. His wife's sister, E.V. Rubanovskaya, and brought the younger children (the older ones stayed with their relatives to get an education). In Ilimsk, Radishchev married E.V. Rubanovskaya. Emperor Pavel, shortly after his accession, returned Radishchev from Siberia (the Highest command on November 23, 1796), and Radishchev was ordered to live in his estate of the Kaluga province, the village of Nemtsov, and the governor was ordered to observe his behavior and correspondence. 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. Radishchev's contemporaries, Ilyinsky and Born, attest to the fidelity of the legend about Radishchev's death. This legend says that when Radishchev submitted his liberal draft on the necessary legislative reforms - a draft where the liberation of the peasants was again put forward, the chairman of the commission, Count Zavadovsky, made him a strict suggestion for his way of thinking, sternly reminding him of his previous hobbies and even mentioning Siberia. Radishchev, a man with severe health problems, with broken nerves, was so shocked by Zavadovsky's reprimand and threats that he decided to commit suicide, drank poison and died in terrible agony. Radishchev died on the night of September 12, according to the old style of 1802, and was buried at the Volkov cemetery. For a long time there was a ban on Radishchev's name; it almost never appeared in print. Soon after his death, several articles appeared about him, but then his name almost disappears in the literature and is very rare; only fragmentary and incomplete data are given about him. Batyushkov introduced Radishchev to his compiled program of essays on Russian literature. Only in the second half of the fifties was the ban lifted from the name of Radishchev, and many articles about him appeared in the press. __________ Sources of information: "Russian Biographical Dictionary"

(Source: "Aphorisms from all over the world. Encyclopedia of wisdom." Www.foxdesign.ru)

Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms... Academician. 2011.

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Biography

Born on August 20 (31 NS) in Moscow into a wealthy noble family. Childhood years were spent in his father's estate near Moscow, the village of Nemtsov, and then in Verkhniy Ablyazov.

From the age of seven, the boy lived in Moscow, in the family of a relative of Argamakov, with whose children he studied at home with the professors of the newly opened university.

In 1762 - 1766 he studied at the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages, then for five years he continued his education at the Faculty of Law of Leipzig University, and also studied literature, natural sciences, medicine, mastered several foreign languages. An important role in the formation of Radishchev's worldview was played by his acquaintance with the works of French enlighteners - Voltaire, D. Diderot, J.J. Rousseau, reading which, "learned to think".

Upon his return to Russia in 1771, he was appointed a record clerk to the Senate, then in 1773 - 1775 (the years of the peasant uprising of E. Pugachev) he served as the chief auditor (divisional prosecutor) at the headquarters of the Finnish division. Military service made it possible to get acquainted with the affairs of fugitive recruits, the abuses of landowners, Pugachev's manifestos, read the orders of the military collegium - all this became decisive in the ideological development of Radishchev. In the year of the reprisal against Pugachev, he resigned, married A. Rubanovskaya.

In 1777, Radishchev entered the Commerce Collegium, headed by the liberal nobleman A. Vorontsov, who was opposed to Catherine II, who brought Radishchev closer to him and in 1780 recommended him to work in the metropolitan customs (from 1790 he was a director).

In the 1780s, Radishchev supported the rapidly developing activity of Russian educators: Novikov, Fonvizin, Krechetov. He followed with interest the events of the War of Independence in North America (1775 - 83), during which a new republic, the United States of America, was formed.

During these years, Radishchev was actively engaged in literary work. Wrote "A Word about Lomonosov", "A Letter to a Friend ...", finished the ode "Liberty".

In 1784, the Society of Friends of Verbal Sciences was created in St. Petersburg from former university students, into which Radishchev also joined, hoping to subordinate his journal Talking Citizen to the goals of revolutionary propaganda. Here was published an article by Radishchev "Conversation that there is a son of the Fatherland" (17897.

In the mid-1780s he began work on "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", which in 1790 was published in 650 copies. After the well-known words of Catherine II ("he is a rebel, worse than Pugachev"), the book was confiscated, Radishchev was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Catherine II replaced the death penalty with 10 years of exile in the Siberian prison of Ilimsk.

While in exile, Radishchev studied Siberian crafts, the economy of the region, and the life of the peasants on behalf of Count A. Vorontsov. In letters to him, he shared his thoughts on organizing an expedition along the Northern Sea Route. In Ilimsk he wrote "A Letter on the Chinese Bargaining" (1792), a philosophical work "On a Man, on His Mortality and Immortality" (1792 㭜), "An Abridged Narrative of the Acquisition of Siberia" (1791 - 96), "Description of the Tobolsk Viceroyalty", etc. ...

In 1796, Pavel I allowed Radishchev to settle in his homeland in Nemtsov under the strictest police supervision. He received complete freedom in March 1801 under Alexander I.

Involved in the Commission for the Drafting of a Code of Laws, he was involved in the development of draft legislative reforms. Legislative works of Radishchev included the demand for the abolition of serfdom and estate privileges, the arbitrariness of the authorities. The chairman of the Commission, Count P. Zavadovsky, threatened Radishchev with another exile to Siberia. Driven to despair, Radishchev on September 12 (24 NS), 1802, committed suicide by taking poison.

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, a member of the Commission for the Drafting of Laws under Alexander I. He became best known for his main work "A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", which he published anonymously in 1790.

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

As was customary at that time, the child was taught Russian reading and writing according to the book of hours and the Psalter. By the age of six, a French teacher was assigned to him, but the choice was unsuccessful: the teacher, as they later learned, was a fugitive soldier.

Soon 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 the director of the university in 1755-1757). Here Radishchev was entrusted with the care of a very good French governor, a former adviser to the Rouen parliament, who fled from the persecution of the government of Louis XV. The children of the Argamakovs had the opportunity to study at home with professors and teachers of the university gymnasium, so it cannot be ruled out that Alexander Radishchev prepared here under their leadership and went through, at least in part, the program of the gymnasium course.

In 1762, after his coronation, Radishchev was granted a page and sent to St. Petersburg to study in the Page Corps. The corps of pages trained not scientists, but courtiers, and pages were obliged to serve the empress at balls, in the theater, at ceremonial dinners.

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

The foundations of Radishchev's outlook were laid in the earliest period of his activity. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1771, a couple of months later he sent an excerpt from his future book to the editorial board of the Zhivopisets magazine "Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow", where he was printed anonymously. Two years later, Radishchev's translation of Mably's book Reflections on Greek History was published. Other works of the writer belong to this period, such as "Officer Exercises" and "Diary of a Week".

In 1789 he opened a printing house at his home, and in May 1790 he published his main work, A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. His treatise "On Man, His Mortality and Immortality" contains numerous paraphrases of Herder's works "Investigation of the Origin of Language" and "On the Knowledge and Sensation of the Human Soul".

Radishchev was arrested, his case was entrusted to SI Sheshkovsky. Imprisoned in the fortress, during interrogations, Radishchev led the line of defense. He did not name a single name from among his assistants, he saved the children, and also tried to save his life. The Criminal Chamber applied to Radishchev the articles of the Code on "attempted assassination of 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 office of a subject by publishing a book “filled with the most harmful speculations, destroying public peace, diminishing the respect due to the authorities, striving to generate indignation among the people against the bosses and superiors and finally, offensive and violent expressions against the dignity 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 "out of mercy and for everyone's joy" the execution was replaced by him with a ten-year exile to Siberia, to the Ilimsky prison.

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

After accession to the throne, Radishchev received complete freedom; he was summoned to Petersburg and appointed a member of the Commission to draft 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 of the equality of all before the law, freedom of the press, etc.

The chairman of the commission, Count P.V. Zavadovsky, made him a stern suggestion for his way of thinking, sternly reminding him of his previous hobbies and even mentioning Siberia. Radishchev, a man with severely upset health, was so shocked by Zavadovsky's reprimand and threats that he decided to commit suicide: he drank poison and died in terrible agony.

In the statement of the church of the Volkovskoe cemetery in St. Petersburg on September 13, 1802, the list of those buried included “the collegiate councilor Alexander Radishchev; fifty-three years old, died of consumption ", priest Vasily Nalimov was at the removal.

The grave of Radishchev has not survived 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, Anna Vasilyevna 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. In this marriage, four children were born (not counting two daughters who died in infancy):

Vasily (1776-1845) - staff captain, lived in Ablyazov, where he married his serf Akulina Savvateevna. His son Aleksey Vasilyevich became a court councilor, leader of the nobility and mayor of Khvalynsk.
Nikolay (1779-1829) - writer, author of the poem "Alyosha Popovich".
Catherine (1782)
Paul (1783-1866).

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

Anna (1792)
Thekla (1795-1845) - married Pyotr Gavrilovich Bogolyubov and became the mother of the famous Russian marine painter A.P. Bogolyubov.
Afanasy (1796-1881) - Major General, Podolsk, Vitebsk and Covenian Governor.

Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev was born on August 20, 1749 in Moscow. His literary interests were diverse: prose, poetry, philosophy. But, for the majority of enlightened people, this name is associated with the book "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", which played a fatal role in his fate.

He spent his childhood in the Kaluga province in the village of Nemtsovo. He received home education first at his father's house, then at the house of his uncle A.M. Argamakov, former rector of Moscow University. 1762 was marked by the coronation of Catherine II. Young Alexander was granted a page and sent to the St. Petersburg Corps of Pages. Four years later, together with twelve other young nobles, he was sent to Germany to study law at the University of Leipzig. Here he received an excellent education and became infected with the advanced ideas of the French enlighteners.

Upon his return to St. Petersburg in 1771, Radishchev briefly served in the Senate with the rank of titular adviser, then was appointed chief auditor to the headquarters of General-in-Chief Bruce, who commanded in St. Petersburg. In 1775 he submitted his resignation letter and got married. Two years later, having entered the service of the Komerz Collegium, he made a close friendship with Count Vorontsov, who later helped him during his exile. For ten years, from 1780 to 1790, he served in the St. Petersburg customs, where he rose to the position of chief.

Creative activity

The foundations of his worldview, his civic position were formed during the years of study at the University of Leipzig. On his return to St. Petersburg in 1771, two months later he sent to the editorial office of the Zhivopisets magazine a small part of his future book Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow, where it was published anonymously. Two years later, his works such as "The Diary of a Week", "Officer Exercises", and the translation of Mably's book "Reflections on Greek History" were published. Throughout the 80s, he wrote his "Journey", prose, poetry. By 1789, he already had his own printing house at home, and in May 1790 he printed the main book of his life, A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.

Arrest and exile

The book was sold out instantly. Bold denunciations of serfdom and other phenomena of the life of that time received a wide public response. After reading the book, Catherine II was furious: "A rebel, worse than Pugachev." The publication of the book was followed by the arrest of the author. Radishchev himself led his defense. Didn't name any of his assistants. By the decision of the court, which incriminated him with articles about "an attempt on the sovereign's health", "conspiracies and treason", he was sentenced to death, which was replaced by ten years of exile in Siberia, in the Ilimsk prison.

During these years of exile, Radishchev created a treatise "On Man, His Mortality and Immortality", which was published only after the death of the author. The treatise is so interesting in its essence that we will devote a few words to it. Consists of 4 volumes and is devoted to the question of the immortality of the soul. Moreover, the first two volumes prove the complete inconsistency of the assertion of the immortality of the soul, that this is all nothing more than a play of the imagination and an empty dream. In the third and fourth volumes, the opposite is proved, what was denied in the previous two volumes. The reader is kind of asked to make his own choice. However, the argument in favor of the immortality of the soul is given here rather trivially, but the opposite, denying immortality, is original and unacceptable from the point of view of the church. Therefore, this treatise, which has the appearance of a contradictory, in content can be perceived unambiguously as anti-religious.

While in exile, fulfilling the instructions of Count A. Vorontsov, Radishchev studied Siberian crafts, the economy of the region, and the life of the peasants. In letters to Vorontsov, he expounded his thoughts on organizing an expedition along the Northern Sea Route. In Ilimsk were written: "Letter on the Chinese bargaining" (1792), "Abridged story about the acquisition of Siberia" (1791), "Description of the Tobolsk governorship", etc.

With the coming to power of Paul I in 1786, Radishchev was returned from exile with the order to live on his estate Nemtsovo in the Kaluga province. The coming to power of Alexander I gave Radishchev complete freedom. He returned to St. Petersburg, where he was appointed a member of the Commission for the drafting of laws. Together with his friend and patron Vorontsov, he developed a constitutional project "The Most Merciful Letter of Appreciation."

Alexander Petrovich passed away suddenly. There are two versions of his death. In the first case, the following allegedly happened. The project, which he was preparing together with his friend Count Vorontsov, demanded the abolition of serfdom in Russia, the elimination of estate privileges and the arbitrariness of those in power. The head of the commission, Count P. Zavadsky, threatened with new exile for this. This was the last straw for the broken-down Radishchev and he committed suicide by taking poison.

However, this version does not fit with the records from the list of the Volkovsky cemetery in St. Petersburg. It says that on September 13, 1802, “the collegiate councilor Alexander Radishchev was buried; fifty-three years old, died of consumption ", priest Vasily Nalimov was present at the removal. It is well known that according to the church laws of that time, any deceased was buried as a priest. For suicides, there was and still is a strict ban on burial in the cemetery, including their funeral service. Considering that Radishchev was buried in accordance with the church rules of that time, in the presence of a priest, with an entry in the burial documents stating the natural cause of death, this version of death from suicide is untenable.

Another version of his death is more reliable. According to the testimony of the sons of Alexander Nikolaevich, the cause of his death was an absurd accident, an accident. Radishchev accidentally drank a glass of strong vodka (royal vodka), which was intended to burn out the old officer's epaulettes of his eldest son.

The grave of Radishchev has not survived to this day. There is an assumption that his grave is located near the Resurrection Church. In 1987, a corresponding memorial plaque was installed on its wall.