Alexander Herzen

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Alexander Herzen
Herzen ge.png
Portrait of Herzen by Nikolai Ge (1867)
Born Alexander Ivanovich Herzen
April 6, 1812
Moscow, Russia
Died January 21, 1870
Paris, France
Era 19th century philosophy
Region Western Philosophers
Religion None. Agnostic.[1]
School Agrarian collectivism
Main interests Russian Politics, Economics, class struggle
Notable ideas Agrarianism, Collectivism, Populism, Socialism



Herzen was born out of wedlock to a rich Russian landowner, Ivan Yakovlev, and a young German Protestant woman, Henriette Wilhelmina Luisa Haag from Stuttgart. Yakovlev supposedly gave his son the surname Herzen because he was a "child of his heart" (German Herz).[2]

He was first cousin to Count Sergei Lvovich Levitsky (1819–1898, Moscow, Russian: Сергей Львович Львов-Левицкий), considered the patriarch of Russian photography and one of Europe's most important early photographic pioneers, inventors and innovators. In 1860, Levitsky would immortalize Herzen in a famous photo capturing the writer's essence and being.


A year later, the family returned to Moscow, remaining there after Herzen completed his studies at Moscow University, until 1834, when Herzen was arrested and tried on charges of having attended a festival during which verses by Sokolovsky that were uncomplimentary to the tsar, were sung. He was found guilty, and in 1835 banished to Vyatka, now Kirov, in north-eastern Russia. He remained there until the tsar's son, Alexander (later to become Alexander II) visited the city, accompanied by the poet Zhukovsky; Herzen was allowed to leave Vyatka for Vladimir, where he was appointed editor of the city's official gazette.

In 1840, he returned to Moscow, where he met literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, who was strongly influenced by him. He then obtained a post in the ministry of the interior at St Petersburg; but as a consequence of complaining about a death caused by a police officer, was sent to Novgorod, where he was a state councillor until 1842. In 1846, his father died, leaving him a large amount of property.

In 1837, he eloped with Natalya Zakharina (Letters from France and Italy, 1847–1851), his cousin, secretly marrying her. She accompanied his emigration abroad in 1847, never returning to Russia. She bore him four children, before succumbing to tuberculosis in 1852 (Letters from France and Italy, 1847–1851). Herzen was eventually joined in France by his lifelong friend Nikolay Ogarev. By then, Natalya was in the final stages of tuberculosis and soon died. Ogarev was in poor health, having suffered a number of strokes. Herzen began an affair with Ogarev's common-law wife Natalia Tuchkova, the daughter of the general Tuchkov (the hero of the War of 1812). Tuchkova bore Herzen three more children. His assets were frozen because of his emigration, however Baron Rothschild with whom his family had business relationship, negotiated the release of Herzen's assets, which were nominally transferred to Rothschild.

From Italy, on hearing of the revolution of 1848, he hastened to Paris and then to Switzerland. He supported the revolutions of 1848, but was bitterly disillusioned with European socialist movements after their failure. In 1852, he left Geneva for London, where he settled for many years. He promoted socialism and individualism, arguing that the full flowering of the individual could best be realized in a socialist order. In 1864, he returned to Geneva, and after some time went to Paris, where he died in 1870 of tuberculosis complications. Originally buried in Paris, his remains were taken to Nice.[citation needed]




Alexander Herzen, by Sergei Lvovich Levitsky, 1860

Free Russian Press[edit]



Writing in 1857 Herzen became excited by the possibility of social change under Alexander II, "A new life is unmistakably boiling up in Russia, even the government is being carried away by it".[4] Herzen used his skill for popular writing to expose the injustices of the ruling elite.

Herzen fought a propaganda war through the journals that had the goal of attaining individual liberty for Russians. Herzen understood the competing claims to power and was aware of the failings of the doctrines that guided the 1848 revolutionary failures. Herzen wrote of the inhumanity of the ruling monarchies of Europe but also the excesses perpetrated by revolutionary governments.



Herzen refused to trust any government and believed in the right for people to make their own choices, with minimal state intervention.

For three years, the Russian Free Press went on printing without selling a single copy and scarcely being able to get a single copy introduced into Russia; so when at last a bookseller bought ten shillings worth of Baptized Property, the half-sovereign was set aside by the surprised editors in a special place of honor, but the death of the emperor Nicholas in 1855 led to a complete change. Herzen's writings, and the magazines he edited, were smuggled wholesale into Russia, and their words resounded throughout the country, as well as all over Europe. Their influence grew.

The year 1855 gave Herzen reason to be optimistic; Alexander II had ascended the throne and reforms seemed possible. The Bell broke the story that the government was considering serf emancipation in July 1857, adding that the government lacked the ability to resolve the issue. Herzen urged the Tsarist regime 'Onward, onward' towards reform in The Polar Star in 1856, yet by 1858, full serf emancipation had not been achieved. Herzen grew impatient with reform and by May 1858 The Bell restarted its campaign to for the comprehensive emancipation the serfs. Once the Emancipation reform of 1861 in Russia was achieved, The Bell's campaign changed to 'Liberty and Land', a program that tried to achieve further social change in support of serf rights. Alexander II granted serfs their freedom, the law courts were remodelled, trial by jury was established, and liberty was to, a great extent, conceded to the press. When the January Uprising broke out however, and Herzen pleaded the insurgents' cause, his reputation in Russia declined.

British Exile 1852 - 1864[edit]

In 1852, Herzen arrived in the United Kingdom, where he would reside until 1864. Herzen was disillusioned with the Revolutions of 1848 but not disillusioned with revolutionary thought. Herzen had always admired the French Revolution and broadly adopted its values. In his early writings, he viewed the French Revolution as the end of history, the final stage in social development of a society based on humanism and harmony. Throughout his early life, Herzen saw himself as a revolutionary radical called to fight the political oppression of Nicholas I of Russia. Essentially, Herzen fought against Christian hypocrisy and for individual self-expression.

Alexander Herzen plaque in London's Judd Street

Herzen spent time in London organising with the International Workingmen's Association, becoming well acquainted with revolutionary circles including the likes of Bakunin and Marx. It was during his time in London that Herzen began to make a name for himself for "scandal-mongering" when he told Bakunin, freshly arrived having escaped imprisonment in Siberia, that Marx had accused him of being a Russian agent; in reality, the two were on very good terms.[6]

It was revolutionary failures and the tragedies of his wife, children's and mother's deaths that drove Herzen to Britain, and he fell into emotional despair for several years. From London he found his despair had revived new energy for political and literary work to help the Russian peasantry he idolised. Herzen became critical of those 1848 revolutionaries who were "so revolted by the Reaction after 1848, so exasperated by everything European, that they hastened on to Kansas or California".[7] Herzen found a new desire to influence and win the appreciation of his countrymen as he established the Russian Printing Press.

In London, he hired Malwida von Meysenbug to give an education to his daughters. In 1862, Malwida von Meysenbug went to Italy with Olga, his daughter. Meysenbug would later become an acquaintance of Friedrich Nietzsche, while Olga married Gabriel Monod in 1873.

Contemporary reputation[edit]

Herzen drew criticism from both liberals who were against violence and from radicals who thought Herzen was too soft.[8] Liberals led by Boris Chicherin and Konstantin Kavelin believed individual freedom would be achieved through the rationalisation of social relations. Their etatist variety of liberalism was opposed by Herzen as it supposed that Russian society would evolve to an ideal state based on a Hegelian view of reason. They believed the revolutionaries would merely postpone the establishment of the ideal state, while Herzen thought that, on the contrary, they were blind to historical reality. Herzen would always reject grand narratives such as a predestined position for a society to arrive at, and his writings in exile promoted small-scale communal living with the protection of individual liberty by a noninterventionist government.

Herzen was disliked by Russian radicals as too moderate. Radicals such as Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolay Dobrolyubov wanted more commitment towards violent revolution from Herzen and the withdrawal of any hope in the reformist Tsar. Radicals asked Herzen to use The Bell as a mouthpiece for violent radical revolution, but Herzen rejected these requests. He argued that the Russian Radicals were not united and strong enough to seek successful political change, stating, "You want happiness, I suppose? I dare say you do! Happiness has to be conquered. If you are strong, take it. If you are weak, hold your tongue".[9] Herzen feared the new revolutionary government would merely replace the dictatorship with another dictatorship.

The radicals describe Herzen as a liberal for not wanting immediate change, but Herzen rejects their pleas arguing for change at a pace that will ensure success. Herzen briefly joined with other Russian liberals such as Kavelin to promote the peasant 'awakening' in Russia.[10] Herzen continued to use The Bell as an outlet to promote unity with all sections of the Russian society behind a demand for a national parliament. However his hopes of acting as a uniting force were ended by the January Uprising, when the liberal support for Tsarist revenge against the Poles ended Herzen's link with them. This breach resulted a declining readership for The Bell, which ceased publication in 1867. By his death in 1870, Herzen was almost forgotten.

Influence in the 19th and 20th century[edit]

Herzen opposed the aristocracy that ruled 19th century Russia and supported an agrarian collectivist model of social structure.[11] A rise in populism by 1880 led to a favorable re-evaluation of his writings.



Tolstoy declared that he had never met another man "with so rare a combination of scintillating brilliance and depth". Berlin called his autobiography "one of the great monuments to Russian literary and psychological genius... a literary masterpiece to be placed by the side of the novels of his contemporaries and countrymen, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky ...".

Russian Thinkers (The Hogarth Press, 1978) a collection of Berlin's essays in which Herzen features, was the inspiration for Tom Stoppard's The Coast of Utopia, a trilogy of plays performed at London's National Theatre in 2002 and at New York's Lincoln Center in 2006-2007. Set against the background of the early development of Russian socialist thought, the Revolutions of 1848 and later exile, the plays examine the lives and intellectual development of, among other Russians, the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, the literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, the novelist Ivan Turgenev and Alexander Herzen, whose character dominates the plays.

Alexander Herzen



  1. ^ Alexander Herzen; Kathleen Parthé; Robert Neil Harris (2012). A Herzen Reader. Northwestern University Press. p. 367. ISBN 9780810128477. "Zernov writes: “Herzen was the only leader of the intelligentsia who was more an agnostic than a dogmatic atheist and for this reason he remained on the fringe of the movement."" 
  4. ^ A. Herzen., “Another Variation on an Old Theme, A Letter to X (I.S. Turgenev”, 1857). in The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen. Vol IV. Chatto and Windus. London (1968). pp 1561.
  5. ^ A. Herzen., "The Russian people and Socialism. A Letter to Michelet" (1851). in The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen. Vol IV. Chatto and Windus. London (1968). pp 1649.
  6. ^ F. Mehring, Karl Marx: The story of his life (1918), Chapter 13.
  7. ^ A. Herzen., "Ends and Beginnings: Letter to I.S. Turgenev". (1862). in The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen. Vol IV. Chatto and Windus. London (1968). pp 1683.
  8. ^ Kelly, "A Glowing Footprint": Herzen Proudon, and the role of the Intellectual Revolutionary, Modern Intellectual History. (2005), 2: 179-205.
  9. ^ A. Herzen., "Bazarov Once More. Letter I". (1868). in The Memoirs of Alexander Herzen. Vol IV. Chatto and Windus. London (1968). pp 1753.
  10. ^ D. Offord., Portraits of Early Russian Liberals. (1985). Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. p. 200.
  11. ^ Venturi, F., Roots of Revolution. A History of the Populist and Socialist Movements in Nineteenth Century Russia. (1960). Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. p. 4.
  12. ^ I. Berlin., Russian Thinkers. (1979). The Hogarth Press. London. p. 189.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h Alexander Herzen at

See also[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Acton, Edward. Alexander Herzen And the Role of the Intellectual Revolutionary, Cambridge University Press, 1979.
  • Coates, Ruth. "The Early Intellectual Careers of Bakhtin and Herzen: Towards a Philosophy of the Act," Studies in East European Thought, Vol. 52, No. 4, Dec., 2000.
  • Eckardt, Julius. Modern Russia, Smith, Elder & Co., 1870.
  • Gavin, W. J. "Herzen and James: Freedom as Radical," Studies in Soviet Thought, Vol. 14, No. 3/4, Sep./Dec., 1974.
  • Grenier, Svetlana. "Herzen's Who Is to Blame?: The Rhetoric of the New Morality," The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 39, No. 1, Spring, 1995.
  • Kelly, Aileen. "The Destruction of Idols: Alexander Herzen and Francis Bacon," Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 41, No. 4, Oct./Dec., 1980.
  • Malia, Martin Edward. Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism, Grosset & Dunlap, 1965.
  • Orlova-Kopeleva, Raisa: Als die Glocke verstummte. Alexander Herzens letztes Lebensjahr, Karin Kramer Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-87956-190-7
  • Palmieri, F. Aurelio. “The Earliest Theorists of the Russian Revolution,” The Catholic World, Vol. CVIII, October 1918/March 1919.
  • Partridge, Monica. "Alexander Herzen and the English Press," The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 36, No. 87, Jun., 1958.
  • Rzhevsky, Nicholas. "The Shape of Chaos: Herzen and War and Peace," Russian Review, Vol. 34, No. 4, Oct., 1975.
  • Weidemeier, William Cannon. "Herzen and Nietzsche: A Link in the Rise of Modern Pessimism," Russian Review, Vol. 36, No. 4, Oct., 1977.

External links[edit]