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ALEXANDER HERTZEN (1812-1870)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 403 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALEXANDER See also:HERTZEN (1812-1870)  , See also:Russian author, was See also:born at•See also:Moscow, a very See also:short See also:time before the occupation of that See also:city by the See also:French . His See also:father, See also:Ivan Yakovlef, after a See also:personal interview with See also:Napoleon, was allowed to leave, when the invaders arrived, as the See also:bearer of a See also:letter from the French to the Russian See also:emperor . His See also:family attended him to the Russian lines . Then the See also:mother of the See also:infant See also:Alexander (a See also:young See also:German See also:Protestant of Jewish extraction from See also:Stuttgart, according to A. von Wurzbach), only seventeen years old, and quite unable to speak Russian, was forced to seek shelter for some time in a See also:peasant's hut .. A See also:year later the family returned to Moscow, where See also:Hertzen passed his youth—remaining there, after completing his studies at the university, till 1834, when he was arrested and tried on a See also:charge of having assisted, with some other youths, at a festival during which verses by Sokolovsky, of a nature uncomplimentary to the emperor, were sung . The See also:special See also:commission appointed to try the youthful culprits found him guilty, and in 1835 he was banished to Viatka . There he remained till the visit to that city of the hereditary See also:grand-See also:duke (afterwards Alexander II.), accompanied by the poet Joukofsky, led to his being allowed to quit Viatka for See also:Vladimir, where he was appointed editor of the See also:official See also:gazette of that city . In 184o he obtained a See also:post in the See also:ministry of the interior at St See also:Petersburg; but in consequence of having spoken too frankly about a See also:death due to a See also:police officer's violence, he was sent to See also:Novgorod, where he led an official See also:life, with the See also:title of " See also:state councillor," till 1842 . In 1846 his father died, leaving him by his will a very large See also:property . See also:Early in 1847 he See also:left See also:Russia, never to return . From See also:Italy, on See also:hearing of the revolution of 1848, he hastened to See also:Paris, whence he after-wards went to See also:Switzerland . In 1852 he quitted See also:Geneva for See also:London, where he settled for some years .

In 1864 he returned to Geneva, and after some time went to Paris, where he died on the 21st of See also:

January 1870 . His See also:literary career began in 1842 with the publication of an See also:essay, in Russian, on Dilettantism in See also:Science, under the See also:pseudonym of " Iskander," the See also:Turkish See also:form of his See also:Christian name—convicts, even when pardoned, not being allowed in those days to publish under their own names . His second See also:work, also in Russian, was his Letters on the Study of Nature (1845-1846) . In 1847 appeared his novel Kto Vinovat ? (Whose See also:Fault?), and about the same time were published in Russian See also:periodicals the stories which were afterwards collected and printed in London in 1854, under the title of Prervannuie Razskazui (Interrupted Tales) . In 185o two See also:works appeared, translated from the Russian See also:manuscript, Vom anderen lifer (From another See also:Shore) and Lettres de See also:France et d'Italie . In French appeared also his essay Du Developpement See also:des idees revolutionnaires en Russie, and his See also:Memoirs, which, after being printed in Russian, were translated under the title of Le Monde russe et la Revolution (3 vols., r86o-1862), and were in See also:part translated into See also:English as My See also:Exile to See also:Siberia (2 vols., 1855) . From a literary point of view his most important work is Kto Vinovat? a See also:story describing how the domestic happiness of a young See also:tutor, who marries the unacknowledged daughter of a Russian sensualist of the old type, dull, ignorant and genial, is troubled by a Russian sensualist of the new school, intelligent, accomplished and callous, without there being any possibility of saying who is most to be blamed for the tragic termination . But it was as a See also:political writer that Hertzen gained the vast reputation which he at one time enjoyed . Having founded in London his " See also:Free Russian See also:Press," of the fortunes of which, during ten years, he gave an interesting See also:account in a See also:book published (in Russian) in 1863, he issued from it a See also:great number of Russian works, all levelled against the See also:system of See also:government prevailing in Russia . Some of these were essays, such as his Baptized Property, an attack on See also:serfdom; others were periodical publications, the Polyarnaya Zvyezda (or Polar See also:Star), the Kolokol (or See also:Bell), and the Golosa iz Rossii (or Voices from Russia) . The Kolokol soon obtained an immense circulation, and exercised an extraordinary See also:influence .

For three years, it is true, the founders of the " Free Press " went on See also:

printing, " not only without selling a single copy, but scarcely being able to get a single copy introduced into Russia "; so that when at last a bookseller bought ten shillings' See also:worth of Baptized Property, the See also:half-See also:sovereign was set aside by the surprised editors in a special See also:place of See also:honour . But the death of the emperor See also:Nicholas in 1855 produced an entire See also:change . Hertzen's writings, and the See also:journals he edited, were smuggled wholesale into Russia, and their words resounded throughout that See also:country, as well as all over See also:Europe . Their influence became overwhelming . Evil deeds See also:long hidden, evil-doers who had long prospered, were suddenly dragged into See also:light and disgrace . His bold and vigorous See also:language aptly expressed the thoughts which had long been secretly stirring Russian minds, and were now beginning to find a timid utterance at See also:home . For some years his influence in Russia was a living force, the circulation of his writings was a vocation zealously403 pursued . Stories tell how on one occasion a See also:merchant, who had bought several cases of sardines at Nijni-Novgorod, found that they contained forbidden See also:print instead of See also:fish, and at another time a supposititious copy of the Kolokol was printed for the emperor's special use, in which a telling attack upon a leading statesman, which had appeared in the genuine number, was omitted . At length the sweeping changes introduced by Alexander II. greatly diminished the need for and appreciation of Hertzen's assistance in the work of reform . The freedom he had demanded for the See also:serfs was granted, the See also:law-courts he had so long denounced were remodelled, trial by See also:jury was established, See also:liberty was to a great extent conceded to the press . It became clear that Hertzen's occupation was gone . When the See also:Polish insurrection of 1863 See also:broke out, and he pleaded the insurgents' cause, his reputation in Russia received its death-See also:blow .

From that time it was only with the revolutionary party that he was in full See also:

accord . In 1873 a collection of his works in French *was commenced in Paris . A See also:volume of See also:posthumous works, in Russian, was published at Geneva in 1870 . His Memoirs See also:supply the See also:principal See also:information about his life, a See also:sketch of which appears also in A. von Wurzbach's Zeitgenossen, pt . 7 (See also:Vienna, 1871) . See also the Revue des deux rhondes for See also:July 15 and See also:Sept . 1, 1854 . Kto Vinovat? has been translated into German under the title of Wer 1st schuld ? in Wolffsohn's Russlands Novellendichter, vol. iii . The title of My Exile in Siberia is misleading; he was never in that country . (W . R .

End of Article: ALEXANDER HERTZEN (1812-1870)
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