A short biography of Chernyshevsky is the most important thing. Nikolai Chernyshevsky - biography, information, personal life Nikolai Gavrilovich

Russian materialist philosopher, democratic revolutionary, encyclopedist, theorist of critical utopian socialism, scientist, literary critic, publicist and writer

Nikolai Chernyshevsky

short biography

Russian revolutionary, democrat, writer, philosopher, economist, publicist, literary critic, scientist - was born in Saratov on July 24 (July 12, O.S.), 1828. His father was a priest, a well-educated man. Even in his childhood, Nikolai became addicted to reading and amazed those around him with his erudition.

In 1842 he became a student at the Saratov Theological Seminary. The years of study there (he completed his studies in 1845) were filled with intensive self-education. In 1846, Chernyshevsky was a student at the Faculty of Philosophy (historical and philological department) of St. Petersburg University. After his graduation in 1951-1853. He taught Russian at the local gymnasium. During his student years, Chernyshevsky developed as a person and was ready to devote his life to revolutionary activities. The first attempts at writing date back to the same period of biography.

In 1853, Nikolai Gavrilovich, having married, moved to St. Petersburg and in 1854 was assigned to the Second Cadet Corps as a teacher. Despite his teaching talent, he was forced to resign after a conflict with a colleague. The beginning of his literary activity in the form of small articles, which were published by St. Petersburg Gazette and Otechestvennye Zapiski, dates back to 1853. In 1854, Chernyshevsky became an employee of the Sovremennik magazine. The defense of the master's thesis “Aesthetic relations of art to reality” turned into a significant social event and gave rise to the development of national materialist aesthetics.

During 1855-1857. From the pen of Chernyshevsky a number of articles were published, mainly of a literary-critical and historical-literary nature. At the end of 1857, having entrusted the critical department to N. Dobrolyubov, he began composing articles covering economic and political issues, primarily related to the planned agrarian reforms. He had a negative attitude towards this step of the government and at the end of 1858 he began to call for the reform to be thwarted by revolutionary means, warning that the peasantry would face large-scale ruin.

Late 50s - early 60s. noted in his creative biography writing political economic works in which the writer expresses his conviction in the inevitability of the coming of socialism to replace capitalism, in particular, “The Experience of Land Ownership”, “Superstitions and Rules of Logic”, “Capital and Labor”, etc.

From the beginning of autumn 1861 N.G. Chernyshevsky becomes the object of secret police surveillance. During the summer of 1861-1862. he was the ideological inspirer of “Land and Freedom” - a revolutionary populist organization. Chernyshevsky was listed in the official documentation of the secret police as enemy number one Russian Empire. When a letter from Herzen with a mention of Chernyshevsky and a proposal to publish Sovremennik, which was banned at that time, was intercepted, Nikolai Gavrilovich was arrested on June 12, 1862. While the investigation was ongoing, he sat in the Peter and Paul Fortress, in solitary confinement, while continuing to write. So, in 1862-1863. was written in the dungeons famous novel"What to do?".

In February 1864, a verdict was passed according to which the revolutionary was to spend 14 years in hard labor followed by lifelong residence in Siberia, but Alexander II reduced the term to 7 years. In total, N. Chernyshevsky had to spend more than two decades in prison and hard labor. In 1874, he refused to write a petition for pardon, although he was given such a chance. In 1889, his family obtained permission for him to live in Saratov, but having moved, he died on October 29 (October 17, O.S.), 1889, and was buried at the Resurrection Cemetery. For several more years, until 1905, all of his works were banned in Russia.

Biography from Wikipedia

N. G. Chernyshevsky. Photo by V. Ya. Lauffert. 1859

Born into the family of Archpriest Alexander Nevsky cathedral Saratov Gabriel Ivanovich Chernyshevsky (1793-23.10.1861), who came from the serfs of the village of Chernysheva, Chembar district, Penza province. The name of the village gave him his last name. Until the age of 14, he studied at home under the guidance of his father, a well-educated and very religious man, and his cousin, L.N. Pypina. Archbishop Nikanor (Brovkovich) pointed out that from early childhood he was assigned a French tutor, to whom “in Saratov they were credited with the initial direction of young Chernyshevsky.”

Nikolai's erudition amazed those around him; as a child, he even had the nickname “bibliophage,” that is, a book eater. In 1843 he entered the Saratov Theological Seminary. He stayed at the seminary for three years, “being unusually thoroughly developed beyond his years and educated far beyond the seminary course of his peers”; Without graduating, in 1846 he entered St. Petersburg University in the historical and philological department of the Faculty of Philosophy.

During these years, the Chernyshevsky that all of Russia would soon recognize was formed - a convinced revolutionary democrat, socialist and materialist. Chernyshevsky's worldview was formed under the influence of ancient, as well as French and English materialism of the 17th-18th centuries, the works of naturalists - Newton, Laplace, Lalande and other ideas of utopian socialists, classics of political economy, Hegel's dialectics and especially the anthropological materialism of Feuerbach. The formation of his views was influenced by the circle of I. I. Vvedensky. At this time, Chernyshevsky began to write his first works of fiction. In 1850, having completed the course as a candidate, he was assigned to the Saratov gymnasium and in the spring of 1851 began work. Here the young teacher used his position to preach revolutionary ideas.

In 1853, he met his future wife, Olga Sokratovna Vasilyeva, with whom after the wedding he moved from his native Saratov to St. Petersburg. By the highest order on January 24, 1854, Chernyshevsky was appointed as a teacher in the Second Cadet Corps. The future writer proved himself to be an excellent teacher, but his stay in the building was short-lived. After a conflict with an officer, Chernyshevsky was forced to resign.

Literary activity

He began his literary activity in 1853 with small articles in St. Petersburg Gazette and Otechestvennye Zapiski.

At the beginning of 1854, he moved to the Sovremennik magazine, where in 1855-1862 he was actually the head of the magazine along with N. A. Nekrasov and N. A. Dobrolyubov, he led a decisive struggle to transform the magazine into a tribune of revolutionary democracy, which caused protest of liberal writers (V.P. Botkin, P.V. Annenkov and A.V. Druzhinin, I.S. Turgenev) who collaborated in Sovremennik.

On May 10, 1855, at the university, he defended his dissertation “The Aesthetic Relationship of Art to Reality,” which became a great social event and was perceived as a revolutionary speech; in this work, he sharply criticized the aesthetics of idealists and the theory of “art for art’s sake.” The Minister of Education A. S. Norov prevented the award of an academic degree, and only in 1858, when Norov was replaced as minister by E. P. Kovalevsky, the latter approved Chernyshevsky for a master's degree in Russian literature.

In 1858, he became the first editor of the Military Collection magazine. A number of officers (Serakovsky, Kalinovsky, Shelgunov, etc.) were involved by him in revolutionary circles. Herzen and Ogarev, who sought to lead the army to participate in the revolution, were well aware of this work of Chernyshevsky. Together with them he is the founder of populism.

In the 1860s, Chernyshevsky became the recognized leader of the journalistic school of Russian philosophical materialism. Chernyshevsky’s main philosophical work is “ Anthropological primacy in philosophy"(1860). It sets out the author’s monistic materialist position, directed both against dualism and idealistic monism. Defining philosophy as “a theory for solving the most general questions of science,” he substantiated the provisions on the material unity of the world, the objective nature of the laws of nature, using data natural sciences.

1861 Announced: The Highest Manifesto of February 19, 1861 On the abolition of serfdom, the implementation of the reform begins, which Marx and Engels called a “fraudulent trick.” Chernyshevsky’s activities at this time acquired the greatest scope and extreme intensity. Without formally entering the secret revolutionary society “Land and Freedom,” Chernyshevsky is its undoubted inspirer. No wonder Marx and Engels called him “the head of the revolutionary party.”

Since September 1861 it has been under secret police surveillance. The chief of gendarmes, Dolgorukov, gives the following description of Chernyshevsky: “Suspected of drafting the “Velikoruss” appeal, of participating in the drafting of other appeals, and of constantly arousing hostile feelings towards the government.” Suspected of involvement in the fires of 1862 in St. Petersburg.

In May 1862, the Sovremennik magazine was closed for 8 months.

In 1863, the revived Sovremennik magazine published the novel What Is To Be Done?, written by Chernyshevsky, who was under arrest in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Arrest and investigation

On June 12, 1862, Chernyshevsky was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in custody in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress on charges of drawing up a proclamation “Bow to the lordly peasants from their well-wishers.” The appeal to the “Barsky Peasants” was rewritten by Mikhailov and handed over to Vsevolod Kostomarov, who, as it later turned out, was a provocateur.

In official documentation and correspondence between the gendarmerie and the secret police, he was called “enemy of the Russian Empire number one.” The reason for the arrest was a letter intercepted by the police from Herzen to N.A. Serno-Solovyevich, in which Chernyshevsky’s name was mentioned in connection with the proposal to publish the banned Sovremennik in London.

The investigation lasted about a year and a half. Chernyshevsky waged a stubborn struggle with the investigative commission. As a protest against the illegal actions of the investigative commission, Chernyshevsky went on a hunger strike, which lasted nine days. At the same time, Chernyshevsky continued to work in prison. During 678 days of arrest, Chernyshevsky wrote text materials in the amount of at least 200 copyright sheets. The most fully-fledged utopian ideals were expressed by the prisoner Chernyshevsky in the novel “What is to be done?” (1863), published in issues 3, 4 and 5 of Sovremennik.

Hard labor and exile

On February 7, 1864, Senator M. M. Karniolin-Pinsky announced the verdict in the Chernyshevsky case: exile to hard labor for 14 years, and then settlement in Siberia for life. Alexander II reduced the term of hard labor to 7 years; in general, Chernyshevsky spent more than twenty years in prison, hard labor and exile.

On May 19 (31), 1864, the civil execution of a revolutionary took place on Mytninskaya Square in St. Petersburg. He was sent to the Nerchinsk penal servitude in the Kadai prison; in 1866 he was transferred to the Aleksandrovsky Plant of the Nerchinsk District, in 1867 to the Akatuysk prison, at the end of seven years of hard labor he was transferred in 1871 to Vilyuysk. In 1874, he was officially offered release, but he refused to apply for clemency. In the Aleksandrovsky Plant, the house-museum of N. G. Chernyshevsky has been preserved to this day - the house in which he lived.

The organizer of one of the attempts to free Chernyshevsky (1871) from exile was G. A. Lopatin. In 1875, I. N. Myshkin tried to free Chernyshevsky. In 1883, Chernyshevsky was allowed to return to the European part of Russia, to Astrakhan (according to some sources, during this period Konstantin Fedorov worked as a copyist for him).

Death

Thanks to the efforts of his son Mikhail, on June 27, 1889 he moved to Saratov, but already on October 11 of the same year he fell ill with malaria. Chernyshevsky died at 12:37 at night on October 17 (29), 1889 from a cerebral hemorrhage. On October 20, 1889 he was buried in Saratov at the Resurrection Cemetery.

Family

Grandfather (maternal) - Egor (Georgy) Ivanovich Golubev (1781-04/20/1818), archpriest of the Saratov Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands (Sergius), “was an honest man, learned and loved by many.”

Grandmother (maternal) - Pelageya Ivanovna Golubeva, née Kirillova (1780-1847), daughter of the Saratov priest Ivan (Ivan) Kirillov (about 1761-after 1821) and his wife Mavra Porfiryevna (about 1761-after 1814). She was “a typical, stern, domineering, unyielding woman of the old century, with a character that subjugated those around her.” She had two daughters.

Father - Gabriel Ivanovich Chernyshevsky (07/5/1793-10/23/1861), the eldest son of the deacon of the village of Chernyshevki, Chembarsky district, Penza province, Ivan Vasilyev (1763-1809) and his wife Evdokia (Avdotya) Markovna (1767-1835); he had a sister Stepanida (1791-?) and a brother Photius (1794-?). After studying at the Tambov School, he was transferred to the Penza Seminary, where he received his surname after his place of birth, the village of Chernyshevo, Penza province - Chernyshevsky, for inclusion in the lists of seminarians. Having married the daughter of Archpriest E.I. Golubev, in 1825 he became an archpriest in Saratov; since 1826 member of the spiritual board. Knew languages and history.

Mother - Evgenia Egorovna Golubeva (11/30/1803-04/19/1853), married G.I. Chernyshevsky on June 7, 1818.

Aunt - Alexandra Egorovna Golubeva (1806-08/15/1884), the only sister of E. E. Chernyshevskaya. She was married twice: 1) to artillery second lieutenant Nikolai Mikhailovich Kotlyarevsky (d. 08/28/1828), they had 3 children: Lyubov (1824-1852), Sophia (1826-1827) and Yegor (1828-1892); 2) from 1831 to the small-scale nobleman Nikolai Dmitrievich Pypin (1808-1893), a Saratov official, from whom she gave birth to 8 more children, including A. N. Pypin.

Sister - Pelageya Gavrilovna Chernyshevskaya (09/07/1825-09/25/1825), lived for less than a month.

N. G. Chernyshevsky was married from April 29, 1853 to Olga Sokratovna Vasilyeva (03/15/1833-07/11/1918), the daughter of the Saratov doctor Socrates Evgenievich Vasiliev (1796-1860) and Anna Kirillovna Kazachkovskaya, the daughter of Lieutenant General K.F. Kazachkovsky. Olga Sokratovna “was a cheerful, energetic, loving outdoor games, cheerful and brave girl.” They had 3 sons:

Alexander (03/5/1854, St. Petersburg, - 01/17/1915, Rome, Italy), a mathematician by training, who was passionate about literature all his life.

Victor (01/20/1857, St. Petersburg, - November 1860, ibid.), died in childhood.

Mikhail (10/7/1858, St. Petersburg, - 05/3/1924), was the first director of the N. G. Chernyshevsky museum-estate. He was married to Elena Matveevna Solovyova (1864-1940)

Journalistic activity

Continuing the tradition of Belinsky criticism, he sought to reveal the essence social phenomena, convey to the reader your revolutionary views. He wrote many articles and reviews aimed at explaining certain new literary movements, and was one of the first critics to reveal the so-called “dialectics of the soul” in Tolstoy’s works.

Philosophical views

He was a follower of Russian revolutionary-democratic thought and progressive Western European philosophy (18th-century French materialists, social-utopians Fourier and Feuerbach). During his university years, he experienced a short-lived fascination with Hegelianism, and subsequently criticized idealistic views, Christian, bourgeois and liberal morality as “slave” .

Chernyshevsky's philosophy is monistic and directed against dualism, objective idealistic and subjective idealistic monism. Defining philosophy as “a theory for solving the most general questions of science,” he substantiated the position of the material unity of the world, the objective nature of nature and its laws (for example, the law of causality), widely using data from chemistry, physics, biology and other natural sciences. Explaining the ideal as a product of the material, talking about material basis consciousness, Chernyshevsky also relied on data from experimental psychology and physiology. In Chernyshevsky's philosophy, a significant place is occupied by ideas associated with anthropological materialism, which brings him closer to the most advanced thinkers, such as Feuerbach.

According to Chernyshevsky, the main factors that shape moral consciousness are “natural needs,” as well as “social habits and circumstances.” Satisfaction of needs, from his point of view, will eliminate obstacles to the flourishing of personality and causes moral pathologies, for this it is necessary to change the very conditions of life through revolution. Materialism served as a theoretical basis for the political program of the revolutionary democrats; they criticized the reformist hopes for an “enlightened monarch” and an “honest politician.”

His ethics are based on the concept of “reasonable egoism” and the anthropological principle. Man, as a biosocial being, belongs to the natural world, which defines his “essence,” and consists in social relations with other people, in which he realizes the original desire of his “nature” for pleasure. The philosopher claims that the individual “acts as it is more pleasant for him to act, is guided by a calculation that orders him to give up less benefit and less pleasure in order to obtain greater benefit, greater pleasure,” only then does he achieve benefit. The personal interest of a developed person prompts him to an act of noble self-sacrifice in order to bring closer the triumph of his chosen ideal. Denying the existence of free will, Chernyshevsky recognizes the operation of the law of causality: “The phenomenon that we call will is a link in a series of phenomena and facts connected by a causal connection.”

Thanks to freedom of choice, a person moves along one or another path of social development, and the enlightenment of people should ensure that they learn to choose new and progressive paths, that is, to become “new people” whose ideals are service to the people, revolutionary humanism, and historical optimism.

Political ideology

Peasant question

Published in 1858-1859. In three articles under the general title “On New Conditions of Rural Life,” Chernyshevsky, in a censored form and in an outwardly well-intentioned tone, promoted the idea of the immediate release of peasants with land without any ransom, then communal ownership of land would be preserved, which would gradually lead to socialist land use. According to Lenin, this utopian approach could lead to a decisive breakdown of feudal antiquity, which would lead to the most rapid and progressive development of capitalism.

While the official press printed the manifesto of Alexander II of February 19, 1861 on the first page, Sovremennik placed only excerpts from the Tsar’s Decree at the end of the book, as an appendix, without being able to directly reveal the nature of the reform. The same issue published poems by the American poet Longfellow “Songs of Negroes” and an article about the slavery of African Americans in the United States. Readers understood what the editors wanted to say by this.

Socio-economic views

For Chernyshevsky, the community is a patriarchal institution of Russian life; in the community there is a “comradely form of production” in parallel with capitalist production, which will be abolished over time. Then collective production and consumption will be finally established, after which the community as a form of production association will disappear. He estimated the period of transition from cultivation of the land by the private forces of an individual owner to the communal cultivation of an entire secular dacha at 20-30 years. He used the ideas of Fourier and his main student Considerant. In “Essays from Political Economy”, with some reservations, he conveys the utopian doctrine of labor, pointing out the need for large-scale production, and explains the unprofitability of wage labor. Chernyshevsky believed that “the consumer of a product must also be its owner-producer.” According to Fourier's views, Chernyshevsky pointed out the exaggerated importance of trade in modern society and the shortcomings of its organization. In the novel “What to do?” directly depicted the phalanstery (Vera Pavlovna’s Fourth Dream).

Addresses in St. Petersburg

06/19/1846 - 08/20/1846 - apartment building Prilutsky - Embankment Catherine Canal (now Griboyedov Canal), 44;
08/21/1846 - 12/07/1846 - Vyazemsky apartment building - Embankment. Ekaterininsky Canal (now Griboyedov Canal), 38, apt. 47;
1847-1848 - Fredericks house - Vladimirskaya street, 13;
1848 - Solovyov’s apartment building - Voznesensky Avenue, 41;
09/20/1849 - 02/10/1850 - apartment of L.N. Tersinskaya in the apartment building of I.V. Koshansky - Bolshaya Konyushennaya street, 15, apt. 8;
12.1850 - 03.12.1851 - Ofitserskaya street, 45;
05/13/1853 - 08/01/1853 - Ofitserskaya street, 45;
1853-1854 - apartment of I. I. Vvedensky in the Borodina apartment building - Zhdanovka River embankment, 7;
08/22/1855 - end of 06/1860 - Povarsky Lane, 13, apt. 6;
end of 06.1860 - 06.07.1861 - apartment building of V.F. Gromov - 2nd line of Vasilyevsky Island, 13, apt. 7;
06/08/1861 - 07/07/1862 - Esaulova's apartment building - Bolshaya Moskovskaya street, 6, apt. 4.

Reviews

In the USSR, Chernyshevsky became a cult figure in the history of the revolutionary struggle in connection with V.I. Lenin’s flattering reviews of the novel “What is to be done?”
Chernyshevsky as a revolutionary ideologist and novelist was mentioned in the statements of K. Marx, F. Engels, A. Bebel, H. Botev and other historical figures.
G.V. Plekhanov noted: “my own mental development took place under the enormous influence of Chernyshevsky, the analysis of whose views was a whole event in my literary life.”
Information about Chernyshevsky is contained in the memoirs of Russian public figure L. F. Panteleev.
Writer V. A. Gilyarovsky after reading “What to do?” ran away from home to the Volga - to barge haulers.
One of the most expressive monuments to Chernyshevsky was created by the sculptor V. V. Lishev. The monument was unveiled on Moskovsky Prospekt in Leningrad on February 2, 1947.
With elements of satire, the image of Chernyshevsky was presented in the novel “The Gift” (1937) by V. V. Nabokov.

Pedagogical theory

In Chernyshevsky’s philosophical and pedagogical views, one can trace a direct relationship between the political regime, material wealth and education. Chernyshevsky defended a decisive, revolutionary remaking of society, for which it was necessary to prepare strong, intelligent, freedom-loving people.

The pedagogical ideal for Chernyshevsky is a comprehensively developed personality, ready for self-development and self-sacrifice for the sake of the public good.

Chernyshevsky considered the disadvantages of his contemporary education system to be the low level and potential of Russian science, scholastic teaching methods, drill instead of education, and inequality of female and male education.

Chernyshevsky defended the anthropological approach, considering man to be the crown of creation, a changeable, active being. Social changes lead to changes in society as a whole and in each individual individual. He did not consider bad behavior to be hereditary - it was a consequence of poor upbringing and poverty.

Chernyshevsky considered one of the main properties of human nature to be activity, the nature of which is rooted in the awareness of insufficiency and the desire to eliminate this insufficiency.

Works

Novels

1862−1863 - What to do? From stories about new people.
1863 - Stories within a story (unfinished)
1867−1870 - Prologue. A novel from the early sixties.(unfinished)

Stories

1863 - Alferev.
1864 - Small stories.
1889 - Evenings with Princess Starobelskaya (not published)

Literary criticism

1849 - About “Brigadier” Fonvizin. Candidate's work.
1854 - On sincerity in criticism.
1854 - Songs of different nations.
1854 - Poverty is not a vice. Comedy by A. Ostrovsky.
1855 - Works of Pushkin.
1855−1856 - Essays Gogol period Russian literature.
1856 - Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. His life and writings.
1856 - Poems by Koltsov.
1856 - Poems by N. Ogarev.
1856 - Collected poems by V. Benediktov.
1856 - Childhood and adolescence. War stories of Count L.N. Tolstoy.
1856 - Sketches from peasant life A.F. Pisemsky.
1857 - Lessing. His time, his life and work.
1857 - “Provincial Sketches” by Shchedrin.
1857 - Works of V. Zhukovsky.
1857 - Poems by N. Shcherbina.
1857 - “Letters about Spain” by V. P. Botkin.
1858 - Russian man at rendez-vous. Reflections on reading Mr. Turgenev’s story “Asya”.
1860 - Collection of miracles, stories borrowed from mythology.
1861 - Is this the beginning of a change? Stories by N.V. Uspensky. Two parts.

Journalism

1856 - Review historical development rural community in Russia Chicherin.
1856 - “Russian conversation” and its direction.
1857 - “Russian conversation” and Slavophilism.
1857 - On land ownership.
1858 - Taxation system.
1858 - Cavaignac.
1858 - July Monarchy.
1859 - Materials for solving the peasant question.
1859 - Superstition and the rules of logic.
1859 - Capital and labor.
1859−1862 - Politics. Monthly reviews of foreign political life.
1860 - History of civilization in Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution.
1861 - Political and economic letters to the President of the United States of America G. C. Carey.
1861 - About the reasons for the fall of Rome.
1861 - Count Cavour.
1861 - Disrespect for authority. Regarding "Democracy in America" by Tocqueville.
1861 - Bow to the Barsky peasants from their well-wishers.
1862 - As an expression of gratitude Letter to Mr. Z<ари>Well.
1862 - Letters without an address.
1878 - Letter to the sons of A.N. and M.N. Chernyshevsky.

Memoirs

1861 - N. A. Dobrolyubov. Obituary.
1883 - Notes about Nekrasov.
1884−1888 - Materials for the biography of N. A. Dobrolyubov, collected in 1861-1862.
1884−1888 - Memories of Turgenev’s relationship with Dobrolyubov and the breakdown of friendship between Turgenev and Nekrasov.

Philosophy and aesthetics

1854 - A critical look at modern aesthetic concepts.
1855 - Aesthetic relations of art to reality. Master's dissertation.
1855 - The Sublime and the Comic.
1855 - Character human knowledge.
1858 - Criticism of philosophical prejudices against common ownership.
1860 - Anthropological principle in philosophy. "Essays on questions of practical philosophy." Essay by P. L. Lavrov.
1888 - Origin of the theory of the beneficence of the struggle for life. Preface to some treatises on botany, zoology and natural sciences human life.

Translations

1858-1860 - “History of the Eighteenth Century and the Nineteenth to the Fall of the French Empire” by F. K. Schlosser.
1860 - “Foundations of Political Economy by D. S. Mill” (with his own notes).
1861-1863 - “World History” by F. K. Schlosser.
1863-1864 - “Confession”

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky - Russian revolutionary, democrat, writer, philosopher, economist, publicist, literary critic, scientist - was born in Saratov on July 24 (July 12, O.S.), 1828. His father was a priest, a well-educated man. Even in his childhood, Nikolai became addicted to reading and amazed those around him with his erudition.

Late 50s - early 60s. noted in his creative biography for writing political economic works, in which the writer expresses his conviction in the inevitability of the coming of socialism to replace capitalism - in particular, “The Experience of Land Ownership”, “Superstitions and Rules of Logic”, “Capital and Labor”, etc.

From the beginning of autumn 1861 N.G. Chernyshevsky becomes the object of secret police surveillance. During the summer of 1861-1862. he was the ideological inspirer of “Land and Freedom” - a revolutionary populist organization. Chernyshevsky was listed in the official documentation of the secret police as enemy number one of the Russian Empire. When a letter from Herzen with a mention of Chernyshevsky and a proposal to publish Sovremennik, which was banned at that time, was intercepted, Nikolai Gavrilovich was arrested on June 12, 1862. While the investigation was ongoing, he sat in the Peter and Paul Fortress, in solitary confinement, while continuing to write. So, in 1862-1863. The famous novel “What is to be done?” was written in the dungeons.

1828 , July 12 (24 according to the new style) - born in Saratov, in the family of the priest Gabriel Ivanovich Chernyshevsky.

1836 , December - Chernyshevsky was enrolled in the Saratov Theological School.

1842 , September - Chernyshevsky entered the Saratov Theological Seminary.

1846 , May - Chernyshevsky’s departure from Saratov to St. Petersburg to enter the university. This summer, Chernyshevsky successfully passed the exams and was enrolled in the historical and philological department of the Faculty of Philosophy of St. Petersburg University.

1850 - After graduating from the university, Chernyshevsky became a literature teacher at the 2nd St. Petersburg Cadet Corps.

1851–1853 - Having received an appointment to the Saratov gymnasium as a senior teacher of Russian literature, Chernyshevsky went to Saratov in the spring of 1851.
1853 – meets O.S. here Vasilyeva, who later became his wife.
May– leaves with O.S. Vasilyeva to St. Petersburg. The beginning of cooperation in Otechestvennye zapiski. Work on a master's thesis “Aesthetic relations of art to reality.” Secondary admission as a literature teacher to the 2nd St. Petersburg Cadet Corps. In the fall, Chernyshevsky meets Nekrasov and begins working at Sovremennik.

1854 - Chernyshevsky’s articles appear in Sovremennik: about the novels and stories of M. Avdeev, “On sincerity in criticism,” about the comedy of A.N. Ostrovsky “Poverty is not a vice” and others.

1855 , May – public defense of Chernyshevsky’s master’s thesis “Aesthetic relations of art to reality” at the university. In No. 12 of Sovremennik, Chernyshevsky’s first article from the series “Essays on the Gogol period of Russian literature” was published.

1856 – acquaintance and rapprochement with N.A. Dobrolyubov. ON THE. Nekrasov, going abroad for treatment, transferred his editorial rights to Sovremennik to Chernyshevsky.

1858 - Chernyshevsky is appointed editor of the Military Collection. In No. 1 of Sovremennik, the article “Cavaignac” was published, in which Chernyshevsky castigates liberals for betraying the people’s cause. In No. 2 of Sovremennik, the article “On the new conditions of rural life” was published. The magazine "Athenaeus" (Part III, No. 18) published the article "Russian man at the rendez-vous." In No. 12 of Sovremennik there is an article “Criticism of philosophical prejudices against communal ownership.”

1859 - in the magazine “Sovremennik” (from No. 3) Chernyshevsky began to publish systematic reviews of foreign political life under the general title “Politics”. In June, Chernyshevsky went to London to see Herzen for an explanation about the article “Very dangerous!” (“Very dangerous!”), published in Kolokol. Upon returning from London he leaves for Saratov. In September he returns to St. Petersburg.

1860 – in No. 1 of Sovremennik, Chernyshevsky’s article “Capital and Labor” was published. From the second issue of Sovremennik, Chernyshevsky began publishing his translation of D. S. Mill’s “Foundations of Political Economy” in the magazine, accompanying the translation with his own critical commentary. In No. 4 of Sovremennik, Chernyshevsky’s article “The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy” was published, which is one of the most remarkable declarations of materialism in Russian literature.

1861 – a trip to Moscow to participate in a meeting of St. Petersburg and Moscow editors on the issue of easing censorship. In No. 6 of Sovremennik, Chernyshevsky’s article “Polemical Beauty” was published, which is a response to the speeches of reactionary and liberal writers against the article “Anthropological principle in philosophy.” In August, the provocateur Vsevolod Kostomarov, through his brother, delivered two handwritten proclamations to the Third Department: “To the lordly peasants” (author N.G. Chernyshevsky) and “Russian soldiers” (author N.V. Shelgunov).

1862 – Chernyshevsky was present at the opening of the Chess Club in St. Petersburg, which had the goal of uniting representatives of the leading public of the capital. Censorship prohibited the publication of Chernyshevsky’s “Letters without an address”, since the article contained harsh criticism peasant “reform” and the then situation in the country. In March, Chernyshevsky spoke at a literary evening in the Ruadze Hall with a reading on the topic “Meeting Dobrolyubov.” In June, Sovremennik was banned for eight months. On July 7, Chernyshevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

1863 - in No. 3 of Sovremennik the beginning of the novel “What is to be done?” was published. (subsequent parts were published in Nos. 4 and 5 for 1863).

1864 , May 19 - public “civil execution” of Chernyshevsky on Mytninskaya Square in St. Petersburg and his exile to Siberia. In August, Chernyshevsky arrived at the Kadai mine (in Transbaikalia).

1865–1868 – work on the novel “Prologue of the Prologue”, “Levitsky’s Diary” and “Prologue”.

1866 – O.S. Chernyshevskaya and her son Mikhail arrived in Kadaya in August for a meeting with N.G. Chernyshevsky. In September, Chernyshevsky was sent from the Kadai mine to the Aleksandrovsky plant.

1871 - in Irkutsk in February, the revolutionary populist German Lopatin, who came to Russia from London with the aim of freeing Chernyshevsky, was arrested. In December, Chernyshevsky was sent from the Aleksandrovsky plant to Vilyuysk.

1875 - attempt by I. Myshkin to free Chernyshevsky.

1883 – Chernyshevsky is being transferred from Vilyuysk to Astrakhan under police supervision.

1884–1888 - Chernyshevsky is doing a lot of literary work in Astrakhan. Here he wrote “Memoirs of Turgenev’s relationship with Dobrolyubov”, articles “The Nature of Human Knowledge”, “The Origin of the Theory of Beneficence of the Struggle for Life”, prepared “Materials for the Biography of Dobrolyubov”, translated from German language eleven volumes of Weber's General History.

1889 – Chernyshevsky was allowed to move to Saratov, where he moved at the end of June.
October 17 (29) Chernyshevsky, after a short illness, died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Russian literature XIX century

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky

Biography

Chernyshevsky (Nikolai Gavrilovich) - famous writer. Born on July 12, 1828 in Saratov. His father, Archpriest Gabriel Ivanovich (1795 - 1861), was a very remarkable man. His great intelligence, due to his serious education and knowledge of not only ancient but also new languages, made him an exceptional person in the provincial wilderness; but what was most remarkable about him was his amazing kindness and nobility. This was an evangelical shepherd in the best sense of the word, from whom, at a time when it was supposed to treat people harshly for their own good, no one heard anything but words of affection and greetings. In the school business, which was then entirely based on brutal flogging, he never resorted to any punishment. And at the same time, this kind man was unusually strict and rigoristic in his demands; In communicating with him, the most dissolute people became morally better. Outstanding kindness, purity of soul and detachment from everything petty and vulgar completely passed on to his son. Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky, as a person, was a truly bright personality - this is recognized by the worst enemies of his literary activity. The most enthusiastic reviews of Chernyshevsky as a person belong to two elderly representatives of the clergy, who could not find enough words to characterize the harm of Chernyshevsky’s writings and theories. One of them, a teacher at various Palimpsest seminaries, mentally grieves that this “being with the purest soul” has turned, thanks to his passion for various Western European false teachings, into a “fallen angel”; but at the same time, he categorically states that Chernyshevsky “really at one time looked like an angel in the flesh.” Information about Chernyshevsky’s personal qualities is very important for understanding his literary activity; they provide the key to the correct illumination of many aspects of it and, above all, that which is most closely connected with the idea of Chernyshevsky - the preaching of utilitarianism. Borrowed from the same exclusively kind person- J. St. Milla - Chernyshevsky’s utilitarianism does not stand up to criticism that does not close its eyes to reality. Chernyshevsky wants to reduce the best movements of our soul to “reasonable” egoism - but this “egoism” is very peculiar. It turns out that a person, acting nobly, acts so not for others, but exclusively for himself. He does well because doing well gives him pleasure. Thus, the matter comes down to a simple dispute over words. Does it matter what motivates self-sacrifice; The only thing that matters is the desire to sacrifice oneself. In Chernyshevsky’s touchingly naive efforts to convince people that doing well is “not only sublime, but also profitable,” only the high structure of the soul of the preacher of “reasonable egoism,” who understood “benefit” in such an original way, was clearly reflected.

Chernyshevsky received his secondary education under especially favorable conditions - in the quiet of an ideally peaceful family, which included the family of A. N. Pypin, Nikolai Gavrilovich’s maternal cousin, who lived in the same yard as the Chernyshevskys. Chernyshevsky was 5 years older than Pypin, but they were very friendly and over the years their friendship grew stronger. Chernyshevsky bypassed the terrible bursa of the pre-reform era and the lower classes, seminaries, and only at the age of 14 did he directly enter high school. He was prepared mainly by his learned father, with some help from the gymnasium teachers. By the time he entered the seminary, young Chernyshevsky was already extremely well-read and amazed his teachers with his extensive knowledge. His comrades adored him: he was the universal supplier of class essays and a diligent tutor for everyone who turned to him for help.

After spending two years at the seminary, Chernyshevsky continued his studies at home and in 1846 went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the university, the Faculty of History and Philology. Chernyshevsky the father had to listen to reproaches about this from some representatives of the clergy: they found that he should have sent his son to the theological academy and not “deprive the church of its future luminary.” At the university, Chernyshevsky diligently studied departmental subjects and was among Sreznevsky’s best students. On his instructions, he compiled an etymological-syntactic dictionary for the Ipatiev Chronicle, which was later (1853) published in Izvestia of the II Department of the Academy of Sciences. Much more than university subjects, he was fascinated by other interests. The first years of Chernyshevsky's student life were an era of passionate interest in socio-political issues. He was captivated by the end of that period in the history of Russian progressive thought, when those coming to us from France in the 1840s social utopias in one form or another, were reflected to a greater or lesser extent in literature and society (see Petrashevtsy, XXIII, 750 and Russian literature XXVII, 634). Chernyshevsky became a convinced Fourierist and all his life remained faithful to this most dreamy of the doctrines of socialism, with the very significant difference that Fourierism was rather indifferent to political questions, to questions about the forms of state life, while Chernyshevsky gave them great importance. Chernyshevsky’s worldview also differs from Fourierism in religious matters, in which Chernyshevsky was a free thinker.

In 1850, Chernyshevsky graduated from the course as a candidate and went to Saratov, where he received a position as a senior teacher at the gymnasium. Here, by the way, he became very close to Kostomarov, who was exiled to Saratov, and some exiled Poles. During this time, great grief befell him - his dearly beloved mother died; but during the same period of his Saratov life, he married his beloved girl (the novel “What to Do,” published ten years later, “is dedicated to my friend O.S.Ch.”, that is, Olga Sokratovna Chernyshevskaya). At the end of 1853, thanks to the efforts of an old St. Petersburg acquaintance - the famous teacher Irinarkh Vvedensky, who occupied an influential position in the teaching staff of military educational institutions, Chernyshevsky went to serve in St. Petersburg, as a teacher of the Russian language in the 2nd cadet corps. Here he lasted no more than a year. An excellent teacher, he was not strict enough with his students, who abused his gentleness and, willingly listening interesting stories and his explanations themselves did almost nothing. Because he let the officer on duty calm down the noisy class, Chernyshevsky had to leave the building, and from then on he devoted himself entirely to literature.

He began his activity in 1853 with small articles in St. Petersburg Gazette and in Otechestvennye Zapiski, reviews and translations from English, but already at the beginning of 1854 he moved to Sovremennik, where he soon became the head of the magazine. In 1855, Chernyshevsky, who passed the master's exam, presented as a dissertation the following argument: “Aesthetic relations of art to reality” (St. Petersburg, 1855). At that time, aesthetic issues had not yet acquired the character of socio-political slogans that they acquired in the early 60s, and therefore what later seemed to be the destruction of aesthetics did not arouse any doubts or suspicions among members of the very conservative historical and philological faculty of St. Petersburg University . The dissertation was accepted and allowed to be defended. The master's student successfully defended his theses and the faculty would no doubt have awarded him the required degree, but someone (apparently I. I. Davydov, an “aesthetician” of a very peculiar type) managed to turn the Minister of Public Education A. S. Norov against Chernyshevsky; he was outraged by the “blasphemous” provisions of the dissertation and the degree was not given to the master’s student. Literary activity Chernyshevsky in Sovremennik was at first almost entirely devoted to criticism and the history of literature. During 1855 - 1857 a number of extensive historical critical articles him, among which especially outstanding place occupied by the famous “Essays on the Gogol Period”, “Lessing” and articles on Pushkin and Gogol. In addition, during these same years, with his characteristic amazing capacity for work and extraordinary literary energy, he gave the magazine a number of smaller critical articles about Pisemsky, Tolstoy, Shchedrin, Benediktov, Shcherbin, Ogarev and others, many dozens of detailed reviews and, in addition, he also wrote monthly “Notes” about magazines."

At the end of 1857 and the beginning of 1858, all this literary productivity was directed in a different direction. With the exception of this (1858) article about Turgenev’s “Ace” (“Russian man on a rendez-vous”) to support the emerging nice magazine “Atheneum”, Chernyshevsky now almost leaves the field of criticism and devotes himself entirely to political economy, issues of foreign and domestic policy and partly the development of a philosophical worldview. This turn was caused by two circumstances. In 1858, a very critical moment arrived in the preparations for the liberation of the peasants. The government's good desire to liberate the peasants did not weaken, but, under the influence of the strong connections of the reactionary elements of the highest government aristocracy, the reform was in danger of being significantly distorted. It was necessary to defend its implementation on the broadest possible basis. At the same time, it was necessary to defend one principle very dear to Chernyshevsky - communal land ownership, which he, with his Fourierist ideal of joint economic activity humanity was especially close. The principle of communal land ownership had to be protected not so much from reactionary elements, but from people who considered themselves progressives - from the bourgeois-liberal “Economic Index” of Professor Vernadsky, from B. N. Chicherin, from Katkovsky’s “Russian Messenger”, who was then in the forefront of the vanguard camp. ; and in society, communal land ownership was treated with a certain distrust, because admiration for it came from the Slavophiles. Preparation of radical revolutions in Russian public life and the maturing of a radical change in the socio-political worldview of the majority of the advanced part of our intelligentsia also distracted Chernyshevsky’s predominantly journalistic temperament from literary criticism. The years 1858 - 1862 are in the life of Chernyshevsky an era of intensive studies on the translation or, rather, reworking of Mill's political economy, equipped with extensive “Notes”, as well as on a long series of political-economic and political articles. Among them are: on the land and peasant issues - an article on “Research on the internal relations of people's life and especially rural institutions in Russia” (1857, No. 7); “On land ownership” (1857, No. 9 and 11); an article on Babst’s speech “On some conditions conducive to the increase of the people’s capital” (1857, No. 10); “Response to a letter from a provincial” (1858, No. 3); “Review of measures taken so far (1858) to organize the life of landowner peasants” (1858, No. 1); “Measures taken to limit landowner power during the reign of Empress Catherine II, Alexander I and Nicholas I” (1858, No. 0); “Regarding Mr. Troinitsky’s article “On the number of serfs in Russia” (1858, No. 2); “On the need to keep as moderate figures as possible when determining the amount of redemption of estates” (1858, No. 11); “Is it difficult to buy back land” (1859, No. 1); a number of reviews, journal articles on the peasant question (1858, No. 2, 3, 5; 1859, No. 1); "Critique of Philosophical Prejudice against Common Ownership" (1858, No. 12); " Economic activity and legislation" (continuation of the previous article); “Materials for solving the peasant question” (1859, No. 10); "Capital and Labor" (1860, No. 1); "Credit Affairs" (1861, No. 1). On political issues: “Cavaignac” (1858, No. 1 and 4); “The Struggle of Parties in France under Louis XVIII and Charles X” (1858, No. 8 and 9); "Turgot" (1858, No. 9); “The Question of Freedom of Journalism in France” (1859, No. 10); "The July Monarchy" (1860, No. 1, 2, 5); "The Present English Whigs" (1860, No. 12); “Preface to current Austrian affairs” (1861, No. 2); “French Laws on Printing Affairs” (1862, No. 8). When Sovremennik was allowed to establish a political department, Chernyshevsky wrote monthly political reviews during 1859, 1860, 1861 and the first 4 months of 1862; These reviews often reached 40 - 50 pages. In the last 4 books for 1857 (No. 9 - 12), Chernyshevsky owns “Modern Review”, and in No. 4 for 1862 - “Internal Review”. Only the famous article belongs to the sphere of Chernyshevsky’s directly philosophical works: “The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy” (1860, No. 4 and 5). A number of journalistic and polemical articles are of a mixed nature: “G. Chicherin as a publicist" (1859, No. 5), "The laziness of the rude common people" (1860, No. 2); “The Story Because of Mrs. Svechina” (1860, No. 6); “Great-grandfather’s morals” (regarding Derzhavin’s notes, 1860, No. 7 and 8); "New periodicals"("Base" and "Time" 1861, No. 1); “On the reasons for the fall of Rome. Imitation of Montesquieu" (on the subject of "History of Civilization in France" by Guizot, 1880, No. 5); “Irrespect for Authority” (on Democracy in America by Tocqueville, 1861, No. 6); "Polemical Beauties" (1860, No. 6 and 7); "National Tactlessness" (1860, No. 7); “Russian Reformer” (about “The Life of Count Speransky” by Baron Korf, 1860, No. 10); “People’s stupidity” (about the newspaper “Day”, 1860, No. 10); "The Self-Proclaimed Elders" (1862, No. 3); “Have you learned!” (1862, No. 4).

No matter how intense this amazingly prolific activity was, Chernyshevsky still would not have left such an important branch of journal influence as literary criticism if he had not become confident that he had found a person to whom he could calmly hand over the critical department of the journal. By the end of 1857, if not for the entire reading public, then for Chernyshevsky personally, Dobrolyubov’s paramount talent was revealed in all its magnitude, and he did not hesitate to hand over the critical baton of the leading magazine to a twenty-year-old youth. Thanks to this insight alone, Dobrolyubov’s activity becomes a glorious page in literary biography Chernyshevsky. But in reality, Chernyshevsky’s role in Dobrolyubov’s activities is much more significant. From his communication with Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov drew the validity of his worldview, that scientific foundation, which, despite all his reading, he could not have had at twenty-one, twenty-two years old. When Dobrolyubov died and they began to talk about the enormous influence that Chernyshevsky had on the young critic, he protested against this in a special article (“Expression of Gratitude”), trying to prove that Dobrolyubov followed an independent path in his development simply because he was talented taller than him, Chernyshevsky. At present, hardly anyone will argue against the latter, unless, of course, we talk about Chernyshevsky’s merits in the field of political and economic issues, where he occupies such a large place. In the hierarchy of the leaders of Russian criticism, Dobrolyubov is undoubtedly higher than Chernyshevsky. Dobrolyubov still withstands the most terrible of literary tests - the test of time; his critical articles are still read with unabated interest, which cannot be said about most of Chernyshevsky’s critical articles. Dobrolyubov, who has just experienced a period of deep mysticism, has incomparably more passion than Chernyshevsky. One feels that he suffered for his new convictions and that is why he excites the reader more than Chernyshevsky, whose main quality is also the deepest conviction, but very clear and calm, given to him without internal struggle, as if immutable mathematical formula. Dobrolyubov is literary angrier than Chernyshevsky; No wonder Turgenev said to Chernyshevsky: “You are just a poisonous snake, and Dobrolyubov is a spectacled snake.” In the satirical appendix to Sovremennik - “Whistle”, which with its causticity restored all the literary opponents of Sovremennik, more than the magazine itself, Chernyshevsky took almost no part; The dominant role in it was played by Dobrolyubov’s concentrated and passionate wit. In addition to wit, Dobrolyubov has more literary brilliance in general than Chernyshevsky. Nevertheless, the general coloring of the ideological wealth that Dobrolyubov developed with such brilliance in his articles could not but be partly the result of Chernyshevsky’s influence, because from the first day of their acquaintance both writers became extremely attached to each other and saw each other almost every day. The combined activities of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov gave Sovremennik enormous importance in the history of the progressive movement in Russia. Such a leadership position could not help but create numerous opponents for him; many people watched with extreme hostility the growing influence of the organ of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov on the younger generation. At first, however, the controversy between Sovremennik and other magazines was purely literary, without much aggravation. Russian “progress” was then experiencing its honeymoon, when, with the most insignificant exceptions, all, one might say, intelligent Russia was imbued with a lively desire to move forward and disagreements were only in details, and not in basic feelings and aspirations. A characteristic expression of this unanimity can be the fact that Chernyshevsky at the end of the 50s was a member of the editorial board of the official Military Collection for about a year. By the beginning of the 60s, the relationship between Russian parties and the unanimity of the progressive movement changed significantly. With the liberation of the peasants and the preparation of most of the “great reforms” liberation movement both in the eyes of the ruling spheres and in the consciousness of a significant part of the moderate elements of society it received completeness; further following the path of changes in the state and social system began to seem unnecessary and dangerous. But the mood, headed by Chernyshevsky, did not consider itself satisfied and moved forward more and more impetuously.

At the end of 1861 and the beginning of 1862, the general picture of the political situation changed dramatically. Student unrest broke out at St. Petersburg University, Polish unrest intensified, proclamations calling on youth and peasants to revolt appeared, terrible St. Petersburg fires occurred, in which, without the slightest reason, but very persistently they saw a connection with the emergence of revolutionary sentiments among young people. The good-natured attitude towards extreme elements has completely disappeared. In May 1862, Sovremennik was closed for 8 months, and on June 12, 1862, Chernyshevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he spent about 2 years. The Senate sentenced Chernyshevsky to 14 years of hard labor. In the final confirmation the period was reduced to 7 years. On May 13, 1864, the verdict was announced to Chernyshevsky on Mytninskaya Square. The name of Chernyshevsky almost disappears from the press; before his return from exile, he was usually spoken of descriptively, as the author of “Essays on the Gogol Period” or the author of “The Aesthetic Relation of Art to Reality,” etc. In 1865, the 2nd edition of “The Aesthetic Relation of Art to Reality” was authorized. , but without the name of the author (“edition by A.N. Pypin”), and in 1874 Mill’s “Foundations of Political Economy” was published, also as “edition by A.N. Pypin", without the name of the translator and without "Notes". Chernyshevsky spent the first 3 years of his stay in Siberia in Kadai, on the Mongolian border, and then was installed at the Aleksandrovsky plant in the Nerchinsk district. During his stay in Kadai, he was allowed a three-day visit with his wife and 2 young sons. Chernyshevsky lived in materially comparatively not particularly hard, because political prisoners at that time did not carry out real hard labor. Chernyshevsky was not constrained either in relations with other prisoners (Mikhailov, Polish rebels) or in walks; at one time he even lived in a separate house. He read and wrote a lot, but he immediately destroyed everything he wrote. At one time, performances were staged at the Aleksandrovsky Plant and Chernyshevsky composed short plays for them. “The common prisoners didn’t like them much, or rather, they didn’t even like them at all: Chernyshevsky was too serious for them” (“Scientific Review”, 1899, 4).

In 1871, the term of hard labor ended and Chernyshevsky had to move into the category of settlers, who were given the opportunity to choose their place of residence within Siberia. The then chief of the gendarmes, Count P. A. Shuvalov, entered, however, with an idea about Chernyshevsky’s settlement in Vilyuysk. This was a significant worsening of his fate, because the climate at the Aleksandrovsky plant is moderate, and Chernyshevsky lived there in communication with intelligent people, and Vilyuisk lies 450 versts beyond Yakutsk, in the harshest climate, and in 1871 had only 40 buildings. Chernyshevsky's society in Vilyuisk was limited to a few Cossacks assigned to him. Chernyshevsky's stay in such a place remote from the civilized world was painful; nevertheless, he worked actively on various works and translations. In 1883, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Count D. A. Tolstoy, requested the return of Chernyshevsky, who was assigned Astrakhan for residence. In exile, he lived on funds that, according to his most modest needs, were sent to him by Nekrasov and his closest relatives.

Begins in 1885 last period activities of Chernyshevsky. Original, not counting the prefaces to “ World history"Weber, during this time Chernyshevsky gave little: an article in "Russian Vedomosti" (1885): "The Character of Human Knowledge", a long poem from ancient Carthaginian life, least brilliant with poetic merits, "Hymn to the Virgin of Heaven" ("Russian Thought", 1885, 7) and a large article signed with the pseudonym “Old Transformist” (all other works and translations of the Astrakhan period were signed with the pseudonym Andreev) - “The Origin of the Theory of Beneficence in the Struggle for Life” (“Russian Thought”, 1888, No. 9). The article by “The Old Transformist” attracted attention and struck many with its manner: it was strange in its disdainful and mocking attitude towards Darwin and the reduction of Darwin’s theory to a bourgeois fiction created to justify the exploitation of the working class by the bourgeoisie. Some, however, saw in this article the former Chernyshevsky, accustomed to subordinating all interests, including purely scientific ones, to the goals of the struggle for social ideals. In 1885, friends arranged for Chernyshevsky to have the famous publisher and philanthropist K. T. Soldatenkov translate the 15-volume “General History” of Weber. Chernyshevsky carried out this enormous work with amazing energy, translating 3 volumes a year, each 1000 pages long. Until Volume V, Chernyshevsky translated literally, but then he began to make large cuts in Weber’s text, which he generally did not like very much for its outdatedness and narrow German point of view. To replace what was thrown out, he began to add, in the form of prefaces, a series of ever-expanding essays: “on the spelling of Muslim and, in particular, Arabic names”, “on races”, “on the classification of people by language”, “on the differences between peoples according to national character” , “the general character of the elements that produce progress,” “climates.” To the 2nd edition of Weber’s 1st volume, which quickly followed the first, Chernyshevsky attached an “essay scientific concepts about the emergence of the situation of human life and the course of human development in prehistoric times" In Astrakhan, Chernyshevsky managed to translate 11 volumes of Weber. In June 1889, at the request of the then Astrakhan governor, Prince L.D. Vyazemsky, he was allowed to settle in his native Saratov. There he set to work on Weber with the same energy, managed to translate 2/3 of volume XII, and since the translation was nearing completion, he began to think about a new grandiose translation - a 16-volume “ Encyclopedic Dictionary» Brockhaus. But excessive work strained the senile body, whose nutrition was very poor, due to the exacerbation of Chernyshevsky’s long-standing illness - catarrh of the stomach. Having been ill for only 2 days, Chernyshevsky died of a cerebral hemorrhage on the night of October 16-17, 1889.

His death significantly contributed to the restoration of the correct attitude towards him. Seal various directions paid tribute to his extensive and amazingly versatile education, his brilliant literary talent and the extraordinary beauty of his moral being. In the recollections of people who saw Chernyshevsky in Astrakhan, what is most emphasized is his amazing simplicity and deep disgust for everything that even remotely resembled a pose. They tried to talk to him more than once about the suffering he had endured, but always to no avail: he claimed that he had not suffered any special trials. In the 1890s, the ban on Chernyshevsky's works was partially lifted. Without the name of the author, as “editions by M.N. Chernyshevsky" ( youngest son), 4 collections of aesthetic, critical and historical-literary articles by Chernyshevsky appeared: “Aesthetics and Poetry” (St. Petersburg, 1893); “Notes on modern literature” (St. Petersburg, 1894); “Essays on the Gogol period of Russian literature” (St. Petersburg, 1890) and “ Critical articles"(SPb., 1895). About the first of Chernyshevsky’s significant works - “Aesthetic relations of art to reality” - the opinion is still held that it is the basis and the first manifestation of that “destruction of aesthetics”, which reached its apogee in the articles of Pisarev, Zaitsev and others. This opinion has no basis. Chernyshevsky’s treatise cannot be considered one of the “destruction of aesthetics” because he always cares about “true” beauty, which - rightly or wrongly, this is another question - sees mainly in nature, and not in art. For Chernyshevsky, poetry and art are not nonsense: he only sets them the task of reflecting life, and not “fantastic flights.” The dissertation undoubtedly makes a strange impression on the later reader, but not because it supposedly seeks to abolish art, but because it asks completely fruitless questions: what is higher in aesthetic terms - art or reality, and where true beauty is more often found - in works of art or in living nature. Here the incomparable is compared: art is something completely original, main role it plays into the artist’s attitude towards what is being reproduced. The polemical formulation of the question in the dissertation was a reaction against the one-sidedness of German aesthetics of the 40s, with their disdainful attitude towards reality and their assertion that the ideal of beauty is abstract. The search for ideological art that permeated the dissertation was only a return to the traditions of Belinsky, who already from 1841 - 1842. had a negative attitude towards “art for art’s sake” and also considered art one of the “moral activities of man.” The best commentary on any aesthetic theories is always their practical application to specific literary phenomena. What is Chernyshevsky in his critical activity? First of all, an enthusiastic apologist for Lessing. About Lessing’s “Laocoon” - this aesthetic code with which they always tried to beat our “destroyers of aesthetics” - Chernyshevsky says that “since the time of Aristotle, no one understood the essence of poetry as truly and deeply as Lessing.” At the same time, of course, Chernyshevsky is especially fascinated by the militant nature of Lessing’s activities, his struggle with old literary traditions, the harshness of his polemics and, in general, the mercilessness with which he cleared the Augean stables of contemporary German literature. Of utmost importance for understanding Chernyshevsky’s literary and aesthetic views are his articles on Pushkin, written in the same year when his dissertation appeared. Chernyshevsky's attitude towards Pushkin is downright enthusiastic. “Pushkin’s creations, which created new Russian literature, formed new Russian poetry,” according to the deep conviction of the critic, “will live forever.” “Being neither primarily a thinker nor a scientist, Pushkin was a man of extraordinary intelligence and an extremely educated person; not only in thirty years, but even now in our society there are few people equal to Pushkin in education.” “Pushkin’s artistic genius is so great and beautiful that, although the era of unconditional satisfaction with pure form has passed for us, we still cannot help but be carried away by the wondrous, artistic beauty of his creations. He is the true father of our poetry." Pushkin “was not a poet of any specific view of life, like Byron, he was not even a poet of thought in general, like, for example, Goethe and Schiller. Art form“Faust,” “Wallenstein,” or “Childe Harold” arose in order to express a deep view of life; We will not find this in Pushkin’s works. For him, artistry is not just one shell, but the grain and the shell together.”

To characterize Chernyshevsky’s attitude to poetry, his short article about Shcherbin (1857) is also very important. Whether the literary legend about Chernyshevsky as a “destroyer of aesthetics” is at all true, Shcherbina is this typical representative of “ pure beauty", all gone into ancient Hellas and the contemplation of her nature and art - least of all could I count on his good disposition. In reality, however, Chernyshevsky, declaring that Shcherbina’s “antique manner” is “unsympathetic” to him, nevertheless welcomes the approval met by the poet: “if the poet’s imagination, due to subjective conditions of development, was overflowing with ancient images, from the abundance of the heart the lips should have spoken, and Mr. Shcherbina is right in front of his talent.” In general, “autonomy is the supreme law of art,” and “the supreme law of poetry: preserve the freedom of your talent, poet.” Analyzing Shcherbina’s “iambs,” in which “the thought is noble, alive, modern,” the critic is dissatisfied with them because in them “the thought is not embodied in a poetic image; it remains a cold sentiment, it is outside the realm of poetry.” The desire of Rosenheim and Benediktov to join the spirit of the times and glorify “progress” did not arouse in Chernyshevsky, as well as in Dobrolyubov, the slightest sympathy.

Chernyshevsky remains a zealot of artistic criteria in his analyzes of the works of our novelists and playwrights. He, for example, was very strict about Ostrovsky’s comedy “Poverty is not a vice” (1854), although in general he highly regarded Ostrovsky’s “wonderful talent.” Recognizing that “works that are false in their main idea are weak even in pure artistically“,” the critic highlights “the author’s disregard for the demands of art.” Among Chernyshevsky’s best critical articles is a small note (1856) about “Childhood and Adolescence” and “War Stories” by Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy is one of those few writers who immediately received universal recognition and correct assessment; but only Chernyshevsky noticed in Tolstoy’s very first works the extraordinary “purity of moral feeling.” His article on Shchedrin is very typical for determining the general physiognomy of Chernyshevsky’s critical activity: he deliberately avoids discussing the socio-political issues that the “Provincial Sketches” suggest, focusing all his attention on the “purely psychological side of the types represented by Shchedrin,” trying to show that in themselves, by their nature, Shchedrin’s heroes are not moral monsters at all: they became morally unsightly people because they did not see any examples of true morality in the environment. Chernyshevsky’s famous article: “A Russian man on a rendez-vous”, dedicated to Turgenev’s “Asa”, entirely refers to those articles “about”, where almost nothing is said about the work itself, and all attention is focused on the social conclusions associated with the work. The main creator of this type of journalistic criticism in our literature is Dobrolyubov, in his articles about Ostrovsky, Goncharov and Turgenev; but if we take into account that the aforementioned articles by Dobrolyubov date back to 1859 and 1860, and Chernyshevsky’s article to 1858, then Chernyshevsky will also have to be included among the creators of journalistic criticism. But, as already noted in the article about Dobrolyubov, journalistic criticism has nothing in common with the requirement of journalistic art falsely attributed to it. Both Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov demand only one thing from a work of art - truth, and then they use this truth to draw conclusions public importance. The article about “Ace” is devoted to clarifying that in the absence of a social life in our country, only such flabby natures as the hero of Turgenev’s story can be developed. The best illustration of the fact that, applying the journalistic method of studying their content to literary works, Chernyshevsky does not at all require a tendentious depiction of reality, can serve as one of his last (end of 1861) critical articles, p.

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky is a famous writer, publicist, critic and philosopher. Nikolai Chernyshevsky was born on July 12, 1828 in Saratov into the family of a priest.

In the period 1842 - 1845, Chernyshevsky studied at the Saratov Seminary, where his father taught. They predicted a brilliant spiritual career for him, but Chernyshevsky was not particularly pleased with this prospect.

In 1846, Chernyshevsky entered St. Petersburg University, the Faculty of Philosophy, where he specialized in Slavic philology. During his studies at the university, the worldview of the future writer was formed, under the influence of German classical philosophy and French socialism. In 1850, Chernyshevsky tried his hand at literature. His first works were “The Tale of Lily and Goethe”, “The Tale of Josephine” and others. The first time after graduating from university, Chernyshevsky was engaged in tutoring in the Second Cadet Corps.

Upon returning to Saratov, from 1851 to 1853 he worked as a senior literature teacher at the gymnasium. In May 1853, Chernyshevsky returned to St. Petersburg. While planning to get his master's degree, he worked on his dissertation. In 1854, after retiring, Chernyshevsky began working for the Sovremennik magazine. He led a column devoted to criticism and bibliography. A revolutionary-democratic character appears in the writer's works. He is being followed, but the detectives found nothing.

In 1862, Chernyshevsky was arrested. In May 1864, the civil execution of Chernyshevsky took place. He was kept chained to a post, then sentenced to 14 years of hard labor with a settlement in Siberia. On October 29, 1889, Nikolai Chernyshevsky died of a stroke.

Chernyshevsky Nikolai Gavrilovich - prominent public figure XIX century. Famous Russian writer, critic, scientist, philosopher, publicist. His most famous work is the novel “What is to be done?”, which had a very great influence on the society of its time. In this article we will talk about the life and work of the author.

Chernyshevsky: biography. Childhood and youth

Born on July 12 (24), 1828 in Saratov. His father was the archpriest of the local Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, came from serf peasants in the village of Chernysheva, and this is where the surname originates. At first he studied at home under the supervision of his father and cousin. The boy also had a French tutor who taught him the language.

In 1846, Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky entered St. Petersburg University in the historical and philological department. Already at this time, the circle of interests of the future writer began to take shape, which would later be reflected in his works. The young man studies Russian literature, reads Feuerbach, Hegel, and positivist philosophers. Chernyshevsky realizes that the main thing in human actions is benefit, and not abstract ideas and useless aesthetics. The works of Saint-Simon and Fourier made the greatest impression on him. Their dream of a society where everyone was equal seemed to him quite real and achievable.

After graduating from university in 1850, Chernyshevsky returned to his native Saratov. Here he took the place of a literature teacher at the local gymnasium. He did not at all hide his rebellious ideas from his students and clearly thought more about how to transform the world than about teaching children.

Moving to the capital

In 1853, Chernyshevsky (the writer’s biography is presented in this article) decides to quit teaching and move to St. Petersburg, where he begins a journalistic career. Very quickly he became the most prominent representative of the Sovremennik magazine, where he was invited by N. A. Nekrasov. At the beginning of his collaboration with the publication, Chernyshevsky focused all his attention on the problems of literature, since political situation the country did not allow open expression on more pressing topics.

In parallel with his work at Sovremennik, the writer defended his dissertation in 1855 on the topic “Aesthetic relations of art to reality.” In it, he denies the principles of “pure art” and formulates a new view - “the beautiful is life itself.” According to the author, art should serve for the benefit of people, and not exalt itself.

Chernyshevsky develops the same idea in “Essays on the Gogol Period,” published in Sovremennik. In this work, he analyzed the most famous wills of the classics from the point of view of the principles he voiced.

New orders

Chernyshevsky became famous for his unusual views on art. The writer’s biography suggests that he had both supporters and ardent opponents.

With the coming to power of Alexander II, the political situation in the country changed dramatically. And many topics that were previously considered taboo became allowed to be discussed publicly. In addition, the whole country expected reforms and significant changes from the monarch.

Sovremennik, led by Dobrolyubov, Nekrasov and Chernyshevsky, did not stand aside and participated in all political discussions. Chernyshevsky, who was the most active in publishing, tried to express his opinion on any issue. In addition, he reviewed literary works, evaluating them from the point of view of their usefulness to society. In this regard, Fet suffered greatly from his attacks, and was eventually forced to leave the capital.

However, the news of the liberation of the peasants received the greatest resonance. Chernyshevsky himself perceived the reform as the beginning of even more serious changes. What I often wrote and spoke about.

Arrest and exile

Chernyshevsky's creativity led to his arrest. It happened on June 12, 1862, the writer was taken into custody and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. He was accused of drawing up a proclamation entitled “Bow to the lordly peasants from their well-wishers.” This view was handwritten and delivered to a person who turned out to be a provocateur.

Another reason for the arrest was a letter from Herzen intercepted by the secret police, in which a proposal was made to publish the banned Sovremennik in London. In this case, Chernyshevsky acted as an intermediary.

The investigation into the case lasted a year and a half. The writer did not give up all this time and actively fought with the investigative committee. Protesting against the actions of the secret police, he went on a hunger strike that lasted 9 days. At the same time, Chernyshevsky did not abandon his calling and continued to write. It was here that he wrote the novel “What is to be done?”, later published in parts in Sovremennik.

The verdict was handed down to the writer on February 7, 1864. It reported that Chernyshevsky was sentenced to 14 years of hard labor, after which he would have to settle permanently in Siberia. However, Alexander II personally reduced the time of hard labor to 7 years. In total, the writer spent more than 20 years in prison.

For 7 years, Chernyshevsky was transferred from one prison to another more than once. He visited the Nerchinsk penal servitude, the Kadai and Akatuysk prisons and the Alexandria Plant, where the house-museum named after the writer is still preserved.

After completing hard labor, in 1871, Chernyshevsky was sent to Vilyuysk. Three years later, he was officially offered release, but the writer refused to write a petition for pardon.

Views

Chernyshevsky's philosophical views throughout his life were sharply rebellious. The writer can be called a direct follower of the Russian revolutionary-democratic school and progressive Western philosophy, especially social utopians. His passion for Hegel during his university years led to criticism of the idealistic views of Christianity and liberal morality, which the writer considered “slave.”

Chernyshevsky's philosophy is called monistic and is associated with anthropological materialism, since he focused on the material world, neglecting spirituality. He was sure that natural needs and circumstances shape a person’s moral consciousness. If all people's needs are satisfied, the personality will flourish and there will be no moral pathologies. But to achieve this, we need to seriously change living conditions, and this is only possible through revolution.

His ethical standards are based on anthropological principles and the concept of rational egoism. Man belongs to the natural world and obeys its laws. Chernyshevsky did not recognize free will, replacing it with the principle of causality.

Personal life

Chernyshevsky got married quite early. The writer’s biography says that this happened in 1853 in Saratov, Olga Sokratovna Vasilyeva became the chosen one. The girl was a great success in local society, but for some reason she preferred the quiet and awkward Chernyshevsky to all her fans. During their marriage, they had two boys.

Chernyshevsky's family lived happily until the writer was arrested. After he was sent to hard labor, Olga Sokratovna visited him in 1866. However, she refused to go to Siberia after her husband - the local climate did not suit her. She lived alone for twenty years. During this time beautiful woman several lovers changed. The writer did not at all condemn his wife’s connections and even wrote to her that it was harmful for a woman to remain alone for a long time.

Chernyshevsky: facts from life

Here are some notable events from the life of the author:

Little Nikolai was incredibly well read. For his love of books, he even received the nickname “bibliophage,” that is, “book eater.”
The censors passed the novel “What Is to Be Done?” without noticing its revolutionary themes.
In official correspondence and secret police documentation, the writer was called “enemy number one of the Russian Empire.”
F. M. Dostoevsky was an ardent ideological opponent of Chernyshevsky and openly argued with him in his “Notes from the Underground.”

Most famous work

Let's talk about the book "What to do?" Chernyshevsky's novel, as noted above, was written during his arrest in the Peter and Paul Fortress (1862-1863). And, in fact, it was a response to Turgenev’s work “Fathers and Sons.”

The writer handed over the finished parts of the manuscript to the investigative commission, which was in charge of his case. Censor Beketov overlooked the political orientation of the novel, for which he was soon removed from office. However, this did not help, since the work had already been published in Sovremennik by that time. Issues of the magazine were banned, but the text had already been rewritten more than once and in this form was distributed throughout the country.

The book “What to do?” became a real revelation for contemporaries. Chernyshevsky's novel instantly became a bestseller, everyone read and discussed it. In 1867, the work was published in Geneva by the Russian emigration. After that, it was translated into English, Serbian, Polish, French and other European languages.

Last years of life and death

In 1883, Chernyshevsky was allowed to move to Astrakhan. By this time he was already a sick man of advanced years. During these years, his son Mikhail begins to work for him. Thanks to his efforts, the writer moved to Saratov in 1889. However, in the same year he falls ill with malaria. The author died on October 17 (29) from a cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried at the Resurrection Cemetery in Saratov.

The memory of Chernyshevsky is still alive. His works continue to be read and studied not only by literary scholars, but also by historians.