Home > Alexander Herzen

He is known as the "father of Russian socialism".

Herzen was illegitimate child of a rich landowner, I. A. Yakovlev. While studying at Moscow University, he became involved in revolutionary propaganda. Herzen was sent to the provinces as a civil servant (as a punishment) in 1834. In 1840 he returned to Moscow, where he met Belinsky, who was strongly influenced by him. In 1847 Herzen left Russia, and settled in Paris, where he was influenced by many French thinkers, including Charles Fourier, and became more radical. He supported the revolution of 1848, but was disillusioned about European socialist movements after the failure of the revolution. A series of critics about European revolution were published in his book, From the Other Shore( 1849Events January 23 Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor January 31 Corn Laws abolished in the United Kingdom February 14 In New York City, James Knox Polk be).

Herzen went to live in EnglandEngland is the largest, the most populous, and the most densely populated of the four " Home Nations" which make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK). Occupying the south-eastern portion of the island of Great Britain, England in 1852Events January 14 President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte proclaims a new constitution for the French Second Republic. January 17 United Kingdom recognizes independence of the Transvaal Devil's Island penal colony opens February 11 First British public toilet, and set up the first Russian press abroad. His radical weekly, Kolokol (The Bell), had great influence in Europe, as well as in Russia, where it was banned. He promoted socialism, as well as individualismIndividualism in general, is a term used to describe a theoretical or practical emphasis of the individual, as opposed to, and possibly at the expense of, the group. It is thus directly opposed to collectivism. From a social standpoint, individualism is g, and argued that the full flowering of the individual could best be realized in a socialist order.

Herzen's other works including a novel, Who Is to Blame? (1847), The Russian People and Socialism, and his autobiography, My Past and Thoughts.