Chernyshevsky N.G. Key dates of life and work

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. IN student years Chernyshevsky was formed 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 it dates back to 1853 literary activity in the form of small articles that are published by St. Petersburg Vedomosti and Otechestvennye Zapiski. 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 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.

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 the archpriest of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral of Saratov, Gavriil Ivanovich Chernyshevsky (1793-10/23/1861), who came from serfs in 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 cousin, L. N. Pypina. Archbishop Nikanor (Brovkovich) pointed out that with early childhood A French tutor was assigned to him, to whom “in Saratov they attributed 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.

It was during these years that Chernyshevsky, whom 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 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. Future writer He 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. Main philosophical essay Chernyshevsky - “ Anthropological primacy in philosophy"(1860). It sets out the author’s monistic materialist position, directed both against dualism and idealistic monism. Defining philosophy as “the theory of solving the most general issues science,” he substantiated the provisions on the material unity of the world, the objective nature of the laws of nature, using data from the natural sciences.

1861 Announced: The Imperial Manifesto of February 19, 1861 On the abolition of serfdom, the implementation of the reform begins, which Marx and Engels called a “fraudulent trick.” At this time, Chernyshevsky’s activities 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 characterization 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 in St. Petersburg on Mytninskaya Square. 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, Konstantin Fedorov worked as a copyist for him during this period).

Death

Thanks to the efforts of his son Mikhail, on June 27, 1889 he moved to Saratov, but 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 (circa 1761-after 1821) and his wife Mavra Porfiryevna (circa 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 (1806-15.08.1884), 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 on 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 traditions of Belinsky's criticism, he sought to reveal the essence of social phenomena and convey to the reader his revolutionary views. Wrote many articles and reviews aimed at explaining certain new literary movements, 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 (French materialists of the 18th century, social utopians Fourier and Feuerbach). university years experienced a short-lived fascination with Hegelianism, 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 the causes of moral pathologies; for this it is necessary to change the very conditions of life through revolution. Materialism served as a theoretical basis political program Democratic revolutionaries, 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 determines his “essence”, and consists of public relations with other people, in whom 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, guided by calculations that command him to give up less benefit and less pleasure in order to obtain greater benefit, greater pleasure,” only then does he achieve benefit. Personal interest developed person encourages him to an act of noble self-sacrifice in order to bring closer the triumph of the 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 path or another. social development, and educating 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, 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 immediately releasing 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 published 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 06.1860 - 06.07.1861 - apartment building of V.F. Gromov - 2nd line 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 memoirs public figure Russia L. F. Panteleeva.
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 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 shortcomings of his contemporary education system to be low level and the potential of Russian science, scholastic teaching methods, drill instead of education, 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 the entire society as a whole and each individual individually. 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 on the Gogol period of 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 - The nature of 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 the sciences of 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 - " The World History"F.K. Schlosser.
1863-1864 - “Confession”.
1884−1888 - " General history G. Weber" (with his articles and comments he managed to translate 12 volumes).

Memory of Chernyshevsky

The memory of Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky is immortalized in various ways:

Geographical names

A number of streets, squares and alleys in many cities are named in honor of the writer. former USSR, including Saratov, St. Petersburg, Astrakhan and Irkutsk, where the writer lived and visited.
The urban-type settlement of Chernyshevsky, located on the Vilyuy River upstream from Vilyuysk - the writer’s place of exile.

Monuments

Monument to Chernyshevsky in Saratov. Sculptor A.P. Kibalnikov. Opened in 1953

USSR postage stamp,
1978

Other

Also named after N. G. Chernyshevsky:

in Russia:
- In St. Petersburg: metro station, avenue and square, as well as a garden.
- Borisoglebsky municipal Theatre of Drama named after N. G. Chernyshevsky.
- State Republican Library named after N. G. Chernyshevsky (Bishkek city).
- Saratov State University.
- Vilyui Pedagogical School.
- Transbaikal State University.
- Museums named after N. G. Chernyshevsky operate in Saratov, Vilyuysk, as well as in the village of Aleksandrovsky Zavod.
In Kazakhstan:
- Since 1928, the name of the writer has been borne high school No. 1 of the city of Semipalatinsk (Kazakhstan).

N. G. Chernyshevsky served as the prototype of Chernov, the hero of the story “Nihilist” by S. V. Kovalevskaya.

Chernyshevsky Nikolai Gavrilovich is a famous Russian writer and journalist. He was born in 1828 in Saratov. Since his father was a priest, Nikolai began his studies at a theological seminary. Then, at the age of 18, he entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of History and Philology.

At the age of 25, Chernyshevsky marries Olga Vasilyeva. In marriage, he adhered to gender equality, which at that time seemed like a revolutionary idea.

At the same time, he moved to St. Petersburg and began to build a career as a publicist. He gained particular fame while working for the Sovremennik magazine.

In the 50s, the writer’s works were actively published, in which he openly expressed his opinion about the expected peasant uprising. The magazine was closed for its revolutionary-democratic views. Chernyshevsky continued to promote his ideas and wrote revolutionary proclamations. The authorities put him under surveillance, and soon Nikolai was arrested and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress for the duration of the investigation. According to the verdict, he was sentenced to 7 years of hard labor and exile to Siberia for the rest of his life.

During the investigation, Nikolai Chernyshevsky created his work “What to do.”

In 1883, Chernyshevsky was allowed to leave for Astrakhan. In 1889, Nikolai Chernyshevsky passed away.

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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 big influence on the society of his 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 - “beautiful is life itself.” According to the author, art should serve for the benefit of people, and not exalt itself.

Chernyshevsky develops this 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 tried to express his opinion on any issue, was the most active in publishing. In addition, he was involved in reviewing 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 had big 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.

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky is one of the most famous and revered Russian writers and publicists. He is the author of the novel “What is to be done?” and the ideological leader of “Land and Freedom” (the community in which revolutionary ideas arose). It was precisely because of such activity that he was considered the most dangerous enemy of the Russian Empire.

N.G. Chernyshevsky was born on July 12, 1828 in Saratov. His father is an archpriest in one of cathedrals city, and the mother is a simple peasant woman. Thanks to the efforts of his father, who taught Nikolai, he grew up to be a very smart and erudite man.

Such a deep knowledge of literature for a boy in such a early age attracted the attention of his fellow villagers. They gave him the nickname “bibliographer,” which accurately reflected the unique erudition of the future publicist. Thanks to the knowledge gained during home study, he was able to easily enter the Saratov theological seminary, and later - the leading university of St. Petersburg.

(Young Chernyshevsky translating history)

It was during the years of study and formation that the personality of a revolutionary activist who is not afraid to speak the truth was formed. He grew up on the teachings of ancient, French and English works era of materialism (XVII-XVIII centuries).

Stages of life and stages of creativity

Nikolai Chernyshevsky became interested in writing literary works during his visit to literary circle, where I. I. Vvedensky taught at that time ( Russian writer, revolutionary). After graduating from the Faculty of History and Philology in 1850, Chernyshevsky received the title of Candidate of Sciences and a year later began working at the Saratov gymnasium. He perceived the received job as a chance to actively promote his revolutionary ideas.

After working at the gymnasium for 2 years, the young teacher decided to get married. His wife was Olga Vasilyeva, with whom he moved to St. Petersburg. It was here that he was appointed teacher of the Second Cadet Corps. Here he proved himself excellent at first, but after serious conflict with one of the officers, Chernyshevsky had to leave.

(Full fresh ideas Chernyshevsky defends his dissertation)

The events he experienced inspired the young Chernyshevsky to write his first articles in printed publications in St. Petersburg. After several published articles, he was invited to the Sovremennik magazine, where Nikolai Gavrilovich practically became the editor-in-chief. At the same time, he continued to be active and promote the ideas of revolutionary democracy.

After successful work in Sovremennik, he receives an invitation to the Military Collection magazine, where he holds the position of first editor. While working here, Chernyshevsky begins to lead various circles in which participants tried to find ways to attract the army to the revolution. Thanks to your articles and active work he becomes one of the leaders of the journalistic school of his time. It was during this period (1860) that he wrote “Anthropological Primacy in Philosophy” (an essay on a philosophical topic).

(Chernyshevsky writes “What to do” in captivity)

As a result, already from 1861, secret police surveillance was established over Chernyshevsky, which intensified after he joined “Land and Freedom” (a society founded by Marx and Engels). Due to events in the country, Sovremennik temporarily suspended its activities. But a year later he resumed it (in 1863). It was then that Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s most famous novel, “What to Do?”, which the author wrote during his stay in prison, was published.

(1828-1889) Russian publicist, literary critic, prose writer

Chernyshevsky Nikolai Gavrilovich was born into the family of a priest and received his initial education at home under the guidance of his father. From 1842 he studied at the Saratov Seminary, but without graduating, in 1846 he entered the department of general literature at St. Petersburg University, where he studied Slavic languages.

While studying at the university (1846-1850), Nikolai Chernyshevsky determined the foundations of his worldview. The established firm conviction in the need for revolution in Russia was combined with sobriety of historical thinking: “Here is my way of thinking about Russia: an irresistible expectation of an imminent revolution and a thirst for it, although I know that for a long time, maybe for a very long time, nothing good will come of this, that , perhaps oppression will only increase for a long time, etc. - what are the needs? , peaceful, quiet development is impossible.”

After graduating from the university Chernyshevsky a short time worked as a tutor, then as a literature teacher at the Saratov gymnasium.

In 1853, he returned to St. Petersburg, taught and at the same time prepared for exams for a master’s degree, working on his dissertation “Aesthetic relations of art to reality.” The dissertation was submitted in the fall of 1853, the debate on it took place in May 1855, and it was officially approved only in January 1859. This work was a kind of manifesto of materialist ideas in aesthetics, and therefore irritated the university authorities.

At the same time, Nikolai Chernyshevsky worked in magazine publications, first in “ Domestic notes", and since 1855, after retiring, in N. A. Nekrasov's Sovremennik. Collaboration in Sovremennik (1859-1861) coincided with the preparation of the peasant reform. Under the leadership of Nekrasov and Chernyshevsky, and later Dobrolyubov, the revolutionary-democratic direction of this publication was formed.

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky led the department of criticism and bibliography in the magazine. In 1857 he handed it over to Dobrolyubov, concentrating on political, economic and philosophical themes. After the reform, Chernyshevsky wrote “Letters without an address” (published abroad in 1874), in which he accused the autocracy of robbing the peasants. Hoping for a peasant revolution, Sovremennik resorted to illegal forms of struggle. Thus, Nikolai Chernyshevsky wrote a proclamation “Bow to the lordly peasants from well-wishers.”

During the period of post-reform reaction, his activities attracted the attention of the III Department. He was under police surveillance, but Chernyshevsky was a skilled conspirator; nothing suspicious was found in his papers. Then the publication of the magazine was banned for eight months (in June 1862).

But he was still arrested. The reason was an intercepted letter from Herzen and Ogarev, in which it was proposed to publish Sovremennik abroad. On July 7, 1862, Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress. He stayed there until May 19, 1864. On this day, a civil execution took place, he was deprived of the rights of the estate and sentenced to 14 years of hard labor in the mines, followed by settlement in Siberia. Alexander II reduced the term of hard labor to 7 years.

While imprisoned in the fortress, Nikolai Chernyshevsky turned to artistic creativity. In less than four months he wrote the novel “What to Do? From stories about new people" (1863), "Tales within a story" (1863), "Small stories" (1864). Only the novel “What Is To Be Done?” saw the light of day, and that was due to a censorship oversight.

The term of hard labor expired in 1871, but the settlement in Yakutia, in the city of Vilyuysk, where the prison was the best building, was much more disastrous for Chernyshevsky. He turned out to be the only exile, and his social circle consisted only of the gendarmes and the local population. Correspondence was difficult and very often deliberately delayed.

Only when Alexandra III, in 1883, he was allowed to move to Astrakhan. Such a sharp change in climate greatly damaged his health. In 1889, Nikolai Chernyshevsky received permission to return to his homeland, Saratov. Despite his rapidly deteriorating health, he made big plans. The writer died of a cerebral hemorrhage and was buried in Saratov.

In all areas of its diverse heritage - aesthetics, literary criticism, artistic creativity- He was an innovator who still arouses controversy. One can apply to Chernyshevsky his own words about Gogol as a writer from among those “love for whom requires the same mood of the soul with them, because their activity is a judgment on a certain direction of moral aspirations.”

In the famous novel “What is to be done?”, which caused a storm of critical reviews, Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky continued the theme of a new public figure from among the commoners, who replaced the type of “superfluous man,” begun by Turgenev in “Fathers and Sons.”

Chernyshevsky himself believed: “... only those areas of literature achieve brilliant development that arise under the influence of strong and living ideas that satisfy the urgent requirements of the era. Each century has its own historical cause, its own special aspirations. The life and glory of our time consist of two aspirations, closely related and complementary to each other: humanity and concern for the improvement of human life.”