A Russian Philosophe Alexander Radishchev 1749–1802

238 Pages·1964·7.15 MB·English

by  Allen McConnell (auth.)

A RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHE
ALEXANDER RADISHCHEV 1749-1802
Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749-1802)
Oil painting by an unknown eighteenth-century artist
A RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHE
ALEXANDER RADISHCHEV
1749-1802
by
ALLEN McCONNELL
•
MARTINUS NIJHOFF I THE HAGUE I 1964
ISBN 978-94-015-2162-8 ISBN 978-94-015-3375-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-3375-1
Copyright I964 by Martinus Nijhoff. The Hague. Netherlands
All rights reserved. including the right to translate or to
r~produce this book or parts thereof in any form
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1964
To my mother
and the memory of my father
PREFACE
Alexander Radishchev's major work, A Journey from St. Petersburg
to Moscow, first published in 1790, was the most scathing denunciation
of serfdom and autocracy that had ever appeared in Russia. Its author
was immediately arrested, tried for treason, and condemned to death,
the sentence being later commuted to exile in Siberia. Catherine
the Great, who had provided Radishchev with a schooling in despotism
in the Corps des Pages and with an introduction to the Enlightenment
at the University of Leipzig, saw in his book a gratuitous insult to
herself as well as an attempt to incite a revolt that would bring him
to power. Forgetting that many of its ideas were the same as those she
had herself expressed earlier, she denounced it as the fruit of foreign
abstract theories acting on an excitable, ambitious and resentful man.
The Journey was effectively suppressed for more than a century.
Any mention of Radishchev was discouraged by the censor for seventy
years. A generation after Radishchev's death in 1802, Pushkin's
biography of him was refused publication permission on the ground
that the subject of it was forgotten and deserved to remain so.
Conservative and nationalist Russian historians have in general
followed Catherine's line that Radishchev was "infected with the
French madness" (as expressed in the writings of the philosophes,
including Rousseau), a reckless power-seeker, a small man embittered
by failing to reach the heights in the bureaucracy, at best a victim of
an education sentimentale, at worst an ideologue of peasant rebellion.
Liberal scholars, while conceding his great sensibility, have called
attention to the many humane and enlightened ideals Radishchev
shared with Catherine and have even suggested that his purpose in
writing the Journey was to persuade the "philosophe on the throne"
to carry out her professed aims. To commentators of this persuasion
he has seemed a self-sacrificing martyr, a naive Don Quixote of
"knight-like scrupulousness" who wanted to warn the Empress of the
danger of another Pugachev rebellion. To the more enthusiastic he has
VIII PREFACE
been a bold and independent thinker, even "the peak of eighteenth
century social science."
Soviet historians initially adopted the liberal attitude toward Ra
dishchev, though some of the more popular writers early laid great
stress on his revolutionary ardor. A few classically Marxist analyses
sought to destroy the image of Radishchev as above classes and to
reduce his humanitarianism and radicalism to the natural consequence
of his family's declining fortunes. Most early Soviet theorists, how
ever, portrayed him as a man of high courage and principle, an aris
tocrat who loved the oppressed masses. By the late 1930's the Party
line stressed his nationalism and revolutionary conviction. He was
no longer a mere reformer, an author of "passionate monologues in
Rousseau's manner," or an imitator of Sterne and Raynal. He had
become a consistent, resolute, implacable, indeed a "monolithic" revo
lutionary.
Since Stalin's death Soviet scholars, while largely retaining the obli
gatory salutation to a revolutionary martyr, have carried on thorough
archival research concerning him and have brought to light many
facts which yield valuable insights into his world and contribute to
an appreciation of the complexity and pathos of his life.
The most recent full-length study of Radishchev reiterates the notion
that Radishchev's progressive opinions were a consequence of romantic
intoxication with the ideas of French writers, while an increasing
number of monographic studies, Soviet and Western, point to the
depth and consistency of Radishchev's concern with the social, ethical
and philosophical problems raised by the writers of the Enlighten
ment in Western Europe. Monographs and articles, showing the quality
and extent of the influence of Sterne, Herder, Helvetius, Mably,
Rousseau and Raynal have disproved the earlier sweeping generali
zations and provide the opportunity to give a more balanced
picture of the Russian philosophe. No fully satisfactory biography
of Radishchev has appeared in any language. This work is
intended to fill this gap in the history of the Russian and European
Enlightenment.
I would like to thank President Barnaby C. Keeney and the Brown
University Fund for Travel and Research for a grant which enabled
me to do research in the U.S.S.R. and the Social Science Research
Council for a grant which assisted in the preparation of the manuscript.
I would also like to thank Richard W. Emery, former Dean of the
Faculty at Queens College and the Committee of Faculty Research
PREFACE IX
for their most helpful lightening of my teaching responsibilities.
My gratitude goes also to the editors of the American Slavic and
East European Review, the Slavic and East European Journal, the
Journal 0/ the History 0/ Ideas and the Journal 0/ Modern History
for permission to use passages and ideas from my articles appearing
in their journals.
I would like to thank friends who have given generously of their
time and knowledge. Marc Raeff saved me from many an error from
first chapter to last and made numerous constructive suggestions.
Jacques Barzun read the typescript through and lowe much to his
sure judgment, unerring taste and kind encouragement. Andrew G.
Whiteside thoughtfully persused the concluding chapters, exposing
blind spots and passages which assumed that all my readers would
be Radishchev specialists. Mrs. Pamela Forcey subjected the manus
cript to brilliant editorial scrutiny. The late Robert Pierce Casey gave
me learned and generous instruction in the Russian language, as did
Elias Tartak, whose percipient insights into Russian and Western
literatures have been a constant. inspiration.
A. McC.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . VII
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . XII
I. A Russian Aristocrat's Youth 1
II. Leipzig University: (1) Education in Despotism 17
III. Leipzig University: (2) Introduction to the Enlightenment 30
IV. Return to Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 41
V. Military Law Courts and the St. Petersburg Customs
Office . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
VI. The Journey: Conventional Ideas . . . . . 71
VII. The Journey: Warnings, Appeals and Hopes. 87
VIII. Arrest and Trial . 106
IX. Journey to Ilimsk 123
. X. Ilimsk . . . . . 138
XI. Man and Immortality 152
XII. Return to Russia .163
XIII. Return to Service 177
XIV. Epilogue: "In Radishchev's Steps" . 192
Selected Bibliography 210
Index. . . . . . . . 218
ABBREVIA TIONS
A. K. V. Prince Semion Mikhailovich Vorontsov. Arkhiv
kniazia Vorontsova, 40 books in 32 vols., (M., 1870-
90).
Cht. O. I. D. R. Chtenie v Imperatorskom Obshchestve Istorii i Drevnos
tei Rossiiskikh pri Moskovskom Universitete, (M.,
1846--1918).
P. S. S. Akademiia Nauk, SSSR. A. N. Radishchev. Polnoe
Sobranie Sochinenii, (M.-L., t. I (1938); t. II (1941);
t. III, (1952).
P. S. Z. Polnoe Sobranie Zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii, s I649
goda, Pervaia seriia, (SPb., 1830).
P. S. R. L. Arkheogra£icheskaia Kotnissiia, Polnoe Sobranie Rus
skikh Letopisei, 25 v. (SPb., 1841-1949).
Sb. I. R. I. O. Sbornik Imperatorskago Russkago Istoricheskago Ob
shchestva, 148 V., (SPb., 1867-1916).
Ts. G. A. D. A. Tsentral'nyi Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Drevnikh
Aktov.
Zh. M. N. P. Zhurnal M inisterstva N arodnago Prosveshcheniia,
(SPb., 1802-1917).