Alexander Herzen was born on April 6, 1812 in Moscow into a prominent aristocratic family. He was a prominent writer, revolutionary and thinker in the Russian liberation movement in the 19th century. His life played a great role in promoting the Russian Revolution. His father, I.A. Yakovlev, was a captain in the Tsarist Guards. His mother is a foreign maid. The two came together because of their love for each other, but due to the huge difference in status, their parents never held a formal ceremony. But the two of them love each other and cherish this precious son. This is the testimony of their love. "Herzen" was originally the transliteration of the German word "heart".
Little Herzen lived in such a superior environment, but due to the lack of playmates and the lack of strict discipline from his parents who loved him too much, he often went to the serfs' homes to follow the servants. Other people's children played together. Since he was a child, he has felt the misery and misfortune of the working people's life at the lower class, and often steals things from the kitchen to feed his friends. Little Herzen became sensible at a very young age.
Later, Herzen grew up, and his father could no longer let him play like this. So, two tutors were hired for Herzen and he began to study. These two teachers had a great influence on Herzen's life. One was a Frenchman named Bousseau, who had participated in the French Bourgeois Revolution. He often told Herzen about the French people's heroic struggle for democracy and freedom. The other is a Russian college student named Protopopov. He often told Herzen revolutionary and passionate poems. In addition, among Herzen's playmates were several of his relatives and friends who were also very fond of modern science and democratic ideas. As they grew up together, little Herzen began to yearn for revolution.
At that time, Russia was still a country with a feudal serfdom system under the rule of the Tsar. Due to the cruel exploitation of the ruling class, the majority of the people could not bear this life that was worse than that of a horse and a horse, and they revolted one after another. In 1825, the Decembrists held an open armed uprising in the Senate Square in the capital Petersburg, but it was quickly suppressed. On July 13, 1826, five important leaders of the Decembrists were hanged, and a large number of other rebels were exiled to distant Siberia. However, this war opened the curtain on Russia's liberation struggle. Herzen was only 13 years old at the time, and the thunder of "struggle for freedom" left a deep impression on Herzen's young heart.
In 1829, Herzen was admitted to the Department of Philosophy of Moscow University to study science. In college, Herzen had more contact with revolutionary organizations in society. He called himself "the son of the Decembrists" and organized a political group himself, held secret meetings, heatedly discussed political activities in various countries around the world, and exposed various criminal behaviors of the ruling classes in Russia and other countries around the world. Gradually, Herzen became the leader of the group.
Herzen studied very hard in school. Because he had doubts about many phenomena and systems in Russian society, Herzen buried himself in a sea of ??books to find theoretical basis. He studied sociology, natural science, and political economics assiduously, thus arming his mind with complete theories and began to think about human society.
In July 1833, Herzen graduated with honors. His graduation thesis "Analysis of Copernicus' Solar Theory" won him a master's degree and a silver medal.
After graduation, Herzen still participated in secret meetings of political groups to discuss various new social ideas. However, due to being reported, Herzen was arrested and imprisoned in July 1834, along with Ogarev in the group. Because the reactionary rule of the Tsar at this time was like a frightened bird, he would immediately panic at the slightest sign of trouble. Therefore, Herzen was exiled to the province of Bilm and later to the province of Vyatga without a clear charge. As a result, Herzen hated the tsarist rule even more, was often aggrieved, and vowed to overthrow it. In 1841, Tsarist agents intercepted a letter from Herzen to his father. In the letter, Herzen denounced the evil and darkness under the Tsarist rule, and was therefore exiled to Novgorod.
In 1842, Herzen returned to Moscow. After experiencing the painful life of exile, Herzen became more mature. He continuously published political commentaries, literary works and philosophical papers in the progressive magazines "Modern Man" and "Fatherland Chronicle", criticizing the evils of serfdom and calling on people to join in the "struggle for freedom". During this period, Herzen also published novels such as "Whose Guilty" and "The Stealing Magpie".
As early as 1841, Herzen began to write the novel "Whose Guilty". The novel is divided into two parts. The upper part takes the civilian intellectual Krutsevski as the protagonist. He was hired as a tutor for the landlord Neglov's family to guide the landlord's son Lesha in his homework. Because of his handsome appearance, magnetic voice, youthful wisdom and passionate eyes, the young and beautiful wife of the landowner Negrov became fond of him and often took the initiative to care about Krutsevski's life. But Krutsevsky did not love her, but fell in love with Liubangka, the daughter of the landowner Negrov. Liu Bangka was also attracted by his rich knowledge and advanced ideas, and the two fell in love, which aroused the jealousy of Negrov's wife. She always found little things to cause trouble for Krutsevski.
Negrov had always regarded Krutsefulsky as a love rival, and wished that he would have a woman he liked, so he quickly agreed to his marriage to his daughter Liubangka and went to the city to help Krutsefulsky. Ski found a career as a high school teacher. The second part takes the aristocratic young man Beltov as the protagonist. Bertov was an enthusiastic aristocratic young man with a revolutionary spirit. He met the Krutsefulsky family and fell in love with Lyubangka. He believed that Lyubangka had an extraordinary power. For the first time, she made him realize what the power of love is and what happiness is. Although Liubangka really loved Krutsefulsky, but now due to the appearance of the aristocratic young man Beltov, she discovered that Beltov had something that disappeared from Krutsefulsky. , and these things can give her new thoughts and feelings, opening up a new world in her heart. She endured mental torture. And Krutsevsky, because of his deep love for Lyubangka, abandoned everything else. When this happened, he became very depressed and resorted to drinking every day to relieve his sorrow. Beltov fell in love with someone he shouldn't have loved, ruined the happiness of others, and was very depressed. He had to go abroad to escape this contradiction. The novel ends with a tragic melancholy. The novel raises the question "whose fault?" and points the finger at the evil social system.
The other film, "The Stealing Magpie," has Anita, an actress who was born as a serf, as the protagonist. Her master appreciated her talent, paid for her to study, and took her to Italy and Paris to study and perform. But due to the sudden death of the owner, the troupe was bought by another landowner, Duke Skalinsky. He coveted Annetta's beauty and wanted to possess her. He used material to seduce Anita, but she was severely rejected. This old guy with a human face and an animal heart wants to break into Aneta's bedroom and take possession of her by force. Aneta led him to the mirror, let the Duke look at his ugly face, and said that he would rather commit suicide than an ugly person like him. The Duke became angry and cursed Aneta, saying that the serf was the property of the master and she was just something he could manipulate at will. Later, Aneta fell in love with a serf actor and became pregnant. She didn't want her child to become a slave who could be manipulated at will, so she committed suicide by taking poison.
Herzen took the lower working people as the protagonists in his novels, praised the excellent qualities of the working people, and at the same time condemned the ugly face of the upper ruling class.
In 1847, Herzen's father died of illness. He inherited a huge inheritance and became a wealthy man. He longed for revolutionary freedom even more, but in Russia, all kinds of thoughts and speeches were more tightly controlled. In order to find a way out for the revolution, Herzen came to Paris, France, at the end of March 1847.
Later, the revolutionary movement led by Mazzini and Garibaldo, the leaders of the Young Italy Party, broke out in Italy. Herzen rushed to Italy to participate in the Roman March held by the Italian people. Later, a revolution also broke out in France in 1848. After Herzen received the news, he immediately rushed back to France and participated in the Paris demonstration held by the French people. However, the uprising was brutally suppressed by the reactionary forces. Because Herzen participated in the parades in Rome and Paris, the French government regarded him as a dangerous element and deported him. At this time, the Tsar ordered Herzen to return home. Herzen knew that he would be subject to surveillance or even exile after returning to his country, so he disobeyed the tsar's order, moved his family to Switzerland, and joined the local Swiss Farmers Association.
After a lot of theoretical and empirical summaries, Herzen believed that the people are the fundamental force of society, and the government and the people cannot be confused. He wants the world to understand Russia and the current situation of the Russian people's struggle. He wrote "The Russian People and Socialism", "On the Development of Russian Revolutionary Thought", "Today's World and Russia" and other works introducing Russia. Since Herzen had always been an enemy of the Russian Tsarist autocratic rule, the Russian government decided to deprive Herzen of all rights and deport him for life starting from March 22, 1851. From then on, Herzen lost his noble status and all kinds of honors, and he became a man without a country. However, Herzen was very happy. He felt that his efforts for the liberation of Russia had achieved results. "It's exciting," he said.
In June 1851, the Herzen family moved to the south of France and settled down. As the family suffered successive misfortunes: his mother and son died due to a shipwreck, and his wife died of illness. Herzen was extremely sad, but he quickly recovered from the grief of the disaster and devoted himself to the struggle.
In August 1852, Herzen came to London. First, he founded a Free Russian Printing House, which specialized in printing Russian-language publications for propaganda purposes.
In 1855, Herzen started to found a periodical magazine "Polaris". In the first issue, Herzen used the profiles of the five leaders of the Decembrists as the cover, inheriting the tradition of the Decembrists, and published a large number of works that could not be published under the strict supervision of the Tsar, such as the political poems of Pushkin and others. wait.
In 1856, Herzen’s comrade-in-arms Ogarev also came here. With his help, a regular anthology was added, mainly publishing letters from Russia, called "Voice of Russia". However, as the revolutionary situation developed, these publications still could not meet the needs of the struggle. On July 1, 1857, Herzen founded "The Bell".
In these days when the flames of revolution were slowly burning, Herzen, guided by profound ideas, closely cooperated with the domestic revolutionary struggle and published many monographs and articles, such as "The Russian Revolution" and "The Fruits of Liberation" , "Letter to Future Friends" and so on. These publications have achieved great success, attracting countless readers who pursue freedom and liberation. At the same time, it was able to bypass the heavy blockades of the Tsarist border guards and reach the hands of all classes in Russia. Even the bishops and the Tsarist's favorites had a copy. This shows the great power of these publications.
However, during the period when the enthusiasm for the Russian revolution was gradually rising, because Herzen was living far abroad and did not understand the true trends of the Russian revolution, he once had a conflict with the domestic magazine "Modern Man" headed by Chernyshevsky. Some disagreements. In 1859, Chernyshevsky came to London with a conciliatory mood to have a cordial conversation with Herzen, exchanged their opinions, and finally reached a consensus. After that, Chernyshevsky and Herzen worked together, one at home and one abroad, to exert greater power of struggle and finally forced the tsar to carry out reforms. But after the reform, Herzen clearly saw the essence of the tsarist reform. He wrote in "The Bells": "Liberation is a scam" and "the tsar used fictitious liberation to open the people's eyes." From then on, he launched a more intense struggle against the tsarist ruling system, calling on the people to rise up and fight, Soldiers were called upon to turn to the side of the people and the necessity of organizing revolutionary secret societies was emphasized. Herzen used "The Bells" to play a guiding role in the people's struggle.
In addition, Herzen clearly saw the anti-people character of liberals and conducted profound criticism and exposure of it. Sure enough, liberals represented by Caverin and his ilk were frightened by the growing revolutionary power. They incited the government to persecute the democrats by spreading rumors, slandering, and defecting to the enemy. In 1862, the government closed down progressive newspapers such as "Modern Man" and "Russian Gazette". Chernyshevsky and others were arrested and exiled.
In 1867, on the tenth anniversary of the founding of "The Bell," the publication said goodbye to its readers. Herzen said: "Each generation has its own things to do. What our generation should do is to prepare for the revolution." He also said: "The new generation has grown up and has found its own path. They do not need to We have nothing good to say to them."
After "The Bell" ceased publication, Herzen began to study Marxism. He believed that the victory of the Russian revolution must be the victory of the socialist revolution. He had realized the limitations of the peasant revolution and the exploitative nature of the bourgeois revolution. In his later years, Herzen finally became a Marxist, and he still wanted to persevere and continue the struggle. However, long-term revolutionary work had taken its toll on his health.
On January 21, 1870, Herzen died of pneumonia in Paris.
This civilian revolutionary born into an aristocracy opened up a path for the Russian Revolution with his lifelong revolutionary struggle, sowing the seeds of revolutionary struggle into the hearts of every oppressed person. His achievements will be remembered by history.