A Herzen Reader

The availability in English of Herzen's texts of the 1850s and 1860s fills a significant void. Despite the duration of Herzen's stay in England, and the influence of The Bell and its parent publication, The Polestar (Poliar- naya zvezda), this later period in Herzen's life has not received sufficient attention, particularly in comparison with Herzen's pre-1852 activity and thought. There are several reasons for this lacuna. Herzen's first forty years have attracted a good deal of research. In the 1830s Herzen became deeply engaged in German philosophy and French social thought, and intellec­tual historians take much interest in this early period, when a young, ide­alistic Herzen passionately sought answers to life's complexities in grand philosophical systems. More poignantly, in the late 1840s and early 1850s Herzen crystallized his doctrine of revolutionary socialism, considered to be his monumental contribution to Russian history, and one which was de­cisive in influencing the path of Russia's political development through to the 1917 revolution and beyond. For many historians, these years comprise the "useful" Herzen, at least in terms of the impact of his doctrine on the course of world history.

Biographers also tend to focus on the same period, beginning with Her­zen's departure from Russia in early 1847, his arrival in Paris in late March, and his witnessing of the i848 revolts and the reactions and disillusion that followed, culminating in Louis-Napoleon's coup d'etat in i85i and ar- rogation of the title emperor in 1852. Herzen produced a number of classic essays and several cycles of "letters" reporting these extraordinary events and his travels during this time, and these were gathered in popular vol­umes that set forth his doctrine of Russian socialism.² The early 1850s also brought a series of personal crises and tragedies, Herzen's "family drama," which has sparked much interest in Herzen's personal life. In sum, Her­zen's 1847-52 period, years of Sturm und Drang, of exuberant hopes and shattered ideals, has been a magnet for writers and academics.

When, in mid-1852 Herzen left for the foggy calm of England, it ap­peared that the most fascinating and productive years of his life were be­hind him. Moreover, it is generally held that Herzen did not take warmly to London and he did not develop many contacts there.³ In his memoirs,

Herzen only encourages this perception, writing of his "hermit's life" in one of the town's more remote areas.⁴ A review of Herzen scholarship from the late nineteenth century to the current day is instructive in tracing the changing understanding of the significance of his life and thought.

Until the last decade of the twentieth century, Russian scholars had to overcome a number of impediments and obstacles in their writing on the man and his thought. Generally, there has hardly been a time when these scholars could write about Herzen in an entirely unhindered way. Twice arrested and banished within his homeland because of his alleged political views and orientation, Herzen finally left Russia and was forced to remain in exile. During most of the tsarist period, his works were banned outright, though some secondary literature on the man, comprising mainly non- ideological, biographical sketches, was published.⁵ In i900 this injunction was removed, though it took a few years for the effects of the ban to dis­sipate and for serious Herzen scholarship in Russia finally to emerge.⁶ In i905 Herzen's works began to be printed in Russia, and by i9o8 Vetrinsky, who had been arrested and exiled for his participation in a student circle, published a substantial monograph tracing Herzen from childhood to his last days, with the text divided between Herzen's life in Russia and his years abroad.⁷

As a historian, journalist, and pedagogue, P. N. Milyukov (i859-i943) was notable among the pioneering Russian scholars of Herzen. Regarded as a "Moscow liberal with leftward aspirations,"⁸ Milyukov, like Herzen, could not be pigeonholed into standard rubrics and categories. Steering clear of nationalistic conservatives and doctrinaire socialists, he maintained a distinct ideological tension, attempting to blend liberalism and socialism without being dragged into the camp of either nationalistic conservatives or doctrinaire socialists. In i900 Milyukov published a short essay, "In Mem­ory of Herzen,"⁹ on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of his passing. Milyukov regarded Herzen as Russia's greatest writer,¹⁰ and he, in turn, was compared to Herzen in terms of the importance of his publicistic en­deavors on behalf of Russia's opposition movement.¹¹ On the centenary of Herzen's birth, Lenin, in his own "In Memory of Herzen" tribute, claimed Herzen for the cause of the revolution.