Founder of Russian peasant socialism, publisher of The Bell
"We march with the one who liberates, and so long as he liberates" — welcoming Alexander II's reforms in The Bell, 1858.
Russian writer, philosopher, and founder of 'Russian socialism.' He theorized that the peasant commune (obshchina) could bypass capitalism and transition directly to socialism. From London exile, his weekly Kolokol (The Bell) shaped reform-era opinion.
Career timeline
1829–1833Studied at Moscow University Physics-Mathematics Faculty; earned a candidate's degree
1835–1842Arrested for anti-government circle; exiled to Perm, Vyatka, Vladimir, and Novgorod
1842–1847Active in Moscow as a Westernizer intellectual; published the novel Who Is to Blame?
1847Left Russia permanently for European exile
1852Settled in London; founded the Free Russian Press
1855–1868Published the almanac Polar Star, featuring banned verse by Pushkin and Lermontov alongside liberal essays
1857–1867Published the weekly Kolokol (The Bell), the leading voice of Russian reform opinion
1864–1870Continued émigré publishing from Geneva; completed the memoir My Past and Thoughts
Russian utopian socialist theorist who co-edited Kolokol with Herzen
"We swear on this hill that we shall never retreat from the struggle we have chosen, and will give our lives for it" — the lifelong oath for Russia's liberation sworn by the 15-year-old Ogarev and Herzen on the Sparrow Hills, 1827.
Russian poet, philosopher, and revolutionary democrat. In 1827, on the Sparrow Hills, he and Herzen swore a lifelong oath to liberate Russia; decades later in London exile they co-published Kolokol (The Bell) and The Polar Star, shaping reform-era opinion. He developed the theory of 'Russian socialism' based on the peasant commune, helped found the underground society Land and Liberty, and provided the theoretical bridge from the noble to the raznochintsy phase of the Russian revolutionary movement.
Career timeline
1829–1833Studied at Moscow University, physics-mathematics and moral-political departments
1834–1839Arrested for student circle; exiled to Penza, served in governor's chancellery
1841–1846Traveled Europe; attended Berlin University; first poems published in Otechestvennye Zapiski
1846–1856Freed 1,800 serfs at Beloomut estate; communal enterprise experiments; published first poetry collection
1856–1867London exile; co-directed the Free Russian Press, Kolokol, and Polar Star with Herzen
1861–1863Co-founded the underground Land and Liberty society; supported the Polish uprising
1865–1877Moved to Geneva then returned to London; collaborated with Bakunin; died in Greenwich
The revolutionary democrat whose What Is to Be Done? remade Lenin and shaped a generation of revolutionaries
Marx, in the Afterword to the second edition of Capital, called Chernyshevsky 'the great Russian scholar and critic'; Engels referred to him and Dobrolyubov as 'socialist Lessings.'
The foremost thinker of Russian revolutionary democracy, he led Sovremennik and established materialist aesthetics and agrarian socialism. What Is to Be Done? (1863), written in solitary confinement at the Peter and Paul Fortress, became the handbook for two generations of revolutionaries.
Career timeline
1853First articles in Otechestvennye Zapiski and Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti
1855–1862De facto editor of Sovremennik — turned it into the organ of revolutionary democracy
1855Defended master's thesis Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality
1860The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy — Russian Feuerbachian materialism
1862–1864Arrested; wrote What Is to Be Done? in solitary at Peter and Paul Fortress
1864Civil execution; 7 years hard labour, lifelong Siberian exile
1864–1883Hard labour at Kadaya/Alexandrovsky Zavod, exile in Vilyuysk — wrote Prologue
1883–1889Returned to Astrakhan, then Saratov — late literary work
The literary critic who died at 25 but became the teacher of an entire generation of Russian revolutionaries
Engels wrote in 1884: 'I have in mind the two socialist Lessings, Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov.'
Russian revolutionary-democratic critic. Together with Chernyshevsky at Sovremennik, he turned literary criticism into a tool of social transformation. Engels called him a 'socialist Lessing'; though he died at 25, his writings became textbooks for generations of Russian revolutionaries.
Career timeline
1853Entered St. Petersburg Main Pedagogical Institute — organized underground democratic circle
