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Filling the Gap between Radishchev and the Decembrists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Marc Raeff
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Extract

In general histories of Russian social and philosophical thought we usually find a gap between 1790 (publication of Radishchev's Journey) and 1815 (the establishment of the first secret societies by the future Decembrists). This quarter of a century could boast neither a prominent personality nor a cause cèlèbre of government persecution. True enough, there was Karamzin and his Zapiska o drevnei i novoi Rossii (Memoir on Ancient and Modern Russia); but the tract remained long unknown, and its author is usually dismissed as a lone figure whose impact on the development of the ideologies that were to matter was, at best, peripheral. General histories of literature treat this period primarily in terms of the philological debate between Karamzin and Shishkov and as prologue to Romanticism. Thus, in the one case, the period is described exclusively in terms of Russia's literary history, which is not very satisfactory to the student of social and political ideas; for literature—even as engagé a literature as was Russia's in the nineteenth century—is hardly an adequate source or form of ideology. In the other case, Radishchev must perforce be viewed as an isolated figure, a maverick, without either followers or immediate influence. Furthermore, the obvious implication is that there were no direct links between the Decembrists and eighteenth-century Russian ideas, so that the young rebels of 1825 must have been influenced exclusively by their experiences with the life and thought of Western Europe.

On the strength of the testimony of all contemporaries, however, the first decade of the nineteenth century was a period of great intellectual ferment, of exhilarating optimism about Russia's prospects for “modernization” (to use a fashionable term). Compared with the last years of Catherine II and with the reign of Paul, these decades also offered greater freedom, more opportunities for the expression of ideas and hopes. Could indeed the outrage and disillusionment at Alexander's so-called reactionary stance after 1815 be understood if it were not for the fact that his reign had opened on such a strong note of optimism and vitality?

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Articles
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 26 , Issue 3 , September 1967 , pp. 395 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1967

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References

1 Koliupanov, Biografiia Aleksandra Ivanovicha Kosheleva, Vol. I : Molodye gody Aleksandra Ivanovicha, Part 1 (Moscow, 1889).

2 Bulich, Ocherki po istorii russkoiliteratury i prosueshcheniia s nachala XIX veka, Vol. I (St. Petersburg, 1902).

3 Semevskii, Krest'ianskii vopros v Rossii v XVIII i pervoi polovine XIX veka, Vol. I (St. Petersburg, 1888).

4 Kizevetter, “Iz istorii russkogoliberalizma (I. P. Pnin),” in Istoricheskie ocherki (Moscow, 1912), pp. 57-87.

5 Ivanov-Razumnik, , Istoriia russkoi obshchestvennoi mysli (Individualizm i meshchanstvo v russkoiliterature i zhizni XIX v.), Vol. I (2d ed.; St. Petersburg, 1908)Google Scholar; Masaryk, Th. G., Zur russischen Geschichts-und Religionsphilosophie : Soziologische Skizzen, Vol. I (Jena, 1913).Google Scholar

6 Semennikov, , Radishchev : Ocherki i issledovaniia (Moscow and Petrograd, 1923), pp. 453–59 Google Scholar. For a n up-to-date discussion and comprehensive bibliography of Radishchev see Allen, McDonnell, A Russian Philosopher Alexander Radishchev, 1749-1802 (The Hague, 1964).Google Scholar

7 The best guides to the vastliterature on the Decembrists are Chentsov, N. M., Vosstanie Dekabristov : Bibliografiia (Moscow and Leningrad, 1929)Google Scholar, and Nechkina, M. V., ed., Dvizhenie Dekabristov : Ukazatel’literatury 1928-1959 (Moscow, 1960)Google Scholar. The specific items on the Turgenev brothers are Arkhiv brat'ev Turgenevykh, Vols. I-V (St. Petersburg/Petrograd, 1911-21)Google Scholar; Dekabrist N. I. Turgenev : Pis'ma k bratu S. I. Turgenevu (Moscow and Leningrad, 1936); and Luppol, I. K., ed., Pis'ma Aleksandra Turgeneva Bulgakovym (Moscow, 1939).Google Scholar

8 Pnin, Sochineniia, ed. I. K. Luppol, annotated by V. N. Orlov (Moscow, 1934). On pp. 305-9 there is a bibliography of 115 items on Pnin, exhaustively complete up to the time of publication of the volume.

9 Poety Radishchevtsy : Vol'noe ohshchestvoliubitelei slovesnosti, nauk i khudozhestv, ed. V. N. Orlov, introductions by V. A. Desnitskii and V. N. Orlov (Leningrad, 1935; “Biblioteka poeta“).

10 Although friendship and emotional commitment were important features in thelife of the society, one cannot forbear thinking of the bureaucratic-military experience of the Russian educated service class as a possible, unconscious, model of the society's structure. The contrast with Turgenev's Druzheskoe obshchestvo or Shishkov's Beseda is reflected even in the name.

11 For histories and discussion of the Druzheskoe obshchestvo available to Orlov, see A. Fomin's articles in Russkii bibliofil, January and April 1912; V. M. Istrin's introductory article to Arkhiv brat'ev Turgenevykh, Vol. II : Pis'ma i dnevnik Aleksandra Ivanovicha Turgeneva gettingenskogo perioda (1802-1804) i pis'ma ego k A. S. Kaisarovu i brat'iam v Gettingene (1805-1811) (St. Petersburg, 1911).

12 Republished in Desnitskii, Izbrannye stat'i po russkoiliterature XVIH-XIX w. (Moscow and Leningrad, 1958), pp. 130-91.

13 Istoriia russkoiliteratury, Vol. V : Literatura pervoi poloviny XIX veka, Part 1, ed. V. V. Gippius, V. A. Desnitskii, and B. S. Meilakh (Moscow and Leningrad, 1941). Desnitskii's article was republished in his Izbrannye stat'i, pp. 38-91.

14 I. K. Luppol may have been a purge victim. His name is scratched out on copies of books he edited which I have found in the Soviet Union, and his contribution is not acknowledged in publications which have appeared recently.

15 A complete bibliography wouldlead us too far afield. Let us mention only the following widely disseminated works of general interest : Izbrannye proizvedeniia russkikh myslitelei vtoroi poloviny XVIII veka, ed. I.la. Shchipanov (2 vols.; Moscow, 1952); luridicheskie proizvedeniia progressivnykh russkikh myslitelei (Vtoraia polovina XVIII v.), ed. S. Pokrovskii (Moscow, 1959); N. I. Novikov i ego sovremenniki : Izbrannye sochineniia, ed. L. B. Svetlov (Moscow, 1961); Ocherki po istorii filosofskoi i obshchestvenno-politicheskoi mysli narodov SSSR, Vol. I (Moscow, 1955); Iu.la. Kogan, ProsvetiteV XVIII veka : la. P. Kozel'skii (Moscow, 1958); M. M. Shtrange, Demokraticheskaia intelligentsiia Rossii v XVIII veke (Moscow, 1965); V. Bernadskii, Ocherki iz istorii klassovoi bor'by i obshchestvennopoliticheskoi mysli Rossii v tret'ei chetverti XVIII veka (Leningrad, 1962). The third andlast volume of the Academy's edition of the works of A. Radishchev came out, after along interval, in 1952.

16 Izbrannye sotsial'no-politicheskie i filosofskie proizvedeniia Dekabristov, ed. I.la. Shchipanov (Moscow, 1951). See also the bibliography edited by Nechkina which is cited in note 7 above.

17 Leningrad, 1950. Note the new name, prosvetiteli (enlighteners, actually philosophes or Aufklarer), which puts them in a broader perspective of the Enlightenment than the earlier term Radishchevtsy had done.

18 This subject is treated further in V. N. Orlov, Puti i sud'by (Literaturnye ocherki) (Moscow and Leningrad, 1963), and Orlov's editions of the poetry of Ryleev and Davydov.

19 Petrozavodsk, 1949. A revised version appeared under the title Uchenaia respublika (Moscow and Leningrad, 1964).

20 In his recent study A. N. Radishchev : Literaturno-obshchestvennaia deiatel'nost’ (Moscow and Leningrad, 1966), D. S. Babkin has tried to show that, after returning to active service in 1801, Radishchev gathered around him a circle of youthful admirers (Pnin and Popugaev were among them) who propagated the ideas contained in the Journey. Incidentally, Babkin's book is very valuable for its publication of Radishchev's notes on his work in the Commission on Codification.

21 Iu. M. Lotman, “Andrei Sergeevich Kaisarov iliteraturno-obshchestvennaia bor'ba ego vremeni,” Uchenye zapiski Tartuskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, Vypusk 63 (Tartu, 1958), and his unpublished dissertation, Leningrad University, 1961, Puti razvitiia preddekabristskoi obshchestvenno-politicheskoi mysli. V. V. Pugachev, “Iz istorii russkoi obshchestvenno- politicheskoi mysli nachala XIX veka (Ot A. N. Radishcheva k Dekabristam),” Uchenye zapiski Gor'kovskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, Seriia istoriko-filologicheskaia, Vypusk 57 (1962), pp. 3-174. See also S. S. Landa, “O nekotorykh osobennostiakh formirovaniia revoliutsionnoi ideologii v Rossii 1816-1821 gg. (Iz politicheskoi deiatel'nosti P. A. Viazemskogo, N. I. i S. I. Turgenevykh, M. F. Orlova),” in Pushkin i ego vremia, Vypusk 1 (Leningrad, 1962), pp. 67-231.

22 Poety Radishchevtsy (Ivan Pnin, Vasilii Popugaev, Ivan Born, Aleksandr Vostokov), ed., with introduction and notes, by V. N. Orlov (Leningrad, 1961) (“Biblioteka poeta, Malaia seriia“); Poety nachala XIX veka, ed., with introduction and notes, by Iu. M. Lotman (Leningrad, 1961) (“Biblioteka poeta, Malaia seriia“).

23 Russkie prosvetiteli (Ot Radishcheva do Dekabristov) : Sobranie proizvedenii v dvukh tomakh, ed. I.la. Shchipanov (Moscow, 1966). These volumes are not to be confused with Orlov's 1950 monograph.

24 Of course, much depends on one's view of Radishchev and the Decembrists. We know that Soviet scholars are convinced that Radishchev was a radical revolutionary and that many Decembrists (especially in the Southern Society) held democratic and revolutionary views.

25 The essay is now available in English translation in M., Raeff, ed., Russian Intellectual History : An Anthology (New York, 1966).Google Scholar

26 Malinovskii, , Izbrannye obshchestvenno-politicheskie sochineniia, ed. Belik, A. P. (Moscow, 1958)Google Scholar. See also Grabar', V. E., Materialy k istoriiliteratury mezhdunarodnogo prava v Rossii (1647-1917) (Moscow, 1958), pp. 155–57.Google Scholar

27 See G. P. Shtorm, “Neizvestnoe sochinenie V. V. Popugaeva ['O rabstve i ego nachale i sledstviiakh v Rossii’],” Izvestiia Akademii Nauk SSSR, Otdelenieliteratury i iazyka, XVIII, Vypusk 1 (1959), 54-60. The sketch “Negr” has not been reprinted to my knowledge.

28 The dissertation is also frequently referred to in connection with the Decembrists’ views and plans on serfdom.

29 Kunitsyn's “Entsiklopediia prav” is in Volume I of Izbrannye sotsial'no-politicheskie i filosofskie proizvedeniia Dekabristov, pp. 591-654. On Kunitsyn see also the brief sketch by Barry, Hollingsworth, “A. P. Kunitsyn and the Social Movement in Russia under Alexander I,” Slavonic and East European Review, XLIII, No. 100 (Dec. 1964), 115–29.Google Scholar

30 See A., Vucinich, Science in Russian Culture : A History to 1860 (Stanford, 1963)Google Scholar (see index); Koyré, A., La Philosophie etle problème national en Russie au début du XIXe siècle (Paris, 1929; “Bibliothèque del'Institut français de Leningrad,” Vol. X), pp. 56, 77-78Google Scholar; Zen'kovskii, V. V., Istoriia russkoi filosofii, Vol. I (Paris, 1948).Google Scholar

31 These articles had earlier been republished in Istoriko-matematicheskie issledovaniia (Moscow, 1952) and Izbrannye proizvedeniia russkikh estestvoispytatelei pervoi poloviny XIX v. (Moscow, 1959).

32 There are some abridgments in the texts given here, mainly of illustrations, as stated in the notes. Unfortunately, neither the places nor the extent of these omissions is indicated.

33 On Krechetov see Svetlov, L, “A. N. Radishchev i politicheskie protsessy kontsa XVIII veka,” in Iz istorii russkoi filosofii XVIII-XIX vekov : Sbornik statei, ed. Shchipanov, I.la. (Moscow, 1952), pp. 38–84 Google Scholar. Krechetov's one-man journal, “Ne vse, i ne nichego,” is also republished in this article.

34 Origins of the Russian Intelligentsia : The 18th Century Nobility (New York, 1966).