Nikolay Chernyshevsky
Nikolay Chernyshevsky | |
---|---|
Николай Чернышевский | |
Narodism | |
Main interests | |
Notable ideas | |
Signature | |
Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky
Biography
The son of a priest, Chernyshevsky was born in
He was inspired by the works of Hegel, Ludwig Feuerbach and Charles Fourier and particularly the works of Vissarion Belinsky and Alexander Herzen. By the time he graduated from the Saint Petersburg University in 1850, Chernyshevsky developed revolutionary, democratic, and materialist views. From 1851 to 1853, he taught Russian language and literature at the Saratov Gymnasium. He openly expressed his beliefs to students, some of whom later became revolutionaries. From 1853 to 1862, he lived in Saint Petersburg, and became the chief editor of Sovremennik (“The Contemporary”), in which he published his main literary reviews and his essays on philosophy.[4]
Chernyshevsky was sympathetic to the 1848 revolutions throughout Europe. He followed the events of the time and rejoiced in the gains of the democratic and revolutionary parties.[5]
In 1855, Chernyshevsky defended his master's dissertation, "The Aesthetic Relation of Art to Reality", which contributed for the development of materialist aesthetics in Russia. Chernyshevsky believed that "What is of general interest in life -- that is the content of art" and that art should be a "textbook of life." He wrote, "Science is not ashamed to say that its aim is to understand and explain reality, and then to use its explanation for man's benefit. Let not art be ashamed to admit that its aim is ... to reproduce this precious reality and explain it for the good of mankind."[6]
In 1862, he was arrested and confined in the
In 1862, Chernyshevsky was sentenced to civil execution (
Ideas and influence
Chernyshevsky was a founder of
Chernyshevsky believed that American democracy was the best aspect of American life. He welcomed the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, which he believed marked a new period for "the great North American people" and that America would progress to heights "not attained since Jefferson's time." He praised these developments: "The good repute of the North American nation is important for all nations with the rapidly growing significance of the North American states in the life of all humanity."[8]
Chernyshevsky's ideas were heavily influenced by
There are those arguing, in the words of Professor Joseph Frank, that “Chernyshevsky’s novel What Is to Be Done?, far more than Marx’s Das Kapital, supplied the emotional dynamic that eventually went to make the Russian Revolution”.[10][11]
Russian revolutionary and head of the Soviet government Vladimir Lenin praised Chernyshevsky: "..he approached all the political events of his times in a revolutionary spirit and was able to exercise a revolutionary influence by advocating, in spite of all the barriers and obstacles placed in his way by the censorship, the idea of a peasant revolution, the idea of the struggle of the masses for the overthrow of all the old authorities”[13]
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels studied Chernyshevsky's works and called him a "great Russian scholar and critic".[14]
A number of scholars have contended that Ayn Rand, who grew up in Russia when Chernyshevsky's novel was still influential and ubiquitous, was influenced by the book.[15]
Works
Novels
- What Is to Be Done? (1863)
- A Story Within A Story (1863) (unfinished)
- Prologue: A Novel for the Beginning of the 1860s (1870) (unfinished)
Philosophy
- Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality (1855)
- The Nature of Human Knowledge (1855)
- Critique of Philosophical Prejudices Against Communal Ownership (1858)
- The Anthropological Principle in Philosophy (1860)
Literary Criticism
- Essays on the Gogol Period in Russian Literature (1856)
Notes
- ^ Russian: Николай Гаврилович Чернышевский, IPA: [nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɡɐˈvrʲiləvʲit͡ɕ t͡ɕɪrnɨˈʂɛfskʲɪj]
References
- ^ "Chernyshevskii, Nikolai Gavrilovich (1828–1889)". Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 11 August 2020 – via Encyclopedia.com.
- ^ Ana Siljak, Angel of Vengeance, page 57
- ^ Ana Siljak, Angel of Vengeance, page 58
- JSTOR 40399722.
- ^ Hecht, 323
- S2CID 145336102.
- ^ Е. Водовозова, На заре жизни, М. -Л., 1934, с. 87.
- ^ Hecht, 326
- ISBN 0-393-31133-3.
- ISBN 0691014566.
- ISBN 0-7868-6876-7.
- ^ Jane Missner Basrstow Dostoevsky Versus Chernyshevsky in College Literature V, 1. Winter 1978.
- ^ "Lenin: 'The Peasant Reform' and the Proletarian-Peasant Revolution". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
- ISBN 9780521892193.
- ^ Weiner, Adam (11 December 2016). "The Most Politically Dangerous Book You've Never Heard Of". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
Further reading
- Vladimir Nabokov’s The Gift has the protagonist, Fyodor Godunov-Cherdyntsev, study Chernyshevsky and write the critical biography The Life of Chernychevski which represents Chapter Four of the novel. The publication of this work caused a literary scandal.[1]
- Paperno, Irina, Chernyshevsky and the Age of Realism: A Study in the Semiotics of Behavior. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988.
- Pereira, N.G.O., The Thought and Teachings of N.G. Černyševskij. The Hague: Mouton, 1975.
External links
- Media related to Nikolai Chernyshevsky at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by or about Nikolay Chernyshevsky at Internet Archive
- Selected Philosophical Essays in PDF format
- Works by Nikolay Chernyshevsky at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)