TagAlexander Radishchev

How Did Radishchev Become the “Forerunner of the Revolution” in 18th-Century Russia?

In this blog post, we analyze Radishchev’s criticism of serfdom and autocracy as revealed in his “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” and examine how he came to be reevaluated as a revolutionary symbol by figures ranging from Herzen to Lunacharsky.   Radishchev and His Revolutionary Legacy “We Are Sympathizers” (Мы сочувственники). On July 30, 1918, the Soviet People’s Commissariat...