Romans comme propaganda: Les romans d’Alexandre Herzen et de Nikolai Tchernychevsky

Abstract

AbstractRussian intellectual history of the nineteenth century has many sources that give access to the inner thoughts of creative thinkers who were prevented by censorship from publishing full expositions of their ideas. Recently published volumes of personal correspondence, diaries, memoirs, and variants of published works, including portions excised by censors, and heretofore unpublished manuscripts, augment the corpus of writings that actually appeared in print during the mid-nineteenth century. Another source that is especially valuable consists of the novels written by the radical thinkers, Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Chernyshevskii. Their novels, Who is to Blame? (1845-47) and What is to be Done? (1863), contain material that can be presumed to represent their private opinions about the government, its policies, and the prevailing social structure. Since both authors were severe and hostile critics of nineteenth-century Russian society, their “fictional” accounts of life in that society overflow w...