Aleksandr Nikolayevich Radishchev Radishchev, Aleksandr
Nikolayevich (əlyĭksänˈdər nyĭkəlĪˈəvĭch rədyēshˈchĭf) [key],
1749–1802, Russian writer and liberal. Of a noble family, he
studied in Leipzig and there came under the influence of French
Enlightenment thinkers. His most important work is A Journey
from St. Petersburg to Moscow, which he issued from his own
press in 1790 (tr. 1858). Although in form it is modeled on
Laurence Sterne's Sentimental Journey, in content it is an
outspoken attack on serfdom and a plea for peasant emancipation
and ownership of the land. Catherine II was enraged and exiled
Radishchev to Siberia. All of his books were ordered destroyed.
He was allowed by Paul I to return to his estate in 1797 and was
granted full pardon by Alexander I in 1801, but, broken by
exile, he committed suicide the next year. See biography by D.
M. Lang (1959); studies by J. V. Clardy (1964) and A. McConnell
(1964). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright
© 2012, Columbia University Press.