Alexander Herzen - British Exile 1852 - 1864

1864

In 1852, Herzen arrived in the United Kingdom, where he would reside until 1864. Herzen was disillusioned with the Revolutions of 1848 but not disillusioned with revolutionary thought. Herzen had always admired the French Revolution and broadly adopted its values. In his early writings, he viewed the French Revolution as the end of history, the final stage in social development of a society based on humanism and harmony. Throughout his early life, Herzen saw himself as a revolutionary radical called to fight the political oppression of Nicholas I of Russia. Essentially, Herzen fought against Christian hypocrisy and for individual self-expression.

Herzen spent time in London organising with the International Workingmen's Association, becoming well acquainted with revolutionary circles including the likes of Bakunin and Marx. It was during his time in London that Herzen began to make a name for himself for "scandal-mongering" when he told Bakunin, freshly arrived having escaped imprisonment in Siberia, that Marx had accused him of being a Russian agent; in reality, the two were on very good terms.

It was revolutionary failures and the tragedies of his wife, children's and mother's deaths that drove Herzen to Britain, and he fell into emotional despair for several years. From London he found his despair had revived new energy for political and literary work to help the Russian peasantry he idolised. Herzen became critical of those 1848 revolutionaries who were #2so revolted by the Reaction after 1848, so exasperated by everything European, that they hastened on to Kansas or California". Herzen found a new desire to influence and win the appreciation of his countrymen as he established the Russian Printing Press.

In London, he hired Malwida von Meysenbug to give an education to his daughters. In 1862, Malwida von Meysenbug went to Italy with Olga, his daughter. Meysenbug would later become an acquaintance of Friedrich Nietzsche, while Olga married Gabriel Monod in 1873.