Alexander Nikolayevich Radishchev and Destiny of Russian Enlightenment

Abstract

The main framework of the present paper is constituted by the problematics of the Russian Enlightenment in its characteristic features and tendencies of its formation. The author expounds Enlightenment as an intellectual symbol representing the Western thought in Russian environment not only of the 18 th century. Enlightenment as a period in the history of Russian philosophical thinking is fundamentally determined by the reign of Empress Catherine II. Her enlightening and reactive attitudes following from the events of 1789 are the subject of the author’s interest. To illustrate the turbulent changes in Russian intellectual milieu after the French Revolution, the author uses an example of A. N. Radishchev who, in the spirit of Enlightenment, published his A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow in 1790. The author also describes the impact of publishing this work on Radishchev himself as well as its influence on the later period in the form of strong interpretative tradition.