From the Other Shore & The Russian People and Socialism

by Alexander Herzen, Moura Budberg (Translator), Isaiah Berlin (Introduction)

Alexander Herzen is the greatest social thinker that Russia has ever produced, and one of the most brilliant of all political journalists. From the Other Shore is a collection of essays and dialogues written during the years 1847 to 1851, years of high promise and terrible disillusion. Herzen was an eye-witness of the 1848 Revolution in Paris, and this book is at once an analysis of the failure of the Revolution-- equalled in brilliance only by those of Tocqueville and Marx-- and Herzen's own political testament. In it he rejects all appeals to history for infallible political guidance, all attempts to find universal social solutions, all efforts to suppress individual liberty for the sake of an abstract cause or idea. The pyrotechnic style, thought, and wit make this one of the most remarkable and fascinating political books ever written.

The Russian People and Socialism, and open letter to the great French historian Jules Michelet, is a defence of the integrity of the submerged Russian masses against Michelet's charges, and as such has a new topical interest today.

These translations by Moura Budberg and Richard Wollheim are now made available in paperback for the first time. Isaiah Berlin's introduction sets the stage perfectly for the newcomer to Herzen.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Russian Literature, Politics, History, Russia, Essays

240 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1970

About the author

Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (Russian: Александр Иванович Герцен) was a Russian pro-Western writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism", and one of the main fathers of agrarian populism (being an ideological ancestor of the Narodniki, Socialist-Revolutionaries, Trudoviks and the agrarian American Populist Party). He is held responsible for creating a political climate leading to the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. His autobiography My Past and Thoughts, written with grace, energy, and ease, is often considered the best specimen of that genre in Russian literature. He also published the important social novel Who is to Blame? (1845–46).

Reviews

[Illiterate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Other Shore: After 1848, Herzen rejects rationalism, moral abstractions, historical inevitability. Russian People: less interesting.

[James Waugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can see why Isaiah Berlin doesn't just directly toss this recommendation at you: the book is actual letters from the bloody years in Paris. There are a lot of names and events and metonymic dates that you have to chase. If you're a nerd and a Victoria III addict like I am, it's a great time!

That said - if you feel forlorn about current events, Herzen is a hearty companion. He can offer a rare gift: affirmation of life that doesn't require hope for the future. In a weird way it takes a weight off my shoulders to hear him bemoan that this nonsense is never going to end. He does it with florid Biblical references and a relatable determination to read European history from the outside.

[Tam Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lâu rồi mới có cảm giác một cuốn sách như được viết dành cho mình.

[Joshua Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Isaiah Berlin seems to have missed the point entirely of what Herzen was actually saying. This book is not a critique of proto-totalitarianism that anticipates 20th century preoccupations, as Berlin seems to believe, but a fierce, impassioned denunciation of the hypocrisy and cowardice of bourgeois republicans who sold out the proletarians in 1848. Both Berlin's argument and Herzen's point are valid and interesting—but I can't see that they have anything to do with each other!
My thoughts: https://sixfootturkey.blogspot.com/20...

[Luu Thi Tam]

Bản dịch và chú giải của dịch giả rất tuyệt vời.
Đọc làm gợi mở cho mình nhiều vấn đề quá; cá nhân, dân tộc, tôn giáo, bản thể, xã hội, sự thay đổi, đám đông, sự trưởng thành của đa số.
Sẽ đọc lại.
Kính phục tác giả, dịch giả.

[Feargal McGovern · Rating 5 out of 5]

After marx, the best author from the period writing of the bourgoise betrayals of the 1848 revolutions.

Very clear to why Lenin credited him with being one of the early revolutionaries who "paving the way for the Russian revolution"

[Liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

herzen drinking out of a mug that says “liberal tears”.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best political thought that, unfortunately, isn't read enough anymore.