Petrashevsky Circle

The Petrashevsky Circle was a Russian literary discussion group of progressive-minded commoner-intellectuals in St. Petersburg organized by Mikhail Petrashevsky, a follower of the French utopian socialist Charles Fourier. Among the members were writers, teachers, students, minor government officials, army officers, and so on. While not uniform in their political views, most of them were opponents of the tsarist autocracy and the Russian serfdom. Among those connected with the circle were the writers Dostoyevsky and Saltykov-Shchedrin and the poets Pieshcheyev, Maikov, and Taras Shevchenko.

Like the Lyubomudry group founded earlier in the century, the purpose of the circle was to discuss Western philosophy (specifically Hegel and others) and literature which was officially banned by the Imperial government of Nicholas I.

Nicholas I, worried that the revolutions of 1848 would spread to Russia, mistook the largely harmless group for a subversive revolutionary organization. He closed the circle in 1849 and arrested and incarcerated its members. Fyodor Dostoyevsky was even sentenced to death in 1849 for his involvement, but was reprieved to serve eight years in prison, later reduced to four years by Nicholas I.

Members of Assembly, Circles close to Petrashevists

In the history of literature of the XIX century the so-called case Petrashevsky, or 'Petrashevists', occupies a prominent place, because no one has participated in the Russian political process as much writers and scientists. But the circle Petrashevsky through its individual members (Durova, mostly) was in close contact with many others, which argued in exactly the same spirit against oppression of censorship, the ugliness of serfdom, and the corruption of officialdom. With a passionate interest they read and commented on the theory of Kaba, Fourier series, Proudhon, and finally, listened with delight to Belinsky's letter to Gogol.

One of these clubs met at Irinarkh Vedenskiy; among its members belonged to the young writers and students of G. E. Blagosvetlov, AP Milyukov and NA Chernyshevsky. Famous diarist F. F. Vigel, who knew about these meetings and close liaison with their collections Petrashevsky, made in this sense, denunciation, and only the lack of precise data from Liprandi, but most of all intercession Rostovtsev, who liked very Vvedensky, saved the latter and his friends.

In addition, some escaped persecution, such as VA A. Èngel, later an active participant Herzen ovskaya "Polar Star", a famous theorist Slavophilism - Nikolai Danilevsky, M. Saltykov-Shchedrin and for a long time diligently visited Friday Petrashevsky Apollo Mike.

Finally, in the Petrashevsky Circle can be classified the two first-class writers who were not included because of the number of defendants, that died before the beginning of the investigation: Valerian Maikova and Belinsky. Valerian Mike was very friendly with Petrashevsky and took a large part in the compilation of the Dictionary of Foreign Words "Kirillov, who was one of the largest corpus delicti of the process.

VA Belinsky for his letter to Gogol, probably would have been counted among the most criminal category of "society", as many of Petrashevsky Circle only and were to blame for that in the dissemination of this letter. The final verdict on the general auditoriata Pleshcheeva motivated as follows: "Pleshheeva, for distributing letters Belinsky, deprived of all rights of the state and sent to hard labor in factories for 4 years. One of the reasons on which Golovinskii, Dostoevsky, Palm condemned to death, failure to put up on the dissemination of the letter Belinsky.

List Petrashevists === ===

1. Mikhail Butashevich-Petrashevsky, titular councilor, 27 years
2. Dmitry Akhsharumov, Ph.D. St. Petersburg State University, 26 years
3. Vasily Golovinskii, titular councilor, 20 years
4. Nikolai Grigoriev, Lieutenant Guards Horse-Grenadier Regiment
5. Hippolyte Deboo, serving in the Asian Department, 25 years
6. Konstantin Deboo, serving in the Asian Department, 38 years
7. Fyodor Dostoevsky, a retired engineer lieutenant, writer, 27 years
8. Sergei Durov, a retired collegiate assessor, writer, 33 years
9. Alexander Evropeus, a retired collegiate secretary, 2? years
10. Basil Kamen, the son of honorary citizen, 19 years
11. Nikolay Kashkin, serving in the Asian Department, 20 years
12. Fedor Lviv, captain of the Life Guards regiment of Chasseurs, 25 years
13. Nikolay Mombelli, the lieutenant of the Life Guards regiment of Moscow, 27 years
14. Alexander Palm, lieutenant of the Life Guards regiment of Chasseurs, 27 years
15. Alexei Pleshcheyev, nesluzhaschy nobleman, writer, 23 years
16. Nikolay Speshnyov, lord of the Kursk province, 28 years
17. Konstantin Timkovsky, titular councilor, 35 years
18. Felix Toll, master chief engineering school, 26 years
19. Pavel Filippov, a student at St. Petersburg University, 24 years
20. Alexander Khanykov, a student at St. Petersburg University, 24 years
21. Raphael Chernosvitov, a retired lieutenant colonel (former superintendent), 39 years
22. Peter Shaposhnikov, a tradesman, 28 years
23. Ivan Yastrzhembsky, Assistant Inspector in the Institute of Technology, 34 years
24. Alexander Balasoglo, a poet, a retired naval officer, 36 years

In total, about forty Petrashevists were arrested, including 21 sentenced to death, with one gone mad in the process of investigation and having the sentence deferred.