Childhood, Youth and Exile by Alexander Herzen

Childhood, Youth and Exile Reviews

• 
  Zuberino

  5 stars for Berlin's scintillating introduction to the life and thought of Herzen. 4 stars for the book itself, which consists of the first two volumes of Herzen's memoirs. Herzen is one of those names that are forever flitting around the edges of one's consciousness and one's reading, vaguely associated with the Russian anarchists of the 19th century, alongside Bakunin and Belinsky and all that lot, but never clearly defined or portrayed for one's benefit. I've heard of him at least since I became aware of Stoppard's Coast of Utopia trilogy in the mid-90s, and he skates across the pages of Crankshaw's magisterial history but not in any great depth or detail. Even this book I've owned for at least a few years without ever cracking open its pages.
  
  Well, the wait is over, and I must say that this immersive read was entirely worth the wait. It's not a fat book, but neither is it one that you can zip through in a hurry. Maybe in that sense, my slow read reflects the writing of the book itself, composed over many years, in spurts and flashes as and when the author was able to give it his attention.
  
  The book covers the first 25 years of Herzen's life, up to the point when he is allowed to return from exile in remote Vyatka, just shy of the Urals, back to Vladimir, into the heart of European Russia. As such, it is not so much a guide to Herzen's later life and philosophy, but it is an extremely valuable document about Tsarist Russia in the first decades of the 19th century - from the time of the Napoleonic invasion, when Moscow burned memorably like a many-headed bonfire, to the depths of the dead-hand reign of the hated Nicholas I. The bastard son of a morose aristocrat, Herzen is superb in describing the rarefied yet gloomy milieu he grew up in, interspersed with flashes of light - friendships, and first loves, and summer visits to the family estate in the glorious Russian countryside. The assorted teachers and servants form a memorable rogues' gallery of Russian (and occasionally French and German) types.
  
  And then he grows up and becomes, even in his youth, a headstrong, proud, fearless critic of the ancien regime. He sidesteps other people's plans for him - the Army! the Civil Service! - and cuts his own rebellious way through university, falling in with the 'wrong types' and swiftly getting himself noticed by the dreaded Secret Police. Student hi-jinks are followed by nine months in prison; Herzen's description of life in the Krutitsky Barracks is a very fine early example of prison lit. Eventually, his fierce pigheadedness leads him to exile in the deep heart of Russia, in distant Perm and Vyatka. But not before there's a thrilling boat ride across the Volga in full flood to the safety of the walls of Kazan.
  
  The chapters on exile take up only the bottom third of the book, but for me this was the most entertaining part of the book, not least because of the hateful presence of the evil Governor Tyufyayev. Every cliche about Russian life from Gogol downwards - the absent-minded cruelty of its administration, the zombie army of bureaucrats, the long-suffering mass of martyrs also known as the common people, the sheer arbitrary absurdity of the rules and diktats they must put up with - all of this is made flesh by Herzen. At times, the grotesquerie exceeds all normal limits - a pet Great Dane fed to dinner guests, girls turned into boys and living people turned into the walking undead at the stroke of a bureaucratic pen - it's all too much to wrap one's head around at times. And yet this has been Russian reality for at least a millennium.
  
  Eventually Tyufyayev is felled and the kindly eye of the future Alexander II falls on Herzen when the former visits the provinces. Herzen returns... and I have ordered the next in the series already.! This first volume then gives an insight into the great man's personality and the influences that went into shaping it. Thanks to Herzen's disarmingly candid prose, you feel as if he's sitting right across the room from you, chatting away; the distance of two centuries simply vanishes. But to find out more about his adult life and actual contributions to 19th-century Russia, one must read on - Carr's biography, Berlin's barn-burning essays, and yes, Herzen himself as well.
• 
  Jackson Cyril

  Herzen’s acute eye for observation, his survey of events great and small without a shred of bombastic pathos, his irresistible sense of humor, his formidable skills as a raconteur, his staunch distrust of generalization and willingness to embrace life in its manifold complexity make this work important for both the student of mid-century Russia who wants to understand the world of the rural aristocracy, the criminal courts, the universities and the fate and life of exiled socialists, but also to the general reader who has the time and ability to appreciate a lively and vigorous intellect animating on matters great and small with great wit and sensibility. To these virtues are added those of Isaiah Berlin’s introduction, which excellently situates Herzen in the political and cultural context of the mid-nineteenth century and appreciates his stature as a leading figure in the intellectual world of mid century Russia.
• 
  Matt Ely

  A great tour of life in mid-19th century Russia. Herzen tells his story, but about half the book is divergence into the lives and stories about many people he intersects with. Without attempting to describe the country at large, he does so by describing people of every social station, from a privileged upbringing to exile in the country's frontier. Mostly it's a story about the arbitrariness of justice and injustice in a lazily autocratic state. If you like reading Russian novels, this is a great way to get some first-person perspective.
• 
  Amelia Saffold

  We love when an old Russian author is actually low key anti-imperialism.
• 
  Rick

  The first two parts of I think five parts of Herzen’s memoirs, this edition while not serving the purpose I got it for (because it stops the story before it gets to those parts), was nonetheless very gratifying and left me even more interested in reading about the decades of Herzen’s life that contributed greatly to Tom Stoppard’s trilogy, The Coast of Utopia. Herzen is a graceful and thoughtful writer, an alert observer, and one who both remembers and writes with disarming humility and wit.
  
  This volume tells the story of Herzen’s childhood and early adulthood, his pampered life in Russia, his political interests and how it impacted his university days and resulted in his exile. Some of the activities at university seem equal parts politics and irreverent college age pranks and misbehavior. To the degree that they are not equal parts, alcohol seems to shift the balance toward the latter category: Political banquets that become friends just partying. Political protests that are more instances of pulling the beards of authority than serious revolutionary acts of rebellion. But it is czarist Russia so sometimes the behavior is tolerated and pro forma apologies or the intercessions of influential relatives will smooth things over and the next event is planned—though if you don’t have an influential relative apologies go unheeded and no one intercedes—and sometimes you are off to exile in the east.
  
  When Herzen is ultimately sent off he toils as a minor bureaucrat in some wilderness outpost and does his best to do his job and stay out of the way of whatever petty tyrant holds sway over his post and region. He endures but some of his friends and acquaintances do not—alcohol, illness in harsh conditions, poverty rubs them out under the malign neglect of the authorities. Intelligent, funny, objective about the games, silly or consequential, that go into human interaction, whether the interaction is political, social or personal. Herzen is a wonderful escort through his life and times. In the two parts contained here he has the youthful energy and emerging maturity of a young man, as if you were reading a diary. It will be interesting to see how the voice changes, if it does, as marriage and the challenges of adulthood, particularly in a high-stakes political arena, have their impacts. I’ll be looking for the other volumes of his engaging memoir.
• 
  Mari

  This books is a testament to why it's great to have people who are wealthy enough that they can be professional thinkers. It's also an interesting, strangely detached chronicle of pre-revolutionary Russia. Great context for The Coast of Utopia.