Nikolay Chernyshevsky

Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was a Russian utopian philosopher, revolutionary democrat, scholar, literary critic, journalist, and writer.

He was born in Saratov into the family of the priest Gavrila Ivanovich Chernyshevsky (1793–1861). He was educated at home under the guidance of his father, a highly educated man with wide-ranging interests. In childhood he earned the nickname “bibliophage,” that is, book-eater. His erudition amazed those around him. In 1842 he entered the Saratov Theological Seminary, and the time he spent there he used mainly for self-education: he studied languages, history, geography, theory of literature, and Russian grammar. Without graduating from the seminary, in 1846 he entered St. Petersburg University in the history and philology department of the Faculty of Philosophy.

During his university years the foundations of his worldview were formed; Chernyshevsky consciously prepared himself for revolutionary activity and made his first attempts at writing fiction. In 1850, after completing the course as a candidate, he received an appointment to the Saratov Gymnasium and in spring 1851 began work there. Here the young teacher used his position to preach revolutionary ideas.

In 1853 he met his future wife, O. S. Vasilieva, and after their marriage moved with her from his native Saratov to St. Petersburg. By imperial order of January 24, 1854, Chernyshevsky was appointed a teacher at the Second Cadet Corps. The future writer established himself as an excellent teacher, but his stay in the corps was short. After a conflict with an officer, Chernyshevsky was forced to resign.

He began his literary activity in 1853 with short articles in the St. Petersburg News and in Notes of the Fatherland.

At the beginning of 1854 he moved to the journal The Contemporary, where in 1855–1862 he was one of the leaders together with N. A. Nekrasov and N. A. Dobrolyubov, waging a determined struggle to turn the journal into a tribune of revolutionary democracy, which provoked protests from liberal writers (V. P. Botkin, P. V. Annenkov