Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow facts for kids

Journey From Petersburg to Moscow (in Russian: Путешествие из Петербурга в Москву) is a very famous book written by Aleksander Nikolayevich Radishchev. It was published in 1790.

This book is often called a Russian version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It talks about big problems in Russia during the time of Catherine the Great. These problems included serfdom (where people were treated like property), the power of the nobility (rich landowners), and issues with the government. It also discussed social classes and how much freedom people had. The book starts with a quote about a scary "Beast," which means the huge Russian Empire itself.

Journey was a brave challenge to Catherine the Great's rule in Russia. Even though Radishchev wasn't trying to start a revolution, he simply wrote about the unfair things he saw in Russian society and government. Because of this, the book was immediately banned. Radishchev faced serious punishment and was sent away to a far-off place in eastern Siberia. The book wasn't allowed to be freely published in Russia until 1905.

The book was written when the French Revolution was happening. It uses ideas from important thinkers of that time, especially about Natural Law, which suggests that everyone has certain rights just by being human.

What the Book is About

In the book, Radishchev describes an imaginary trip between Russia's two main cities: Petersburg and Moscow. Each stop on his journey shows a different problem through various stories.

The story begins in Petersburg at an inn. The inn owner is too lazy to get his tired horses ready for the traveler's carriage. Once on the road, the traveler meets a man selling fake family papers to nobles who want to seem more important. He also sees a poor farmer working on a Sunday, which was unusual. The book then makes fun of Catherine's favorite, Viceroy Potemkin. It tells a funny story about how much he loved oysters and how far his servant would go to get them.

Perhaps the most famous part is when the traveler dreams he is a powerful ruler, like a "tsar" or "king." In his dream, even his smallest actions make his court members sigh, frown, or light up with joy. Seeing how overly polite and obedient they are, the dream-ruler orders an invasion of a faraway country. He is told that this country will give up just because of his reputation.

Suddenly, a woman named Truth appears. She helps him see things clearly and defends the rights of people who disagree with him. After being told off, the king sees visions of his own harsh actions, the mistakes of his court, and how badly his empire is doing. In a final moment of regret and guilt, caused by the fancy and wasteful palace he built, the traveler wakes up from his dream feeling very upset.

Ideas and Philosophy

Radishchev studied at Leipzig University when Catherine the Great was making some liberal changes. This time helped him learn about the French Enlightenment ideas, which he then wrote about in Journey. Like many French thinkers of his time, Radishchev believed in individual rights based on natural law. He also thought everyone should be equal. He shared ideas about women's progress and human improvement with thinkers like Condorcet.

Journey also mentions ideas from people like Adam Ferguson and Thomas Jefferson. It even refers to laws from the English Parliament and American state rules, as well as the Bible. A part that was cut from the published book, called "Creation of the World," clearly talked about the idea of a "social contract" (where people agree to follow rules for the good of society). It also praised Oliver Cromwell and George Washington for standing up against kings.

The book argues for making changes (reform) rather than starting a revolution. In two sections called "Project for the Future," Radishchev imagined a peaceful Russia led by a good king. His criticisms of the Russian nobles were mostly about the unfair things done by newer, less traditional nobles.

Journey suggests that people learn what is right and wrong, rather than being born knowing it. The traveler in the book believes in one God, worshipped by all religions. A quote from Joseph Addison in the same chapter might refer to the idea that there are many worlds, which was a new and sometimes controversial idea at the time.

Writing Style and Impact

The last chapter of Journey gives credit to Mikhail Lomonosov for creating modern literary Russian. Radishchev's writing style was influenced by authors like Vasily Trediakovsky, Abbé Raynal, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He also mentions Laurence Sterne and Horace. At his trial, Radishchev said he wrote Journey to be like the works of Sterne and Raynal.

The book is known for its unusual writing style. Radishchev mixes different ways of telling stories, like using personal stories, letters, and regular narration. The point of view often changes between the main traveler and other characters. Some parts are written in clear, everyday Russian, while others are harder to understand. These harder parts use a mix of real and made-up Church Slavonic words.

At first, Radishchev's writing was not very popular. People often compared him to his contemporary, Nikolay Karamzin, and not always in a good way. Even Alexander Pushkin's essay "Alexander Radishchev" (from 1836) criticized Radishchev's writing style. However, Pushkin did praise Radishchev's good intentions and his ideas. Pushkin's own unreleased essay, "Journey from Moscow to Petersburg," was a response to Radishchev's book.

In 2020, translators Andrew Kahn and Irina Reyfman wrote that the book's difficult style was meant to make readers think deeply about its ideas. The quote at the beginning of Journey comes from Trediokovsky's Tilemakhida. This was a Russian poem that mixed storytelling with lessons, similar to an educational book by François Fénelon. By 1790, this style was a bit old-fashioned, but Radishchev used the quote to show that his book was part of the same type of educational literature.

Translations

Journey was translated into German by Alexander Herzen in 1858. Two more German versions were made in 1922 and 1952. It was translated into Danish in 1949, Polish in 1956, and modern Russian in 1921.

English translations include:

• A Journey From St. Petersburg to Moscow, published by Harvard University Press in 1958. This version was translated by Leo Wiener.
• A Journey From St. Petersburg to Moscow, published by Columbia University Press in 2020. This translation was done by Andrew Kahn and Irina Reyfman.

Images for kids

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  Title page from the first edition, 1790