RADISHCHEV Alexander Nikolaevich (1749-1802, St. Petersburg), writer, court counsellor (1780). In 1762-66 he was educated in the Page Corps. For the next five years he studied at Leipzig University. In 1771-73 he served at the Senate, in 1773-75 he rendered military service. In 1777-80 he held a post in the Collegium of Commerce, to become the assistant director of St. Petersburg custom house in 1780 (the director of the custom house from 1790). In 1774 he frequented the meetings of Masonic lodge Urania. The 1780s came to be the time when his literary activity was the most intense. His works of that time include A Letter to a Friend Living in Tobolsk... (1782), written on the opening of the monument to Peter the Great (the Bronze Horseman), and ode Liberty (1781-83). In 1790 Radishchev published A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow at his home printing press with 650 copies. This book merges various genres and styles, while the journey of the narrator is interpreted as overcoming of social and moral maladies. Empress Catherine II took this book for an act of political assault, which undermined the basis of autocracy. By her order, Radishchev was put into St. Peter and Paul Fortress and condemned to death; later this was commuted to exile to Siberia. In 1796 he was released by order of Emperor Pavel l. After his amnesty in 1801 by Emperor Alexander I, Radishchev returned to St. Petersburg and worked at the Commission on Lawmaking. On the night of September 12 he committed suicide. He was buried at Volkovskoe Orthodox cemetery (the grave was not preserved; memorial plaque). In 1775-90 he occupied his own house at Gryaznaya Street (today 14 Marata Street; memorial plaque), in 1801-02 he lived at present-day 15 Mozhayskaya Street (the house was not preserved). The name of Radischev was attached to a street (former Preobrazhenskaya Street) and a lane (former Tserkovny Lane), as well as to a street in Pushkin and Tannery in St. Petersburg. In 1923-89 Preobrazhenskaya Square bore the name of Radischev.
References: Кулакова Л. И., Салита Е. Г., Западов В. А. Радищев в Петербурге. Л., 1976; Кочеткова Н. Д. Радищев и масоны // Рус. лит. 2000. №1. С. 103-107.
V. A. Kuznetsov, D.N. Cherdakov.
