Mikhail Vasilyevich Butashevich-Petrashevsky (; – ), commonly known as Mikhail Petrashevsky, was a Russian revolutionary and

Utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...

theorist.Figes, p. 128

Biography

Early life

Mikhail Petrashevsky graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (1839) and Saint Petersburg State University with a degree in

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

(1841). He was then employed as a

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

and interpreter at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Petrashevsky is known to have edited and authored most of the theoretical articles for the ''Pocket Dictionary of Foreign Words'' (1846), which popularized democratic and materialist ideas and principles of

utopian socialism Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...

Political activism & Petrashevsky Circle

In 1844, Petrashevsky's apartment became the venue for social gatherings of intellectuals, which from 1845 took place on a weekly basis. These meetings were later dubbed ''pyatnitsy'' ("Fridays") and those attending them would be known as '' Petrashevtsy''. The latter came to Petrashevsky's house and used his personal library, which contained banned books on materialist philosophy, utopian socialism, and history of

revolutionary movement A revolutionary movement (or revolutionary social movement) is a specific type of social movement dedicated to carrying out a revolution. Charles Tilly defines it as "a social movement advancing exclusive competing claims to control of the State ( ...

s. Among the well-known members of the young intelligentsia who participated in the Petroshevsky Circle was the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, who belonged to the circle during the 1840s. In late 1848 Mikhail Petrashevsky took part in meetings aimed at creating a secret society.

Mock execution and exile

In 1849, Mikhail Petrashevsky was arrested and sentenced to death. Together with the other ''Petrashevtsy'' he was taken to the parade ground of the Semionovsky Regiment in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, the usual place for public executions, and tied to the pole. At the last moment the execution was stopped and it was revealed that his sentence had been commuted to ''

katorga Katorga ( rus, ка́торга, p=ˈkatərɡə; from medieval and modern Greek: ''katergon, κάτεργον'', " galley") was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisone ...

'' for an unspecified term. He was sent to

Eastern Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

to serve his sentence. In 1856, Petrashevsky's status was changed to that of an exile settler. He lived in Irkutsk, where he founded a

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

called ''Amur'' in 1860.

Later life and death

In February 1860, Petrashevsky was banished to the

Minusinsk Minusinsk (russian: Минуси́нск; kjh, Минсуғ) is a historical town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. Population: 44,500 (1973). Geography Minusinsk marks the center of the Minusinsk Hollow, one of the most important archaeologic ...

district for speaking out against the abuse of power by local officials and he died there six years later.

Political work

Petrashevsky considered himself a follower of

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical ...

and spoke for democratisation of the Russian political system and liberation of the

peasantry A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...

with their lands. He advocated long preparatory work among the masses for revolutionary struggle. As most members of the Russian intelligentsia, their commitment to 'the people' was abstract; being unsure of individual men but loving mankind. Petrashevsky summed this up by proclaiming: 'unable to find anything in either women or men worthy of my adherence, I have turned to devote myself to the service of humanity'.

References

Bibliography

*Evans, John L. ''The Petraševskij Circle 1845-1849.'' The Hague: Mouton, 1974. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Petrashevsky, Mikhail 1821 births 1866 deaths Fourierists Politicians from Saint Petersburg People from Sankt-Peterburgsky Uyezd Russian revolutionaries Linguists from Russia Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum alumni Saint Petersburg State University alumni Russian exiles in the Russian Empire