Nikolai chernyshevsky biography of michael

Nikolai Chernyshevsky, the son of a priest, was born in Saratov, Russia, on 12th July 1828. After graduating from the University of St Petersburg he taught in Saratov.

Chernyshevsky became a journalist and in 1855 joined the staff of Sovremennik (The Contemporary) where he wrote about literature and politics.

In his articles Chernyshevsky criticized liberalism, believing it served the interests of the rich and powerful.

Chernyshevsky, like Alexander Herzen, argued that the peasants should organize themselves into communes and rebel against the power of the large landowners.

He believed that the Russian peasant provided the hope of establishing an egalitarian socialist order.

Karl Marx described Chernyshevsky as "the great Russian scholar and critic who has in a masterly way exposed the bankruptcy of bourgeois economics".

However Chernyshevsky was not a Marxist and was more influenced by socialists such as Charles Fourier.

Chernyshevsky was hopefu