year the "Sovremennik" was suppressed for eight months and its editor was arrested, for during the days of the Polish rising, reaction could not be long delayed. After two years of preliminary imprisonment, Černyševskii, now in his thirty-fifth year, was sentenced to fourteen years in the Siberian mines, and to exile for life to Siberia—the scaffold comedy then customary in such cases, the ceremony of civil death, being first played. The reasons for the sentence are still unknown. All Černyševskii's extant works were passed by the censor, so it can only be supposed that he was condemned for some illegal publication, or for secret revolutionary propaganda. The police did in fact bring forward evidence bearing on such a charge, producing two depraved individuals (one being a nephew of Kostomarov) to testify that Černyševskii had written secret proclamations and had had these printed. The minister for justice submitted to the court a memorial Concerning Černyševskii's Literary Activities, and thereupon sentence followed.[1]
- ↑ There is no good biography of Černyševskii, and we know little of him as a man and in his intimate personal relationships with friends and family. We even lack details concerning his labours as author and politician. He was born at Saratov in 1828, and passed the earlier years of his life in this town. Sprung from a non-aristocratic clerical family, he was at first trained by his father for the priesthood, but since he showed unmistakable talent for literature and science he was entered in 1846 at the historico-philological faculty of the St. Petersburg university. In boyhood, Černyševskki was already a great reader and practical philologist, acquainted with many languages both ancient and modern. Apart from poetry and the Bible, the young man was chiefly interested in historical writings, the works of Raumer, Schlosser, etc. In St. Petersburg, Černyševskii joined a literary circle, whose leader, Irinarh Ivanovič Vvedenskii, introduced him to the study of Bělinskii. He also read German philosophy, and became acquainted with the works of the French socialists. In 1850, Černyševskii returned to his native town as teacher at the gymnasija, and there met Kostomarov, the historian, who had been sent to Saratov. In 1853, Černyševskii married and returned to St. Petersburg, to join the staff of the Sovremennik in 1854, and to devote all his energies to that periodical. Little is known regarding his life in Siberia, He was visited by friends in 1871, 1873, and 1875; but for nearly twenty years all attempts to secure his liberation were fruitless. At length, in 1883, he was permitted to return to Russia. Through the intermediation of the liberal journalist Nikoladze the government entered into negotiations with the committee of the revolutionary society Narodnaja Volja, in order to secure that there should be no disturbances at the coronation of Alexander III, and one of the revolutionists' conditions was that Černyševskii should be set at liberty. In 1883, therefore, he was sent to Astrakhan, although a promise had been given to permit his immediate return to Saratov. Not until 1889 was he allowed to revisit his native place, and he died there a few months later at the age of sixty-one.—Consult G. Plechanow, N. G. Tschernischewsky eine Literar-Historische Studie, Dietz, Stuttgart, 1894.
