Nikolay Chernyshevsky

Nikolay Chernyshevsky
Николай Чернышевский
Born(1828-07-24)24 July 1828
Died29 October 1889(1889-10-29) (aged 61)
NationalityRussian
Philosophical work
Era19th-century philosophy
RegionRussian philosophy
School
Main interests
Notable worksWhat Is to Be Done?
Notable ideas
  • Rational egoism
  • Humans as chemical compounds
  • Materialist conception of aesthetics
Signature

Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky (24 July [O.S. 12 July] 1828 29 October [O.S. 17 October] 1889) was a Russian literary and social critic, journalist, novelist, democrat, and socialist philosopher, often identified as a utopian socialist and leading theoretician of Russian nihilism and the Narodniks. He was the dominant intellectual figure of the 1860s revolutionary democratic movement in Russia, despite spending much of his later life in exile to Siberia, and was later highly praised by Karl Marx, Georgi Plekhanov, and Vladimir Lenin.