HERZEN, ALEKSANDR IVANOVICH

born April 6 [March 25, Old Style], 1812, Moscow, Russia died Jan. 21 , 1870, Paris, France Herzen also spelled Hertzen, or Gertsen political thinker, activist, and writer who originated the theory of a unique Russian path to socialism known as peasant populism. Herzen chronicled his career in My Past and Thoughts (1861-67), which is considered to be one of the greatest works of Russian prose. Additional reading Works on Herzen include Martin Malia, Alexander Herzen and the Birth of Russian Socialism, 1812-1855 (1961), exploring his ideology and politics; Edward Hallett Carr, The Romantic Exiles: A Nineteenth-Century Portrait Gallery (1933, reissued 1981), treating his personal life; Edward Acton, Alexander Herzen and the Role of the Intellectual Revolutionary (1979); and N.M. Pirumova, Aleksandr Gertsen: Revoliutsioner, Myslitel', Chelovek (1988). Collected editions of his works are Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem, ed. by M.K. Lemke, 21 vol. in 22 (1919-23); and Sobranie sochinenii, 30 vol. in 35 (1954-66), published by the Soviet Academy of Sciences.