Russia's nineteenth century revolutionary movement had few more Influential and distinguished figures than Alexander Herzen. He became a social radical at an early age but tended consistently to avoid the well-worn paths of his contemporaries. His social and political thought is rare and complex for its time and place. It combines a devotion to the absolutes of human freedom and Justice with a realistic perception and acknowledgment of human limitations. It is the resulting interaction of Idealism and realism that lends Herzen’s thought its arresting and distinctive quality
