From the Other Shore & The Russian People and Socialism

Alexander Herzen is the greatest social thinker that Russia has ever produced, and one of the most brilliant of all political journalists. From the Other Shore is a collection of essays and dialogues written during the years 1847 to 1851, years of high promise and terrible disillusion. Herzen was an eye-witness of the 1848 Revolution in Paris, and this book is at once an analysis of the failure of the Revolution– equalled in brilliance only by those of Tocqueville and Marx– and Herzen’s own political testament. In it he rejects all appeals to history for infallible political guidance, all attempts to find universal social solutions, all efforts to suppress individual liberty for the sake of an abstract cause or idea. The pyrotechnic style, thought, and wit make this one of the most remarkable and fascinating political books ever written.

The Russian People and Socialism, and open letter to the great French historian Jules Michelet, is a defence of the integrity of the submerged Russian masses against Michelet’s charges, and as such has a new topical interest today.

These translations by Moura Budberg and Richard Wollheim are now made available in paperback for the first time. Isaiah Berlin’s introduction sets the stage perfectly for the newcomer to Herzen.