A Journey from Saint Petersburg to Moscow by by Aleksandr Nikolaevich Radishchev

This is the first English edition of Aleksandr Nikolaevich Radishchev’s Book, originally published in 1790, and considered a landmark in Russian intellectual history. — It is primarily an attack on serfdom and an appeal to the Sovereign and the landed gentry to free the serfs voluntarily. — The book was banned immediately and the author first sentenced to death, then banished to eastern Siberia. On the order of Empress Catherine II, who read the book carefully, all copies that could be found were collected and burned. — This edition of the Journey contains not only an English translation of the work. the introduction includes an account of Radishchev’s life, the feelings and beliefs which led him to write this and other important works, and a complete analysis of the Journey – its content and background, historical source material and points of departure, literary analogues or sources, Radishchev’s language, style and literary technique, and the influence and aftermath of it all. Extensive notes clarify points which might not be immediately clear to English readers, and often make reference to the Empress Catherine II”s own notes on the Journey, which appear in translation at the back of the book.