Lavrov P.L. (1823-1900), revolutionary, sociologist

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LAVROV Peter Lavrovich (1823-1900), philosopher, sociologist, essayist, political figure. He graduated from the Artillery School in St. Petersburg, in 1842, and its Officer classes. From 1844, he taught mathematics in military colleges in St. Petersburg and from 1858 was a professor of the Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy. In 1858, he was promoted to the rank of colonel. He lived at 12/2 Furshtadtskaya Street. From the late 1850s, he developed original philosophic learning - anthropologism, focusing on the human as a social and individual person. In The Essays on Questions of Practical Philosophy (St. Petersburg, 1860) he criticised mystical forms of idealism as well as vulgar materialism. He noted parity of all people as for all-round development and insisted on the importance of free thought for the development of the individual and society. In November 1860, he read public lectures on philosophy in the Petersburg Passage. He supported student demonstrations in Petersburg from the autumn of 1861 to the spring of 1862. He was the author of one of the editions of the Encyclopaedia compiled by Russian Scientists and Writers (St. Petersburg, 1861-1863), the de facto editor of Zagranichny Vestnik from 1863 to 1866. He was a participant in the Literary Foundation, Chess Club. Supported leaders of the women's movement. In April 1866, he was arrested for the dissemination dangerous ideas and was exiled to Vologda Province in 1867, where he wrote Historical Letters, published in St. Petersburg in 1870, which contained an appeal for critically minded individuals to help people to comprehend their power and start making their own history. In February 1870, he escaped and emigrated, receiving help from G.A. Lopatin. In 1873-76, he published the journal Vpered! in Zurich and London, maintained ties with the Petersburg circle of L.S. Ginzburg and other populist groups. He was one of the ideologists behind the People's Will revolutionary movement. From 1876 until the end of his life, he lived in Paris and wrote for Petersburg journals under different pseudonyms. In the early 1880s he became close to the People's Will (narodnaya Volya) organisation and was one of the editors of the Vestnik Narodnoy Voli (Paris, 1883-86). He was one of the founders of the Old Members of People's Will, formed in 1892. He was the author of works on history of thought, philosophy and sociology, and the history of the People's Will movement in Russia. In 1923-91 Furshtadtskaya Street was called Petra Lavrova Street.

References: Антонов В. Ф. Революционное творчество П. Л. Лаврова. Саратов, 1984; Итенберг Б. С. П. Л. Лавров в русском революционном движении. М.,1988.

A. N. Svalov. Ginzburg Sofia Mikhailovna
Lavrov Peter Lavrovich
Lopatin German Alexandrovich
Furshtatskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city
Антонов В. Ф. Революционное творчество П. Л. Лаврова. Саратов, 1984
Итенберг Б. С. П. Л. Лавров в русском революционном движении. М., 1988 Mikhailovsky Artillery Academy
Literary Fund