Speshnev N. A. (1821-1882), revolutionary

Categories / Social Life/Personalia
SPESHNEV Nikolay Alexandrovich (1821-1882, St. Petersburg) was a member of the circle headed by Petrashevsky. In 1836, he entered the Lyceum in Tsarskoe Selo. In 1839, he entered the Faculty of Eastern Languages of St. Petersburg University. In 1842, not completing his studies, he left abroad and joined revolutionary circles. On coming back (1844) he visited Fridays of M.V. Petrashevsky, later he was a member of the circles of S.F. Durov, N.S. Kashkin, N.A. Pleshcheev, and a representative of the radical wing of the circle headed by Petrashevsky. Speshnev was an adherent of violent capture of power with a purpose of doing a socialist reform of the state. In 1849, he was arrested with other members of the circle, sentenced to death punishment which was later replaced with 10 years of exile; he was exiled to Tobolsk, then to Nerchinsky Mines. After the amnesty of 1856 he was left in the settlement, served in Zabaikalskaya Regional Administration, and from 1857 - in Irkutsk Provincial Administration. In 1857-59, Speshnev was an editor of Irkutsk Provincial Reports. In 1859-60, Speshnev participated in the expedition to China and Japan. In 1860 he was restored in his noble title, and soon returned to European Russia. In 1861-62, he was an arbitrator in Pskov Province, where he defended the interests of peasants. In accordance with evidence of his contemporaries, Spechnev was a prototype of Stavrogin in the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky Demons. In the 1840s, he owned a house in St. Petersburg (14 Kirochnaya Street).

References: Сараскина Л. И. Николай Спешнев: Несбывшаяся судьба. М., 2000.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Dostoevsky Fedor Mikhailovich
Durov Sergey Fedorovich
Kashkin Nikolay Sergeevich
Petrashevsky (Butashevich-Petrashevsky) Mikhail Vasilievich
Pleshcheev Alexey Nikolaevich
Speshnev Nikolay Alexandrovich
Kirochnaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 14
Сараскина Л. И. Николай Спешнев: Несбывшаяся судьба. М., 2000 Lyceum
Lyceum
State University, St. Petersburg
Petrashevsky Circle