13 Facts About Dmitry Pisarev

Dmitry Pisarev is noted as a forerunner of Nietzschean philosophy, and for the impact his advocacy of liberation movements and natural science had on Russian history.

Dmitry Pisarev was arrested for political crimes the year after graduating university and drowned only two years after his release, aged 27.

Dmitry Pisarev's works had a deep influence throughout Russia on revolutionaries such as Lenin, anti-nihilists such as Dostoevsky, and scientists such as the Nobel Prize winner Ivan Pavlov.

Dmitry Pisarev was born in Znamenskoye in the west of the Russian Empire, into a family of the landed aristocracy.

Dmitry Pisarev graduated from a gymnasium in Saint Petersburg in 1856, and in the same year began studying history and philology at Saint Petersburg Imperial University.

Dmitry Pisarev began writing as a literary critic for a women's liberal journal called Rassavet in 1858 while he was still a student.

Dmitry Pisarev was committed to a mental asylum for four months after which he resumed his work and studies.

Dmitry Pisarev was arrested in 1862 for anti-government writings and was imprisoned until 1866.

Dmitry Pisarev was one of the writers who propelled the democratic-revolutionary trend in Russia during the 1860s.

Dmitry Pisarev was noted for his support of Russian natural science, particularly biology, and his works greatly influenced the career choice of the young Ivan Pavlov.

Dmitry Pisarev considered himself a positivist, although his incorporation of imagination and style somewhat contradicted that school of thought.

Dmitry Pisarev did not believe in romantic ideas because they reminded him of the oppressive tsarist government under which he lived.

Dmitry Pisarev wanted, more than anything else, for his readers to learn to think independently.