Lopatin, German Aleksandrovich (1845, Nizhny Novgorod — 1918) was a Russian revolutionary, the first translator of Karl Marx's Capital into Russian, a member of the General Council of the First International, and one of the leaders of the People's Will party. Nizhny Novgorod is his birthplace; he spent his childhood years in Stavropol-Kavkazsky, where his family moved. A memorial plaque in his honor is installed on the building of the Central Regional Library of Nizhny Novgorod.[1]

Origins and Education

Lopatin was born into the family of an official — an actual state councillor and hereditary nobleman, a person close to the Governor of Stavropol.[1] Although German Aleksandrovich himself named Nizhny Novgorod as his place of birth in a writer's questionnaire, the people of Stavropol also consider him a fellow countryman: it was in Stavropol that his childhood and youth passed, and there he graduated from the boys' gymnasium with a gold medal.[2] From 1862 Lopatin was a student in the natural sciences department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Saint Petersburg University; Dmitry Mendeleev recommended him for a continued scientific career.[1]

Revolutionary Activity and Arrests

In 1866 Lopatin was drawn into the case concerning the assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander II (the so-called "Karakozov case"): a letter from Lopatin was found in Karakozov's pocket, although he was not personally acquainted with him. After two months in the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was released for lack of evidence.[3] In 1868 another arrest followed — in connection with a circle organized in Moscow by Volkhovsky for educational work in the villages. Despite the absence of any unlawful aims, Lopatin spent 8 months in the fortress and was exiled to Stavropol-Kavkazsky to serve in the governor's chancellery; there he managed to reorganize the local library and to secure a reform of peasant land tenure in the governorate.[3][4]

At the end of 1869 Lopatin was arrested again — his letter was discovered on a participant in the Nechayev case. Despite his correspondence with Nechayev and Bakunin, he parted ways with them in his views and rejected the tactic of individual terror. Within a few weeks he managed to escape from a military guardhouse.[3] Settling in London, he grew close to Karl Marx and translated into Russian the beginning of the first volume of Capital (Saint Petersburg, 1872); he was elected to the General Council of the First International.[3][2] Lopatin is the only Russian revolutionary to have been granted this membership.[2]

At the end of 1870 he set out for Siberia with the aim of freeing Nikolay Chernyshevsky, was arrested, and was acquitted by a court; then, in the summer of 1872, he escaped in a two-oared boat down the Angara — he covered more than 1,000 versts to Ust-Tunguska, but was caught in Tomsk.[3] In 1873 he escaped again, this time successfully, and made his way abroad.[4] In early 1884 Lopatin returned to Saint Petersburg as a member of the new executive committee of the People's Will; that same year he was arrested for the last time and spent about 20 years in the Shlisselburg Fortress, from which he was released in 1905.[1][2] By his own account, over the course of his life he "sat in prison 27 times in 18 prisons."[1]

Literary work

Lopatin was also active as a writer: he published essays and pamphlet-letters in revolutionary periodicals, including the "Herald of the People's Will" and others. In 1877 a collection titled "From Behind the Bars," made up of works of free Russian poetry with a preface by Lopatin, was published in Geneva.[2] The poems he wrote in the Shlisselburg Fortress were distinguished by civic themes. His artistic gift was acknowledged by Ivan Turgenev, Gleb Uspensky, Leo Tolstoy, and Maxim Gorky.[2] The ideologist of Narodnism Pyotr Lavrov called him "the d'Artagnan of the revolution," adding that "the Nizhny Novgorod land gave to the world" this man.[1]

Nizhny Novgorod connection

Lopatin was born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1845; his family soon moved to Stavropol-Kavkazsky, and the revolutionary's active life was spent far from his birthplace.[1][2] Nevertheless, his memory has been preserved: a memorial plaque is mounted on the building of the Central Regional Library in Nizhny Novgorod, stating that he was born here — "a member of the General Council of the First International, the first translator into Russian of Karl Marx's fundamental work ('Capital')."[1] Stavropol, for its part, erected a monument to him and in 1999 awarded him the title of honorary citizen of the city.[2]

Links

  • Wikidata (Q3761064 — entry in the free knowledge base)
  • VIAF (30602146 — Virtual International Authority File)
  • ISNI (0000000055437884)
  • GND (12891243X — German National Library catalog)

Sources

  1. zem-nn.ru — D'ARTAGNAN OF THE REVOLUTION — Zemlya Nizhegorodskaya
  2. stav-cbs.ru — Honorary Citizens of the City of Stavropol — Index of Personalities — Lopatin, German Aleksandrovich
  3. ru.wikisource.org — ESBE/Lopatin, German Aleksandrovich — Wikisource
  4. tolkslovar.ru — Lopatin, German Aleksandrovich — what is it ... meaning of the word Lopatin, German Aleksandrovich