death_place death_date birth_place birth_date article_title name
minusinsk , russia december 7/december 19 , 1866 saint petersburg , russia november 1/november 13 , 1821 mikhail petrashevsky
 mikhail petrashevsky
mikhail petrashevsky

mikhail vasilyevich butashevich-petrashevsky , commonly known as mikhail petrashevsky -lrb- -rrb- -lrb- -- -rrb- was a russian thinker and public figure .
mikhail petrashevsky graduated from the tsarskoye selo lyceum -lrb- 1839 -rrb- and saint petersburg state university with a degree in law -lrb- 1841 -rrb- .
he was then employed as a translator and interpreter at the ministry of foreign affairs .
petrashevsky is known to have edited and authored most of the theoretical articles for the pocket dictionary of foreign words -lrb- 1846 -rrb- , which popularized democratic and materialist ideas and principles of utopian socialism .
in 1844 , petrashevsky 's apartment became the venue for social gatherings of intellectuals , which from 1845 took place on a weekly basis .
these meetings were later dubbed `` pyatnitsy '' -lrb- fridays -rrb- and those attending them would be known as petrashevtsy .
the latter came to petrashevsky 's house and used his personal library , which contained banned books on materialist philosophy , utopian socialism , and history of revolutionary movements .
among the well-known members of the young intelligentsia who participated in the petroshevsky circle was the writer fyodor dostoevsky .
mikhail petrashevsky considered himself a follower of charles fourier and spoke for democratization of the russian political system and liberation of the peasantry with their lands .
he advocated long preparatory work among the masses for revolutionary struggle .
in late 1848 mikhail petrashevsky took part in meetings aimed at creating a secret society .
in 1849 , mikhail petrashevsky was arrested and sentenced to death .
together with the other petrashevtsy he was taken to the parade ground of the semionovsky regiment in saint petersburg , the usual place for public executions , and tied to the pole .
at the last moment the execution was stopped and it was revealed that his sentence had been commuted to katorga for an unspecified term .
he was sent to eastern siberia to serve his sentence .
in 1856 , petrashevsky 's status was changed to that of an exile settler .
he lived in irkutsk , where he founded a newspaper called `` amur '' in 1860 .
in february 1860 , petrashevsky was banished to the minusinsk district for speaking out against the abuse of power by local officials and he died there six years later .
