What Are The Most Alienating Moments In Herzen's Life?

The most Alienating moments in Herzen’s life came after his time at university. His contact with authority and those responsible for law and order was nothing more then a display of human caprice, fear, and arbitrary desires to use control. Herzen’s outlandish conviction for the events that transpired at a dinner party he did not attend was enough to firmly alienate him from all forms of Russian structure. Herzen failed to comply with the aristocratic belief system around him. He neither devotedly served the tsar militarily or sought the destruction of those opposed to the system. But how could he? From his perspective, the state behaved abominably continually regardless of his behavior. Herzen was allowed to return to Moscow after eight years
of exile. He was soon after that exiled again for repeating a rumor that embarrassed the tsar. From Herzen’s perspective, every action of the state justified his refusal to be a part of it. It used power and class to arbitrarily ruin people. He recounts many such stories: a young poet was exiled for one of his poem in the most cruel show of power behind closed doors by the tsar. An architect was utterly ruined by the malicious character assaults of the aristocrats around him. Herzen’s contact with men who shared a similar if not worse fait only further solidified his desire to be alienated from the Russian aristocracy and the state.