Koshelev, Aleksandrivanovich

Born May 9 (21), 1806, in Moscow; died there Nov. 12 (24), 1883. Russian public figure and publicist. Came from the dvorianstvo (nobility or gentry).

Koshelev graduated from Moscow University in 1824. From childhood he was close to the Kireevskii brothers and V. F. Odoevskii. From the early 1830’s he was a landowner-entrepreneur and a tax farmer. In the 1840’s and 1850’s he put forth moderate dvorianstvo plans on the peasant question. Koshelev tried to prove the advantages of freely hired labor over serf labor. In the 1840’s he joined the circle of Slavophiles, and he published and edited their journals Russkaia beseda (Russian Discussion) from 1856 to 1860 and Sel’skoe blagoustroistvo (Rural Planning and Provision of Services) from 1858 to 1859. He participated in the preparation of the 1861 peasant reform as a member of the Riazan’ Province Committee. In such pamphlets as The Constitution, Autocracy, and the Zemstvo Duma (1862) and The General Zemstvo Duma in Russia (1875), he called for the convening of a consultative zemstvo duma (a duma of the autonomous bodies of local administration). In the postreform period he worked in agencies of zemstvo and city government. His Sketches were published posthumously (1884).