He is noted as a forerunner of Nietzschean philosophy,[2] and for the impact his advocacy of liberation movements and natural science had on Russian history.

[3] These new types, as Pisarev termed them, were to be pioneers of what he saw as the most necessary step for human development, namely the reset and destruction of the existing mode of thought.

It is unknown whether his death was accidental or suicide as he had also suffered severe mental health issues throughout his life.

[1] His 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.

He graduated in 1861, the same year as serfdom was abolished and the first major student demonstrations were held in Saint Petersburg, by which time he had thoroughly adopted the nihilist outlook and abandoned his Orthodox Christian faith.

During the summer holidays of 1868 he died as a result of a drowning accident at Dubulti on the Gulf of Riga (in present-day Latvia).

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

And the people most responsible for this are those who boast of their sober views, their "closeness" to the "concrete", the representatives of legal criticism and of illegal "tail-ism".