Alexander Herzen spent the last month of his life in Paris. He came to the French capital on December 18, 1869, together with his second wife, Natalya Tuchkova-Ogareva, and his daughters, Liza and Tata. In January 1870, Alexander Herzen gave a lecture in a crowded room where he probably caught a cold. Ivan Turgenev, who had come to visit him, found his friend lying ill in bed. The patient was visited by the famous clinician Jean-Martin Charcot who did his best to help the writer.

The doctor diagnosed the writer with an inflammation in his left lung, and the condition turned out to be fatal. Alexander Herzen was worried that the inflammation might spread and suffered from pain in his side and legs which did not subside. Still, he wrote to his son Alexander and assured him that there was no danger. On Sunday, January 16, 1870, Alexander Herzen wrote,

His last written words were a postscript to a letter to his daughter Tata,

Alexander Herzen passed away at half past two in the morning on January 21, 1870 (New Style). In Russia, Christmas was celebrated during those days. Later, Natalya Tuchkova remembered that Alexander Herzen had predicted that he would die from either paralysis or pneumonia.

Several days later, the coffin with Alexander Herzen was carried to the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Three carriages were accompanied by around 40 people. Due to “safety concerns associated with the funeral procession”, the Paris police made the funeral cortege start at 10 am, an hour earlier than planned. The eulogy was delivered by the philosopher Grigory Vyrubov. He said that “one day, compatriots will understand their history better” and that “a monument would be erected with the words ‘To the great citizen and exile Alexander Herzen from grateful Russia’ engraved on it.”