Bazarov’s intellectual arrogance causes havoc. In particular Kirsanov’s father, the gentle romantic Nikolay Petrovich and his brother, the courtly old-worldly Pavel Petrovich. Their brash opinions bring them into conflict with members of the older generation. These views are shared by Bazarov and his student friend Arkady Kirsanov. Bararov’s stance is epitomised by his statement ‘I don’t see why it’s impossible to express everything that that’s on one’s mind.’ His views reflected the attitude of scepticism and iconoclasm that had grown in the consciousness of Russian youth in the 1860s.Īs Turgenev explains: ‘A nihilist is a man who does not bow down to any authority, who does not take any principle on faith, whatever reverence that principle maybe enshrined in.’ The central character is the radical thinking Bazarov who is a nilhilist, a term coined by Turgenev to identify those whose rebellious beliefs denied the validity of all laws except those of natural sciences. The author explores tensions both between generations, as the title suggests, and between social classes. Both groups sought to bring about social change in the country but from different perspectives. He observed a growing cultural schism between the ‘fathers’, the liberal faction, and the ‘sons’, the nihilists who rejected the old order.
Turgenev wrote the novel as a response to the increasing divide between two generations of Russians. It was also highly respected in the Western world, gaining approval from such literary giants as Gustave Flaubert, Guy de Maupassant and Henry James.įathers and Sons is set during the six-year period of social ferment, from Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War to the Emancipation of the Serfs. His novel Fathers and Sons (1862) is regarded as a masterpiece and the first modern novel in Russian.
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818-1883) was a novelist poet and playwright, and one of the greatest figures of Russian literature.
‘We sit in the mud, my friend, and reach for the stars.’ David Stuart Davies looks at the major work by one of the greatest Russian authors.
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