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influential, though poorly written, novel published in 1863,
What is to be Done? From Tales of New People
, by the Russian socialist intellectual Nikolai Chernyshevskii. 11
The impact of Chernyshevskii’s novel amongst young educated people was comparable to the influence of Rousseau’s novels before the French Revolution; this was not accidental, for Chernyshevskii set out to produce a Russified, socialist version of Rousseau’s
La Nouvelle Héloïse
. 12 Chernyshevskii told the story of a woman, Vera, whose authoritarian parents, like Julie’s, want her to accept a loveless, arranged marriage. Vera is rescued by Lopukhov, a Saint-Preux-like tutor, who lives with her in a chaste quasi-marriage, but she subsequently marries his friend, Kirsanov. After a short period when they live together as a
ménage à trois
, Lopukhov leaves, to return later and live, now married to another, with Vera and Kirsanov in a harmonious joint family.
The novel also presents several Romantic socialist utopias. In one Vera and Lopukhov set up a cooperative workshop and a commune of seam-stresses. In another, Vera dreams of a society of rationally organized, communal labour; men and women live in a huge iron and glass palace full of technological wonders including, prophetically, air-conditioning and light-bulbs, modelled on London’s Crystal Palace which Chernyshevskii had once seen from a distance. His characters work joyously in the fields by day, happy because most of the work is done by machines; and in the evenings they have lavish balls, dressed in Greek robes of ‘the refined Athenian period’. 13
We do not know how seriously Chernyshevskii wanted his readers to take these socialist and revolutionary ideas. 14 The novel was written in an obscure style to evade the censors. Yet
What is to be Done?
, like Rousseau’s writings, had an enormous effect on young men and women because it showed an alternative to their everyday experience of hierarchy, subordination and social division; just as Robespierre thanked Rousseau for revealing his innate dignity to him, so Russian youths praised Chernyshevskii for showing them how to live their lives as ‘new people’ – in equality, standing up to supercilious aristocrats, escaping their controlling families and devoting themselves to the common good. The appeal of the ‘new man’ is shown in the story told of Lopukhov, when he finds himself sharing a St Petersburg pavement with an arrogant dignitary. Rather than giving way to him, he picks him up bodily and, whilst maintaining absolute self-discipline and formal politeness, deposits him in the gutter, cheered on by two passing peasants.
Chernyshevskii, like most Russian socialists of the time, was deeply hostile to Russian nationalism. But his view that the
ancien régime
was an affront to ordinary men and women’s dignity resonated deeply at a time when Russia itself was being humiliated by foreign rivals, just as Rousseau’s ideas had appealed to youths desperate to revive French power. Chernyshevskii was convinced that Russia was weak because its hierarchies made men servile. Everybody had to adopt an obsequious, sycophantic manner, and social solidarity was impossible. These ‘Asiatic values’ (
aziatchina
) had corrupted Russians’ personalities and behaviour. 15
Chernyshevskii, however, departed from Rousseau in insisting that Russia could only escape its humiliation by becoming more modern, and more like the West. He therefore combined a Rousseauian interestin egalitarian utopias with a Marx-like interest in a modern socialism and revolution. For alongside Vera and her fellow ‘new people’,
What is to be Done?
introduced a ‘special person’, committed to focused, purposeful political action – the ascetic revolutionary Rakhmetov.
The novel suggests that Chernyshevskii did not entirely approve of Rakhmetov, but his readers found him an exciting figure. 16 He hails from an ancient aristocratic family, and significantly
What is to be Done? From Tales of New People
, by the Russian socialist intellectual Nikolai Chernyshevskii. 11
The impact of Chernyshevskii’s novel amongst young educated people was comparable to the influence of Rousseau’s novels before the French Revolution; this was not accidental, for Chernyshevskii set out to produce a Russified, socialist version of Rousseau’s
La Nouvelle Héloïse
. 12 Chernyshevskii told the story of a woman, Vera, whose authoritarian parents, like Julie’s, want her to accept a loveless, arranged marriage. Vera is rescued by Lopukhov, a Saint-Preux-like tutor, who lives with her in a chaste quasi-marriage, but she subsequently marries his friend, Kirsanov. After a short period when they live together as a
ménage à trois
, Lopukhov leaves, to return later and live, now married to another, with Vera and Kirsanov in a harmonious joint family.
The novel also presents several Romantic socialist utopias. In one Vera and Lopukhov set up a cooperative workshop and a commune of seam-stresses. In another, Vera dreams of a society of rationally organized, communal labour; men and women live in a huge iron and glass palace full of technological wonders including, prophetically, air-conditioning and light-bulbs, modelled on London’s Crystal Palace which Chernyshevskii had once seen from a distance. His characters work joyously in the fields by day, happy because most of the work is done by machines; and in the evenings they have lavish balls, dressed in Greek robes of ‘the refined Athenian period’. 13
We do not know how seriously Chernyshevskii wanted his readers to take these socialist and revolutionary ideas. 14 The novel was written in an obscure style to evade the censors. Yet
What is to be Done?
, like Rousseau’s writings, had an enormous effect on young men and women because it showed an alternative to their everyday experience of hierarchy, subordination and social division; just as Robespierre thanked Rousseau for revealing his innate dignity to him, so Russian youths praised Chernyshevskii for showing them how to live their lives as ‘new people’ – in equality, standing up to supercilious aristocrats, escaping their controlling families and devoting themselves to the common good. The appeal of the ‘new man’ is shown in the story told of Lopukhov, when he finds himself sharing a St Petersburg pavement with an arrogant dignitary. Rather than giving way to him, he picks him up bodily and, whilst maintaining absolute self-discipline and formal politeness, deposits him in the gutter, cheered on by two passing peasants.
Chernyshevskii, like most Russian socialists of the time, was deeply hostile to Russian nationalism. But his view that the
ancien régime
was an affront to ordinary men and women’s dignity resonated deeply at a time when Russia itself was being humiliated by foreign rivals, just as Rousseau’s ideas had appealed to youths desperate to revive French power. Chernyshevskii was convinced that Russia was weak because its hierarchies made men servile. Everybody had to adopt an obsequious, sycophantic manner, and social solidarity was impossible. These ‘Asiatic values’ (
aziatchina
) had corrupted Russians’ personalities and behaviour. 15
Chernyshevskii, however, departed from Rousseau in insisting that Russia could only escape its humiliation by becoming more modern, and more like the West. He therefore combined a Rousseauian interestin egalitarian utopias with a Marx-like interest in a modern socialism and revolution. For alongside Vera and her fellow ‘new people’,
What is to be Done?
introduced a ‘special person’, committed to focused, purposeful political action – the ascetic revolutionary Rakhmetov.
The novel suggests that Chernyshevskii did not entirely approve of Rakhmetov, but his readers found him an exciting figure. 16 He hails from an ancient aristocratic family, and significantly
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