Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883)

 

Introduction to Fathers and Sons (1862)

 

Ivan Turgenev was the son of a retired cavalry officer and a wealthy aristocratic mother. His childhood was spent on an extensive estate in the country, Spasskoye-Lutovinovo. Later in life, Turgenev described his home as ‘an island of gentry civilization in rural Russia’ but also as ‘a symbol of the injustice inherent in serfdom’.

 

Turgenev was educated at universities in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and then he ‘plunged into the German sea’ from 1838-1841 at the University of Berlin. When he returned home, Turgenev had become a firm believer in the need for Russia to follow a course of Westernization.

 

In 1843, the critic Belinsky recognized promise in Turgenev’s first literary efforts. He encouraged the young poet to commit himself to writing in a realist style by describing the world as it is. Belinsky also encouraged the young man to join the intelligentsia in its opposition to the injustices of the Tsar’s regime.

 

That same year Turgenev fell in love with a famous singer, Pauline Viardot, who refused his advances yet remained his lifelong friend. That year Turgenev also fathered an illegitimate daughter with a peasant woman who lived on his parents’ estate. The child was raised by Viardot. This love triangle would be recalled twenty years later in the novel Fathers and Sons.

 

During the 1840’s Turgenev wrote epic poems imitating Byron, plays in imitation of Gogol, and short stories that studied the intellectuals of his generation. The most famous of his early stories was “The Diary of a Superfluous Man” which established a new type in Russian literature: the superfluous man. Isaiah Berlin describes the superfluous man as a

 

“member of the tiny minority of educated and morally sensitive men who is unable to find a place in his native land and, driven in upon himself, is liable to escape either into fantasies or illusions, or into cynicism or despair, ending more often than not in self-destruction and surrender. [The superfluous man] suffers acute shame or furious indignation caused by the misery and degradation of a system in which human beings, serfs, were viewed as baptized property, together with a sense of impotence before the rule of injustice, stupidity and corruption….” (265)

 

Turgenev went abroad to live in Paris in 1847 where he wrote The Hunting Sketches (published in 1852), a cycle of short stories portraying the landowners and peasants he had observed while living on his parents’ estate. Turgenev’s skillful presentation of character evoked compassion for the peasants among his aristocratic readers and gave impetus to the movement pressuring the Tsar to emancipate the serfs. You can compare The Hunting Sketches with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, written at almost the same time, and observe the similar impact upon the debate over slavery.  When Turgenev returned to Russia, he was arrested and confined for 18 months on his parents’ estate in the country.

 

During the 1850’s Turgenev wrote a series of novels which explored a growing rift in the Russian intelligentsia. After the defeat of the Tsar’s armies in the Crimean War (1856), a new generation of activists arose who dismissed the liberal aristocrats of Turgenev’s age as bourgeois, corrupt and weak. These new revolutionaries no longer believed in compromise with the Tsar. They had no faith in a policy of gradual, incremental social change. They were bent upon a radical solution. Even the emancipation of the serfs, which finally took place in 1861, did not satisfy these revolutionaries. They thought that the serfs had merely been fitted with a new set of chains, economic instead of legal. The new activists declared that the whole rotten system had to go; terrorist organizations were formed, and a sharper key informed the political rhetoric of the opposition.

 

Fathers and Sons (1862) was Turgenev’s complicated response to these unsettling developments. On the one hand, he was stunned by the brutality and contempt of the younger generation’s assault on their liberal forbears. He was frightened also by the revolutionaries’ utopian convictions. At the same time he recognized that a new energy had seized the intelligentsia. This youthful movement was confident, clear-eyed, and committed to action. Their ideology was grounded in the firm belief that only the rational methods of natural science could create a more just society. (and that is a Western idea.) The nihilists believed that all abstraction, all dualism, all that could not be established by observation and experiment was useless romantic rubbish: literature, philosophy, art, nature, tradition, authority, religion, intuition, all of it was abstract nonsense. What mattered was reason alone- and having the strength, will-power, and intellectual courage to live a life based solely on useful knowledge. Bazarov, Turgenev’s hero in Fathers and Sons is a nihilist, and this character shook Russia in the second half of the 19th century.

 

Fathers and Sons (1862) by Ivan Turgenev

 

Chapter One, pp. 1-6

 

Remember the first image of the novel: “Russia in 1859”: the father, Kirsanov waits expectantly somewhere in the great Russian hinterland (with an insolent valet dressed in high fashion who sports a ‘supercilious’ attitude) for the arrival of his son, newly graduated from the university in St. Petersburg.

 

How does Turgenev characterize the generation of the ‘grandfathers’ as exemplified by 

Nicholas Petrovich Kirsanov’s parents?

How has Kirsanov’s life fallen well short of his parents’ expectations?

Why does Turgenev choose the year 1847 to end the idyllic phase of Kirsanov’s life?

What has Kirsanov done with his life since the death of his wife?

 

Chapter Two, pp. 7-9

 

            Describe your first impressions of Evgeny Vasilev Bazarov.

 

Chapter Three, pp. 10-16

 

            What problems with the peasants has Kirsanov been experiencing on his estate?

How does Arcady respond to his father’s scandalous admission that Fenichka, his concubine, now openly lives with him in the estate’s great house? Why is Kirsanov not only embarrassed but slightly disappointed by Arcady’s reaction?

Note Turgenev’s allegorical purpose as well: how does this relationship aptly characterize the relations between the upper class and the peasantry in Russia?

How has the estate deteriorated since the time of Catherine the Great? (14) What kind of reforms does Arkady think will be necessary? What have the peasants named this farm?

What symbolic comment does Turgenev make as the acrid smoke of Bazarov’s cheap cigar fills the carriage?

 

Chapter Four, pp. 17-21

 

How does Turgenev characterize Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov?

Why doesn’t he offer his beautiful hand with its perfectly manicured fingernails to Bazarov? How does the servant carry Bazarov’s coat?

How does Arcady behave at the dinner table? Is he ready to assume responsibility for the farm?

How does Bazarov judge the Kirsanov brothers?

 

Chapter Five, pp. 22- 29

 

What is implied by Bazarov’s observation that humans are no different from frogs? Why do the peasants instinctively respect Bazarov even though he is rude to them? (22-23)

How is Acady’s broadminded magnanimity about Fenechka condescending to his father? What response would have been preferable to Nikolai? What is Turgenev’s political point? (24-25)

What is a nihilist? What philosophical beliefs does a nihilist espouse? How does Bazarov’s intellectual practice differ from the liberal practices of the Kirsanov brothers? (26-27)

How does the appearance of Fenechka at this moment fit into Turgenev’s purpose?

 

Chapter Six, pp. 30-33

 

Why does a nihilist have no interest in poetry? Which poets do the fathers admire? Who would Bazarov claim as his intellectual forbears? How would he approach the challenges facing Russia?

Why does Bazarov hold people like Pavel Petrovich in such contempt?

 

Chapter Seven, pp. 34-40

 

How is the sad life story of Pavel Petrovich emblematic of his whole generation’s story?

Unpack Turgenev’s political point about the class of liberal aristocratic reformers who flourished during the early years of Nicholas I’s reign as Tsar. When did Pavel Petrovich’s life effectively end?

Despite his liberal principles, what does Pavel Petrovich think of the serfs?

Why does Bazarov consider men who live for love pathetic? (40)

How influential is the shaping force of history in Bazarov’s philosophy of life? To what extent, according to Bazarov, can people shape their own destinies? What obstacles prevent us from assuming control of our lives?

 

Chapter Eight, pp. 41-48

 

Look around Fenechka’s room with Pavel Petrovich. Why has he waited until this moment to finally visit and met his nephew for the first time? How do the contents of this room suggest a possible future for Fenechka’s son Mitya and for Russia?

Describe how Nikolai and Fenechka came to be together. Is there a natural way that these two representatives of Russian society to overcome their shame and live together happily?

Unpack Turgenev’s political point.

 

Chapter Nine, pp. 49- 52

 

What is Bazarov’s first reaction to the discovery of Nikolai’s scandalous secret? How does Mitya behave when Bazarov takes him and examines his teeth? Turgenev’s point?

How accurate is Bazarov’s assessment of the Kirsanov estate?

Explain the significance of Bazarov’s comment: “What’s important is that twice two is four and all the rest’s nonsense.” (51)

 

Chapter Ten, pp. 53- 66

 

What is Turgenev’s impression of Bazarov’s taste in reading?

Would he agree with Nikolai and defend Pushkin?

 

How does Pavel Petrovich use liberal ideology to defend the existence of a class system? (57-58)

How does Bazarov rebut Pavel Petrovich’s argument that the aristocracy serves society by providing examples of self-respect and dedication to duty?

With what would Bazarov replace “Aristocratism, liberalism, progress and principles… (59) ?

With whom would the Russian people agree, Pavel Petrovich or Bazarov? Who is closer to the Russian people?

Look carefully at Bazarov’s harsh critique of liberal reform (62) and at Pavel Petrovich’s ridicule of the belief in force as a method of social change (63). Can both critiques be accurate?

Perhaps Nikolai Petrovich’s comment is true: these two arguments cannot be resolved because they are based on conflicting attitudes between two different generations.

 

Chapter 11, pp. 67- 71

 

What is Turgenev’s response to the unresolved debate of the previous chapter? How does he show us his answer in his depiction of Nikolai’s melancholy thoughts as he tours the estate and responds to the beauty of the evening?

 

 

Chapter 12, pp. 72- 77

 

Matthew Ilich Kolyazin, the government inspector sent to the town which Arkady and Bazarov visit, is the son of the Kolyazin who had been the guardian of Nikolai and Petrov during their youthful days in St. Petersburg. (see p.4) (Their ‘battleaxe’ of a mother had also been a Kolyazin.) How does this deliberate genealogical connection fit Turgenev’s purpose in the novel?

What makes Kolyazin typical of the generation of ‘liberal’ fathers who came of age in the years after the Decembrist revolt in 1825? What are his great accomplishments? Turgenev’s point?

 

Leaving their audience with the distracted town governor, Arkady and Bazarov encounter another of Bazarov’s disciples, the foppish ‘SlovophileSitnikov. (He carries a French business card and loves champagne.) What does Sitnikov’s father do for a living? Turgenev’s point?

 

Chapter 13, pp. 78-84

 

How does Avdotya Nikitishna Kukshina represent another example of Turgenev’s opinion of the fashionable liberal aristocrats of Russian society? Who has she been reading recently? What has she invented?

How does this devastating attack on the supposedly emancipated westernizing reformers of Russian culture square with Turgenev’s own liberalism?

What does Bazarov think of these left leaning aristocrats? Might they become his allies?

 

Chapter 14, pp. 85-90

 

Contrast Arkady and Bazarov’s reactions to meeting Anna Sergeevna Odintsova, the province’s great beauty, at the governor’s ball.

 

Chapter 15, pp. 91-95

 

What is Bazarov’s attitude towards women and love? How are these radical ideas immediately tested by his encounter with Odintsova? How does her life story demonstrate strength of character?

 

Chapter 16, pp. 96-107

 

What sort of westernizing influence do the décor and architecture of Nikolskoe, Odintsova’s manor, suggest.

Consider Turgenev’s method in this chapter. Here Bazarov, the nihilist, truly meets his match. Notice Turgenev’s charming characterization of Odintsova’s unpretentious, yet decidedly upper class home and family. How does this characterization challenge Bazarov’s radically materialist ideas about human nature?

If Bazarov were describing this scene, how would he word it?

 

Look at Turgenev’s description of Odintsova (p. 105). What does she want from life? How has she grown past the romantic and idealistic expectations of youth? Explain why she prizes ‘tidiness’ in everything.

What about Bazarov interests her?

 

Chapter 17, pp. 108-119

 

Contrast the developing relationship between Arkady and Katya with that of Bazarov and Odintsova.

What is Turgenev’s point?

Look carefully at Turgenev’s depiction of Bazarov struggle with love (pp. 110-111). How does ‘love’ contradict Bazarov’s radical materialist philosophy? In Turgenev’s understanding of human nature, love challenges the individual to surrender control and open the self to metamorphosis into a new form. Why does Bazarov resist this experience so strongly?

Look carefully at the way Turgenev dramatizes the ‘love scene’ between Bazarov and Odintsova (pp. 113-119). Notice the marvelous natural touches (Bazarov opening and closing windows). What is unspoken in this dialogue? Why do they fail to connect?

 

 

Chapter 18, pp. 120-125

 

What kind of professional career does Odintsova hope Bazarov will pursue?

What is humiliating for Bazarov about his declaration of love?

Why does Odintsova reject him? Does she love him?

 

This is a very strange love scene! What conventions of the typical romantic novel is Turgenev

deliberately flouting?

 

Chapter 19, pp. 126-134

 

Will Bazarov be able to regain his previous rigorous objectivity after his experience with Odintsova?

 

 How will Bazarov’s reunion with his parents continue Turgenev’s critique of nihilism?

 

 

Chapter 20 (135-146)

 

Describe Bazarov’s reunion with his parents. How does Turgenev’s characterization of Vasily Ivanovich and Anna Vlasneva contribute to his overall purpose, judging the pros and cons of  Bazarov’s radical political and  philosophical stance.

 

Describe Vasily Ivanovich’s estate. What problems similar to those at Marino has he been experiencing as the landowners adjust to the coming liberation of the serfs.

 

 

Chapter 21 (147-165)

 

Why does Vasily Ivanovich work his own garden? Despite his rationalist discipline, how does Vasily Ivanovich respond to the Arkady’s praise of his son?

 

            Carefully read the episode when Arkady and Bazarov are relaxing at mid-day by the haystack.

What do they argue about? How are Bazarov’s points shaped by his feelings?

Does he realize how subjective his argument really is?

 

How do Bazarov’s parents respond to the news that their son has abruptly decided to leave? Not Turgenev’s loving presentation of the couple as they cope with their grief. (164-65)

 

Chapter 22 (166-172)

 

            What is the point of Arkady and Bazarov’s flying visit to Nikolskoe?

What has happened to the farm at Marino in their absence? Why is Nikolai experiencing such difficulty getting his farm into efficient working order?

To whom is Arkady running when he impulsively escapes one afternoon?

 

Chapter 23 (173-180)

 

What does Bazarov commit all his time to accomplishing?

Describe the kiss that Bazarov and Fenechka exchange. Who overhears their conversation  and witnesses the illicit kiss?

What is Turgenev’s political purpose in including this romantic story line in his story?

 

Chapter 24 (181-199)

 

What is Bazarov’s response when he is challenged to the duel?

How does Turgenev characterize the formal fight?

Does he intend to cast Bazarov’s actions as heroic?