Fathers and Sons

Turgenev’s most well-known work in which he brought the word “nihilism” to mainstream, Fathers and Sons is a story about the self-proclaimed nihilist Bazarof’s adventures in his youth. At the time, Turgenev was trying to characterize the new movement of nihilism which was gaining popularity in 1860s Russia. Bazarof is a scientific, naturalistic, and in general a very classic German caricature in the field of Russian literature; he espouses a nihilism which “recognizes no authority without examination”. Yet, with most nihilists he is fraught with contradictions, like his incomprehension at falling in love with a certain woman. The title refers to the gap between the older generation’s entrenched beliefs and their conflict with the new generation’s upstart beliefs, and we see this conflict manifest in Bazarof and his friend Arcadi’s relationships with their parents. The work can’t be called philosophical fiction but it’s had a profound impact on philosophy, as much of later existentialism sought to provide a rebuttal against nihilism.

Some spoilers ahead; alongside Bazarof, his friend Arcadi is another central character in the novel and Arcadi’s role is much more nuanced and arguably more important than Bazarof’s. Arcadi starts out as a sycophantic follower of Bazarof, often agreeing and believing in his master’s nihilism without much question. Yet, as the novel progresses, Bazarof’s actions become increasingly more divergent from the beliefs he espouses (to his own frustration) because of his infatuations with Anna Odintsof and later Fenitchka. In contrast, Arcadi meets Katia, a girl that he would later fall in love with, and his personality blooms alongside hers and eventually Arcadi becomes completely independent of Bazarof and his nihilism. From Arcadi’s change, an argument could be made that Arcadi is actually the protagonist, who broke away from the toxic nihilism with the help of his love, and his reserved and relatable nature makes for a figure somewhat like Tolstoy’s Pierre Bezukhov.