History of creation
Chernyshevsky himself called these people a type that “has recently been born and is quickly breeding,” is a product and a sign of the times.
These heroes are characterized by a special revolutionary morality, which is based on the Enlightenment theory of the 18th century, the so-called “theory of reasonable egoism.” This theory is that a person can be happy if his personal interests coincide with public ones.
Vera Pavlovna is the main character of the novel. Her prototypes are Chernyshevsky’s wife Olga Sokratovna and Marya Aleksandrovna Bokova-Sechenova, who fictitiously married her teacher and then became the wife of the physiologist Sechenov.
Vera Pavlovna managed to escape from the circumstances that surrounded her since childhood. Her character was tempered in a family where her father was indifferent to her, and for her mother she was simply a profitable commodity.
Vera is as enterprising as her mother, thanks to which she manages to create sewing workshops that give good profit. Vera Pavlovna is smart and educated, balanced and kind to both her husband and girls. She is not a prude, not hypocritical and smart. Chernyshevsky admires Vera Pavlovna’s desire to break outdated moral principles.
Chernyshevsky emphasizes the similarities between Lopukhov and Kirsanov. Both are doctors, engaged in science, both from poor families and achieved everything through hard work. For the sake of helping an unfamiliar girl, Lopukhov gives up his scientific career. He is more rational than Kirsanov. This is also evidenced by the idea of imaginary suicide. But Kirsanov is capable of any sacrifice for the sake of friendship and love, avoids communication with his friend and lover in order to forget her. Kirsanov is more sensitive and charismatic. Rakhmetov believes him, embarking on the path of improvement.
But main character novel (not in plot, but in idea) - not just “ new person", But " special person"revolutionary Rakhmetov. He generally renounces egoism as such, and happiness for himself. A revolutionary must sacrifice himself, give his life for those he loves, live like the rest of the people.
He is an aristocrat by birth, but has broken with the past. Rakhmetov earned money as a simple carpenter, a barge hauler. He had the nickname “Nikitushka Lomov”, like a hero-barge hauler. Rakhmetov invested all his funds in the cause of the revolution. He led the most ascetic lifestyle. If new people are called Chernyshevsky the salt of the earth, then revolutionaries like Rakhmetov are the “color the best people, engine engines, salt of the earth.” The image of Rakhmetov is shrouded in an aura of mystery and understatement, since Chernyshevsky could not say everything directly.
Rakhmetov had several prototypes. One of them is the landowner Bakhmetev, who in London transferred almost all of his fortune to Herzen for the cause of Russian propaganda. The image of Rakhmetov is collective.
Rakhmetov's image is far from ideal. Chernyshevsky warns readers against admiring such heroes, because their service is unrequited.
Stylistic features
Chernyshevsky widely uses two means artistic expression- allegory and omission. Vera Pavlovna's dreams are full of allegories. The dark basement in the first dream is an allegory of women’s lack of freedom. Lopukhov's bride is great love to people, real and fantastic dirt from the second dream - the circumstances in which the poor and the rich live. The huge glass house in the last dream is an allegory of a communist happy future, which, according to Chernyshevsky, will definitely come and give joy to everyone without exception. The silence is due to censorship restrictions. But some mystery of the images or plot lines in no way spoils the pleasure of reading: “I know more about Rakhmetov than I say.” The meaning of the ending of the novel, which is interpreted differently, remains vague, the image of a lady in mourning. All the songs and toasts of a cheerful picnic are allegorical.
In the last tiny chapter, “Change of Scenery,” the lady is no longer in mourning, but in elegant clothes. In a young man of about 30, one can discern the released Rakhmetov. This chapter depicts the future, albeit a short one.
MY OPINION Chernyshevsky In the novel “What But most importantly People AND WITH Heroes But anyway To Personal Chernyshevsky Read
ABOUT THE NOVEL N.G. CHERNYSHEVSKY “WHAT TO DO?”
was a real fighter for the happiness of the people. He
believed in a revolution, after which I could
change people's lives for the better. And exactly
this faith in the bright future of the people
permeated his work.
do?" Chernyshevsky showed destruction
the old world and the emergence of the new, depicted
new people fighting for the happiness of the people.
- this is what Chernyshevsky depicted in
in his novel, the society of the future and managed
show food as if it was somewhere before
I saw this society. It is shown in the novel in
Vera Pavlovna's fourth dream.
future, Chernyshevsky predicts,
remaking nature with the help of machines. They
force nature to serve itself, and labor for
them ceases to be heavy. He turns
into natural need and pleasure
for a person.
people in the novel develop differently from people
contemporary to Chernyshev's time, where
the situation of the people is terrible, education
inaccessible to most of the people and where
a person, especially a woman, doesn't care about anything
is placed.
foresaw with amazing insight
Chernyshevsky and the society of the future
will free a woman from domestic slavery and
will solve important problems in ensuring
the elderly and the education of the younger generation.
The society of the future has a lot in common,
described by Chernyshevsky, and our
reality.
novels - creators of new relationships between
people. These people know what they need to do
and know how to carry out their plans, they have
thought is inseparable from action. Images
positive heroes of the novel “What is to be done?”
Chernyshevsky tried to answer
burning question of the 60s
centuries in
Russia: what to do in order to
liberate the country from the state-serfdom
oppression? A revolution was needed.
another dream unfulfilled
Chernyshevsky. The boundaries between
states, and many people live and
It's very difficult now. Still on Earth
there is exploitation. But I want to believe
that all this will disappear in the near future.
to start a revolution, we needed people who
would be headed by such proven
leaders like Rakhmetov, one of the heroes
books.
aspirations and passions, Chernyshevsky believes,
do not interfere with benefiting society
to ordinary revolutionaries: people like Vera
Pavlovna, Lopukhov, Kirsanov, who are not
claim to be revolutionary leaders. A
Rakhmetov is one of them, but also something more.
The author says: “The mass of good and
honest people, and there are few such people... this
engine engines are the salt of the earth...”
hints make it clear that Rakhmetov -
special person, leader, busy
preparation of the revolution. The author tells
about the actions of the hero that characterize
him as an organizer of the fight against the reactionary
social order and serve as a means
propaganda of revolutionary ideas. Rakhmetov
constantly connected with people, especially with
youth. I like Rakhmetov. He
has qualities that are not
enough for Bazarov. I admire his tenacity, will, endurance, skill
subordinate your life to your chosen ideal,
courage, strength. I want at least a little
to be like Rakhmetov.
I liked the book. Roman N.G.
Chernyshevsky - light, inexhaustible
a source that, as in a fairy tale, gives water to the “living
water to all who touch it.” He
brings us pleasure, brings up good
feelings, teaches you to love and understand life. I
I think that this novel is closely related to our
days. Chernyshevsky opens the door for us to
bright future, gradually revealing the idea
novel, answering the question: “What to do?”
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky
What to do?
From stories about new people
FROM THE EDITOR
Novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?” was written within the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress in December 1862-April 1863. Soon published in Sovremennik, it played a colossal, incomparable role not only in fiction, but also in the history of Russian socio-political struggle. It is not for nothing that thirty-eight years later V.I. Lenin also entitled his work dedicated to the foundations of the new ideology.
Printed in a hurry, with a constant eye on censorship, which could prohibit the publication of subsequent chapters, the journal text contained a number of negligence, typos and other defects - some of them remained uncorrected to this day.
The 1863 issues of Sovremennik, which contained the text of the novel, were strictly confiscated, and for more than forty years the Russian reader was forced to use either five foreign reprints (1867-1898) or illegal handwritten copies.
Only the revolution of 1905 lifted the censorship ban on the novel, which rightfully received the name “textbook of life.” Until 1917, four editions were published, prepared by the writer’s son, M. N. Chernyshevsky.
After the Great October Revolution socialist revolution and until 1975, the novel was republished in Russian at least 65 times, with a total circulation of more than six million copies.
In 1929, the Politkatorzhan publishing house published a draft, half-encrypted text of the novel, recently discovered in the royal archives; his reading is the result of the heroic work of N. A. Alekseev (1873-1972). ([Obituary]. - Pravda, 1972, May 18, p. 2.) However, from the point of view of the requirements of modern textual criticism, this publication cannot in any way satisfy us today. Suffice it to say that it does not reproduce the options and crossed out places. There are also many inaccuracies in the publication “What is to be done?” as part of a 16-volume " Full meeting works" of Chernyshevsky (vol. XI, 1939. Goslitizdat, prepared by N. A. Alekseev and A. P. Skaftymov): in comparison with him, this book has more than a hundred corrections.
Strange as it may seem, a scientific publication of the novel has not yet been carried out. Its text has never been fully commented on: some parts, understandable to contemporaries, but dark for us, remained undisclosed or incorrectly interpreted.
This edition for the first time provides a scientifically verified text of the novel and fully reproduces the draft autograph. In addition, a note from Chernyshevsky to A. N. Pypin and N. A. Nekrasov is printed, which is important for understanding the concept of the novel and remained misunderstood for a long time. The appendix contains articles on the problems of studying the novel and notes necessary for its correct understanding.
Sincere gratitude to the granddaughter of the great revolutionary and writer, N. M. Chernyshevskaya for a number of advice and constant friendly assistance and M. I. Perper for important textual guidance.
The main text of the novel, a note for A. N. Pypin and N. A. Nekrasov, the article “Problems of studying the novel “What is to be done?”” and notes were prepared by S. A. Reiser; article “Chernyshevsky the Artist” - G. E. Tamarchenko; draft text - T. I. Ornatskaya; bibliography of translations into foreign languages- B. L. Kandel. The general editing of the publication was carried out by S. A. Reiser.
"What to do?"
From stories about new people
(Dedicated to my friend O.S.Ch.)
On the morning of July 11, 1856, the servants of one of the large St. Petersburg hotels near the Moscow station railway I was perplexed, and partly even alarmed. The day before, at 9 o'clock in the evening, a gentleman arrived with a suitcase, took a room, gave him his passport for registration, asked for tea and a cutlet, said that he should not be disturbed in the evening, because he was tired and wanted to sleep, but that tomorrow they would definitely unwind him at 8 o'clock, because he had urgent business, he locked the door of the room and, making noise with a knife and fork, making noise with the tea set, soon became quiet - apparently, he fell asleep. The morning has come; at 8 o'clock the servant knocked on the door of yesterday's visitor - the visitor did not give a voice; the servant knocked harder, very hard, but the newcomer still did not answer. Apparently, he was very tired. The servant waited a quarter of an hour, started to wake him up again, but again he didn’t wake him up. He began to consult with other servants, with the barman. “Did something happen to him?” - “We need to break down the doors.” - “No, that’s not good: you have to break down the door with the police.” We decided to try to wake him up again, harder; If he doesn’t wake up here, send for the police. We made the last test; didn’t get it; They sent for the police and are now waiting to see what they see with them.
Around 10 o'clock in the morning a police official came, knocked himself, ordered the servants to knock - the success was the same as before. "There's nothing to do, break down the door, guys."
The door was broken down. The room is empty. “Look under the bed” - and there is no passer-by under the bed. The police official approached the table; there was a sheet of paper on the table, and on it was written in large letters:
“I’m leaving at 11 o’clock in the evening and will not return. They will hear me on the Liteiny Bridge, between 2 and 3 o’clock in the morning. Do not be suspicious of anyone.”
So here it is, the thing is now clear, otherwise they couldn’t figure it out,” said the police official.
What is it, Ivan Afanasyevich? - asked the barman.
Let's have some tea and I'll tell you.
The story of the police official was for a long time the subject of animated retellings and discussions in the hotel. This is what the story was like.
At half past 3 o'clock in the morning - and the night was cloudy, dark - in the middle Liteyny Bridge The fire flashed and a pistol shot was heard. The guards rushed to the shot, a few passers-by came running - there was no one and nothing at the place where the shot was heard. This means he didn’t shoot, but shot himself. There were hunters to dive, after a while they brought in hooks, they even brought some kind of fishing net, they dived, groped, caught, caught fifty large chips, but the bodies were not found or caught. And how to find it? - the night is dark. In these two hours it’s already at the seaside - go and look there. Therefore, progressives arose who rejected the previous assumption: “Or maybe there was no body? Maybe a drunk, or just a mischievous person, was fooling around, shot, and ran away, or else, perhaps, he’s standing right there in the bustling crowd, yes.” he laughs at the trouble he has caused.”
But the majority, as always when reasoning prudently, turned out to be conservative and defended the old: “he was fooling around - he put a bullet in his forehead, and that’s all.” The progressives were defeated. But the winning party, as always, split up immediately after the fight. Shot himself, yes; but why? “Drunk,” was the opinion of some conservatives; “squandered,” other conservatives argued. “Just a fool,” someone said. Everyone agreed on this “just a fool,” even those who denied that he shot himself. Indeed, whether he was drunk, or wasted, shot himself, or was a mischievous person, he didn’t shoot himself at all, but just threw something away - it doesn’t matter, it’s a stupid, stupid thing.
This was the end of the matter on the bridge at night. In the morning, in a hotel near the Moscow railway, it was discovered that the fool was not fooling around, but had shot himself. But as a result of history, there remained an element with which the vanquished agreed, namely, that even if he did not fool around and shot himself, he was still a fool. This result, satisfactory for everyone, was especially lasting precisely because the conservatives triumphed: in fact, if only he had fooled around with a shot on the bridge, then, in essence, it was still doubtful whether he was a fool or just a mischief-maker. But he shot himself on the bridge - who shoots himself on the bridge? how is it on the bridge? why on the bridge? stupid on the bridge! and therefore, undoubtedly, a fool.
Again some doubts arose: he shot himself on the bridge; They don’t shoot on the bridge, so he didn’t shoot himself. “But in the evening, the hotel servants were called to the unit to look at the bullet-ridden cap that had been pulled out of the water - everyone recognized that the cap was the same one that was on the road. So, he undoubtedly shot himself, and the spirit of denial and progress was completely defeated.
"What to do?"- a novel by a Russian philosopher, journalist and literary critic Nikolai Chernyshevsky, written in December 1862 - April 1863, during his imprisonment in the Peter and Paul Fortress of St. Petersburg. The novel was written partly in response to Ivan Turgenev's novel Fathers and Sons.
History of creation and publication
Chernyshevsky wrote the novel while in solitary confinement in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, from December 14, 1862 to April 4, 1863. Since January 1863, the manuscript has been transferred in parts to the investigative commission in the Chernyshevsky case (the last part was transferred on April 6). The commission, and after it the censors, saw in the novel only love line and gave permission to publish. The censorship oversight was soon noticed, and the responsible censor, Beketov, was removed from office. However, the novel had already been published in the Sovremennik magazine (1863, No. 3-5). Despite the fact that the issues of Sovremennik, in which the novel “What is to be done?” were published, were banned, the text of the novel in handwritten copies was distributed throughout the country and caused a lot of imitations.
“They talked about Chernyshevsky’s novel not in a whisper, not in a low voice, but at the top of their lungs in the halls, on the porches, at Madame Milbret’s table and in the basement pub of the Stenbokov Passage. They shouted: “disgusting,” “charming,” “abomination,” etc. - all in different tones.”
P. A. Kropotkin:
“For Russian youth of that time, it [the book “What is to be done?”] was a kind of revelation and turned into a program, became a kind of banner.”
In 1867 the novel was published a separate book in Geneva (in Russian) by Russian emigrants, then it was translated into Polish, Serbian, Hungarian, French, English, German, Italian, Swedish, Dutch.
Ban on publication of the novel “What is to be done?” was only removed in 1905. In 1906, the novel was first published in Russia as a separate edition.
Plot
The central character of the novel is Vera Pavlovna Rozalskaya. To avoid marriage imposed by a selfish mother, the girl enters into a fictitious marriage with medical student Dmitry Lopukhov (teacher of Fedya’s younger brother). Marriage allows her to leave her parents' home and manage her own life. Vera studies, tries to find her place in life, and finally opens a sewing workshop of a “new type” - this is a commune where there are no hired workers and owners, and all the girls are equally interested in the well-being of the joint enterprise.
The family life of the Lopukhovs is also unusual for its time; its main principles are mutual respect, equality and personal freedom. Gradually, a real feeling based on trust and affection arises between Vera and Dmitry. However, it happens that Vera Pavlovna falls in love with best friend her husband, doctor Alexander Kirsanov, with whom she has much more in common than with her husband. This love is mutual. Vera and Kirsanov begin to avoid each other, hoping to hide their feelings, primarily from each other. However, Lopukhov guesses everything and forces them to confess.
To give his wife freedom, Lopukhov stages suicide (the novel begins with an episode of an imaginary suicide), and he himself leaves for America to study industrial production in practice. After some time, Lopukhov, under the name of Charles Beaumont, returns to Russia. He is an agent of an English company and arrived on its behalf to purchase a stearin plant from the industrialist Polozov. Delving into the affairs of the plant, Lopukhov visits Polozov’s house, where he meets his daughter Ekaterina. The young people fall in love with each other and soon get married, after which Lopukhov-Beaumont announces his return to the Kirsanovs. A close friendship develops between the families, they settle in the same house and a society of “new people” - those who want to arrange their own and social lives “in a new way” - expands around them.
One of the most significant heroes The novel is the revolutionary Rakhmetov, a friend of Kirsanov and Lopukhov, whom they once introduced to the teachings of the utopian socialists. A short digression is devoted to Rakhmetov in Chapter 29 (“A Special Person”). This is a supporting character, only occasionally connected with the main character. storyline novel (brings to Vera Pavlovna a letter from Dmitry Lopukhov explaining the circumstances of his imaginary suicide). However, in the ideological outline of the novel, Rakhmetov plays a special role. What it consists of, Chernyshevsky explains in detail in Part XXXI of Chapter 3 (“Conversation with an insightful reader and his expulsion”):
Artistic originality
“The novel “What is to be done?” completely plowed me deeply. This is something that gives you a charge for life.” (Lenin)The emphatically entertaining, adventurous, melodramatic beginning of the novel was supposed to not only confuse the censors, but also attract a wide mass of readers. The external plot of the novel is love story, however, it reflects new economic, philosophical and social ideas of the time. The novel is permeated with hints of the coming revolution.
L. Yu. Brik recalled Mayakovsky: “One of the books closest to him was “What is to be done?” by Chernyshevsky. He kept coming back to her. The life described in it echoed ours. Mayakovsky seemed to consult with Chernyshevsky about his personal affairs and found support in him. “What should I do?” was last book, which he read before his death."
- In the novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?” aluminum is mentioned. In the “naive utopia” of Vera Pavlovna’s fourth dream, it is called the metal of the future. And this great future By now (mid XX - XXI centuries) aluminum has already reached.
- The “lady in mourning” who appears at the end of the work is Olga Sokratovna Chernyshevskaya, the writer’s wife. At the end of the novel we are talking about the liberation of Chernyshevsky from the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was while writing the novel. He never received his release: on February 7, 1864, he was sentenced to 14 years of hard labor followed by settlement in Siberia.
- The main characters with the surname Kirsanov are also found in Ivan Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons”.
Film adaptations
- "What to do? "- three-part television play (directors: Nadezhda Marusalova, Pavel Reznikov), 1971.
Composition
Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky was born into the family of a priest, but in his youth he freed himself from religious ideas, becoming a leading thinker of his time. Chernyshevsky was a utopian socialist. He developed a coherent system of social liberation in Russia. Behind revolutionary activity, journalistic articles, work in the Sovremennik magazine, Chernyshevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. In such unusual conditions, in 1862, the novel “What is to be done?” was written.
The novel was published by Nekrasov in Sovremennik, after which the magazine was closed and the novel was banned. The work was published a second time only after the first Russian revolution. Meanwhile, the popularity of the “objectionable novel” was enormous. He caused a storm, became the center around which passions boiled. It’s hard for us to imagine, but the novel was copied by hand and distributed in lists. The power of his power over the minds of his young contemporaries knew no bounds. One of the professors at St. Petersburg University wrote: “During the sixteen years of my stay at the university, I never met a student who had not read the famous essay back in the gymnasium.”
The novel “What to do?” written for young reader, on someone who is faced with the problem of choosing a path. The entire content of the book was supposed to indicate to a person entering life how to build his future. Chernyshevsky creates a novel that was called a “textbook of life.” The heroes of the work had to teach them to act correctly and conscientiously. It is no coincidence that Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna are called “new people” by the writer himself, and the author speaks of Rakhmetov as a “special person.” Let's remember Chatsky, Onegin, Pechorin... They are romantics, dreamers - people without goals. All these heroes are not perfect. They have traits that are difficult for us to accept. Chernyshevsky's heroes rarely doubt; they firmly know what they want in life. They work, they are not familiar with idleness and boredom. They do not depend on anyone, because they live by their own labor. Lopukhov and Kirsanov are busy with medicine. Vera Pavlovna opens her workshop. This is a special workshop. Everyone is equal in it. Vera Pavlovna is the owner of the workshop, but all income is distributed among the girls working in it.
“New people” do not confine themselves only to their own business. They have many other interests. They love the theater, read a lot, and travel. These are comprehensively developed individuals.
They also solve their family problems in a new way. The situation that has developed in the Lopukhov family is very traditional. Vera Pavlovna fell in love with Kirsanov. Anna Karenina, having fallen in love with Vronsky, finds herself in a hopeless situation. Tatyana Larina, continuing to love Onegin, decides her fate unambiguously: “... I was given to another; I will be faithful to him forever.” Chernyshevsky's heroes resolve this conflict in a new way. Lopukhov “leaves the stage”, freeing Vera Pavlovna. At the same time, he does not consider that he is sacrificing himself, because he acts according to the theory of “reasonable egoism,” popular among the “new people.” Lopukhov gives himself joy by doing good to people close to him. Mutual understanding and respect reign in the new Kirsanov family. Let us remember the unfortunate Katerina, Ostrovsky’s heroine. The boar's wife forces her daughter-in-law to follow the rule: “let the wife fear her husband.” Vera Pavlovna is not only not afraid of anyone, but independent choice is possible for her life path. She is an emancipated woman, free from conventions and prejudices. She is given equal rights in labor and family life.
New family in the novel it is contrasted with the environment of “vulgar people” in which the heroine grew up and from which she left. Suspicion and money-grubbing reign here. Vera Pavlovna's mother is a family despot.
Rakhmetov is also close to the “new people”. This is a man preparing himself for a decisive struggle, for a revolution. It combines features people's hero and a highly educated person. He sacrifices everything for the sake of his goal.
These people dream of common joy and prosperity coming to Earth. Yes, they are utopians; in life it is not always so easy to follow the proposed ideals. But it seems to me that man has always dreamed and will dream of a wonderful society where only good, kind and honest people. Rakhmetov, Lopukhov and Kirsanov were ready to give their lives for this.
The morality of the new people is revolutionary in its depth, inner essence, it completely denies and destroys the officially recognized morality on the foundations of which Chernyshevsky’s contemporary society rests - the morality of sacrifice and duty. Lopukhov says that “the victim is soft-boiled boots.” All actions, all deeds of a person are only truly viable when they are performed not under compulsion, but according to internal attraction, when they are consistent with desires and beliefs. Everything that is done in society under duress, under the pressure of duty, ultimately turns out to be inferior and stillborn. Such, for example, is the noble reform “from above” - the “sacrifice” brought by the upper class to the people.
The morality of new people is liberated creative possibilities human personality, joyfully realizing the true needs of human nature, based, according to Chernyshevsky, on the “instinct of social solidarity.” In accordance with this instinct, Lopukhov enjoys doing science, and Vera Pavlovna enjoys working with people and running sewing workshops on reasonable and fair socialist principles.
New people and fatal love problems for humanity are solving in a new way family relations. Chernyshevsky is convinced that the main source of intimate dramas is inequality between men and women, a woman’s dependence on a man. Emancipation, Chernyshevsky hopes, will significantly change the very nature of love. A woman’s excessive concentration on love feelings will disappear. Her participation on an equal basis with a man in public affairs will remove the drama in love relationships, and at the same time it will destroy the feeling of jealousy as purely selfish in nature.
New people resolve the most dramatic conflict in human relationships differently, less painfully love triangle. Pushkin’s “how God grant your beloved one to be different” becomes for them not an exception, but an everyday norm of life. Lopukhov, having learned about Vera Pavlovna’s love for Kirsanov, voluntarily gives way to his friend, leaving the stage. Moreover, on Lopukhov’s part this is not a sacrifice - but “the most profitable benefit.” Ultimately, having made a “calculation of benefits,” he experiences a joyful feeling of satisfaction from an act that brings happiness not only to Kirsanov and Vera Pavlovna, but also to himself.
Of course, the spirit of utopia emanates from the pages of the novel. Chernyshevsky has to explain to the reader how Lopukhov’s “reasonable egoism” did not suffer from the decision he made. The writer clearly overestimates the role of the mind in all human actions and actions. Lopukhov’s reasoning smacks of rationalism and rationality; the introspection he carries out gives the reader a feeling of some thoughtfulness, implausibility of a person’s behavior in the situation in which Lopukhov found himself. Finally, one cannot help but notice that Chernyshevsky makes the decision easier by the fact that Lopukhov and Vera Pavlovna do not yet have a real family, no child. Many years later, in the novel Anna Karenina, Tolstoy will give a refutation to Chernyshevsky tragic fate main character, and in “War and Peace” he will challenge the excessive enthusiasm of revolutionary democrats for the ideas of women's emancipation.
N” one way or another, and in the theory of “reasonable egoism” of Chernyshevsky’s heroes there is an undeniable appeal and an obvious rational grain, especially important for the Russian people, who for centuries lived under the strong pressure of autocratic statehood, which restrained initiative and sometimes extinguished the creative impulses of the human personality. The morality of Chernyshevsky’s heroes, in a certain sense, has not lost its relevance in our times, when society’s efforts are aimed at awakening a person from moral apathy and lack of initiative, at overcoming dead formalism.