Cover of 1867 edition of What Is to Be Done?
Chapter 1: The Power of a Literary Work
What Is to Be Done?, a novel published in 1863 by Nikolai Chernyshevsky, seems an unlikely candidate to inspire generations of terrorists. Chernyshevsky created it during a period of four months while confined in prison awaiting a trial and a harsh sentence that would require his permanent confinement in Siberia. Chernyshevsky had to request and receive special permission to write the novel from his jailors. The very paper he used was doled out specially to him for the purpose by the prison authorities. Each page had to be read and approved by the imperial censors. That they allowed a book to be written right under their noses which would soon serve as a blueprint for revolution has been considered one of the worst-ever examples of bureaucratic blundering.
The government censors did read What Is to Be Done? before its publication. Being mystified, like so many later readers, they even created their own plot summary.6 What they failed to grasp was how the utopian anarchist outlook embedded in Chernyshevsky’s work could water a soil that was fertile for growing terrorists. In Russia, the mix would prove especially fertile for growing women terrorists.
One hundred plot elements of What Is to Be Done?
1.A mysterious disappearance, apparently a suicide. The victim alerted police via a note. It seems he shot himself, falling off a bridge. No body was found – only a cap with a bullet hole was later pulled from the water.7
2.Vera Pavlovna, affectionately called Verotchka, receives a letter. Crying after reading it, she sends away her companion, a young man who is a mustache twirler. This companion is Alexander Mateivitch Kirsanov, although we don’t actually meet him in the narrative until much later.8
3.The narrator provides a preface: “The motive of this story is love; the principal character a woman.”9
4.The early life of Vera Pavlovna is narrated. She grew up in a multi storied house in St. Petersburg.10
5.Description is given of Vera’s father, Pavel Konstantinovitch Rozalsky, and her mother, Maria Alexeyevna. Although she has a low opinion of her own looks, seeing herself as too skinny, Vera grows into an attractive, musically gifted young woman with thick black hair and black eyes. Vera’s mother is very interested in getting her married, and married well. Her father Pavel is the building manager where the family resides. The family leads a middle class life.11
6.Vera develops a penchant for declining all of the proffered suitors.12
7.Verotchka’s mother Maria Alexeyevna takes her to the opera, elegantly dressed. Some gentlemen enter their box and converse among themselves in undertones, in French. Vera turns her head away from them. Later she insists on leaving early, telling her mother she feels ill.
8.One of the gentlemen who came into the box at the opera was Mikhail Ivanovitch Storeshnikov. (Later, we learn that he is the son of the family that owns the building where Vera lives, and that her father manages.) Storeshnikov made a bet with his friends at the opera that he could get Vera to be his mistress. Afterwards, at a restaurant, Storeshnikov discusses the bet in the presence of a French woman named Julie. Julie is the live-in lover and companion of one of Storeshnikov’s friends.13
9.Verotchka in fact had overheard, and had understood perfectly well, the comment Storeshnikov made in the box about her becoming his mistress. She feels ashamed. The next day, when Storeshnikov comes by her flat to pay her a visit, she tells him to go away and to stop calling on her.14
10.Julie intervenes with a visit to Vera. The two of them discuss Storeshnikov’s bet and the seduction he had propounded in connection with it. Julie decides to convince Storeshnikov to marry Verotchka, instead of trying to seduce her. Julie also tries to convince Vera to accept the proposal.15
11.Storeshnikov is won over by Julie’s exposition of the reasons he should marry Vera. However, his mother is violently opposed. Storeshnikov defies her, and proposes to Vera anyway. Vera refuses. Reluctantly, in reply to Storeshnikov’s now impassioned entreaties, she agrees to postpone her final decision. When Vera finally refuses Storeshnikov’s marriage proposal, his mother abruptly forms a better opinion of her.16
12.Storeshnikov continues his spurned courtship of Vera, with his mother’s increasing support. Vera’s mother Maria Alexeyevna is also enthusiastic.17
13.We meet Dmitri Sergeivitch Lopukhov. He is engaged by Vera’s parents as a tutor for the “gymnasium,” a type of college prep school, of Verotchka’s younger brother Feodor. Lopukhov is a medical student from a middle class background who teaches in order to help pay his way through school. Like Vera, Lopukhov has some musical ability. He is philosophical and intellectually thoughtful. In a scene at the Rozalsky home, Lopukhov looks Storeshnikov in the eye and poses some rather direct questions to him. Vera’s mother insists she sing an aria to entertain Storeshnikov and the other guests present. Verotchka chooses to sing La donna è mobile from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Rigoletto. Lopukhov is impressed.18
14.Lopukhov dances with Verotchka at her birthday party. While they dance, she confesses to Lopukhov her unhappy plight, in relation to Storeshnikov’s unwanted courtship and the pressure she faces to marry him.19
15.Vera and Lopukhov develop feelings for each other.20
16.Verotchka and Lopukhov hide their budding relationship from Vera’s mother. Lopukhov tells Maria Alexeyevna that he has a fiancée with a large dowry. Lopukhov also agrees to reduce the price of his lessons, so that he will be kept on as Feodor’s tutor and will have more time to spend with Vera.21
17.To help Vera escape the pressure to marry Storeshnikov, Lopukhov busies himself trying to find a position for her as a governess.22
18.Vera dreams her first dream of the novel. In this dream, she is released from a damp, gloomy cellar she had been locked in. She finds herself running and frolicking gaily in a field. There she encounters a beautiful girl who is constantly changing, and who changes before Vera’s eyes from German to English, to French, to Polish, back to German, and then to Russian. The girl tells Vera that she is the bride of Vera’s bridegroom. Vera sets about freeing many other young girls who are also locked in cellars throughout the city.23
19.Lopukhov’s last effort to place Vera as a governess fails when the would-be employer, a Mrs. B, learns that Vera would be taking the job against the wishes of her parents. Mrs. B does not want to be sued!24
20.To enable Vera to escape her plight, Lopukhov proposes to marry Vera. This is to happen after Lopukhov finishes medical school at the beginning of July. It was now the end of April.25
21.We hear more about Alexander Mateivitch Kirsanov, called Sasha, another medical student who is Lopukhov’s close friend and roommate. Vera declares that she hates Kirsanov because he and Lopukhov are so close and intimate, always “sitting together, hugging and disputing.”26
22.So that they will remain friends and she will not be enslaved, Vera proposes to Lopukhov that after they are married they will make their living arrangements with two separate bedrooms, each of them having their own room, and with a third neutral room in the middle for dining, having tea and receiving guests. Neither of them will enter the other’s room.27
23.Vera and Dmitri are secretly married ahead of schedule, before Lopukhov finishes his medical school exams. As a result, he does not become a doctor (he says he had no desire to become one, anyway).28
24.Lopukhov introduces Vera to his adored roommate Kirsanov. Vera promises to love Kirsanov just as much as she loves Lopukhov.29
25.Vera informs her mother that she has been secretly married to Lopukhov. Vera’s mother is initially beside herself. When calmer, she has Vera’s father pretend to the building owner’s wife that they in fact arranged the marriage to Lopukhov so that Vera would not dishonor her son, Storeshnikov, by marrying him.30
26.The landlady accepts the explanation, but she reduces the pay increase she had previously granted to Pavel Konstantinovitch from 20 rubles per month to 5 rubles per month.31
27.The author, in an aside, gives the reader an apology and an enconmium for Maria Alexeyevna. In spite of her grasping, abusive behavior toward Vera, he says she was “not without reason” and “not stupid.” Thus, he tells us, she is better than many.32
28.Vera and Lopukhov prosper in their new life together. Lopukhov takes on more pupils; Vera begins tutoring as well. They live in their separate rooms, and meet only in the common room.33
29.Vera gets the idea to start a sewing union.34
30.Vera engages with Julie to advise her and to help her promote the business of the sewing union. Julie and Vera drink champagne in honor of Vera’s marriage; they become very giddy celebrating the birth of the sewing union. They collapse together in a heap on a sofa, after wrestling together.35
31.Because of the repeated visits to Vera’s sewing shop by Julie and her common law husband, who is an army general, public curiosity about the shop grows. Vera’s father even comes to visit. He is coldly received.36
32.Verotchka dreams her second dream. It is very lengthy. All of the following people appear in it.
Lopukhov, her husband. He gives a discourse on the difference between “clean dirt” and “barren dirt.”
Alexei Petrovitch, a regular caller in the neutral room at the Lopukhov household. Petrovitch engages in a philosophy discussion with Lopukhov.
Serge, Julie’s live-in companion who is the army general.
Maria Alexeyevna, that is, Vera’s mother, who is not, however, exactly herself, but rather a more philosophical version of herself.
An unnamed army officer, on whose knees Vera sits.
A lady, who declines to take on Vera as a servant because her father was a civil servant and, consequently, Vera is too close to nobility.
A drunken fellow, unnamed, who accosts Vera.
The real Maria Alexeyevna, who lectures Vera on how she should be grateful.
The “bride of her bridegrooms,” also thought of as “the sister of one of Verotchka’s sisters.” The Bride takes Vera by the hand. Alluded to earlier in the work by Dmitri Sergeivitch Lopukhov as his betrothed, she appears to be a personification of a future Utopia characterized by libertarian anarchy. The Bride tells Vera, “kind people cannot get to their feet alone.” They need the help of “ill-tempered” people in doing so. Afterwards, the “ill-tempered” will no longer be needed. The Bride likens Vera’s mother to one of these necessary, ill-tempered people.37
33.The sewing union prospers. Although she is paying good wages, Vera insists on dividing the profits equally among all of the seamstresses.38
34.The seamstresses begin pooling their savings as capital, and living communally. In this way they save on all kinds of expenses. Vera avoids any appearance of rank or leadership on her part in connection with the operations of the shop.39
35.Vera begins organizing lectures, classes, and cultural events such as Italian opera outings for the seamstresses.40
36.Three years pass.41
37.Vera has a comfortable life, with lots of cream, and faithful servants who always get married and move on. Vera and Dmitri play host to many visitors.42
38.Vera and Dmitri attend a picnic where there are two other young philosophers, who spend much time debating with Dmitri. Dmitri ultimately exhausts himself racing and wrestling with these young men. As a result, he becomes very ill.43
39.Kirsanov, Lopukhov’s good friend and former roommate, is by now a doctor. Kirsanov is called in by Lopukhov and Vera to minister to the sick Dmitri. Kirsanov concludes that Dmitri’s case of pneumonia is not grave. Kirsanov tries to talk Vera out of staying up all night to watch over Dmitri. Kirsanov insists on taking over the vigil. Dmitri recovers after a few days. Vera reproaches Kirsanov for not having been a regular caller at their home for two years until Dmitri had his crisis.44
40.In an aside to the reader, the narrator tells us, “a new romance is going to begin in Vera Pavlovna’s life, and in this Kirsanov is going to play a part.”45
41.Lopukhov and Kirsanov are each personified and compared. Both are self-taught, although they use somewhat different methods. Both are handsome, Kirsanov being lighter skinned, blonder and blue-eyed. Each of them, separately, experienced an important formative episode in which he had confronted and physically overpowered a member of the aristocracy who had disrespected him.46
42.Kirsanov resumes his visits to the Lopukhovs, but he has to struggle in order to hide the fact that he is falling in love with Vera.47
43.Vera takes Sasha Kirsanov on a visit to the sewing commune. There he is recognized and embraced by a girl named Anastasia, affectionately called Nastenka, who is ill and dying of consumption. Nastenka, later, tells Vera the story of how she and Kirsanov fell in love while he was curing her of the drinking problem which was the underlying cause of her illness, and how, as a result, she went to live with him in his house. She portrays to Vera the wondrous feeling of being in love, and assures her that Sasha is good.48
44.Nastenka recounts to Vera that Kirsanov decided it would be better for Nastenka’s health if they did not see each other. He found her a place as the servant of an actress. Nastenka did very well with this mistress, but then, the actress retired from acting to live with her husband. The actress’s father-in-law made unwanted advances to Nastenka, causing her to leave the home to avoid causing family discord. After this, Nastenka joined the sewing commune. She did not see Sasha Kirsanov for two and one half years until the day Vera brought him to the sewing shop. During this time, her consumption has worsened.49
45.Though his former feelings of love have now faded to pity, Kirsanov remains at Nastenka’s side constantly over the next month as she goes through the process of dying and then dies. Vera consoles Kirsanov about Nastenka’s illness. Vera and Kirsanov walk together, and discuss topics such as the writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe. Kirsanov escorts Vera to the opera, sometimes without Lopukhov.50
46.Sasha begins again to struggle with himself over his feelings for Vera. He very subtly withdraws from seeing the Lopukhovs.51
47.Verotchka dreams her third dream. In this dream, Vera is visited by an apparition of a female singer from Verdi’s Rigoletto. A new visitor then appears, who is just a hand. The hand directs Vera to read from her diary. The diary is magical and sprouts new contents every time the hand points to it. The magic diary recounts many of the events that have happened to Vera. At the end, the hand forces Vera to read more magical text. The text reveals Vera to be in love with Sasha Kirsanov. She wakes up cursing the hand for having shown her this text.52
48.Vera reacts against the dream by cuddling with Dmitri Sergeivitch Lopukhov and moving into his room. She also tells Dmitri some parts of the third dream, but not the part about the magical diary. However, after some days and weeks pass, Vera becomes discontented. Her thoughts keep drifting to the more arts-appreciating Kirsanov.53
49.At Dmitri’s insistence, Vera tells him more about her third dream, including the ending where the diary tells her she does not love him. Lopukhov cries over the revelation, but realizes he has no control in the matter. Vera does not mention Kirsanov, but Dmitri quickly realizes that there is an attraction between Vera and Sasha. He senses this is the real reason why Kirsanov has been shying away.54
50.Lopukhov goes to Kirsanov to tell him he understands the situation. He insists that Kirsanov resume his visits. Kirsanov protests violently. They engage in a lengthy ethical debate. Kirsanov finally agrees to resume his visits, but only if Lopukhov accompanies he and Vera everywhere.55
51.Lopukhov admires the way Kirsanov plays the role of not being head over heels in love with Vera.56
52.Vera weeps as she confesses to Lopukhov that she loves Kirsanov. Lopukhov, who had anticipated this, takes it coolly. He tells Vera that he is glad for her happiness and they will remain friends. Vera keeps insisting she wants to love only Dmitri. Lopukhov refuses to accept this.57
53.After a convulsive struggle, Vera writes Lopukhov a note in which she tells him, “I cannot live without him . . . forgive me!”58
54.Lopukhov leaves St. Petersburg for Riazan to see his family. He departs without Vera.59
55.A month and a half later, in the middle of June, Lopukhov returns to St. Petersburg. On July 21, he leaves again, going to Moscow. On July 23 occurs the mysterious disappearance that is the subject of the opening pages. The narrator sardonically complements the reader on guessing that the person who was the subject of the mysterious disappearance was probably Lopukhov.60
56.A character named Rakhmetov makes his appearance.61
57.Rakhmetov, we are told, is the descendent of a thirteenth century Tartar chieftain. Many of the descendants had prominent military careers. He is 22 years old. He enjoyed his nickname, “Nikitushka Lomov,” because Nikitushka Lomov was a legendary larger than life figure who pulled boats up and down the Volga. A tall slender youth, Rakhmetov energetically practiced gymnastics, and then worked as a common laborer, until his strength became enormous. He lugged water, carried wood, chopped wood, sawed trees, cut stone, dug earth, and hammered iron. He ate only beefsteak, almost raw. To learn to tow boats, he booked himself as a passenger on a Volga expedition. He then voluntarily joined the crew of laborers towing the boat. He out-towed four of the strongest men in doing this labor, and that is how he earned the nickname, “Nikitushka Lomov.”
Kirsanov prescribed for Rakhmetov a course of reading for self-study. He spent almost all of his time reading. Rakhmetov led a very severe and ascetic lifestyle. He did not touch wine or women. He spent his ample fortune, inherited wealth, on meat but very little else. He slept on a bed of straw and in all other respects lived the life of a Spartan. The only spot on his conscience was a weakness for good cigars.62
58.The narrator abruptly cuts in and recounts how he, the narrator, personally met Rakhmetov, and how everybody was satisfied with him, in spite of his strange manners, due to his straightforward manner.
Rakhmetov asked the narrator whether he felt he could give him his full trust. The narrator, who had been told good things about Rakhmetov, replied, “yes.” Rakhmetov immediately pronounced him to be either a liar or a villain. But the narrator saw that this was justified because the narrator really was lying about trusting Rakhmetov.63
59.We are told that Rakhmetov disappeared from St. Petersburg, and nobody knows what eventually happened to him. The narrator recounts two stories Kirsanov told about him. In the first, Kirsanov was called to treat Rakhmetov for injuries he sustained while deliberately lying on a bed of nails. In the second, Kirsanov was called to treat Rakhmetov for leg injuries sustained when he dove to halt a runaway horse cart, in which a young and attractive widow was trapped. The lady afterwards fell in love with Rakhmetov while she was nursing him to health. With some melancholy, Rakhmetov declined her advances, stating “people like me must not unite their fate with anyone else.” He tells her that his hands are tied in the matter of love because his life is already dedicated to a greater cause.64
60.The narrator teases the reader with the statement that nothing more will be said of Rakhmetov, other than his one conversation with Vera immediately following the mysterious disappearance. He then challenges the reader to guess why Rakhmetov had to be personified in such exquisite detail.65
61.Rakhmetov informs Vera that the reason of his coming is to bring her a message from Lopukhov. The note is 10 to 12 lines long. We never learn exactly what it says. However, after she reads it, Vera appears much happier. Rakhmetov says by delivering the note he is “fulfilling a pleasant duty.” He comments that Dmitri and the more mature Vera were not very well adapted to each other. Much more is discussed on the philosophy of love, to the effect that in an intelligent person jealousy has no right to exist.66
62.The narrator teases the reader some more about putting Rakhmetov in the story. The narrator imagines that the reader will bring a lawsuit against him for doing so.67
63.The narrator claims that his purpose with Rakhmetov was to illustrate, via a figure much larger than life, the ordinariness and normalcy of his main characters, Vera Pavlovna, Dmitri Lopukhov, and Sasha Kirsanov. He gives a parable:
“A man who never saw anything but little huts, would take an ordinary house drawn on a piece of paper to be a palace. How can you go to work with such a person to show him that it is a house and not a palace? It is necessary on the same paper to draw at least a corner of a palace.”68
64.Vera receives a letter from an unnamed correspondent “who had a close relationship” with the late Dmitri Sergeivitch Lopukhov. The letter gets into the distinction between people who are “social” and “not social.” There are more parables, and discussions about Dmitri’s reaction to Vera’s third dream. The author claims to be a complete stranger to Vera, and describes himself as “a former medical student.”69
65.A letter to Kirsanov from the same correspondent is also included.70
66.The narrator stuffs a napkin into the mouth of the reader who is about to exclaim that he knows who it is that wrote these letters.71
67. Vera writes a lengthy response to the correspondent, explaining her gratitude to Dmitri and assuring him that she has gotten over the shock of his passing. In this letter, there are allusions to the fact that it was necessary for Vera to really believe, and genuinely grieve, that Lopukhov had committed suicide, in order that the “world” would accept his death as a fact, freeing her to marry Kirsanov, which she did one week later.72
68.Kirsanov also writes a brief and embarrassed reply to the correspondent.73
69.The reader pulls the napkin out of his mouth and, shaking his head, shouts – “Immorality!”74
70.The correspondence continues three to four months. It then peters out due to a lack of replies by the correspondent.75
71.Vera’s new day-to-day life is detailed. She lives with Sasha near the hospital where her husband works. She establishes a new sewing union, on the other side of town from the old one, which is managed by a friend, Mertsalova. Although Vera feels some regrets about not having accompanied Dmitri to Riazan, she also feels joy at her ability to express her love for Sasha.76
72.Vera enters into a series of discourses on woman’s capacity for equality or, indeed, superiority to men in terms of endeavors and accomplishments. At the conclusion, Vera informs Sasha that she intends to pioneer a new and long overdue class of women doctors. “It is much easier for a woman to talk with a woman than with a man . . . I must try it.”77
73.Many years pass. Vera becomes a doctor. Her lifestyle with Kirsanov resembles that with Lopukhov, including the two separate bedrooms and the neutral room. One difference though is that Kirsanov is expected to enter Vera’s bedroom every morning, without asking. Three years after their marriage, a boy named Mitya is born to Vera and Sasha.78
74.The narrator goes on another digression to praise the new paradigm exemplified by the marriage of Vera and Sasha, wherein the husband and wife enjoy every minute together and feel their love for each other more warmly and poetically ten years later than on the day they were married.79
75.Vera dreams her fourth dream. This one takes place in a grand Utopia. Vera gets a narration from a tsaritsa, a queen who seems to be the sister of the Bride of her bridegrooms. There is allusion that the tsaritsa is a deified version of Vera. The tsaritsa says all of her power is founded in the equal rights and relations of men and women.80
76.The Utopia envisioned in the dream is populated by a young, contented people. It has futuristic aluminum furniture, which seems magically light, as well as aluminum and glass doors. The Bride also appears in the dream. The tsaritsa states that the Bride has done the work to produce all these wonders. The Utopia in the vision now extends well beyond the southern borders of Russia into the Arabian desert, which has now been turned into a fertile land. The inhabitants of Utopia, except for a very small contingent, migrate to this warm, fertile land every winter.
The tsaritsa explains that all this transformation was accomplished using the same means and methods that Vera used in her sewing shop. The Bride explains, “Every happiness here is suited to every one’s special faculty. All live here in the way that is the best for each to live; there is a full volition, a free volition for every one here.”81
77.The sewing unions are running well. Vera and Mertsalova open a sale shop for their clothing items on the Nevsky Prospect. Two more years pass.82
78.A woman named Ekaterina Vasilyevna Polozova, affectionately called Katia, writes a letter to a friend describing the wonderful sewing shops, extolling the free social system introduced by Vera Pavlovna, its virtues and economics.83
79.We are given a lengthy history of Katia’s father, Polozov. Polozov was a retired cavalry captain who, after first losing everything, then amassed a sizeable fortune of three to four million rubles as a businessman. After thus “pushing up the hill” he declined to remarry (Katia’s mother had died). However, he was a stubborn man in his business dealings. He quarreled with an important personage. He took on a huge contract to sell goods (the narrator claims he does not know what kind of goods) which went bad when his goods were rejected, perhaps due to intervention of the person he had offended, his business failed, and he was forced to eat crow. As a result of this deal gone bad, he lost his fortune of millions of rubles. All that remained was a few thousand rubles and some shares in a factory that made stearine (a derivative of plant or animal oils used in making soaps, candles and ointments).84
80.While Polozov was wealthy, Katia as his daughter had many suitors. However, she became sick and started wasting. The five biggest doctors in St. Petersburg – real Big Wigs of the medical profession – could not figure out her ailment. They called in a noted consultant, Sasha Kirsanov. Through a private interview, Kirsanov determined that the real problem with Katia was that she was pining to marry Jean Solovtsov, a man of whom her father disapproved. Kirsanov actually agreed with her father that it was a bad idea for Katia to marry Solovtsov, a member of Storeshnikov’s shallow venal circle. In fact, Solovtsov was one of the friends who had accompanied Storeshnikov to the opera mentioned in the opening pages, where Verotchka had overheard Storeshnikov making a lewd wager about her in French. However, Kirsanov obtained Polozov’s consent to the marriage using a stratagem. He agreed with Katia that if he could not get Polozov’s consent, he would help her commit suicide. Next, he got the five Big Wigs to agree that since Katia’s case was hopeless, it would be humane to put her to sleep with a huge injection of morphine and let her die painlessly. Then he informed Polozov that with full medical consensus, Katia was to be put to sleep, to die that morning. Under this fright, her father finally relented about Solovtsov.85
81.Kirsanov continued to personally manage Katia’s case. He made sure Katia saw the real aspect of Solovtsov. She, in response, promptly changed her mind about marrying him.86
82.We now return to Polozov. He convinces the other shareholders to sell the stearine factory. In the capacity of an agent for the purchaser, a British concern, we meet a new character named Charles Beaumont, pronounced Bee-mont, and affectionately called Charlie.87
83.Beaumont tells the story that his father James was a Canadian whose family emigrated to New York when he was a child. After James grew up, he was engaged to supervise the planting of a cotton plantation in the Crimea. The project was absurd and destined to failure because the climate in the Crimea is utterly unsuited to grow cotton. He was fired. He then got a job in a Russian distillery, in which he saved up some money. With this, he returned to America to retire. Charlie, his son, thus grew up in Russia to the age of 20. After father James died, Charlie determined to move back to Russia. He secured a position with the New York office of a London firm that had business in St. Petersburg. This is what brought him to negotiate the purchase of the stearine factory which Polozov was then selling. The narrator rather awkwardly tells us that “in conformity with this tale,” Charlie spoke Russian like a native Russian, but spoke English with an accent. 88
84.Beaumont finds himself at dinner with Polozov and his blond daughter Katia. Since Polozov has lost his fortune, she no longer has suitors.
85.Beaumont gets into an extended conversation with Katia, after saying he is an ardent abolitionist. The subject turns to the emancipation of women. He tells her women in America are free. Katia exclaims to her father that she wants to go to America as soon as the factory is sold. Charlie tells Katia, “One can find something to do in St. Petersburg.” “I should like to see it,” she replies. Charlie then mentions Vera Pavlovna’s “experiment” in political economy. We are told this is how Katia learned of the sewing shops and related social system, extolled in her letter.89
86.Charlie Beaumont expresses great interest in the doings of “Madame Kirsanova.” At the same time, he asks Katia not to mention his degree of interest to Vera. Katia thinks that this is strange.90
87. Charlie begins a courtship of Katia, one that is approved of by her father since she has no other viable suitors. Charlie stalls the closing of the factory purchase, so that there will be more time to spend on his courtship of Katia. Katia becomes rather attached to Beaumont and his daily visits, although their relationship remains intellectual and platonic. The narrator apologizes to the reader for his inability to make the characters who are involved in romances treat each other with anything but coolness.91
88.The sale of the factory finally closes, but when it does, it is decided by the buyer that Charlie Beaumont will remain on in St. Petersburg to manage the factory.92
89.Charlie finally proposes marriage to the eager and willing Katia. But, when he does, the proposal comes with an unusual twist. Katia must seek the advice and consent of Vera to the marriage. Katia dutifully pays a visit to the Kirsanovs. “Christ is risen!” Vera exclaims with joy when she learns about Beaumont. Of course she is all in favor of his marriage to Katia.93
90.At Vera’s request, Charlie tells a story of what happened during his stay in the United States. To benefit the cause of abolition, he wrote articles for the Tribune on the pernicious effects of slavery in Russia.94
91.The two families agree to reside in adjoining apartments with interconnecting doors. In this way, they all dwell happily, in a variation of the separate rooms lifestyle originally designed by Vera Pavlovna. Three years pass. Katia and Charlie have a son. Katia takes over for Vera running the sewing shops, as Vera now concentrates on her medical practice.95
92. We now enter into the most mysterious and controversial portion of a tale that is already highly enigmatic, to say the least. The Conclusion is so weird, its meaning so veiled, that it was actually omitted from several English language translations of the novel. Chernyshevsky fooled the censors with an allegorical ending that would prove extremely meaningful to his radical following.96
93.As spring is coming, Vera yearns for a last day suitable for a frosty winter picnic. When hope is almost lost, an unexpected late snowstorm comes along. Afterwards the sky becomes bright.97
94.Two sleighs dash away. One, with the Beaumonts and the Kirsanovs, is decorous, filled with talk and jokes. The second dashes ahead riotously, beyond control. It is piloted in its headlong enthusiasm by a woman dressed entirely in black, whose name we never hear. Four young men ride with the woman in the second sleigh. They race and fight with snowballs. The race ends at the stearine factory. The Lady in Black sees Katia’s father Polozov on the platform of the factory stairs. She says he is not old, and she caresses his gray whiskers. She teases her young men about her flirtation with him.98
95.Entering the salon inside the factory, everyone is exhausted from the sleigh racing. The Lady in Black asks all those present to tell her their story, beginning with Vera. Vera obliges. The Lady complements her on the story, but comments that it is very pathetic as it has a happy ending. It is intimated, obscurely, that the four young men traveling with the Lady in Black are the hope of the Fatherland. They are eager to give their lives for the cause by launching themselves headlong into death. Further intimated: the Lady in Black is their reaper.
96.The Lady dissuades the young men from committing suicide at that very moment. She announces that she is tired and would like to take a nap. As Katia escorts her to a bedroom, the others follow her condition with the utmost interest and concern. However, one of the Lady’s young fanatics, Mosolov, urges everyone else in the party to continue to dance and shout and sing while the Lady sleeps.
97.Amidst the gaiety, Vera and Katia each ask their husbands in a whisper, “Could something like this happen to me?” Each husband tries to tell his wife that it could not. But their answers are doubtful and not reassuring.99
98.Nikitin, another of the Lady’s young followers, asks Charlie if he saw an unnamed Russian in America. It is never stated that he is referring to Rakhmetov. Nikitin expresses the notion that this unnamed Russian would make a nice match for the Lady in Black.100
99.The Lady in Black awakens from her nap and rejoins the party in the salon. Now she tells something of herself. Much is presented indirectly, through verse. She was born of noble rank, in Scotland. After weighing it well, she made the choice to give up her rank and race for the glory of a cause. Her love was a poor man born for strife, an outlaw. He died a soldier. She must not be sorry. “I was told what to expect.”101
100.Chernyshevsky adds a one-page Epilogue, entitled “Change of Scenes,” that is still more cryptic.102 The Lady in mourning is no longer dressed in black. Now she is sporting a bright pink dress and a pink hat. In her carriage ride three youths, including Nikitin and Mosolov, and another man, aged 30, who is never named. The Lady gazes admiringly on Nikitin and comments that in him her hope had grown into assurance in the two years since the picnic with the Kirsanovs and the Beaumonts. The narrator breaks in and concludes with one last aside, challenging the reader to believe in the impossible. His final words: “I hope it will be very soon.”103
What Is to Be Done? met with a thoroughly hostile reception from the Russian literary community. Fellow writers panned the work due to its clumsy narration, awkward characters and lack of overall coherence. One critic wrote, “It is quite burdensome to read. Chernyshevsky’s novel from the point of view of art is lower than any criticism; it is simply laughable.”104 Leo Tolstoy had one of his characters label it “boring.”105 Ivan Turgenev, who popularized the term “nihilist”106 in his famous work, Fathers and Sons, wrote of Chernyshevsky’s work in What Is to Be Done?: “His manner arouses physical disgust in me, like wormseed.107
Cover of 1867 edition of What Is to Be Done?
Regardless of its literary flaws, Chernyshevsky’s utopian novel found an adoring audience among a new and rebellious generation of Russians that emerged during the 1860’s.108 Strikingly reminiscent of America in the 1960’s, in the 1860’s energetic Russian youth renounced the values of the establishment. There was a pronounced generation gap. Young men from good families defied their parents and grew their hair long. Young women defied theirs and cropped their hair short. Funky oversize blue spectacles became a symbol of the nihilist. There was a women’s liberation movement, accompanied by a kind of sexual revolution. Love triangles, the menage a trois, open marriages and extramarital sexual partnerships all came into vogue.109
The rebellious Russian Generation of the Sixties found a profound message in What Is to Be Done? To them it conveyed faith in a vision of a future anarchist utopia. After the book was belatedly banned by the government censors, many of the faithful copied out the 400 plus page work by hand, word for word.110 A schoolgirl was considered a dunce if she was not acquainted with the exploits of Vera Pavlovna. Young Russian women sought to emulate Vera’s virtues. Abstemious marriages patterned on that of Vera and Dmitri Lopukhov abounded. Couples consciously modeled their lifestyles on Vera’s, especially, adopting the odd practice of having separate rooms for each spouse. Bright young people turned their backs on inherited family property and existing business enterprises in order to establish communal ventures. Sewing cooperatives, in particular, were founded by the dozens.111