Russian Literary Conflicts Over the Antinihilist Novel, 1861-1881
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† Designated as an Exemplary Final Project for 2020-21 Russian Literary Conflicts over the Antinihilist Novel, 1861-1881 Muhammad Ali Faculty Advisor: Dr. Martin A. Miller Department of History April 2021 This project was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program in the Graduate School of Duke University. Copyright by Muhammad Ali 2021 Abstract This thesis examines the representation of nihilism in antinihilist and radical novels written in post-emancipation Tsarist Russia, between 1861 and 1881. During this period, nihilism emerged as a social and political phenomenon and contributed not only to the emerging differences between the generation of the “superfluous men” (1840s) and of the prominent literary critics (1860s), but also to the radicalization of a segment of society. As a result, it was actively discussed and debated in most of the literature produced in this period. I have limited my analysis to three of the maJor works written during this time: Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, Nikolai Chernyshevsky's What Is To Be Done?, and Fyodor Dostoevsky's Demons. Through my analysis of literary conflicts within these novels, I have explicated connections between the novels, identified influences over the authors and explored how representations of nihilism evolved within Russian society during the 1860s and the 1870s. i Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ ii List of Figures ................................................................................................................................. iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ v 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Nihilism in the Russian Context .................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Russian Intelligentsia and the Great Reforms of 1861 ............................................................... 3 1.3 The Antinihilist Novel ................................................................................................................. 7 1.4 Methods and Goals .................................................................................................................... 9 2 Bazarov: Caricature of a Nihilist ........................................................................................... 10 2.1 Summary of Fathers and Sons .................................................................................................. 10 2.2 Historical Context ..................................................................................................................... 18 2.3 The Aesthetic Relation of Art to Reality ................................................................................... 21 2.4 The Search for a Russian Hero .................................................................................................. 23 2.5 Break with the Radicals ............................................................................................................ 25 2.6 Contemporary Reaction ........................................................................................................... 29 2.7 Dmitry Pisarev’s “Bazarov” ....................................................................................................... 34 2.8 Caricature of the Fake Nihilist .................................................................................................. 36 2.9 A Novel in Caricatures .............................................................................................................. 37 2.10 Revisiting Bazarov ..................................................................................................................... 40 3 Nihilists and the “New People” ............................................................................................. 43 3.1 Summary of What Is To Be Done? ............................................................................................ 43 3.2 The Writing of What Is To Be Done? ........................................................................................ 56 3.3 Nihilists vs. the “New Men” ...................................................................................................... 61 3.4 In Response to Turgenev’s Parody of Liebig’s Theories ............................................................ 64 3.5 Pisarev’s “The Thinking Proletariat” ......................................................................................... 67 3.6 Rational Egoism ........................................................................................................................ 69 3.7 The Crystal Palace ..................................................................................................................... 71 4 Dostoevsky's Demonic Nihilists ............................................................................................. 74 4.1 Summary of Demons ................................................................................................................ 74 4.2 The Writing of Demons ............................................................................................................. 91 ii 4.3 Sergei Nechaev ......................................................................................................................... 97 4.4 The Catechism of a Revolutionary .......................................................................................... 100 4.5 Confronting a Revolutionary Past ........................................................................................... 102 4.6 Dostoevsky's Parody of What Is To Be Done? ........................................................................ 105 4.7 The Crocodile .......................................................................................................................... 106 4.8 Stepan Trofimovich’s Last Peregrination ................................................................................ 108 4.9 A Caricature of Ivan Turgenev ................................................................................................ 109 5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 112 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 115 iii List of Figures Figure 1: The children and the fathers are both out of control .................................................................. 30 Figure 2: Ivan Turgenev painting Bazarov’s face with mud ....................................................................... 38 Figure 3: Ivan Turgenev pandering to the fathers ..................................................................................... 39 Figure 4: Bazarov (as Mephistopheles) looks on as father and son embrace ............................................ 40 Figure 5: The Crystal Palace at Sydenham ................................................................................................. 72 iv Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and support of many people. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis advisor, Dr. Martin Miller, for sparking my interest in Russian history and literature and, more importantly, for providing the encouragement, feedback, and support that was instrumental in the completion of my thesis. I would also like to thank Dr. Ernest Zitser, the librarian for Slavic and Eurasian studies, for his invaluable assistance in identifying related resources and for taking the time to respond to my frequent inquiries. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Kent Wicker as well, for his continuous support and guidance. Lastly, I would like to thank my family, particularly my wife, for their unwavering love and support, in the absence of which I would not have been able to pursue my education in the program. v Chapter One 1 Introduction 1.1 Nihilism in the Russian Context Nihilism comes from the Latin root nihil, which means “nothing.” By this definition, it would “signify a doctrine advocating intellectual negation and the sheer destruction of whatever may in fact exist, be it material or spiritual.”1 Nihilists called for the destruction of the "existing order," because they believed it was evil. The underlying assumption was that what will come about as a replacement will be better, although that was not their concern. In the Russian context, nihilism did not imply universal negation. Not only did the Russian radicals of the 1860s have "unbounded faith in themselves and their convictions,"2 but politically, they aspired towards a socialist system. Alexander Herzen, widely regarded as the father of Russian socialism, traced the roots of nihilism to the last seven years of Nicholas I's reign, between 1848 and 1855, and defined nihilism as: Nihilism ... is logic without structure, it is science without dogmas, it is the unconditional submission to experience