Ivan Turgenev's

Abstract

The generation gap between the fathers and sons in the story neatly symbolized the current political debates between the older reactionaries and the younger radicals. Bazarov is a nihilist who scorns the purposelessness of everything but science—until he falls in love. His friend, Arkady Kirsanov, tries to embrace nihilism, but finally submits to the comforts of a traditional life. A depiction of the ideological divide between two generations, “Fathers and Sons” is one of the first modern Russian novels.