The novel by N. G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?” created by him in a chamber of the Peter and Paul Fortress in the period from 12/14/1862 to 04/04/1863. in three and a half months. From January to April 1863, the manuscript was transferred in parts to the commission on the writer’s case for censorship. The censorship did not find anything reprehensible and allowed publication. The oversight was soon discovered and censor Beketov was removed from office, but the novel was already published in the magazine Sovremennik (1863, No. 3-5). The bans on the magazine's issues led to nothing and the book was distributed throughout the country in samizdat.
In 1905, under Emperor Nicholas II, the ban on publication was lifted, and in 1906 the book was published in a separate edition. The reaction of readers to the novel is interesting; they are divided into two camps. Some supported the author, others considered the novel devoid of artistry.
Analysis of the work
1. Social and political renewal of society through revolution. In the book, due to censorship, the author could not expand on this topic in more detail. It is given in half-hints in the description of Rakhmetov’s life and in the 6th chapter of the novel.
2. Moral and psychological. That a person with the power of his mind is able to create in himself new specified moral qualities. The author describes the entire process from small (the fight against despotism in the family) to large-scale, that is, revolution.
3. Women's emancipation, family morality. This theme is revealed in the history of Vera’s family, in the relationships of three young people before Lopukhov’s alleged suicide, in Vera’s first 3 dreams.
4. Future socialist society. This is a dream of a beautiful and bright life, which the author unfolds in Vera Pavlovna’s 4th dream. Here is a vision of easier labor with the help of technical means, i.e., technogenic development of production.
(Chernyshevsky writes a novel in a cell at the Peter and Paul Fortress)
The pathos of the novel is the propaganda of the idea of transforming the world through revolution, preparing minds and waiting for it. Moreover, the desire to actively participate in it. The main goal of the work is the development and implementation of a new method of revolutionary education, the creation of a textbook on the formation of a new worldview for every thinking person.
Story line
In the novel, it actually covers up the main idea of the work. It’s not for nothing that at first even the censors considered the novel to be nothing more than a love story. The beginning of the work, deliberately entertaining, in the spirit of French novels, aimed to confuse the censorship and, at the same time, attract the attention of the majority of the reading public. The plot is based on a simple love story, behind which the social, philosophical and economic problems of the time are hidden. The Aesopian language of the narrative is thoroughly permeated with the ideas of the coming revolution.
The plot is like this. There is an ordinary girl Vera Pavlovna Rozalskaya, whom her selfish mother is trying in every possible way to pass off as a rich man. Trying to avoid this fate, the girl resorts to the help of her friend Dmitry Lopukhov and enters into a fictitious marriage with him. Thus, she gains freedom and leaves her parents' house. In search of income, Vera opens a sewing workshop. This is not an ordinary workshop. There is no hired labor here; female workers have their share of the profits, so they are interested in the prosperity of the enterprise.
Vera and Alexander Kirsanov are mutually in love. To free his imaginary wife from remorse, Lopukhov stages suicide (it is with the description of it that the whole action begins) and leaves for America. There he acquires a new name, Charles Beaumont, becomes an agent of an English company and, fulfilling its assignment, comes to Russia to purchase a stearine plant from the industrialist Polozov. Lopukhov meets Polozov’s daughter Katya at Polozov’s house. They fall in love with each other, the matter ends with a wedding. Now Dmitry appears in front of the Kirsanov family. Friendship between families begins, they settle in the same house. A circle of “new people” forms around them, wanting to arrange their own and social lives in a new way. Lopukhov-Beaumont's wife Ekaterina Vasilievna also joins the business and sets up a new sewing workshop. This is such a happy ending.
Main characters
The central character of the novel is Vera Rozalskaya. She is especially sociable and belongs to the type of “honest girls” who are not ready to compromise for the sake of a profitable marriage without love. The girl is romantic, but despite this, she is quite modern, with good administrative skills, as they would say today. Therefore, she was able to interest the girls and organize a sewing production and more.
Another character in the novel is Dmitry Sergeevich Lopukhov, a student at the Medical Academy. Somewhat withdrawn, prefers solitude. He is honest, decent and noble. It was these qualities that prompted him to help Vera in her difficult situation. For her sake, he quits his studies in his last year and begins private practice. Considered the official husband of Vera Pavlovna, he behaves towards her in the highest degree decent and noble. The apogee of his nobility is his decision to fake his own death in order to allow Kirsanov and Vera, who love each other, to unite their destinies. Just like Vera, it relates to the formation of new people. Smart, enterprising. This can be judged at least because the English company entrusted him with a very serious matter.
Kirsanov Alexander is the husband of Vera Pavlovna, Lopukhov’s best friend. I am very impressed by his attitude towards his wife. He not only loves her tenderly, but also looks for an activity for her in which she could realize herself. The author feels deep sympathy for him and speaks of him as a brave man who knows how to carry through to the end the work he has taken on. At the same time, he is an honest, deeply decent and noble person. Not knowing about the true relationship between Vera and Lopukhov, having fallen in love with Vera Pavlovna, he disappears from their house for a long time so as not to disturb the peace of the people he loves. Only Lopukhov’s illness forces him to appear to treat his friend. The fictitious husband, understanding the state of the lovers, imitates his death and makes room for Kirsanov next to Vera. Thus, lovers find happiness in family life.
(In the photo, the artist Karnovich-Valois in the role of Rakhmetov, the play "New People")
A close friend of Dmitry and Alexander, the revolutionary Rakhmetov, is the most significant hero of the novel, although he is given little space in the novel. In the ideological outline of the narrative, he played a special role and is devoted to a separate digression in chapter 29. An extraordinary man in every way. At the age of 16, he left university for three years and wandered around Russia in search of adventure and character development. This is a person with already formed principles in all spheres of life, material, physical and spiritual. At the same time, he has an ebullient nature. He sees his future life in serving people and prepares for this by tempering his spirit and body. He even refused the woman he loved, because love could limit his actions. He would like to live like most people, but he cannot afford it.
In Russian literature, Rakhmetov became the first practical revolutionary. Opinions about him were completely opposite, from indignation to admiration. This is the ideal image of a revolutionary hero. But today, from the position of knowledge of history, such a person could only evoke sympathy, since we know how accurately history has proven the truth of the words of the Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte: “Revolutions are conceived by heroes, carried out by fools, and scoundrels enjoy their fruits.” Perhaps the voiced opinion does not quite fit into the framework of the image and characteristics of Rakhmetov formed over decades, but this is indeed the case. The above does not in any way detract from Rakhmetov’s quality, because he is a hero of his time.
According to Chernyshevsky, using the example of Vera, Lopukhov and Kirsanov, he wanted to show ordinary people of the new generation, of whom there are thousands. But without the image of Rakhmetov, the reader might have formed a misleading opinion about the main characters of the novel. According to the writer, all people should be like these three heroes, but the highest ideal that all people should strive for is the image of Rakhmetov. And I completely agree with this.
It was written partly in response to Ivan Turgenev’s work “Fathers and Sons”.
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 only a love story in the novel and gave permission for publication. 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.
In 1867, the novel was published as a separate book in Geneva (in Russian) by Russian emigrants, then it was translated into Polish, Serbian, Hungarian, French, English, German, Italian, Swedish and Dutch. In Soviet times also in Finnish and Tajik (Farsi). The influence of Chernyshevsky’s novel is felt in Emile Zola (“Ladies’ Happiness”), Strindberg (“Utopias in Reality”), and the figure of the Bulgarian National Revival Lyuben Karvelov (“Is Fate to Blame,” written in Serbian).
“What to Do,” like “Fathers and Sons,” gave rise to the so-called anti-nihilistic novel. In particular, “On Knives” by Leskov, where the motifs of Chernyshevsky’s work are parodically used.
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.
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. Aluminum reached a “great future” by the middle of the 20th century.
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”, but researchers deny the connection between the heroes of Chernyshevsky and Turgenev’s novels.
F. M. Dostoevsky argues with Chernyshevsky’s ideas, in particular with his thoughts about the future of humanity, in “Notes from Underground,” thanks to which the image of the “crystal palace” became a common motif in world literature of the 20th century.
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.” Before 1917, four editions were published, prepared by the writer’s son, M. N. Chernyshevsky.
After the Great October 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 the 16-volume “Complete Works” of Chernyshevsky (vol. XI, 1939. Goslitizdat, prepared by N.A. Alekseev and A.P. Skaftymov): in comparison, this book contains 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 railway station were perplexed, 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, tried 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 clear now, 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 and dark - a fire flashed in the middle of the Liteiny Bridge, 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 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.
1863, "Contemporary"
1867 (Geneva), 1906 (Russia)
"What to do?"- a novel by Russian philosopher, journalist and literary critic Nikolai Chernyshevsky, written in December - April, 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 only a love story in the novel and gave permission for publication. The censorship oversight was soon noticed, and the responsible censor, Beketov, was removed from office. However, the novel had already been published in the magazine Sovremennik (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 entrances, at Madame Milbret’s table and in the basement pub of the Stenbokov Passage. They shouted: “disgusting,” “charming,” “abomination,” etc. - all in different tones.”
“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.”
The emphatically entertaining, adventurous, melodramatic beginning of the novel was supposed to not only confuse the censors, but also attract wide masses of readers. The external plot of the novel is a love story, but it reflects new economic, philosophical and social ideas of the time. The novel is permeated with hints of the coming revolution.
- 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”.
Literature
- Nikolaev P. Revolutionary novel // Chernyshevsky N. G. What to do? M., 1985
Film adaptations
- 1971: Three-part teleplay (directors: Nadezhda Marusalova, Pavel Reznikov)
Notes
see also
Links
Categories:
- Literary works in alphabetical order
- Nikolai Chernyshevsky
- Political novels
- Novels of 1863
- Novels in Russian
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- "What to do?" the philosophical question of various thinkers, religious figures, prophets, as well as literary works with this title: “What to do?” novel by Nikolai Chernyshevsky, his main work. "What to do?" book... ... Wikipedia
The name of the famous socio-political novel (1863) by Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky (1828 1889). The main question that in the 60s and 70s. XIX century was discussed in youth circles, there was, as the revolutionary P. N. Tkachev writes, “the question that ... ... Dictionary of popular words and expressions
Date of birth: June 16, 1965 Place of birth: Makeevka, Ukrainian SSR, USSR ... Wikipedia
The novel “What to do?” Chernyshevsky wrote in 1862 - 1863. The work was created within the framework of the literary movement “sociological realism”. Literary historians classify the novel as a utopia.
The central plot line of the book is a love story with a positive ending. At the same time, the work touches on the social, economic and philosophical ideas of that time, themes of love, relationships between fathers and children, enlightenment, and the importance of human willpower. In addition, the novel contains many hints about the coming revolution.
Main characters
Vera Pavlovna Rozalskaya- a purposeful, freedom-loving girl, “with a southern type of face.” I thought in a new way, I didn’t want to be just a wife, but to do my own thing; opened sewing workshops.
Dmitry Sergeich Lopukhov- physician, first husband of Vera Pavlovna. After his staged suicide, he took the name Charles Beaumont.
Alexander Matveich Kirsanov- friend of Lopukhov, a talented physician, second husband of Vera Pavlovna.
Other characters
Marya Aleksevna Rozalskaya- Vera Pavlovna’s mother, a very enterprising woman who always looked for profit in everything.
Pavel Konstantinich Rozalsky- manager of the Storeshnikovs' house, father of Vera Pavlovna.
Mikhail Ivanovich Storeshnikov- “a prominent and handsome officer,” a womanizer, wooed Vera Pavlovna.
Julie- a Frenchwoman, a woman with a complex past, found herself a Russian lover, helped and sympathized with Vera.
Mertsalov Alexey Petrovich- a good friend of Lopukhov, the priest who married Lopukhov and Vera.
Mertsalova Natalya Andreevna- Mertsalov’s wife, and then Vera’s friend.
Rakhmetov– Lopukhov’s friend, Kirsanova, was straightforward, with bold views.
Katerina Vasilievna Polozova- wife of Beaumont (Lopukhov).
Vasily Polozov- father of Katerina Vasilievna.
I. Fool
“On the morning of July 11, 1856, the servants of one of the large St. Petersburg hotels near the Moscow railway station were at a loss.” The day before, at 9 o'clock in the evening, a certain gentleman stopped with them. In the morning he did not respond. Having broken down the doors, they found a note: “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 am. Don’t have any suspicions about anyone.”
The policeman said that at night a pistol shot was heard on the bridge and the missing gentleman’s cap was found with a bullet through it. The gossips decided that he did this because he was “just a fool.”
II. The first consequence of a stupid case
That same morning at 12 o'clock a young lady was sewing and humming a French song in a low voice. They brought her a letter that brought her to tears. The young man who entered the room read the letter: “I embarrassed your calm. I'm leaving the stage. Don't be sorry; I love you both so much that I am very happy with my determination. Farewell". His hands began to shake. The woman exclaimed: “You have his blood on you!” , “And his blood is on me!” .
III. Preface
The author argues that he “used the usual trick of novelists: he began the story with spectacular scenes taken from the middle or end of it.” He reflects that among his audience there is a share of people whom he respects - “kind and strong, honest and capable,” so he “still needs” and “can already” write.
Chapter 1. The life of Vera Pavlovna in her parents’ family
I
Vera Pavlovna grew up in a multi-storey building on Gorokhovaya, which belonged to the Storeshnikovs. The Rozalskys - house manager Pavel Konstantinych, his wife Marya Aleksevna, daughter Vera and “9-year-old son Fedya” lived on the 4th floor. Pavel Konstantinych also served in the department.
From the age of 12, Verochka went to a boarding school and studied with a piano teacher. She sewed well, so she soon sewed the whole family. Because of her dark, “gypsy-like” skin, her mother called her “stuffed animal,” so Vera got used to considering herself ugly. But after some time, her mother stopped driving her around in almost rags, and began dressing her up, hoping to find the daughter a rich husband. At the age of 16, Verochka began giving lessons herself.
Pavel Konstantinich’s boss decided to woo the girl, but it took him too long to get ready. Soon the owner's son Storeshnikov began visiting the Rozalskys and began paying a lot of attention to Verochka. To arrange their marriage, Marya Aleksevna even took expensive tickets to the opera in the same box where the hostess’s son was with friends, they heatedly discussed something in French. Verochka felt awkward and, citing a headache, left early.
II
Mikhail Ivanovich dined with other gentlemen in a fashionable restaurant. Among them there was one lady - Mademoiselle Julie. Storeshnikov said that Vera is his mistress. Julie, who saw Vera at the opera, noted that she was “gorgeous,” but clearly not Mikhail’s mistress - “he wants to buy her.”
III
When Storeshnikov came to the Rozalskys the next day, Vera deliberately spoke to him in French so that her mother would not understand anything. She said that she knew that yesterday he decided to “expose” her to his friends as his mistress. Vera asked not to visit them and to leave as soon as possible.
IV
Julie, together with Storeshnikov, came to Vera, since the lady needed a piano teacher for her niece (but this was just a fictitious reason). Julie told Marya Aleksevna that Mikhail made a bet on Vera with his friends.
V–IX
Julie considered Vera a good passion for Storeshnikov: “marrying her, despite her low origins and, compared to you, poverty, would greatly advance your career.” Julie also advised Vera to become Storeshnikov’s wife in order to get rid of her mother’s persecution. But Storeshnikov was unpleasant to Vera.
After some thought, Storeshnikov actually made the offer. Vera's parents were delighted, but the girl herself said that she did not want to marry Mikhail. However, Storeshnikov nevertheless asked that instead of a refusal he be given a deferred response. When visiting the girl, Mikhail “was obedient to her, like a child.” “Three or four months passed like this.”
Chapter 2. First love and legal marriage
I
To prepare Vera’s younger brother for entering the gymnasium, his father hired a medical student, Lopukhov. During lessons, 9-year-old Fedya told the teacher everything about Vera and her potential groom.
II
Lopukhov did not live on government support, and therefore did not go hungry or get cold. From the age of 15 he gave lessons. Lopukhov rented an apartment with his friend Kirsanov. In the near future, he was to become a resident (doctor) in one of the “St. Petersburg military hospitals”, and soon receive a chair at the Academy.
III–VI
Marya Aleksevna invited Lopukhov to a “party” - her daughter’s birthday. At the evening, while dancing, Lopukhov got into a conversation with Vera. He promised to help her “break out of this humiliating situation” associated with the upcoming wedding.
At the end of the evening, Verochka thought about how strange it was that they spoke for the first time “and became so close.” She fell in love with Lopukhov, not yet realizing that her feelings were mutual.
VII–IX
Once, in order to finally check Lopukhov whether he had any plans for Vera, Marya Aleksevna overheard a conversation between Vera and Dmitry. She heard Lopukhov telling Vera that cold, practical people were right: “a person is controlled only by calculation of benefit.” The girl replied that she completely agreed with him. Lopukhov advised her to marry Mikhail Ivanovich. What she heard completely convinced Marya Aleksevna that conversations with Dmitry Sergeich were useful for Verochka.
X–XI
Lopukhov and Vera knew that they were being followed. At Vera's request, Lopukhov looked for a position as a governess for her. Kirsanov helped find the right option.
XII. Verochka's first dream
Vera dreamed that she was locked in a damp, dark basement. Suddenly the door opened and she found herself in a field. She began to dream that she was paralyzed. Someone touched her and her illness went away. Vera saw that a beautiful girl with a changing appearance was walking across the field - English, French, German, Polish, Russian, and her mood was constantly changing. The girl introduced herself as the bride of her suitors and asked them to call her “love for people.” Then Vera dreamed that she was walking through the city and freeing girls locked in the basement and healing girls broken by paralysis.
XIII – XVI
The woman to whom Verochka was supposed to become a governess refused because she did not want to go against the will of the girl’s parents. Frustrated Vera thought that if things got really bad, she would throw herself out the window.
XVII – XVIII
Vera and Dmitry decide to get married and discuss their future lives. The girl wants to earn her own money so as not to be her husband’s slave. She wants them to live as friends, with separate rooms and a common living room.
XIX–XIX
While Lopukhov had business, Vera lived at home. One day she went out with her mother to Gostiny Dvor. Unexpectedly, the girl told her mother that she had married Dmitry Sergeich, sat down with the first cab driver she came across, and ran away.
XX-XIV
Three days before, they actually got married. Lopukhov arranged for his friend Mertsalov to marry them. He remembered that they kiss in church and, so that it would not be too embarrassing there, they kissed beforehand.
Having escaped from her mother, Vera went to the apartment Lopukhov had found for them. Lopukhov himself went to the Rozalskys and reassured them about what had happened.
Chapter 3. Marriage and second love
I
“Things were going well for the Lopukhovs.” Vera gave lessons, Lopukhov worked. The owners with whom the spouses lived were surprised by their way of life - as if they were not a family, but brother and sister. The Lopukhovs entered each other's rooms only by knocking. Vera believed that this only contributed to a strong marriage and love.
II
Vera Pavlovna opened a sewing workshop. Julie helped find her clients. Having gone to her parents, she returned home and did not understand how she could live in “such disgusting straits” and “grow up with a love of goodness.”
III. Vera Pavlovna's second dream
Vera dreamed that her husband and Alexey Petrovich were walking across the field. Lopukhov told a friend that there is “pure dirt,” “real dirt,” from which the ear grows. And there is “rotten dirt” - “fantastic dirt”, from which there is no development.
Then she dreamed of her mother. Marya Aleksevna, with anger in her voice, said that she cared about a piece of bread for her daughter and, if she had not been evil, her daughter would not have been kind.
IV
“Vera Pavlovna’s workshop has settled down.” She initially had three seamstresses, who then found four more. Over the course of three years, their workshop only developed and expanded. “A year and a half later, almost all the girls already lived in one large apartment, had a common table, stocked up on provisions in the same order as is done in large farms.”
V–XVIII
Once after a walk, Dmitry Sergeich became seriously ill with pneumonia. Kirsanov and Vera kept watch at the patient’s bedside until he recovered. Kirsanov had been in love with Vera for a long time, so before his friend’s illness he very rarely visited them.
Both Kirsanov and Lopukhov “paved their way with their breasts, without connections, without acquaintances.” Kirsanov was a physician, “already had a department” and was known as a “master” of his craft.
While staying with the Lopukhovs during his friend’s illness, Kirsanov understood that he was “stepping onto a dangerous road for himself.” Despite the fact that his attachment to Vera renewed with greater force, he managed to cope with it.
XIX. Vera Pavlovna's third dream
Vera dreamed that she was reading her own diary. From it she understands that she loves Lopukhov because he “brought her out of the basement.” That before she did not know the need for a quiet, tender feeling that does not exist in her husband.
XX – XXI
Vera had a premonition that she did not love her husband. Lopukhov began to think that he would not “keep her love behind him.” After analyzing the latest events, Lopukhov realized that feelings had arisen between Kirsanov and Vera.
XXII – XXVIII
Lopukhov asked Kirsanov to visit them more often. Vera realized her passion for Kirsanov and wrote a note to her husband apologizing that she loved Alexander. The next day, Lopukhov went to visit his relatives in Ryazan. A month and a half later he returned, lived for three weeks in St. Petersburg, and then left for Moscow. He left on July 9, and on July 11, “in the morning, confusion occurred in a hotel near the Moscow railway station.”
XXIX – XXX
An acquaintance of the Lopukhovs, Rakhmetov, volunteered to help Vera. He knew about Lopukhov’s plans and handed over a note where he wrote that he was going to “leave the stage.”
Rakhmetov had the nickname Nikitushka Lomov, named after a barge hauler who walked along the Volga, “a giant of Herculean strength.” Rakhmetov worked hard on himself and acquired “exorbitant strength.” He was quite sharp and straightforward in his communication. Once I even slept on nails to test my willpower. The author believes that with people like Rakhmetov, “everyone’s life blossoms; without them it would have died out."
XXXI
Chapter 4. Second marriage
I–III
Berlin, July 20, 1856. Letter to Vera Pavlovna from a “retired medical student” in which he conveys the words of Dmitry Sergeich. Lopukhov understood that their relationship with Vera would no longer be the same as before, reflected on his mistakes and said that Kirsanov should take his place.
IV–XIII
Vera is happy with Kirsanov. They read and discuss books together. Once during a conversation, Vera said that “a woman’s organization is almost higher than that of men,” that women are stronger and more resilient than men.
Vera suggested that “you need to have something that cannot be abandoned, which cannot be postponed, - then a person is incomparably stronger.” Vera gave the example of Rakhmetov, for whom a common cause replaced a personal one, while they, Alexander and Vera, only need a personal life.
To be equal to her husband in everything, Vera took up medicine. At that time there were no female doctors yet and for a woman this was a compromising matter.
XIV
Vera and Alexander note that over time their feelings only become stronger. Kirsanov believes that without his wife he would have stopped growing professionally long ago.
XVI. Vera Pavlovna's fourth dream
Vera dreamed of a field covered with flowers, flowering bushes, a forest, and a luxurious palace. Vera is shown three queens, goddesses who were worshiped. The first is Astarte, who was her husband’s slave. The second is Aphrodite, who was exalted only as a source of pleasure. The third is “Purity,” showing a knightly tournament and a knight who loved an inaccessible lady of his heart. Knights loved their ladies only until they became their wives and subjects.
Faith's guide said that the kingdoms of those queens were falling, and now her time had come. Vera understands that she herself is the guide and the new queen. The conductor says that it can be expressed in one word - equality. Vera dreams of New Russia, where people live and work happily.
XVII
A year later, Vera’s new workshop was “completely settled.” The first workshop is run by Mertsalova. Soon they opened a store on Nevsky.
XVIII
Letter from Katerina Vasilievna Polozova. She writes that she met Vera Pavlovna and was delighted with her workshop.
Chapter 5. New faces and denouement
I
Polozova owed a lot to Kirsanov. Her father was a “retired captain or headquarters captain.” After retirement, he began to engage in business and soon created “a fair amount of capital.” His wife died, leaving him a daughter, Katya. Over time, his capital reached several million. But at some point he quarreled with the “right person” and at the age of 60 he remained a beggar (compared to recently, he otherwise lived well).
II–V
When Katya was 17 years old, she suddenly began to lose weight and fell ill. Just a year before the wedding with Vera, Kirsanov was among the doctors who took care of Katya’s health. Alexander guessed that the reason for the girl’s ill health was unhappy love.
“Hundreds of suitors courted the heiress of a huge fortune.” Polozov immediately noticed that his daughter liked Solovtsov. But he was “a very bad man.” Polozov once said a taunt to Solovtsov, who began to visit them rarely, but began to send hopeless letters to Katya. Rereading them, she fantasized about love and fell ill.
VI–VIII
At the next medical consultation, Kirsanov said that Polozova’s disease was incurable, so her suffering must be stopped by taking a lethal dose of morphine. Having learned about this, Polozov allowed the girl to do what she wanted. Three months later the wedding was scheduled. Soon the girl herself realized her mistake and broke off the engagement. Her views changed, now she was even glad that her father had lost his wealth and “the vulgar, boring, disgusting crowd had left them.”
IX
Polozov decided to sell the stearin plant and, after a long search, found a buyer - Charles Beaumont, who was an agent of the London firm of Hodchson, Lauter and Co.
X
Beaumont said that his father came from America, was here “a distiller at a factory in the Tambov province,” but after the death of his wife he returned to America. When his father died, Charles got a job in a London office that deals with St. Petersburg and asked for a position in Russia.
XI – XII
Polozov invited Beaumont to dinner. During the conversation, Katya expressed that she wanted to do something useful. Beaumont advised her to meet Mrs. Kirsanova, but then tell her how her affairs were.
XIII – XVIII
Beaumont began to visit the Polozovs very often. Polozov considered him a good match for Katerina. Katerina and Charles fell in love with each other, but did not show their passion and were very restrained.
Charles proposed to Catherine, warning that he was already married. The girl realized that it was Vera. Katerina gave him consent.
XIX – XXI
The next day, Katerina went to Vera and said that she would introduce her to her fiancé. The Kirsanovs, having learned that it was Lopukhov, were very happy (Dmitry faked suicide, changed his name, went to America, but then returned). “That same evening we agreed: both families should look for apartments that would be nearby.”
XXII
“Each of the two families lives in its own way, whichever one likes best. They see each other like family." “The sewing industry, continuing to get used to itself, continues to exist; there are now three of them; Katerina Vasilievna arranged hers a long time ago.” This year Vera Pavlovna will already “pass the medical exam.”
XXIII
Several years passed, they lived just as friendly. The author depicts a scene of festivities. Among the youth there is a certain lady in mourning who says that “you can fall in love and you can get married, only with discernment and without deception.”
Chapter 6. Change of scenery
“- To Passage! - said the lady in mourning, only now she was no longer in mourning: a bright pink dress, a pink hat, a white mantilla, and a bouquet in her hand.” She had been waiting for this day for more than two years. But the author, not wanting to continue, ends his story.
Conclusion
Chernyshevsky’s novel “What to do?” interesting for its gallery of strong, strong-willed characters - “new” people. These are Vera Pavlovna, Kirsanov, Lopukhov, over whom the image of Rakhmetov seems to rise, standing apart. All these people made themselves and did not stop working on self-development, while trying to invest as much as possible in the “common cause”. In fact they are revolutionaries.
The main character of the book, Vera Pavlovna, does not appear to be an ordinary woman for that time. She decides to go against the will of her parents, is not afraid of society’s condemnation, opening her own workshops, and then becoming a doctor. She inspires other women and people around her to develop themselves and serve the common cause.
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