What Is to Be Done?

What Is to Be Done?

By Nikolay Chernyshevsky.

Translated by Nathan Haskell Dole and Simon S. Skidelsky.

Table of Contents

1. Titlepage
2. Imprint
3. Preface
4. What Is to Be Done?
   1. A Vital Question
      1. I: A Fool
      2. II: The First Consequences of the Fool’s Deed
      3. III: Preface
   2. Part I: The Life of Viéra Pavlovna in Her Parents’ Family
      1. I
      2. II
      3. III
      4. IV
      5. V
      6. VI
      7. VII
      8. VIII
      9. IX
   3. Part II: First Love, and Legal Marriage
      1. I
      2. II
      3. III
      4. IV
      5. V
      6. VI
      7. VII
      8. VIII: The Temptation of Hamlet
      9. IX
      10. X
      11. XI
      12. XII: Viérotchka’s First Dream
      13. XIII
      14. XIV
      15. XV
      16. XVI
      17. XVII
      18. XVIII
      19. XIX
      20. XX
      21. XXI
      22. XXII
      23. XXIII
      24. XXIV: A Word of Praise for Marya Alekséyevna
   4. Part III: Marriage and Second Love
      1. I
      2. II
      3. III: Viéra Pavlovna’s Second Dream
      4. IV
      5. V
      6. VI
      7. VII
      8. VIII
      9. IX
      10. X
      11. XI
      12. XII
      13. XIII
      14. XIV: Nástenka’s Story
      15. XV
      16. XVI
      17. XVII
      18. XVIII
      19. XIX: Viéra Pavlovna’s Third Dream
      20. XX
      21. XXI
      22. XXII: A Theoretical Conversation
      23. XXIII
      24. XXIV
      25. XXV
      26. XXVI
      27. XXVII
      28. XXVIII
      29. XXIX: An Extraordinary Man
      30. XXX
      31. XXXI: A Colloquy with the Sapient Reader, and His Banishment
   5. Part IV: Second Marriage
      1. I
      2. II
      3. III
      4. IV
      5. V
      6. VI
      7. VII
      8. VIII
      9. IX
      10. X
      11. XI
      12. XII: A Digression Concerning Blue Stockings
      13. XIII
      14. XIV
      15. XV: Viéra Pavlovna’s Fourth Dream
      16. XVI
      17. XVII: A Letter from Ekaterina Vasílyevna Pólozova
   6. Part V: New People, and the Finale
      1. I
      2. II
      3. III
      4. IV
      5. V
      6. VI
      7. VII
      8. VIII
      9. IX
      10. X
      11. XI
      12. XII
      13. XIII
      14. XIV
      15. XV
      16. XVI
      17. XVII
      18. XVIII
      19. XIX
      20. XX
      21. XXI
      22. XXII
      23. XXIII
   7. Part VI: Change of Scenes
5. Endnotes
6. Colophon
7. Uncopyright

Imprint

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Preface

In the present translation the American public has an opportunity of studying what the paternal Russian government regards as revolutionary literature. In the Russian cities it is possible, by offering guarantees, by depositing fifteen or twenty rubles, and by paying fifteen or twenty kopeks a day, to borrow Chernyshevsky’s novel from the libraries. It is dangerous property, however, and the person caught with it in his possession may make unpleasant acquaintance with the police. It was published first in the columns of the Sovremennik (Contemporary). It was written with all the enthusiasm which an ardent soul could feel at the first breath of liberty blowing on a land long ground down under the heel of oppression. It made an immense sensation throughout Russia. It is said that hundreds of young girls living in disagreeable circumstances started to follow Viéra Pavlovna’s example, and hundreds of young men, to live honorable, lofty, philosophical lives in the fashion of the types represented by Lopukhóf and Kirsánof. The tendency of the story was quite too liberal, and it was hardly brought out in book form before it was ruthlessly suppressed. Even now, however, it works like a leaven; and though it is dead, it lives. It is not a novel in the strict sense of the word. The characters are all drawn from life: Kirsánof is understood to be a picture of the distinguished Professor Shévitch of St. Petersburg, and Viéra Pavlovna still lives. The extraordinary man, so singularly introduced in the third part, is regarded in Russia as an ideal picture of the famous Karakózof.

In the present unsettled state of the labor question this novel of the crushed Russian reformer has a most vital interest. It ought to come to every poor working girl like a breath from heaven, like an inspiration. There is no reason why Viéra Pavlovna’s industrial experiment, which is no chimerical dream, should not be put into practice in every town where the English language is spoken. Are not the signs as certain as fate, that cooperation is to be the great system of the future? and how reasonably it is presented in A Vital Question! Then there will be no more strikes for eight hours of work, no more quarrels between employers and the employed, for the employed will be themselves their own employers. As regards the still more vital question upon which the book touches, it is evident what the author teaches, and with what a master hand! The present marriage system is in many instances