#pisarev

[russia-libertaire]

Pisarev accepted with pride the name 'Nihilist', invented by Turgenev in his novel Fathers and Sons, which appeared in 1861. Liberal and radical opinion had given an unfavourable reception to this work, claiming that it was an unfair caricature. But Pisarev accepted it as a true picture, of which he was proud. The chief character in the novel, Bazarov, appeared to him an excellent model for imitation in real life. Pisarev had a great influence on his readers, but he did not live to play an active part in revolutionary leadership.

The Russian Empire 1801-1917, by Hugh Seton-Watson

[russia-libertaire]

"The final aim of all our thinking and of all the activity of every decent man amounts to this - to solve for ever the unavoidable question of hungry and naked people; apart from this question there is definitely nothing which it would be worth worrying, thinking and fussing about."

The Realists, D.I. Pisarev

[russia-libertaire]

Pisarev's 'muslin girls'

[...] Their conception of the universe does not go much beyond their muslin dresses. And he reasoned how with their 'muslin education' and their 'muslin-girl conceptions' they must unavoidably come to grief. And by this article, which every girl in every educated family in Russia read, he induced thousands upon thousands of Russian girls to say to themselves: 'No, never will I be like that poor muslin girl. I will conquer knowledge; I will think; and I will make for myself a better future.' Each of his articles had a similar effect. It gave to a young mind the first shock.

Russian Literature, by Peter Kropotkin

[russia-libertaire]

Fathers and Children, Turgenev and the young radicals

Turgueneff had so much accustomed us to a certain poetical halo which surrounded his heroes, and to his own tender love which followed them, even when he condemned them, that finding nothing of the sort in his attitude towards Bazaroff, we saw in the absence of these features a hostility of the author towards the hero.

And yet, as Pisareff understand at once, Bazaroff was a real representative of the young generation. Turgueneff, as he himself wrote later on, merely did not 'add syrup' to make his hero appear somewhat sweeter.

[...] it was only on rereading Fathers and Sons much later on that we noticed, in the very words that so offended us, the germs of a realistic philosophy of solidarity and duty which only now begins to take a more or less definite shape.

Russian Literature, by Peter Kropotkin

[twodogsdead]

Today's young people become carried away and go to extremes; but this very tendency to get carried away points to fresh strength and incorruptible intellect; this strength and this intellect, without any outside assistance or influence, will lead these young people on to the right road and will support them in life.

Dmitry Pisarev, ‘Bazarov’

[twodogsdead]

Защищать молодое поколение - значит защищать свои собственные убеждения. 'To protect the younger generation' means to protect one's own beliefs.

Дмитрий Писарев, ‘Реалисты’

Dmitry Pisarev, ‘Realists’

[screamingatthevoid]

What can be smashed must be smashed; whatever will stand the blow is sound, what flies into smithereens is rubbish; at any rate, hit out right and left, no harm will or can come of it.

Dmitri Pisarev (1840-1868)

[twodogsdead]

But what is to be done? Is it possible to infect ourselves on purpose just in order to have the satisfaction of dying beautifully and tranquilly? No! What is to be done? We must live while we are alive, eat dry bread if there is no roast beef, know many women if it is not possible to love a woman, and, in general, we must not dream about orange trees and palms, when under foot are snowdrifts and the cold tundra.

Dmitry Pisarev, Bazarov