Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky is a prominent figure in Russian literature.
Life and art
As mentioned above, the "Chernyshevsky /"What should I do?" "Firmly settled in the head of students and students. Thanks to this work, the writer can rightfully be considered the first Russian philosopher-utopian. By convictions, Chernyshevsky himself called himself a revolutionary democrat. He was born in Saratov, in the family of a poor priest. He received his primary education at home under the guidance of his father. Then he entered the theological seminary, but soon realized that he did not feel called to such activities and transferred to St. Petersburg University, where he began to study history, philosophy and philology. In 1850, a young scientist received a Ph.D.
Arrest
Today it is known for certain that since 1861Nikolay Gavrilovich was under the vigilant supervision of the secret police. None of his contemporaries doubted that he actively participated in drafting anti-government appeals and was even involved in the famous fires of 1862 in St. Petersburg. On June 12, the writer was arrested and placed in solitary confinement of the Peter and Paul Fortress. As an official charge, he was shown the writing of proclamations to the "Bars peasants." The reason for the arrest was a letter sent from abroad by Herzen, in which Chernyshevsky was mentioned. "What should I do?" - a novel that was completely written in the fortress.
Civil penalty, exile, death
On February 7, 1864, the writer was sentenced: seven years of hard labor, and then a life-long settlement in Siberia. On May 19, the civil execution of Chernyshevsky was held on the Horse Square. Family members and numerous followers at various times filed petitions for pardon, but the return of the revolutionary to Saratov took place only in June 1889. In the autumn he passed away.
Chernyshevsky, "What to do": a summary of the work
The novel was written partly as a polemic with"Fathers and children" of Turgenev. According to Chernyshevsky himself, he set himself the goal of describing "ordinary decent people of the new generation". The central characters in the book are three: Vera Rosalskaya, Dmitry Lopukhov and Alexander Kirsanov. Verochka is the daughter of the manager. Greedy and vulgar mother intends to give the girl a favorable marriage, but the noble and proud beauty decides to take fate into her own hands and makes a fictitious marriage with medical student Lopukhov. Their family life is built on the principles of mutual respect, equality and freedom. Faith even opens a sewing workshop-commune. However, their happiness does not last long - a young woman falls in love with her husband's best friend, Kirsanov. The noble Dmitry does not want to stand in their way and mock suicide (so that Vera can remarry again), after which she leaves for America, where she studies industrial production. A few years later he returns to Russia under a different name and marries Ekaterina Polozova, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist. Naturally, both families closely communicate, intending to build a "new" social life. So the novel "What to do?" Ends. N. Chernyshevsky to the end of his life remained faithful to those ideals, which he declared in his main work.
