"No work in modern literature, with the possible exception of
Uncle Tom's Cabin, can compete with What Is to Be Done? in its
effect on human lives and its power to make history. For
Chernyshevsky's novel, far more than Marx's Capital, supplied the
emotional dynamic that eventually went to make the Russian
Revolution." Joseph Frank, The Southern Review
Almost from the moment of its publication in 1863, Nikolai
Chernyshevsky's novel, What Is to Be Done?, had a profound impact
on the course of Russian literature and politics. The idealized
image it offered of dedicated and self-sacrificing intellectuals
transforming society by means of scientific knowledge served as a
model of inspiration for Russia's revolutionary intelligentsia. On
the one hand, the novel's condemnation of moderate reform helped to
bring about the irrevocable break between radical intellectuals and
liberal reformers; on the other, Chernyshevsky's socialist vision
polarized conservatives' opposition to institutional reform. Lenin
himself called Chernyshevsky "the greatest and most talented
representative of socialism before Marx"; and the controversy
surrounding What Is to Be Done? exacerbated the conflicts that
eventually led to the Russian Revolution.
Michael R. Katz's readable and compelling translation is now the
definitive unabridged English-language version, brilliantly
capturing the extraordinary qualities of the original. William G.
Wagner has provided full annotations to Chernyshevsky's allusions
and references and to the, sources of his ideas, and has appended a
critical bibliography. An introduction by Katz and Wagner places
the novel in the context of nineteenth-century Russian social,
political, and intellectual history and literature, and explores
its importance for several generations of Russian radicals."
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