19th Century Russia: A Brief History
Ivan Turgenev was born into a time characterized by national empowerment and political turmoil. Six years prior to his birth, the Russian army triumphantly defeated Napoleon in his attempts to lead a French military invasion into the country. This emphatic Russian denial of threatened European dominance fostered a great sense of nationalism and patriotism among Russians in the 19th century. It led to a strong movement towards modernization, as well as a widespread desire for constitutional reform. When the heirless tsar Alexander I died in 1825, Russia was left in a state of confusion and political instability. Many people were enraged by Nicholas I’s assumption to the throne, and a group of military officers led a revolt against him in St. Petersburg. This rebellion, known as the Decembrist Revolt, was driven by a desire for the liberalization of the government; specifically, the establishment of a constitution and a federal system. Though the tsar easily quelled the revolt itself, he was unable to reconcile the growing divide between the tsarist conservatism and the reformist ideals that had inspired many Russians, particularly those of the well-educated, noble class
In 1855 Nicholas I’s son, Alexander II, ascended to the throne as tsar, as was his birthright. Inheriting a country plagued by corruption and weakened by war, he decided to commit his reign to the implementation of radical reforms. For centuries, the Russian Empire had long been fueled by the labor of serfs. In 1861, two years before Abraham Lincoln issued his own Emancipation Proclamation, Alexander II released the Emancipation Manifesto, which freed millions of Russian serfs (accounting for over a third of the Russian population) from their feudal chains. The Manifesto granted to the serfs full rights and citizen status. This drastic political move triggered a fair amount of opposition, and the emancipation resulted in much civil and economic unrest. However, liberating the serfs in reality did little to improve their situation, as they had no money to purchase their own land and make themselves economically independent.
Tsar Alexander’s continued pursuit of liberal reforms provoked agitation in Russians on both ends of the political spectrum. The second half of the 19th century was a polarizing time in Russia; opposing intellectual and political factions arose and proclaimed their desire for either a diminishment or an enlargement of the tsar’s power. Different reforms. In cities and universities, the intellectual youth became more politically aware and involved. Though it was a time of great development and industrialization, it is also a time of combating ideals and multiplicity.
Various intellectual movements came into existence during the rule of Alexander II. The Slavophils, upset with the westernization of Russian society, wished for the motherland’s return to the defining values and religiosity of its earlier history. On the other side, the Narodniks, finding inspiration in the writings of Marx, desired radical reforms that would lead to the establishment of a socialist state. With its populist ideals and proposals of radical reform, becomes directly aligned with the young nihilist movement. Nihilism is a word popularized by Turgenev, which is used to express a worldview calling for the negation of all traditional values and beliefs, and insisting that all existence is devoid of meaning or value. As expressed by Bazarov in Fathers and Sons, the movement called for the destruction of all authorities and traditions, so that true radical reform could begin.