Arguably one of the most historically significant novels of all time, What Is to Be Done? played a crucial role in inspiring the Russian revolutionary intelligentsia and earned Lenin's praise as pre-Marx socialism's greatest voice, now freshly repackaged for the Union Square & Co. Signature Classics Line.
Controversial and profoundly impactful, Nikolai Chernyshevsky's 1863 novel, What Is to Be Done? offered a radical vision of selfless intellectuals remaking society through reason and science, inspiring Russian revolutionaries and helping to reshape Russian nineteenth-century politics and imagination. With its critique of moderate reform, Chernyshevsky's novel offered a powerful socialist vision that would exacerbate the divide between revolutionaries and liberal reformers, paving the way for Marx's work and the Russian Revolution. Its impact cannot be overstated; as The Southern Review has argued, "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."