Ivan Turgenev chronicles the philosophies and actions of Yevgeny Bazarov, a young physician, in his novel Fathers and Sons. Bazarov does not believe in anything but science; he is rude, sarcastic and strident at work. He calls himself a nihilist and rejects all traditional institutions and forms of authority.
The novel begins with Arkady Kirsanov who has just graduated from the University of Petersburg returning to his father’s modest estate in an outlying province of Russia. He has a friend with him, Bazarov. Though his father welcomes both of them, Arkady’s brother soon gets disturbed by Bazarov’s philosophy of nihilism. Nihilism says that life is meaningless; this philosophy rejects all religious and moral principles. The novel ends with Bazarov’s death.
Fathers and Sons talks about the inevitable conflict between generations, and between the values of traditionalists and intellectuals. It created a lot of controversy when it was published.