Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/40

14 Tatjana. Družinin’s Polin'ka will not accept the sacrifice which her husband offers to make, and remains with him; the husband, aware of her love for the young, ardent, and romantic Galickii, condones it; but in the end dies of consumption. Similarly, Herzen makes his unhappy husband die of drink. Turgenev, Gončarov, and Ostrovskii, all treated the problem prior to Černyševskii. Thus the last-named had before him numerous attempts at its solution. Moreover, as a socialist, it was natural that he should devote serious attention to the subject, being impelled thereto by socialist authorities and by the members of his own circle. Mihailov early began to write seriously upon the woman's problem and Černyševskii followed in his footsteps.

Russian history contains records, not only of learned women like Daškova, but also of the valiant wives of the decabrists. Under Nicholas, wives and mothers suffered from political oppression no less than husbands and fathers; women shared men's political aspirations, and bravely played their parts in the revolutionary movement that followed 1861. The social position of the middle class, and above all that of the rasnočinec, was rendered acutely difficult by the liberation of the peasantry, and the woman's question consequently became more pressing. As a result of this, liberals and radicals busied themselves in securing the admission of women to the sources of education and to the means of independent livelihood. Even the government took some steps forward, and women's schools were founded as early as 1858.

The reproach of immorality which has been made against Černyševskii's novel, the reproach that the author is an advocate of "free love," may be unhesitatingly dismissed. Even those who refuse to accept Černyševskii's solution must admit that after separation and remarriage the two couples lived far more morally than many wedded pairs in liberal and conservative circles of the day—not to speak of court life. In youth, Černyševskii had made up his mind to remain continent before marriage, and kept his resolution. Writing in 1858 a review of Turgenev's Asja, he said: "Away with erotic problems. The modern reader takes no pleasure in them, for he is concerned with the question of perfecting the administration and the judicial system, with questions of finance, and with the problem of liberating the peasantry." This was and remained the dominant mood of the nihilists. Černyševskii