The woman's question in the work is what to do. The image of Vera Pavlovna in the novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky “What to do

Chernyshevsky’s novel “What to do?” written in 1862-1863 and has a characteristic subtitle - “From stories about new people.” Chernyshevsky, as later V.I. Lenin was a genius of popularization.

When Verochka was sixteen years old, she stopped studying with the piano teacher at the boarding school, and she began giving lessons at the same boarding school; Then her mother found other lessons for her.” The most important character trait of Vera Pavlovna is her deep aversion to all kinds of oppression and the desire for independence and freedom.

N.G. Chernyshevsky

She says the same thing to Lopukhov: “The main thing is independence! To do what I want, to live as I want, without asking anyone, without demanding anything from anyone, without needing anyone! She has a proud, freedom-loving and determined character.

We need to know his place in the past and present, the real truth about Chernyshevsky’s book and us today

Like other “new people” of Chernyshevsky, she can only be happy when she brings joy and happiness to other people. She knows that personal happiness is “impossible without the happiness of others.” Vera Pavlovna cannot and does not want to deceive either herself or others. Having fallen in love with Kirsanov, she understands that it would be undignified and dishonest to deceive herself and Lopukhov, and she is the first to tell Lopukhov about her feelings.

Vera Pavlovna is not a “blue stocking”; she takes care of her appearance, dresses with taste, and maintains femininity and charm. Vera Pavlovna is not a scheme, but an ordinary living person, of which there were many in Chernyshevsky’s time. She is one of those women who, paving the way for herself, lead others to freedom and happiness. His novel What Is To Be Done? In general, it is polemical in relation to conservative and liberal-noble literature, and Chernyshevsky is also polemical in his interpretation of the women's issue.

This is definitely positive hero novel by Chernyshevsky. Personal happiness" was proclaimed "alpha and omega" human life, the limit of desires, the crown of aspirations. Chernyshevsky believed that a person cannot be happy “with himself.” Only in communication with people can he be truly free. And it is from this point of view that Chernyshevsky’s ethical theory is of exceptional interest.

In 1889, Chernyshevsky received permission to move to his native Saratov, where he died

But he also considered the behavior of his heroes in everyday life as their participation in the struggle for this “re-creation” of society. The selfishness of the “new people” is also based on the calculation and benefit of the individual. A positive person V in true sense there can only be a loving and noble person.” Chernyshevsky never defended egoism in its literal sense. It is unnatural to seek happiness in selfishness, and the fate of an egoist is not at all enviable: he is a freak, and being a freak is inconvenient and unpleasant,” he writes in “Essays Gogol period Russian literature".

Chernyshevsky’s novel is filled with the author’s reflections on the past, present and future of Russia

The center of his attention is the person. I think that the “theory of reasonable egoism,” which Chernyshevsky wrote about in the 19th century, is applicable to our time, because history tends to repeat itself. In the author's interpretation, it depicted Russian life in the past, present and future.

Lopukhov, Kirsanov, Vera Pavlovna are not only endowed with high moral virtues, but with will and energy, so they can build their lives according to their principles. Independent in their judgments, hardworking, they strive not only for personal happiness, but also for general well-being and to “help this come sooner.”

The ideals of freedom and truth that they profess determine their behavior in life - high friendship, dedication, respect for people. One of the most significant for that time - the women's issue - was also resolved in the novel from a fundamentally new perspective. Her happiness lies not only in love, but also in family life, but also in useful labor and social activities. It can be assumed that revolutionary influence was also meant.

New people" create new relationships in their environment

Plekhanov testified to this when he wrote: “Who has not read or re-read this famous work? For Russian youth, wrote the famous revolutionary Prince P. Kropotkin, the novel “What is to be done?” became a kind of revelation and program. Not a single one of Turgenev's stories, not a single work of Tolstoy or any other writer had such a wide and deep influence on Russian youth as this story of Chernyshevsky. It is said in his preface by the author: “I don’t have a shadow of artistic talent.

We must also take into account Chernyshevsky’s enormous authority in a democratic environment that unconditionally worshiped its leader and teacher

But first we need to find out who, when and for what purpose wrote this unique novel. The future leader of revolutionary democracy was born into the family of a Saratov priest, that is, he belonged to a clergy class that was neither ruling, nor privileged, nor truly cultural. The ideas of the theorists of French utopian socialism were familiar and close to him. The theory of rational egoism, which guides the characters in the novel “What is to be done?”, was borrowed from the English bourgeois philosopher I. Bentham.

His acquaintance with the Little Russian historian N.I. dates back to this time. Kostomarov, exiled to Saratov for opposition activities. Sovremennik began publishing a series of articles by Chernyshevsky, “Essays on the Gogol period of Russian literature,” which put their author in the first rank of critics and publicists. Chernyshevsky made a significant acquaintance with the gifted and equally able-bodied seminarian student N.A. Dobrolyubov, his future closest ally and like-minded person.

It is with this that Chernyshevsky’s novel thoughtfully fights with all its ideas and images. But the “happiness of all” becomes possible only in the society that Chernyshevsky’s heroes dreamed of and aspired to. The writer set this great goal for himself, and he achieved it in his social-utopian novel.

It just so happened with Chernyshevsky that the character of Vera Pavlovna in his novel became the most developed and gradually turned into the compositional center of the book. It has already been said that much of this most interesting portrait copied from living nature, and therefore a conscientious description, like a photograph, involuntarily reveals a lot about an image that is so important for the author and his novel, especially a female one.

Let's start from the beginning - with the song that Vera Pavlovna sings in French. How does she know this upper-class language so well and also give lessons in it? After all, she grew up in a poorly educated and deeply immoral family: her father is a thief and bribe-taker, her mother is a rude, cunning drunkard without a conscience and any trace of knowledge of languages. Several years of Verochka’s not very diligent going to the inferior boarding school for knowledge foreign language they don’t give it, they need a French governess at home and a French teacher at the institute noble maidens, reading books and magazines, parents and their guests should speak this language, as it should be in the world. There was nothing like this in the girl’s life.

Already from this little detail characteristic of the author, it is clear that he violates his own theoretical principle “Existence determines consciousness,” for his heroine, despite her illiterate family, unspiritual environment, four years of boarding school and low origin, is a highly educated and highly moral person with very advanced views on life and a well-rounded language, politically and legally savvy, capable of organizing and supplying regular orders to a sewing workshop and a cheerful girls' hostel attached to it. Where all this suddenly came from is unclear.

In a novel by Turgenev or Goncharov, this would be an obvious, unforgivable mistake against the laws of realistic artistry, but in Chernyshevsky no one noticed these inconsistencies against the background of the complete general fantastic nature of his main book. Everyone saw ideas, not unimaginative ways of expressing them. The author deliberately allows such crude displacements in his very flexible, helpful realism (later it was correctly called socialist) in order to show an oppressed woman breaking out of a bad environment for the sake of enlightenment and advanced ideas and boldly fighting for her rights, for her freedom. After all, otherwise it would have been impossible to correctly pose and further develop in the novel the idea of ​​the famous “women’s question,” that is, the problem of equal rights for women and men in Russian society. This “question” is the main content of Vera Pavlovna’s thoughts, actions, dreams and daydreams.

The “women's question” is one of the main ones in revolutionary democratic ideology and propaganda. For the commoners wanted to attract women to their side, promising them a successful fight for their rights, high social ideals, new role in society, legal and economic equality, higher and secondary education (after all, women were not accepted into universities, and gymnasiums and colleges did not exist for them), equality in marriage and love, raising children. Again, the split runs through the main thing in Russian society and existence – through the family. In a semi-eastern, semi-cultured country (Chernyshevsky’s friend Dobrolyubov called it “ dark kingdom"), where girls and married women not so long ago sat locked up in towers, such ideas inevitably captivated progressive women thirsty for social activity and became a great force. They went into the public eye, and then into the revolution (Turgenev’s “New” and the prose poem “The Threshold” were written about this).

Verochka immediately begins to struggle with her low environment and says to her mentor in ethical issues, the progressive-minded Frenchwoman Julie: “I want to be independent and live my own way; whatever I need myself, I’m ready for; What I don’t need, I don’t want and don’t want. I only know that I don’t want to give in to anyone, I want to be free, I don’t want to owe anything to anyone.” The obvious fact that the most honest Julie is a woman of easy virtue is of little concern to Verochka and the author of the novel. Further, Chernyshevsky shows ways for such a progressive girl to arrange her life well, to become a ray of light in a dark kingdom.

She needs to break out of the basement, as Verochka calls her “ugly family,” life with her mother and father, find new brave people with progressive views who will help her, enlighten her, find and show her a way out. Verochka turned her gaze to her brother’s handsome teacher, military medical academy student Dmitry Lopukhov. He talks to her about new ideals, the struggle for the happiness of all people, gives her Feuerbach and other smart books of “good people” to read, talks about some new love, full of mutual respect, built on the theory of reasonable egoism, that is, natural and legitimate aspiration each person to his own benefit: “Your personality in a given situation is a fact; your actions are necessary conclusions from this fact, drawn by the nature of things. You are not responsible for them, and blaming them is stupid.” And this is the famous theory “Everything is permitted.” Following it, you can jump into a lover’s carriage, or you can “ideally” take up an ax.

Further, the educational student is already taking practical actions to save Verochka, who is suffering in her rude family, but he sees a way out and offers her only one: the girl’s flight from the family and a fictitious marriage without the consent of her parents. The leading girl immediately agrees and tells the student: “We will be friends.” But then he describes in detail the structure of their future family life, based on complete economic independence from each other (here Verochka, with her four years of boarding school, hopes for the lessons she will give) and secluded living in different rooms. So friendship alone is not enough for a lively girl. They are crowned by a kind democratic priest, who has read the same Feuerbach and therefore calmly transgresses church rules and secular laws. Here are the basics new family. For many they turned out to be convenient and attractive.

So, with the help of Verochka, readers learned new morals, new views on love and women's rights, ways of salvation with the help of secret marriage(often fictitious), a new order of family life. A woman is not a thing, no one can possess her, she should not depend on a man financially, marriage is free, love is free, she does not bear any responsibility for her actions, committed for her own good according to the method of reasonable egoism, she can fall in love, or she can fall out of love and leave her former husband and children for the sake of a more courageous and worthy fighter for the happiness of all people. The state, church and society, including the stern author of Anna Karenina, told the woman who had violated the laws of morality and society that she was sinful, guilty, and punished her for her sins. Lopukhov says something else: “You are not to blame.” So there is no need to throw yourself in front of a locomotive... So an encyclopedia of new morality began to take shape, according to which thousands and thousands of advanced Russian intellectuals later lived and acted. Vera Pavlovna had many grateful followers.

Next, Vera Pavlovna clearly indicates and justifies practical ways for the economic emancipation of Russian women. This is a common thing, that is, a useful and progressive thing for everyone. Vera Pavlovna organizes her famous sewing workshop with money that came from nowhere, where very good educated girls work diligently according to a new order and honestly divide the money they earned equally equally. They live in a large shared apartment, have a common table and shop together for clothes, shoes, etc. Where do they get the money for this, if a seamstress’s monthly income is a few rubles, but only for an apartment you have to pay about two thousand a year - this is the author not interested and remains without explanation. Of course, there was collective reading of “smart books” out loud, like in a lyceum, targeted self-education, group trips to the theater and out of town with debates on political topics. Behind all this is the blatant propaganda of Chernyshevsky’s revolutionary democratic ideas.

In a word, the science fiction dream of the French utopian socialist Charles Fourier came true, and a phalanx - a cell of a new just society and a phalanstery - a socialist hostel were successfully formed in the center of St. Petersburg. It turns out that such workshops are very profitable and progressive (although a simple breakdown of office accounts shows the opposite: the low cost of manual labor of Russian seamstresses does not correspond high price on imported fabrics, stock, American sewing machines, rent and taxes, not to mention the inevitable bribes and theft and considerable expenses for a phalanstery hostel), and Vera Pavlovna and her friends open their new branches and a fashion store on Nevsky Prospekt. This path of liberated women’s labor, outlined in Chernyshevsky’s novel, immediately became popular, and such workshops and communal hostels in real Russia many arose, because all women wanted to free themselves, earn good money, get into a new cultural environment, meet “new” men there and in this way, finally, solve the notorious “women’s question.” The main book that was passed on and read aloud there was the novel “”, published abroad or rewritten by hand.

Rakhmetov is harsh. It is no coincidence that Vera Pavlovna at first considers him boring, but when she gets to know the hero closer, she understands “how gentle and a kind person" Chernyshevsky presents Rakhmetov to the reader as a necessary person, capable of leading Russia “to the desired goal.” Emphasizing the importance of the hero in the figurative structure of the work, the writer calls him and people like him “the salt of the earth,” “the engines of the engines.”

Continuing her life in a new marriage, Vera Pavlovna again organizes a sewing workshop. She now comes to the first one only as a guest. However, now she spends a lot of time with her husband: they organize poetry readings, openly discuss interpersonal and social aspects women's issue. Vera Pavlovna believes that there are even more naturally intelligent women than men. However, circumstances social life fetter her possibilities: “Woman has played such an insignificant role in mental life until now because the rule of violence deprived her of both the means for development and the motives to strive for development.”

Physically, a woman’s body is weaker, but stronger than a man’s. Kirsanov, as a doctor, makes the assumption that “the strength of the body is too closely related to the strength of the nerves. It is likely that a woman’s nerves are more elastic, have a stronger structure, and if so, they should be able to withstand shocks and difficult feelings more easily and firmly.” At the same time, a woman “too often suffers from what a man easily endures.” During a conversation about the women's issue, Kirsanov states: “Women are told: “You are weak.”

So they feel weak, and they really turn out to be weak.” To prove his point, he cites historical example: “In the Middle Ages, infantry imagined that it could not resist cavalry - and indeed, it could not resist.” However, the Swiss infantry decided that “there is no reason for them to consider themselves weaker than the feudal cavalry. The Austrian, then the Burgundian cavalry, more numerous, began to suffer defeats from them at every meeting; then all the other cavalry tried to fight them, and they were all constantly defeated. Then everyone saw: “but infantry is stronger than cavalry,” - of course, stronger; but whole centuries passed when the infantry was very weak compared to the cavalry only because it considered itself weak.” This example is intended to debunk existing stereotypes of thinking. However, Vera Pavlovna also gives her own compelling argument explaining why a man turns out to be emotionally stronger than a woman. As a rule, he has something to do in life that cannot be postponed. And this helps him cope with his feelings. Verochka says that she also needs such a social cause, since she wants to be equal to her husband in everything.

Vera subtly realized the difference between the first and second marriage. Lopukhov was ready to give up his scientific career for her sake. He extended a helping hand to her, but in general “this hand was far from her.” Kirsanov extended his hand of support to her. He was as interested in her affairs as she was. And this interest is mutual. It is no coincidence that Vera Pavlovna goes with her husband to the hospital. She begins to study medicine seriously. It is symbolic that Lopukhov does not smoke the cigars given by Vera, and Kirsanov brings her her favorite tea straight to bed. And after tea he takes a cigar. The spouses are united by a common cause: Sasha and Vera are engaged in medicine. In addition, the heroine masters both mathematics and Latin language. An interesting fragment of the novel is the digression about blue stockings. In it N.G. Chernyshevsky talks about how the mutual fascination of a man and a woman in old times disappeared quite quickly. For “new people,” love illuminates their lives more and more. The secret to this lies in respect for the freedom of the person you live with. N.G. Chernyshevsky teaches you to look at your wife as a bride who every minute has the right to drive you away: “Recognize her freedom as openly and formally, and without any reservations, as you recognize the freedom of your friends to feel friendship for you, and then

Ten years, twenty years after the wedding, you will be as dear to her as you were as a groom. This is how the husbands and wives of today’s people live.” Describing “new people”, N.G. Chernyshevsky only regrets that for every such person in modern society there are a whole dozen antediluvians. Mutual support inspires both spouses. Kirsanov admits to Verochka that he used to feel like a laborer, a petty worker in science, but now he understands that they are beginning to expect more from him. Kirsanov dreams of reworking a whole large branch of science - the entire “teaching of nervous system" Love returned to him the freshness of his first youth. In the aphoristic phrases of N.G. Chernyshevsky reveals to the reader his understanding of love: “Whoever has not experienced how love excites all the powers of a person does not know true love“,” “Love is to help elevate and elevate,” “Whoever would not have the means for activity without it, she gives them to him. Whoever has them, she allows him to rise to independence”, “Only he loves whose thoughts brighten and his hands become stronger from love.”

However, the writer is not limited to dry phrases. In the fourth dream, Vera Pavlovna sees a beautiful landscape, for the creation of which N.G. Chernyshevsky does not spare color epithets; the leitmotif of the sketch is light. The central images are flowers and birds. Nature rejoices and emits incomparable aromas. At the foot of the mountain, on the outskirts of the forest, Vera Pavlovna sees a tall palace. There is a sumptuous feast during which a poet stands up and tells a love story that has changed over the millennia. Under the slave system, a woman was a slave who was bought by her owner. She was decorated with gold bracelets, but these bracelets looked like shackles. The woman was obliged to obey her master, otherwise he could kill her. Of course, in such conditions it was impossible to talk about true love. This slavery in the fourth dream is patronized by Queen Astarte, the Syrian goddess of love and fertility. In ancient times, love was patronized by Aphrodite. The woman is worshiped here as a source of physical pleasure for the man. She is locked in a gynaecium so that only her master can enjoy her beauty. In this kingdom, a woman also did not have the right to love. In the Middle Ages, a knightly duel was common, the winner of which received the right to worship his lady of the heart. A man loved a woman until he touched her. Purity - Virgo - became the queen of love. As soon as a woman became a wife, the man locked her up and stopped loving her. In the new kingdom, love, according to N.G. Chernyshevsky, should become a free feeling for both: both men and women. “When a man recognizes a woman’s equality with himself, he refuses to view her as belonging to him. Then she loves him as he loves her, only because she wants to love, but if she doesn’t want to, he has no rights over her, just as she has no rights over him,” the author writes. In the final part of the dream, Vera Pavlovna sees a huge building, fields, gardens. All this, according to N.G. Chernyshevsky, are attributes of a wonderful future.

The depiction of the future society is one of the central tasks in the work. N.G. Chernyshevsky reveals to his readers his project for building a new world. There are neither poor nor rich in this world. Everyone lives as one family. Each person works to the best of his ability. Young people work in the fields. Despite the hot day, the work does not exhaust her, since the level of mechanization is very high. Many operations are performed entirely by machines. People work together. Encouraging each other, they sing songs all the time. This kind of work brings them joy and satisfaction. Thanks to this method, the barren desert turned into the most fertile land. N.G. Chernyshevsky suggested interesting way wages. A certain share material goods from the total income a person receives for free. And for special things or whims there is a special calculation. Appearance the people of the future are also wonderful. They bloom with health, strength, slender and graceful, their features are energetic and expressive. There are almost no old people among them, since living conditions are such that people age very slowly.

In her noble work of organizing sewing workshops, Vera Pavlovna finds a faithful assistant

Katerina Vasilievna Polozova, a rich heiress who almost died of unhappy love. She was dreamy, romantic and often imagined herself as the heroine of Georges Sand's novels. Soon her husband becomes the mysterious Englishman Charles Beaumont, who speaks Russian very well. Of course, the astute reader immediately understands that under this name Lopukhov again enters the life of the Kirsanovs. Now that time has passed and he has arranged his personal life, he can again reunite with his friends, but he no longer interferes with their happiness, but is only glad that he helped them find each other.

A distinctive feature of the work of N.G. Chernyshevsky

Journalistic focus. More than a hundred years have passed since the publication of the novel, but the author’s lines addressed to the reader still sound modern and relevant: “Observe, think, read those who tell you about the pure enjoyment of life, that a person can be kind and happy. Read them - their books delight the heart, observe life - it’s interesting to observe, think - thinking is enticing.”

The opinions of N.G. are interesting. Chernyshevsky about work and rest: “In work and in pleasure, people are attracted to people by a common powerful force that is higher than their personal characteristics. - calculation of benefits in work; in pleasure - the same needs of the body. Not so on vacation. This is not a matter of a general force smoothing out personal characteristics: rest is the most personal matter, here nature asks for the most space, where a person expresses himself most in what kind of rest is easier and more pleasant for him.” There are people who are reserved and others who are sociable. But every person wants to have a closed corner in their soul, the so-called special room, for themselves alone. N.G. Chernyshevsky writes that sometimes the world inner life“everyone comes in for all sorts of nonsense, and most often nothing more than to scratch his tongue against your soul.”

The structure of the novel includes letters that are designed to place additional emphasis on the relationship between the characters. The letters add additional psychological subtlety to the narrative.

With the name N.G. Chernyshevsky is associated with an entire era in the history of our country. His contribution to the development of the Russian liberation movement is enormous. But great revolutionary democrat Some mistakes could not be avoided. Nikolai Gavrilovich believed that under certain conditions it is possible to develop a higher formation from a lower one, bypassing the intermediate ones. Progressive youth read the novel with admiration. The work had great value in the formation of a social worldview among subsequent generations. Editor of the scientific publication “What to do?” in the series “Literary Monuments” by S.A. Racer wrote that the novel played a colossal role not only in fiction, but also in the history of Russian socio-political struggle.

Roman N.G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?” was innovative in Russian literature second half of the 19th century century not only as a novel that brought many new ideas into the debate of social thought of that time. He brought innovation to literature in terms of genre, marking the emergence of the genre of the intellectual novel in Russia.

Essay based on the novel by Chernyshevsky N.G. "What to do?". Part 6

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The image of Vera Pavlovna and its role in the novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky “What to do?”

I. Introduction

Vera Pavlovna - main character novel: it is her biography that is consistently traced by the author, it is with her image that the most important problems of the novel are connected - freedom and equality of women, new morality, structure family life, ways to “bring the future closer.”

II. main part

1. The plot of the novel reflects spiritual growth Vera Pavlovna. We first see her in parental home an ordinary girl from a poor but wealthy family who received a good upbringing and education. Vera Pavlovna declares her independence by refusing to marry an unloved person. This is followed by love for Lopukhov and marriage with him, in which Vera Pavlovna feels happy. In the further development of the plot, the heroine discovers broader and more developed needs: she organizes workshops, “releases girls from the basement” - this is her social activity.

In her personal life, Vera Pavlovna also begins to understand herself better and experience dissatisfaction with her relationship with Lopukhov. The consequence of this was love for Kirsanov, in whose marriage Vera Pavlovna found her happiness. By the end of the novel, we see Vera Pavlovna, who is preparing to become a doctor, that is, to receive a purely male specialty at that time.

2. Vera Pavlovna - ordinary " new person"; she is not a hero like Rakhmetov, but simply good, decent and clever woman. In her depiction, the author deliberately emphasizes purely human traits and even weaknesses: she loves good cream, is not averse to being pampered in bed in the morning, has a passion for good shoes, etc. By this, Chernyshevsky wants to show that the path that Vera Pavlovna follows is, in principle, open to everyone: to follow it, you do not need any special talents, you do not need to break anything in yourself, etc.

3. At the same time, it is with the image of Vera Pavlovna in the novel that the image of the future that she sees in her fourth dream is connected, which makes her figure especially significant in the ideological world of the novel.

4. The role of the image of Vera Pavlovna in the composition of the novel is the most important, because it is with him that both the plot action and the formulation and solution of the main problems of the novel are connected.

III. Conclusion

So, in the image of Vera Pavlovna Chernyshevsky we will depict a completely new type of woman for Russian literature. She is fundamentally different from the heroines of Russian novels of the first half of the 19th century (Tatiana Larina, Masha Mironova in Pushkin, female images in “Hero of Our Time” by Lermontov, “Turgenev’s girls”, Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” by Ostrovsky, etc.). In the creation of this image, Chernyshevsky’s ideological and artistic innovation was clearly demonstrated.

In Russia, the problem of women's equality is brought to the forefront not by chance. This is explained, first of all, by the extremely difficult situation in which Russian women found themselves on the eve of the reform of 1861.

The strengthening of the crisis of the serfdom system after 1855 caused increased attention to the women's issue. The women's issue comes to the fore. During these years, the work of N.G. Chernyshevsky developed. In his articles, the women's issue receives an even more acute civic sound. From a purely humanistic interpretation of the women's issue, Chernyshevsky moves on to a revolutionary-democratic interpretation. This process continues after 1861 and is completed by the mid-1860s.

In the novel “What to do?” Chernyshevsky spoke about Nastenka Kryukova, whose life is the same as that of other poor girls. But is moral decline inherent in a woman’s nature? No, the conditions of their life are to blame for it. It's hard to resist moral failure“in the midst of the need and moral indifference of society.” A poor woman experiences a lot of torment and suffering before embarking on the path of “easy virtue.” In her own family, a woman gradually becomes a stranger, because she is a “freeloader”, a burden for the family. The only way out for her - marriage. There could, of course, be exceptions. There were cases when a poor girl married a noble young man who wanted to free her from domestic bondage.

Chernyshevsky depicted a similar outcome in the novel “What is to be done?”, in “The Story of a Girl.” But Lucky case rarely fell to a girl's lot. Society believes that a girl is “lucky” if she somehow arranged her life. There is no talk of happiness here. Marital happiness is rare. In the family, as in society, men want to “dominate.” The woman is humiliated to such an extent that “like an animal is called by the name of the owner,” Herzen notes. In Vera Pavlovna’s fourth dream from the novel “What is to be done?” N.G. Chernyshevsky shows the main thing that is characteristic of the relationship between the sexes - inequality.” “In modern society,” noted Chernyshevsky, it has become simply a commercial transaction, a monetary settlement.”

G.E. paid a lot of attention to the study of women's issues. Blagosvetlov. Blagosvetlov’s views on the women’s issue are reflected in the articles “Why do we need women” (1869), “Women’s work and its reward” (1870) and a whole number of other works.

Blagosvetlov, like his predecessors - revolutionary democrats, saw in the women's issue a manifestation of a general problem - the position of man in an exploitative society.

According to Blagosvetlov, the enslavement of a woman occurred as she was displaced from the spheres in which she once resided. For centuries, women have been practicing medicine. This right was taken away from her. A working woman has always shared the burden of worries with a man. But in a capitalist society, where labor has acquired a hired character and is valued in money, women’s labor has become the lot of ruthless exploitation. Physically female weaker than men. Therefore, it is gradually being replaced wherever a man can be hired to work. When working the same as a man, a woman is usually paid less.

Women do not participate in socio-political movements. There is no reason for this. The whole society is to blame for the plight of women, because no one has seriously thought about the question of “how to help the grief” of a working woman.

While many limited themselves to advice to change a woman’s position in the family, Blagosvetlov focused on her position in society. “It is not the rehabilitation of the family,” he wrote, “that will restore the moral position of women, but, on the contrary, the best economic conditions, in which a woman will be placed will restore the purity of marriage and family.”

Blagosvetlov believed that if a woman’s economic situation changes, her moral state will also change and the marriage will strengthen. He saw economic liberation as the main condition for a woman’s salvation. He also outlined a specific program for economic emancipation. It included attracting women to activities that were within their capabilities based on their physical capabilities, and establishing equal wages with men, guaranteed by law.

Blagosvetlov was sure that economic conditions primarily influence the position of the individual. He saw evidence of this in many phenomena. So, speaking about prostitution, he noted that this evil is social, directly resulting from the economic slavery of women.

In the works of N.V. Shelgunov was also interested in the women's issue great place. He is in the early 60s. drew attention to the position of a woman and her right to happiness.

Shelgunov believes that a woman has not only great moral strength, but also a wonderful mind.

But to deprive a woman of a decent education means to deprive the younger generation of an appropriate education. The woman is accused of being a bad influence on children. Life experience Women in such conditions are very organic, and she cannot fulfill her mission.

Shelgunov attached great importance family. In his opinion, she is the main cell of the civil society, which raises children for this society.

Thus, when developing the doctrine of personality, advanced Russian thinkers paid a lot of attention to the problems of women's equality. They not only theoretically substantiated the need for women's emancipation, but also developed a program for solving the women's issue. This program covered many aspects of women's situation, including women's labor, participation in public life, upbringing and education of women, family and marriage issues, attitude of parents and children, etc. This program formed the basis of a wide social movement in favor of women's equality, unfolding late XIX and the beginning of the 20th century.

The emergence of the women's movement was also facilitated by the ideas of Western figures penetrating into Russia about gender equality, humanism, and new family relationships. The work of the English philosopher John Stuart Mill “On the Subjection of Women” answered many women's issues. He proclaimed the principle of the subordination of women to men as a social evil, the strongest brake on social progress.

Justifying the need for women to be allowed into the civil service and to participate in elections, Mill named a number of women’s personal qualities that gave them advantages: insight, the ability to recognize people, caution, and practicality.

Among the reasons for the emergence of the women’s movement, one can note the emergence of women’s periodicals “Delo”, “Zhenskoe Delo”, “Women’s Bulletin”, where articles were published in defense of women’s equality, chronicles of the women’s movement in Russia and abroad were given, and stories were told about women's organizations and their managers, etc.

Russian civilization