What Is to Be Done? · Chapter
Endnotes explained
The endnotes provide translator's commentary and clarifications on various aspects of the novel, including cultural references, Russian customs, linguistic nuances, and historical context.
What happens
The endnotes provide translator's commentary and clarifications on various aspects of the novel, including cultural references, Russian customs, linguistic nuances, and historical context. They also highlight Chernyshevsky's prophetic insights on women's education, electric light, aluminum, and socialist ideals, while explaining terms like 'tchin' (rank hierarchy) and Easter traditions.
Themes in this chapter
Women's Emancipation
The endnotes highlight Viéra Pavlovna as a pioneer in women's medical education, reflecting the novel's role in advancing women's rights and professional opportunities.
Utopian Socialism
The translator defends Chernyshevsky's idealized socialism, arguing that systematic union could reduce waste and suffering, pointing to corporations and bazaars as precursors to a future socialist ideal.
Critique of Bourgeois Society
The notes criticize the selfishness and rascality of the average tchinovnik (bureaucrat), and the legal powerlessness of married women in Russia, aligning with the novel's critique of bourgeois social structures.
Characters to notice
- Viéra Pavlovna
Mentioned as the pioneer who stimulated the study of medicine by women in Russia.
- Mademoiselle Julie
Referenced in a note about Nekrásof's poem describing a girl like Julie.
- Nekrásof
Quoted in a note about a poem describing a girl like Julie.
Key passages
“It gave an immense stimulus to the study of medicine by women. As is well known, all the medical schools of Europe, especially Switzerland, draw scores of Russian women to their halls. Viéra Pavlovna was the pioneer.”
The novel greatly encouraged women to study medicine, leading many Russian women to attend European medical schools, with Viéra Pavlovna as the trailblazer.
Translator's note on the novel's impact on women's medical education.
“The theory which Chernyshevsky hints at, and which is regarded with such terror, proves, when regarded fairly in the face, to be like one of the lions bound, which frightened Bunyan's Christian.”
Chernyshevsky's hinted theory, though feared, is actually harmless when examined, like the chained lion in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.
Translator's comment on censorship and the perceived danger of Chernyshevsky's ideas.
“But is Chernyshevsky after all such a rabid radical? Is not his ideal what all men want when they pray for the coming of the kingdom of Heaven?—not the republic of Heaven, by the way.”
Chernyshevsky's ideal is not radical but aligns with universal human desires for a better world, akin to the kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
Translator's defense of Chernyshevsky's socialist vision.