Fathers And Sons

The governor of the town Bazarov and Arkady visit is in a dispute with the local nobles. Nikolai’s distant relative Kolyazin has been sent by the imperial court to investigate. Kolyazin is a vain, unctuous, condescending namedropper, whose primary goal is to seem outsmarted. He likes to discomfit his underlings by asking questions and then pretending not to hear their answers. Kolyazin advises Arkady and Bazarov to pay their respects to the town governor by attending a ball the governor is giving soon, where Arkady should dance with the young ladies.

Bazarov argues that they should go to the ball for lack of other options. The two friends meet the governor, who invites them again to the ball but barely remembers their names. As they leave, they meet a young man called Sitnikov, who wears a “Slavophile jacket” that marks him as a devotee of peasant culture and Russian identity rather than European views (50). Sitnikov calls himself Bazarov’s disciple and claims that nihilism has liberated him. He suggests they visit his patroness Evdoksiya Kukshina, a “progressive woman” who lives apart from her husband (51). Bazarov has no interest in visiting a woman who isn’t conventionally attractive, but agrees to go for free champagne. Bazarov mocks Sitnikov’s family wealth, which comes from business rather than inheritance, and the three young men set off.

At Kukshina’s house, they are greeted by someone who “wasn’t exactly a servant, but not quite a companion, wearing a cap—obvious signs of the mistress’s progressive tendencies” (52). The room is a mess, with journals and cigarettes everywhere. Kukshina attempts to look relaxed, but is “always anxious” and slightly mannered, acting “neither simply nor naturally” (52). Kukshina is interested in chemistry and expounds on her progressive feminist views, disparaging French feminist author George Sand as too conservative. She peppers them with questions the way that “children talk to their nannies” (53).

Kukshina announces her boredom with town life and intention to live abroad. When Bazarov asks about any attractive local women, Kukshina describes Anna Sergeevna Odintsova, a typical undereducated Russian aristocratic woman, who has some fine qualities, but few original thoughts. Sitnikov also disparages women, though the narrator points out that he will “grovel before” his own wife (55). When the virulent misogynist Bazarov argues that women have no need for conversation, Kukshina attacks him as an anti-feminist and a follower of Proudhon, the French father of anarchism. Bazarov takes offense: He doesn’t subscribe to any philosopher or school of thought.

Soon, they are quite intoxicated on many bottles of champagne. As Sitnikov and Kukshina drunkenly sing, Arkady and Bazarov leave the “bedlam” (57). Sitnikov follows, asserting that Kukshina is a “moral phenomenon” and worthy person. Bazarov snarks that, in that case, Sitnikov’s father’s tavern is also a “moral phenomenon” (57). Sitnikov is disconcerted by this remark: He feels flattered by the attention, but also shamed for his non-aristocratic background (57).

At the governor’s ball, Kolyazin, as a guest, is treated with deference. He calls makes a point of speaking Russified French to mark himself as a down-to-earth aristocrat. Kukshina presents something of a spectacle, with “dirty gloves […] and no crinoline,” but Kolyazin is deferential to her (58). Sitnikov lets Arkady know when Anna Sergeevna Odintsova arrives, with flowers in her hair, her shoulders fashionably uncovered, and “some sort of tender, gentle strength emanated from her face” (58). Bazarov obnoxiously compliments her: “she doesn’t resemble the other hags” (58).

Anna dances with Arkady, treating him with like a kid brother, though she also speaks favorably of his father, a casual acquaintance. Arkady is smitten, and happily tells her about himself and his family. He also talks up Bazarov at great length, to the point where Anna invites them to visit her at her hotel room in town.

Bazarov flippantly probes Arkady for more information about Anna, teasing Arkady for his lack of sophistication. While Bazarov doubts that Anna has much to offer intellectually, he admits “she has the nicest pair of shoulders I’ve seen in a long time” (60). Offended by Bazarov’s objectifying manner, Arkady asks why Bazarov is opposed to seeing women as intelligent, independent beings. Bazarov argues that self-emancipation makes women “ugly monsters” (61). Chiming in with the novel’s example of this kind of attitude, the narrator announces that the ball concludes with Kukshina dancing all night, offended the young men have neglected her, an “edifying spectacle” (61).