All the movement and change in Fathers and Children caused by the arrival of Bazarov and his conflict with Pavel is not so with Stavrogin in Demons. Stavrogin has no natural enemy, although for awhile the town is hostile towards him. The plot in Demons is convoluted and sometimes hard to follow. The actions of the characters in Demons do not make sense. And that is precisely the point. Stavrogin cannot be a catalyst in the same way that Bazarov is a catalyst, because that would somehow imply...

Works like Young Russia and A History of Russian Thought from Enlightenment to Marxism provide similar narratives on the radicalization of the Russian Intelligentsia and the emergence of nihilism. Exposure to French culture in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars created an inferiority complex in Russians towards Europe. Some young men who had fought in the Napoleonic Wars wanted to reform Russia. They would eventually lead the Decembrist revolt to overthrow the Czarist regime. The revolt failed....