"The heart of Russian Nihilism was about breaking with the failures of the past and about crafting a new identity. This was the meaning of the ‘Fathers and Sons’ phrase used at the time and remembered today in Turgenev’s novel of the same name.

"Whereas the "fathers" grew up on German idealistic philosophy and romanticism in general, with its emphasis on the metaphysical, religious, aesthetic, and historical approaches to reality, the "sons," led by such young radicals as Nicholas Chernyshevsky, Nicholas Dobroliubov, and Dmitrii Pisarev, hoisted the banner of utilitarianism, positivism, materialism, and especially "realism." "Nihilism" — and also in large part "realism," particularly "critical realism" — meant above all else a fundamental rebellion against accepted values and standards: against abstract thought and family control, against lyric poetry and school discipline, against religion and rhetoric. The earnest young men and women of the 1860's wanted to cut through every polite veneer, to get rid of all conventional sham, to get to the bottom of things. What they usually considered real and worthwhile included the natural and physical sciences — for that was the age when science came to be greatly admired in the Western world — simple and sincere human relations, and a society based on knowledge and reason rather than ignorance, prejudice, exploitation, and oppression. [1]i Nechayev "

A History of Russia, sixth edition, by Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Oxford University Press 2000. p. 448.

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