Fathers and Sons: Chapter 10 Summary & Analysis

About two weeks pass, with Arkady enjoying his leisure and Bazarov working on his scientific experiments. Everyone gets accustomed to Bazarov, especially Fenichka, after Bazarov heals Mitya one night when the baby gets sick. At the same time, Pavel despises Bazarov as an “impudent fellow, a cynic and a vulgarian.” The servants feel that Bazarov is one of them, except for Prokofyich, who dislikes him.

Bazarov gets up early in the mornings to collect grass and insect specimens, and Arkady sometimes goes with him. They often argue, and Bazarov always wins the arguments, though Arkady is the more eloquent of the two. One day Nikolai goes out to meet the young men in the garden and hears them arguing. Bazarov says that Nikolai is old fashioned and has “had his day.” Nikolai goes back inside. Bazarov argues that Arkady ought to persuade his father to stop reading romantic “rubbish” like Pushkin and give him something “sensible” to read instead—Büchner’s Stoff und Kraft, for instance.

That day Nikolai sits with Pavel at dinner. He feels hurt, having hoped that he and Arkady could now grow closer. Instead, Arkady has “forged ahead,” and they can no longer understand one another. Pavel dismisses Bazarov as a conceited “quack.” Nikolai disagrees, but he can’t figure out where he went wrong. He’s always sought to be progressive, even “radical,” and has tried to keep up with the age—but to no avail. He tells Pavel that, earlier, while he sat reading Pushkin’s The Gypsies, Arkady came up and, with “an affectionate look of pity,” replaced Pushkin with Stoff und Kraft.

Pavel examines the ninth edition of Stoff und Kraft and asks Nikolai what he makes of the book. Nikolai replies that either he is stupid or it is all rubbish; he supposes the former. Then he changes the subject, telling Pavel that Kolyazin, a bigwig privy councilor who is a relative of theirs, is visiting the province and wishes to see them. Pavel dismisses this, pointing out that he and Nikolai are “back numbers” anyway—although he’s sure he has “a skirmish with that doctor fellow” in front of him before all is said and done.

Later that day, at tea-time, Pavel comes to the table irritable and looking for a fight. He waits impatiently for Bazarov to give him a pretext, and finally Bazarov obliges, calling a neighboring landowner “a complete rotter, a third-rate aristocrat.” Pavel inquires whether Bazarov considers all aristocrats to be “rotters,” and then Pavel gives the English aristocracy as an example of “genuine” aristocrats who are worthy of a liberal person’s respect. (As he does so, he takes on an ever more aristocratic accent, a relic from the days of Alexander I.) Pavel argues that aristocratic self-respect and good character—like his own habit of dressing finely even in the depths of the country—are the backbone of the social fabric.

Pavel then argues that “aristocratism” is merely a principle, and “only immoral or silly people” can do without principles; the logic of history demands them. Bazarov retorts that humanity doesn’t have time for such abstractions; no one needs “logic” to put a piece of bread in their mouth when they’re hungry. The only thing upon which conduct should be based is what is “useful”; all else should be repudiated. Arkady “[glows] with satisfaction” during this exchange.

Pavel argues that one cannot just destroy; one must also construct, but Bazarov maintains that “that is not our affair … the ground must be cleared first.” Arkady adds “pompously” that “the present condition of the people requires” this. Pavel vehemently rejects that this really represents Russian needs and aspirations. The Russian people, he says, hold tradition sacred and can’t live without faith. The young men continue to insist that this fact proves nothing.

Nikolai tries to disrupt the exchange. Pavel calms his brother and addresses Bazarov once more, arguing that such “materialism” has been tried before and has always proven itself to be bankrupt. Bazarov is beginning to get angry. Endless debating of social issues, he says, is a waste of time; “so-called progressives and reformers” never accomplish anything. That is why nihilists have decided to “confine ourselves to abuse” rather than trying to do anything “serious.”

When Arkady agrees with Bazarov, Pavel groans that such a force as nihilism is fundamentally uncivilized. Anyway, nihilists are too few to make any difference among the Russian masses. When Bazarov says that nihilists are more numerous than Pavel thinks, Pavel calls this an “almost Satanic pride” and mocks the presumption of youths who reject everything as “rubbish.” Bazarov continues to argue that there is no public or private institution that should not be ruthlessly repudiated, including the peasant commune and the family. He and Arkady excuse themselves to go and dissect frogs, leaving Pavel and Nikolai speechless.