Item #46 [THE BOOK THAT PLANTED A SEED OF
REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA] Chto Delat? [What Is To Be Done?]. N. Chernyshevsky.
[THE BOOK THAT PLANTED A SEED OF
REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA] Chto Delat? [What Is To Be Done?]
[THE BOOK THAT PLANTED A SEED OF
REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA] Chto Delat? [What Is To Be Done?]
[THE BOOK THAT PLANTED A SEED OF
REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA] Chto Delat? [What Is To Be Done?]

[THE BOOK THAT PLANTED A SEED OF
REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA] Chto Delat? [What Is To Be Done?]

St. Petersburg: 1863. Item #46

(In the original printing of nos. 3-5 of Sovremennik [The Contemporary] (March-May, 1863). pp. [2], 5-142; 373-526; 55-197 + [1]: "Zagadka", by N. Berg. Contemporary quarter-leather. New endpapers, title in gilt on the spine is also modern. Some very occasional staining, pencil underscores in text. Good copy overall.

Rare.

This scarce first printing of all parts of the most influential Russian novel ever written, Chernyshevsky's magnum opus is considered the single most important work of modern revolutionary thought.
Marx famously stated (to Lopatin), "Of all contemporary economists, Chernyshevsky is the only original mind; the others are just ordinary compilers" (Lopatin, Avtobiografia (Petrograd, 1922) p. 77).
Chernyshevsky wrote the novel in the cell of Petropavlovskaya krepost (the Peter and Paul Fortress, a prison) whilst awaiting trial. He stood accused of writing a proclamation to peasants which government officials saw as an appeal for revolution. When Chernyshevsky was arrested, he was already a significant and popular figure in liberal circles and the idol of the student community.
The novel he wrote in his cell is an appeal to the masses. It is extraordinary that the novel passed through censors and appeared in the spring issues of Sovremennik [The Contemporary]. Censor Beketov was dismissed soon afterwards and the issues of the journal containing the novel were banned, but by then it was already too late – the seditious novel had reached its readers and was already creating a storm in Russian society. Unlike previous examples in Russian Literature, Chto delat? resonated with Russian youth and moved them to action.
It set the tone for everyone who craved change – and gave a voice to those who previously lacked one. Chernyshevsky wrote the “bible” of the Russian revolution and became a prophet of revolutionary thought just before being imprisoned for 19 years.
As the Russian anarchist, Pyotr Kropotkin, put it: “For Russian youth of that time this book was a revelation, it became their programme of action, it became their banner” (Kropotkin, P. Idealy I deystvitelnost v russkoy literature (St Petersburg, 1907) p. 306).

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