Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev’s 1862…

Russian novelist and playwright Ivan Turgenev’s 1862 Fathers and Sons, regarded as a major work of nineteenth-century fiction, is an early example of the Russian realist novel, written as a response to the growing cultural schism that Turgenev saw between liberals of the 1830s/1840s and the growing nihilist movement.

Both the nihilists (the "sons") and the 1830s liberals sought Western-based social change in Russia.

Additionally, these two modes of thought were contrasted with the conservative Slavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in its traditional spirituality.

Sent in 1838 to the University of Berlin to study philosophy (particularly Hegel) and history, Turgenev had been impressed with German Central-European society, and returned home a "Westernizer", as opposed to a "Slavophile", believing that Russia could best improve itself by imitating the West.

Like many of his educated contemporaries, he is particularly opposed to serfdom.