Research Paper on:
Nihilism in the Character of Bazarov in Fathers and Sons by Turgenev

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
Ivan Turgenevs "Fathers and Sons" is an interesting portrayal of the nihilist in the years following the Crimean War. This war pitted  the Italian Kingdom of Sardinia, France, England, and Turkey against Russia and ultimately led to Russian defeat. The result was the Treaty of Paris in 1856 and the ultimate  the emancipation of the Serfs. An underlying political movement at the time was that of positivism, the school of philosophy which relies heavily on the methodology and precision of  mathematics and the natural sciences to answer questions. Indeed, the members of this philosophical movement simply rejected any institution or belief, regardless of its credentials and societal position, without  direct and logical proof of its validity. This was a period of numerous social ills, a period which was the subject of numerous writers, one of the most prominent  of which was Ivan Turgenev. In many respects Turgenevs "Fathers and Sons" was a call for the intelligensia of the day to reject the cold scientific calculation which characterized  the movement and to at least partially reembrace romanticism. Known for his realistic portrayals of both the peasantry and their oppressors, Turgenev invented  the very word "nihilist" in "Fathers and Sons". He writes: "A nihilist is  a man who does not bow to any authorities, who does not take any principle on trust, no matter with what respect that principle is surrounded" (Turgenev 7).  Although the term has evolved since its initial creation to encapsulate the principles of Communism,