What Is To Be Done?

Like most non-Russians my introduction to 19th-century Russian writers was limited to the more popular works of Tolstoy, Pushkin, Chekhov, and Dostoevsky. It wasn't until I took it upon myself to increase my familiarity with Russian writers from this period that I became aware of Nikolai Chernyshevsky. Today’s passage is from his famous novel, “What Is to Be Done?”, which Chernyshevsky wrote while in prison (1864-1872), after being arrested, and sentenced to a mock execution, for his writings against Russian autocracy and in favor of a society based on peasant communes:

“On the morning of July 11, 1856, the staff of one of the large hotels near the Moscow Railway Station in Petersburg was in a quandary, almost in a state of distress. On the previous evening at nine o'clock, a gentleman had arrived carrying a suitcase. He had taken a room, submitted his passport for registration, and ordered tea and a cutlet. He said that he wished not to be disturbed because he was very tired and wanted to get some sleep, but had asked to be awakened at eight o'clock the next morning because he had urgent business. He had locked his door; after a brief rattle of cutlery and crockery, all had become silent—apparently he had fallen asleep.

At eight o'clock the next morning a servant knocked at the guest's door, but there was no answer. The servant knocked more loudly, very loudly indeed, but still there was no reply. Apparently the guest was sound asleep. The servant waited a quarter of an hour, tried to wake him again, but was no more successful. Then he conferred with the other servants and with the waiter. “Perhaps something has happened to him?” “We must break the door down.” “No, that’ll never do: a door can be broken down only in the presence of the police.” So they would attempt to awaken him once more, knocking even more loudly; if that didn't work, they would send for the police. They made one last try, but failed to awaken him.

They sent for the police; now everyone was waiting to see what would happen. A police officer arrived around ten o'clock. First he tried knocking; then he ordered the servants to knock. The result was exactly the same. “Well, lads, we have no choice but to break down the door.” They broke down the door. The room was empty.”

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