Talk:What is to be Done? (pamphlet)

What is really needed here is two articles: One on Lenin's pamphlet, "What is to Be Done?" and other one on Chernyshevsky's novel, whose title, Lenin had borrowed. Chernyshevsky's novel was a very important work, despite it's seeming lack of literary merit. Nevertheless, it inspired several generations of Russian revolutionaries, including the young Lenin. And it inspired in reaction to it, several novels by the great Russian masters. Dostoyevsky's novels, including especially, Crime and Punishment, Notes from the Underground, and The Possessed, were all written in reaction to Chernyshevsky's novel and the broader Nihilist movement which was associated with Chernyshevsky. Dostoyevsky was both fascinated with and appalled by the Nihilists, as was Turgenev, who wrote Fathers and Sons.

So there must be something to say for someone like Chernyshevsky, who was admired by Marx, inspired several great novels by Turgenev and Tolstoy and influenced Lenin.

So what *is* Lih's interpretation?
I'm prepared to believe that those words have been mistranslated. But what is the better translation, and how should we then interpret the pamphlet? -- Subsolar 22:40, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I understand that Lih has produced his own translation. For people who want to look into these issues in more detail I advise looking at the lengthy online review of Lih's work which is an external link from this article, or better still read Lih's work itself.  I suggest it would not be appropriate for Wikipedia to take a view on these issues, but it can accept Lih's work as significant scholarship which ought to be mentioned. PatGallacher 23:39, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * It is completely unclear what this Lih is telling. What exactly has been misinterpreted? The present text does not tell that. I am looking at the "Black book of Communism", page 737, and it tells exactly the same main as all Russian textbooks. Lenin proposed in this work the following idea: one only needs an underground revolutionary party made up of professionals with military discipline to take over power in the entire country. So he did. The text describing Lih tells absolutely nothing about Lenin's work. A mistranslation of words is not a subject of this article. This should be deleted.Biophys 01:47, 28 October 2007 (UTC)