Dianova, E. V. N. G. CHERNYSHEVSKY’S COOPERATIVE FICTION. Proceedings of Petrozavodsk State University. 2022;44(8):37–49. DOI: 10.15393/uchz.art.2022.833


Russian history

N. G. CHERNYSHEVSKY’S COOPERATIVE FICTION

Dianova
E. V. 		Petrozavodsk State University
Keywords:
cooperative fiction
cooperation
productive associations
artel workshops		 Summary: The article deals with the cooperative fiction of N. G. Chernyshevsky, represented by two novels “What to do?” and “Reflections of Light”. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the fact that it deals with the cooperative discourse of Chernyshevsky’s novels “What to do?” and “Reflections of Radiance”, created in captivity in the Peter and Paul Fortress and in hard labor in the Vilyui prison. The narrative of these works is connected with the cooperative theory of partnership, set forth by Chernyshevsky in the article “Capital and Labor” and “Essays from Political Economy (according to Mill)”. The relevance of the study lies in the need to comprehend the creative heritage of Chernyshevsky, one of the founders of the cooperative theory, its influence on the socio-economic development of the country. On the example of the workshop of Vera Pavlovna and the cooperative factory of Avrora Vasilievna, the types of cooperative partnerships (productive associations) presented in these novels are revealed. Based on the memoirs of Chernyshevsky’s contemporaries, the influence of the novel “What to do?” on society, especially on the revolutionary-minded youth, who accepted it as a guide to action. The initiatives of the populist intelligentsia to organize artel workshops coincided with the first stage of the artel movement. The desire to carry out the planned work as quickly as possible led to the collapse of the artel undertakings of the Narodniks. The article outlines the reasons for the failure of social experiments to reorganize society on the basis of productive associations. The novel “Reflections of Radiance” was not available to contemporaries, readers got to know him quite late, so he did not have any impact on society. At the same time, the literary and artistic representation of the productive association, undertaken in the novel “Reflections of Radiance”, allows us to classify it as a cooperative fiction.



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