# Who is Bazarov in Fathers and Children?

> Fathers and Children by Ivan Turgenev

## Answer

Yevgeny Bazarov is a provincial doctor’s son, Arkady Kirsanov’s mentor-friend, and the novel’s nihilist spokesman. He rejects authority, art for art’s sake, and romantic sentiment, yet wins peasant trust and fascinates Anna Odintsov. Proud, physically strong, verbally sharp, he unsettles Pavel Petrovitch and embarrasses his own doting parents when he visits briefly.

Bazarov is not a cartoon rebel — he helps Nikolai, dissects frogs seriously, and dies after touching typhus while doctoring. Turgenev captured a Russian type of the 1860s so well that both radicals and conservatives attacked the portrait. Read him through actions and silences, not only manifestos.

## Evidence

- [v](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/fathers_and_children_se/chapters/v.md): Bazarov’s first impact at Maryino and clash with Pavel.
- [xxvii](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/fathers_and_children_se/chapters/xxvii.md): Bazarov’s death and parents’ mourning.

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