# What The “new people” means in What Is to Be Done?

> Lopukhov, Kirsanov, and Vera model rational egoism and cooperative work — Chernyshevsky’s answer to “what is to be done?”

## Explanation

Chernyshevsky’s novel is a program disguised as fiction. The “new people” arrange marriages, workshops, and study as experiments in living without the old family’s tyranny. Rational self-interest is supposed to align with the good of others once superstition and coercion drop away.

The Fourth Dream projects that ethic into a radiant future. Readers who only know the book as a revolutionary influence need this concept to see how classroom romance and political prophecy share one plot.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_to_be_done_se/concepts/new-people
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_to_be_done_se
- All concepts: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/what_is_to_be_done_se/concepts