Virgin Soil

by Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev

"Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev is a novel published in 1877. This final and most ambitious work follows young Russian idealists in the late 1860s and early 1870s who abandon privileged lives to join the Populist movement and live among peasants and workers. The story centers on Nezhdanov, an aristocrat's illegitimate son working as a tutor, who seeks to radicalize the peasantry while becoming entangled with Marianna. Turgenev portrays these revolutionaries as well-meaning individuals pursuing a path he believed destined to fail.