This theme is so central it even animates the work’s title. Bazarov and Arkady confront several older male authority figures: their fathers and Arkady’s uncle. These relationships drive much of the narrative action. Bazarov mocks the Kirsanovs as a generation of “aging romantics” (15), and Nikolai is tormented by the prospect of “inevitable strangeness” in his family relationships now that Arkady has returned home with new ideas and a new view of social relationships (17). When Pavel insists that the nihilistic philosophy Bazarov espouses is nothing new—in his generation, followers of Hegel were radicals—Bazarov counters that even the radicals of the past have left Russia with no meaningful legacy.

Nikolai accepts the generational conflict as natural. He recalls his own argument with his mother that “we belong to two different generations” (44), which helps him heal the rift with Arkady, who eventually takes over the family estate and runs it in a more modern way. Pavel refuses to concede to the next generation both politically and personally, as he becomes Bazarov’s sexual rival for Fenechka. Their duel epitomizes forces Pavel to recognize his own absurdity; Pavel leaves his family for Europe, where he adopts a new identity as a Slavophile.