A review by msgtdameron
Virgin Soil by Ivan Turgenev

4.0

Turgenev examines Populism in "Virgin Soil". A movement that would over throw the Tsar and Landed Gentry and replace them with a land for the people type of government. Some form of communal governance is skirted at. The story continually turns from populism to a love story and back. it is a wonderful look at what can happen to man as he gets in over his head with ideas. Goes off prematurely and lands himself with a case of severe soul searching. Turgenev is definitely a man who wrote to be popular but just radical enough to avoid the censors. Virgin Soil shows that skirting by having all the populists run, get arrested, or die. The censor would have loved the ending. And we also should love the whole book as it is a look at how men fail when they have not prepared themselves enough for the struggle.