In 'What Is to Be Done?' by Chernyshevsky, what is the name of the heroine?

In Nikolay Chernyshevsky’s What Is to Be Done?, the heroine is Vera Pavlovna. Her full name is Vera Pavlovna Rozalskaya, and she is the novel’s central character.

Published in 1863, the novel follows Vera as she struggles against her authoritarian family and an arranged marriage. With help from the medical student Dmitry Lopukhov, she seeks personal freedom, education, and economic independence. Her story reflects Chernyshevsky’s belief that social conditions shape people’s lives and can be changed through rational cooperation.

Vera’s famous dreams present idealized visions of a more egalitarian society. She later establishes a sewing cooperative, giving the narrative a practical model of collective work and female self-sufficiency. Readers sometimes confuse her with Sonya Marmeladova, Natasha Rostova, or Anna Karenina, but those women belong to novels by Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Tolstoy respectively. Vera Pavlovna is distinctive as Chernyshevsky’s reform-minded heroine.