The surname of the main character in Ivan Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons” is Bazarov.
Yevgeny Vasilyevich Bazarov is a young medical student and outspoken nihilist who rejects inherited authority, romantic idealism, and traditional social conventions. He arrives at the Kirsanov family estate with his friend Arkady, whose thinking has been strongly influenced by him.
The novel’s title refers to a generational conflict in Russia: the older liberal and aristocratic “fathers” confront the skeptical, radical “sons.” Bazarov is the most forceful representative of the younger generation, though Arkady is also central to the plot and gradually develops an independent outlook.
Readers sometimes confuse Bazarov with Arkady Kirsanov because Arkady introduces him and frames much of the opening action. Bazarov, however, is the novel’s defining figure. His belief that only practical science matters is challenged by his unexpected love for Anna Odintsova and, finally, by his fatal infection after cutting himself during a dissection.