Anti-nihilism in Ivan Turgenev’s Last novel Virgin Soil and Ba Jin’s Early novellas Destruction and New Life

The fiction of Ba Jin (1904–2005) is most closely associated with the legacy of Ivan Turgenev. For a comprehensive understanding of the Russian classic in China, it is necessary to conduct a comparative analysis of Turgenev’s works and Ba Jin’s Destruction (1929) and New Life (1936) from the point of view of the anti-nihilistic component. The authors examine the problem of nihilism in Turgenev’s Virgin Soil (1877) and Ba Jin’s novels in order to identify similarities in the fates of revolutionary nihilists. Only by determining the specific character of the main characters, comparing them with each other, comparing the development of the plot and common themes, it is possible to explain the author’s intention, to trace Turgenev’s influence on Ba Jin’s creative methods and worldview.