What Is To Be Done?

A simple question, with profound implications….

A question posed in this particular way in 1886 by Lev Tolstoy:

It sounds better in Russian, and even better when you really belt it out:

SHTO zhe DYELLats?!

In my undergraduate days, we always called this book WHAT IS TO BE DONE? but since then I have often seen it referred to as WHAT THEN MUST WE DO? or even, recently, WHAT WILL WE DO THEN? although that doesn’t seem correct at all. You choose the title you like best, but I’m talking about Tolstoy’s book from 1886, not Lenin’s book from 1902, or the excruciatingly unreadable Chernyshevsky title from 1863.

What Tolstoy is really asking is in terms of social welfare; society as a whole. In order to improve the lot of not only ourselves but also all of our fellow humans: What then must we do? What is to be done?

The vocation of every man and woman is to serve other people.
– What is to be done? Chap. xl. Note.

Ever the shallow one, I’ve been using the Cyrillic characters for WHAT IS TO BE DONE? as the header for my daily To-Do List for lo these many years. Hmmmm, let’s see…What then must I do? 1) set up a doctor appointment for one of the kids. 2) Buy 2 40# bags of dog food on way home. 3) Vacuum the front hallway. 4) Run the ‘clean’ cycle on the dishwasher 5) Tell the milkman NO MORE CHEESE! 6) Overcome my stomach-churning, obsessive hatred of Lexus drivers ….

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

Lev Nikolayevich is undoubtedly spinning like a gyroscope in his grave.