Born in 1801, the noble grandson of a famous general, Pushkin was one of the leading lights of Russian literature in the time of Tsars Paul I and Nicholas I. He wrote many short stories and epic poems, the most famous of which is Eugene Onegin, a tale of a Byronic nobleman unhappy in love. Pushkin died in 1837 in a duel. He is lionized as a cultural icon who created modern Russian literature.

Arising out of Russian intellectual circles in the 1830s, the Slavophile movement had a romantic vision of the Russian past. The movement posited a division between Russia and the West, and saw Russian Orthodoxy, the peasant commune, and the family, as key institutions for national renewal and reform.

Westernizers were Russian thinkers who supported transforming Russia along a European model. Turgenev was a noted Westernizer in many ways, as he was sympathetic to liberal democracy and European thinkers. Fathers and Sons is dedicated to the Westernizer literary critic Vissarion Belinsky.