What conflict between generations is explored in Fathers and Sons?

In Fathers and Sons (1862), Ivan Turgenev explores the inevitable conflict between the older generation of traditionalists and the younger, radical intelligentsia.12

The tension is embodied by the protagonist, Yevgeny Bazarov, a nihilist who rejects all traditional institutions, authority, and laws, acknowledging only the validity of the natural sciences. Sociopolitically, this clash represents the struggle between the established gentry intelligentsia—to which Turgenev belonged—and the rising, nongentry revolutionary generation.312

While Turgenev maintained a liberal perspective that favored gradual change, he used the novel to objectively portray the forcefulness and moral purpose of the younger generation, despite his personal discomfort with their antiaestheticism. The work remains a profound examination of the divide between these groups, illustrating that there could be no easy reconciliation between the liberalism of the "men of the forties" and the radical aspirations of their successors.2