The article discusses the origins of Sergei Yesenin’s acquaintance with the novel What Is to Be Done? by N. G. Chernyshevsky: this happened in Spas-Klepikovskaya second-class teacher’s school in 1909-1912. The work was read among the intellectuals, and students outside of school hours argued about it and embraced the ideals of the “new people”. Later Yesenin encountered Chernyshevsky’s novel at the lectures on Russian literature by P. N. Sakulin at Moscow City People’s University named after A. L. Shanyavsky.
