What is to be Done? is one of the most influential works of Russian literature. This video gives some of the theoretical background to understanding the work and its significance. The book is, as Russian authors like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy see it, the epitome of modern scientific point of view and hence reveals the destructiveness of that point of view. We do best to understand the moral and social teaching of What is to be Done? if we are to understand both modern utopian aspirations and their relation to deep commitments many modern have to our way of life.