The author himself explained the title of his work as follows: “I named the story “On the Eve” so because of the time of its appearance (1860 - a year before the liberation of the peasants) ... A new life began then in Russia - and such figures as Elena and Insarov are heralds of this new life." Turgenev is busy searching for a positive hero - young, strong, with a new ideology, “consciously heroic nature.” However, it is no coincidence that the novel opens with a dispute about happiness and duty. It seems to Elena and Insarov that their love serves a higher purpose. But life itself comes into conflict with the hopes and aspirations of the heroes.