Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Idea of Russia

04 July 2019

Famous philosopher, public thinker Dr. Soheil Farah reflects about the idea of Russia in Dostoevsky's works.

 

When talking about Russia outside political and economic discourse, Fyodor Dostoevsky quickly comes to mind. Perhaps the reason why he was in the forefront of the Russian creative scene is his skills and even his creations in the detection of the unknown: light and dark areas in the human soul.

 

He was able to dig into the deepest layers of consciousness and the human subconscious, making him into the list of world-class thinkers. Dostoevsky was not a first-rate author, but a pure Russian psychologist, thinker and philosopher. Although he detached himself from the character of the philosopher and the psyche of the soul, but the researcher who is interested in the contents of his words, see in the category of his writings, Dostoevsky is a type of high-level philosophical literature, and in his world an intense presence of the moral, spiritual and aesthetic terms, as well as in the world of his words, and in his understanding of the world.

 

He saw that the happy environment incubator of man should be only in the circle of the aesthetics of culture, which is the famous saying: (Beauty saves the world)…Dostoevsky's beauty begins with the constant discovery of the energies of goodness and love in human culture.

 

Dostoevsky's creation is the epic of existentialism in which dialogue and debate and permanent conflict are fought between the axis of evil and good, between the poles of slavery and freedom, between the two dynasties of duty and right.

 

He was deeply involved in the shared spiritual and human values, despite the persecution of his Tsarist powers by belonging to the Petrachevetsky group, which called for an absolute rebellion against the serfdom system and his call for radical reforms in the structure of the existing order, which led the Tsarist police to sentence him to death, but fortunately for Russia and for world literature and thought, it was the fate which saved him as  the authorities had reduced the sentence to four years in prison. He then joined the military service, but neither years of imprisonment and military, nor all kinds of oppression and segregation broke his soul and never succeeded to encircle him into fiddling, chaos and closure sphere.

 

Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Idea of Russia

Fyodor Dostoevsky / Public Domain

 

He felt at that time and in the depths of his soul that the most precious aspect in existence is life; thus, the meaning of the will to live and focus on ecological aspect was present in all his works.

 

The Idea at Dostoevsky

 

When Dostoyevsky was mentioned as a philosopher, he meant that he was doing his mind to show the idea and research its existential contents, and to work on its formulation in such a way that we reach the point where the reader and the energy of mind and heart are raised together.

 

The idea in Dostoevsky's world had its psychological and human function. It reflects the self-awareness of the heroes of his novels, reflecting the insurgences and submissiveness, taking and responding to the overall reality that surrounds the human world. However, each idea has a meaning and a message that expresses itself in the words spoken by the heroes who conciliate with their personal, social, and universal selves, or rebel against them.

 

Dostoevsky's idea was not formulated in a single mold, in line with the apparent form of speech and the content inherent in the soul. Rather, it came in a varied, contradictory, anxious, optimistic, and sometimes pessimistic, closed to its own religious and national or open to the world, but his favorite idea, was linked to his dream, or virtuous republic, with the brightest aspects of Russian culture and humanity.

 

Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Idea of Russia

Writer's Diary at the magazine "Гражданинъ" ("Citizen") / Public Domain

 

 

Although the idea of his abolition was to reflect human models with specific names such as "Divorgen, Aleika, Kerylov, Tatiana, Olga and other names that indicate a certain Russian identity to its owner, but the consciousness of these heroes did not express the self-consciousness of one person. Rather, these ideas reflected, with special artistic difficulty, the spirit of the human being living in the midst of a particular nation or people.

 

As the Russian researcher Mikhail Bakhtin says: "Dostoevsky was characterized by the ability to portray the idea of others, maintaining all its semantic value by developing an idea" . In other words, although he is a skilled specialist, he was viewed by others as self-deluded and as his behavioral manifestations were visible to others; but he was also the professional artist and writer who reflected these ideas on the formal, symbolic and aesthetic dimensions of the idea.

 

However, there are conditions that Dostoevsky draws for himself in light of which it is possible to portray the idea. In this context Mikhail Bakhtin excelled in analyzing this aspect of Dostoevsky's work when he said: "The image of the idea is inseparable from the image of man ... and the hero of Dostoevsky is the man of idea".

 

But this man was not in the abstract space of the idea, but had its roots in place and time and the place here is Russia, and time is the advanced era of modern history, but this place and that time on their peculiarity, they carry a philosophical awareness of the relationship between the human, the ego and the other. In other words, the ego is Russia, and the other is human and universal. Russia, which was the main preoccupation of his idea, was conceived only by creative osmosis with other civilizations.

 

The Idea of Russia

 

Before referring to the cultural and religious specificity of Russia, Dostoevsky focuses on the general moral philosophy of Russia embodied in a national framework. In 1877, he writes, "Russia's national idea is in the public record only the general human unity". He imagines that it includes the unity of all peoples of the world without exception, and through the interaction of the Russian ego with all the cultural values on this planet. "Perhaps we who know in the vanguard that our nationalism and the success we aspire do not get through pressure on others. On the contrary, we are approaching our goals by grasping the broad development to the values of freedom and sovereignty among other nations, and through strengthening the bonds of brotherhood with them. Each party can complement the other and the process will be relevant if each one can incorporate the elements inherent in the culture of the other, with the bridge of communication between us based on what the soul and spirit illuminate values. Learn from them and they learn from us.

 

Thus, all peoples communicate with each other until humanity reaches the universal unity of the world, to the big and great tree whose roots get nourished by generous and happy earth".

 

Dostoyevsky, well aware of the weaknesses and power of his people, expressed in the novel "The Adolescent" by one of its heroes, Makarov Ivanovich, that apart from the increasingly difficult situation in which he lives, he is adhered with his dignity and calmness, and remains his absolute love for the sons of mankind dwells his soul.

 

In instinct, he brings solidarity with all the tormented people not only in his own country but also with all the tormented in the land. In his extensive reading of Dostoyevsky's work, one of the Russian theologians, Metropolitan Anthony (Kharapovetsky), says that "the spirit of the Russian people is full of that great and vast balance of living conscience and inner freedom, away from the selfishness and individualism that we rarely see with the same power among the Western European peoples".

 

Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Idea of Russia

Metropolitan Anthony (Kharapovetsky) / Public Domain

 

The Russian self is dissatisfied, which has rarely entered the elements of material pleasure and luxury to the broad sectors of its people, it stores within the vast areas of mendacity and spiritual wealth.

 

Commenting on Dostoyevsky's vision of the Russian man, Metropolitan Anthony says: "It is impossible to conquer the Russian spirit, even in the upper stage of the serfdom system. Even in the circumstances of poverty, the Russian spirit remains full of love, good and peace". The Russian heart, which reflected Dostoevsky's pulse in the novels "the Brothers Karamazov" and "the Adolescent", is a constant focus on his ability to reconcile the warm feelings of patriotism and affection directed at the spirituality of humanity. His heart reverberates in that great longing for the good of mankind in general. In all of this, the spring from which he derives this public good and this spirit is born of his faith, which is identical with the Christian spirit. Thus Dostoevsky considers Russia and Orthodox Christianity to be eternal and irreplaceable and criticizes the Westerners in Europe and the occidentals in his country, those who reduce the presence of Orthodoxy spirit and culture in Russian life.

 

And in moments of his life came some changes on the temperament of faith and spirit, which resulted from his dissatisfaction with the human behavior of representatives of the institution of religious official in his country and in the West in particular, as a result of his extensive reading of the philosophies and ethics of the West and East together, he is once again declaring his strongest attachment to his faith roots and his embrace of the Russian heart, which is emboldened by its spiritual and religious breeze from the East.

 

Thus he declares before all: "I believed in Christ, who emanates from the depths of the people, whose sense is disappearing in the European sphere". In his essay, "Correspondence from the Dead Sea," he considers that European civilization itself, with its preachers, philosophies and beliefs, has destroyed the spirit of faith in the consciousness of young people, and was able to enter into the families of the idea of broad categories of the popular circles and the ruling elites, and announced his fears of that dark energy threatened the spirit of faith in Russia.

 

But despite his criticism of Western materialistic ideas and the "slackness" of faith thereof, even in the rest of the other Christian sects, he did not forget to focus on the religious aspect of the Russian idea "inhabited by hope to reconcile with the universal ecumenical spirit of the Church".

 

In this context, speaking to Dostoevsky about the holistic idea, one cannot speak of his briefing and honesty to the inclusive and universal dimension to which he has always echoed in his work. His religious spiritual vision seems inconsistent, and it can be said that the spiritual common denominator among other religions and cultures is often neglected and sometimes absent in many of his works. However, his other writings on general moral, psychological and philosophical concepts of life seem more open, comprehensive, closer and more faithful to the central concept of his holistic philosophy of the Russian idea.

 

Dostoevsky's Freedom and Duty

 

The Russian idea, which has been attended extensively in his latest novels, "Karamazov Brothers" and "The Adolescent", in which they attach a clear connection to the concepts of freedom and moral duty, which made his ideas come very close to Immanuel Kant's conception of these concepts.

 

Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Idea of Russia

Immanuel Kant / Public Domain

 

Kant, for example, focused on the freedom of the individual, which was seen as a parity of duty, specifically a moral duty. Dostoevsky, in turn, looks at this issue from a similar angle to Kant, asking questions and concluding some conclusions around:

 

"Is salvation through the absence of individual freedom? On the contrary, I cannot only emphasize the dangers of personal absence, but focus on the importance of the presence of human personality in the highest degrees and analyses thereof, which are clearly defined in the West. Please understand my position: the free disposition emanating from a complete awareness of it, and not forced to sacrifice self-sufficiency for all, as I believe, the highest indicator of personality development, expressing the tremendous power that embraces it and gives room to its owner to involve within it the highest degree of free will. The energy of giving, which emanates from pure good will to satisfy others, is not offered to them, except by those who possess the powerful and visible personality. This personality is fully confident of its own rights, which do not carry any fear, and which cannot do anything beyond its will. That is, they see themselves only because they are qualified to give their giving to others, so that others feel they are on the right path and that they are happy as people".

 

In this description of Dostoevsky's concept of personal freedom, right and duty towards the ego and the other, we see the right of Russian advanced vision and make us not ignore objectivity, if we conclude that it does not match the respect and vision of man and his behavior, those philosophical and existential theses in which thought came in the West.

 

It may therefore turn the stereotypical image of many European, Western and other approaches, which are considered to be valuable, and that free will in thinking and behavior does not exist in Russian thought. In Dostoevsky's view there are many commonalities that I have combined with the Kant-philosophical vision of these subjects, which is most evident in his famous work "Towards the Critique of the Pure Mind", as both drew from one fountain and one understanding of Christian morality.

 

These moral perceptions are met with great intensity in Dostoevsky's philosophical literary work, "A Myth about the Great Dean. "In Kant's work "Criticism of the Pure Mind", "Criticism of Pure Reason" and "The Foundations of Moral Metaphysics", as in Kant, as in Dostoevsky, lying is one of the darkest behaviors. Lying is forbidden, because the mother of vices lies in it. Lying generates fear. If one wants to think about the behavior to be followed, one has to start not to lie.

 

Dostoyevsky considers that the purity of the Russian idea and its moral and existential purity should be based on this spirituality. In his constant reference to the role of the Great Dean/God, Dostoevsky focuses on the need for great care for individual freedom, freedom of will, conscience and moral conscience, and the need not to compromise at all costs. The person who has the freedom of will is the person of conscience that is comfortable with self and others. He is more qualified than others to be a space of freedom and moral duty is broad in the philosophy on which the nation is based.

 

Human and Personal in Dostoevsky's Thought

 

Dostoevsky is a global citizen, who tried to identify with the common human values that unite people with the basis of a holistic philosophy of experience, which had in his mind a general humanitarian project closer to the beautiful and noble transcendental dream. However, in his own mind and in his view of the dark aspects of the human personality, he was beset by continuous waves of disillusionment with the individual and collective lifestyles of the Russians that appear in the everyday behavior of the people.

 

In Dostoevsky's approach to this phenomenon, the contradiction seems to be clear in the philosophical vision of the dream of the general human ecology, tangible and intangible relationship in human behavior.

 

In her rhetoric, the theory and its life representations, some aspects of conflict emerge in the relationship of the Russian idea itself first before its relationship with the other. This is Russia and its people living in its wide range, which embraces not only tens, but even hundreds of ethnicities, peoples, languages, religions, sects, ideas and cultures, and it wandered inside theoretically, the universal desire to represent common universal human values, and may be faithful to it, and indeed love it. However, at the daily practical level, on the basis of economic, bio-psychological and socio-economic considerations, they find themselves in the daily scene of the relationship between their mortals, with the insurmountable in which the elements of weakness, gloom and internal disharmony enter.

 

Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Idea of Russia

A sketch of the Petrashevsky Circle mock execution / Public Domain

 

 

This is usually shown within the circle of the congregation that gathers them in the same building or even one dwelling, one neighborhood, or one city that represented in the full details of daily life that make up the daily scene throughout the 24 hours are what define the social profile.

 

In this daily scene, all aspects of conflict with the individual self and the community appear in secret and in public. Depending on the positive or negative factors, for the pessimism or optimism generated by the instinctive, psychological, mental and spiritual energies, as Russia draws itself in its day-to-day perspective and its relationship with the collective ego. Here, it is difficult for the researcher to determine the mobility of the Russian barometer in the event of its proximity or beyond the transcendent aspect of its Russian idea.

 

Dostoyevsky as a human thinker person or individual was not in his philosophy or in his daily behavior away from this scene, let us leaves him the space to speak to express this situation:

 

"I say, I love humanity, but I wonder about myself: the more my love for humanity becomes in general, the more I find myself not particularly fond of people, that is, when we take them individually. At the level of dreams, it is no accident to say that I am usually in a deep desire to attach myself to ideas aimed at serving humanity, and may have carried out a crusade right for human beings, if needed. While I find myself unable to stay with someone in one room, even for two days of time, and this issue I touched from my experience ... Whenever someone is closer to me, adhering to me, I feel that his aura presses my love for myself, and feel ashamed of my freedom. In the course of a day, hatred can come in on me, and it appears even in front of or towards the best people. It also appears to anyone who greets food at lunch, or to another person who has a cold when they have constant waves of sneezing. I will go further by saying that I have become an enemy of people if one of them wants to insert himself in the halo surrounded by my body, even though it is so frequent, the longer the distance of friendship between me and the people in private, the more light and lightness of love within me towards the humanity in general".

 

These sensations may be related to a model of human beings who have a slender and subjective sense that may reach some of them to the degree of narcissism and Dostoevsky, who expressed these sentiments with the characters of his heroes in the novel "Brothers Karamazov", was not as a person in his daily behavior about this atmosphere. It may seem at first glance that his vision of a tangible and intangible real man contradicts the general view of humanity and the Russian idea with it.

 

However, the human reality of millions of people confirms that the distance is always very far between the beautiful dream and the bitter reality. As the experience of man, in his relationship with himself and within the circle of the family, society and culture, where the problems of selfishness, spirit of sacrifice, aggression, emotional and mental peaceform its vocabulary and words and practical behavior.

 

The temptations of material and the longing for spirituality, the personal and the human public, the fanaticism of the spirit of community walled by the cathedrals of dogmatism of various colors and sources, and the sanctification of the spirit of individualism, free and rational and what Dostoyevsky was most concerned about in his view of the people, was the category of people who bow their heads like the herds before the orders of the powers, all powers of whatever kind.

 

Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Idea of Russia

The picture shows Dostoyevsky 21/22 March 1874 in the guardhouse at the Haymarket. He served there the arrest because of a censorship offense / Public Domain

 

He does not take his critical view of human behavior from the perspective of the Russian eye, but rather extends the scope of vision to include the problems, contradictions, suffering, hopes, aspirations and dreams of human beings on a global level. Dostoevsky's case reflects the position of the writer, the philosopher who dreams of a pure world that always collides with the reality of full human life gaps, errors and sins.

 

The Four Models of Russian Man

 

Perhaps the picture that Dostoevsky presented to the Russian reader about Pushkin's creations gives us a clearer view of some of the colors that paint his vision of the Russian idea. Dostoevsky, the most discerning and profound reader of the works of Russia's greatest poet "Pushkin" evaluated the stages, stations and models that were mentioned by the poet who was closest to the hearts of the Russians. Dostoevsky refers to four models that depict the special composition of the Russian character.

 

- Model of "Russian Wandering"

 

- Model of "Russificated Alien"

 

- Model "Russian Immigrant"

 

- Salvation is seen in the model of  "Creative National"

 

In the character of Aleko in the works of Pushkin "Gypsies", "Anagain", and "Schwabrin" we see the focus on the model "Russian Wandering" which is unstable. He is an immigrant from an educated environment that has no roots in his national soil and has no relationship with the lives of the people. It is like the paper or bubble thrown by the winds of autumn, carrying the seeds of wear and tear and death. He can, and with obvious depression, experience a kind of psychological harmony without realizing what he is or knowing whether he has reached it or not. Salvation awaits him and is highly dependent on external capacity, without having any basis on a particular moral point.

 

Dostoevsky, who knew the psychological aspects of human beings, stared deeply into the depths of these characters and their behavior. In every novel there was a presence of this model of the "wandering man" the roamer, who is not based on any ground or a solid environment can be relied upon. Of the three Karamazov brothers, Ivan was characterized by these traits, the well-educated Sufi person, who fades in the shadows of these contradictory ideas, and eventually travels to reach the loss of his senses. This model of human beings is faulted by Dostoevsky for his exalting to the people, despite the "educational" or "cultural" halo that surrounds him; he may fall and may not be aware of the involvement of evil forces.

 

In the novel "The Adolescent", the image of the second model shows "The Russificated Foreigner" Kraft appears to be a German who is dealing with the Russians with a cold mathematical mind, as he classifies the Russian people as a second class. He does not see any effective role Russia can play in "determining the fate of humanity". This Kraft the desperate Russificated Foreign of the Russian people is convinced that "the attractive Russian idea has fallen and everyone is ready to leave or flee from Russia".

 

However, Kraft this, he finds himself blown away by the search for alternatives to lose the compass, which makes him just around the corner from the resort to the option of suicide. The first and second models, Dostoevsky, and former Pushkin, in turn, find that they are living a real alienation from the Russian human nature. They live in a state of loss, homelessness, rupture of soul and being.

 

Dostoevsky shows the model of "Immigrant Man" eager to land in the Promised Land which called "America". This is the model, which cuts its roots with ancestral land and aspires to live in America that embodies the "Non-Spirit Region", which is alien to the Russian soul. Kraft and Saffir Galff, who were present in "Crime and Punishment", were hallucinating day and night by America before committing suicide.

 

There, in the country beyond the oceans, in America, two people like Kirilov and Chatov set out in the novel "The Devils", the first to return to Russia to put his hand on it. On the other hand, Chatov, who had settled there, which was of maximum benefit to that country, but he felt that a large brainwashing took place, and he began to learn to love the homeland. While Mitya Karamazov, who realized before it was too late that escape from slavery and internal persecution is not necessarily his station America. Thus the more he thought about it, the worse he felt.

 

Fyodor Dostoevsky expresses this character:

 

"I had thought that if I ran away with my money and my passport even to America, the idea would come out of my mind, because it was a feeling that I should not migrate to pleasure and happiness, but I am moving towards another bondage, perhaps it is the worst ... Damn this America ... Now I feel hatred towards it ... there will be my end".

 

Dostoevsky wanted these three models of "Russians" to pose some aspects of the Russian question about his "identity", he wanted to express the state of cultural anxiety and existential loss in those models that dream of certain species of salvation and it is so. And to speak a latent call to hold on to the land and the spirit of the ancient Russian, which do not conflict with the world, but an extension. The model that Dostoevsky preferred, and whose price is high, is "the creative national", which he saw a summit embodied in the mature "Pushkin", who found his misfortune in the homeland.

 

Pushkin's Patriotism and Universality

 

This creative Russian man was able to establish a model of human beings deeply rooted in his roots, strong belonging and pride in his people and civilization. The image of Tatiana Larina is one of the images that has brought a definite certainty to her mind and heart that she has been left to a people with great spiritual potential, perhaps short periods to wait for to realize the hope and tremendous power that this Russian man possesses.

 

The image of Tatiana is not an individual case; it is an inherent potential of every Russian who is loyal to his people and seeks everything that is creative and aesthetic in the Russian heart and mind to provide the brighter picture of the Russian idea.

 

Fyodor Dostoevsky and the Idea of Russia

Tatiana Larina / Public Domain

 

Creativity is not limited to writers, thinkers and all groups belonging to the intelligentsia. It is a comprehensive Russian human project in cities and rural areas. However, this model cannot provide a glamorous picture of the Russian idea, unless it is open and creative with the creations and achievements of other civilizations. Dostoevsky sees this model as specifically representative of the Russian Pushkin, as this poet, who he found himself outside the circle of alienation and experienced by groups of Russian intelligentsia, which was far from the pulse of the people in respect of concerns, thoughts and hopes.

 

In one of Dostoevsky's essays under the title "Diary of an Author, he sees Pushkin's creation as a picture reveals some of the secrets of the Russian soul and its vision to itself, the world and the universe. Pushkin, a native Russian national, was a world-class citizen. He was able to understand and taste the wonderful and bright in the spirit and poetry of every people on this planet.

 

Dostoevsky's main points of Pushkin's poetic and prose creations are his vision of the Russian people who love freedom, who hates slavery regardless of its source. And he sees in the pulse of the creative activity of all peoples, an additional source of admiration and inspiration for him personally and for all the Russian people. Here lies the universal dimension of the people, the Russian idea, this Russian spirit eager for internal enlightenment, and the embrace of the world's creator, which is present in most of Pushkin's works, especially in his immortal "Yevgeny Anjin".

 

Pushkin, who portrayed in this epic all the anxious and burning aspects of the Russian soul, also wanted to show the message of his people in the world. Thus when he speaks about Pushkin, Dostoevsky says that he is a creative national model:

 

"We rarely find creative talent at the global level as Pushkin, he was marked by a tremendous ability to creatively resemble the creations of other nations, and rephrased them as an integral part of the most brilliant circle of creation, in his culture, and this was not achieved by any other genius. In my speech, I said that Europe has given the world-class art creative figures such as "Shakespeare, Cervantes and Schiller". But none of them had the energy that Pushkin characterized. It is he, who was able to create in unprecedented manner, to provide that image interacting and harmonious between the light of self and the light of the other".

 

The images that revealed the model or the national face that occurred to mind the work of this genius or that was worn by Pushkin to appear to emanate from the Russian spirit itself. Dostoyevsky reiterates this when he says: "The images of Faust, Don Juan, Knight, and other images of the creations of the peoples of the East and the West have become part of the fabric of Russian talent itself" .

 

In this context I am invited to talk about the wonderful poems written by Pushkin about the Holy Quran, and about the Arab prophet Muhammad. He was very impressed with the music of the Quranic verses and the unique personality of the Prophet Muhammad. He wrote brilliantly many poems under the title "Simulation of the Quran", and managed with his remarkable talent to reflect the lightness and spirituality of the Islamic message in a poem known to him under the title "the Prophet", by-which the light energy emanating from the Quranic text is recited.

 

He had come to the Russian reader, and reprinted dozens, not even hundreds of times, which impressed all the connoisseurs of beautiful poetry in his country. Which led some critics, and many of the readers who love his poetry to the degree of strong passion, to raise the title of the poet "the Prophet", after this round in the ideas and actions of Dostoevsky, in which we tried to analyze a number of aspects of the Russian idea, Russia's vast and wide-ranging Eurasian character, with its special cultural personality, has a special characteristic or flavor that is so characteristic of its meaning and destiny that Dostoevsky always said:

 

"To be a real Russian, to be a Russian completely, means to eventually become a true brother to all people of the whole world ... Here the ultimate goal of the Russian idea lays".

 

Dostoevsky, a writer and citizen of the world, was rightly aspiring to make his Russian idea holistic and universal. Perhaps he was not the only one among Russian writers and thinkers who sincerely believed in this choice.

 

Dr. Soheil Farah