Dostoyevsky’s following novel, Besy (The Devils, 1872), was interpreted as “anti-nihilist.” Openly polemical, it outraged the leftist intelligentsia who saw itself caricatured as superficial, na?ve, and unintentionally destructive. Clearly referring to the infamous case of Sergei Nechaev, an anarchist whose revolutionary cell killed one of its dissenting members, The Devils presents an astute analysis of the causality underlying terrorism, and societal disintegration. Yet it is also a sobering diagnosis of the inability of Russia’s corrupt establishment to protect itself from ruthless political activism and demagoguery.
While The Devils quickly became favorite reading of conservatives, Podrostok (A Raw Youth, 1875) appealed more to liberal sensitivities, thus reestablishing, to a certain extent, a balance in Dos-toyevsky’s political reputation. Artistically uneven, this novel is an attempt to capture the searching of Russia’s young generation “who knows so much and believes in nothing” and as a consequence finds itself in a state of hopeless alienation.
In the mid-1870s, Dostoyevsky published the monthly journal Dnevnik pisatelia (Diary of a Writer) of which he was the sole author. With its thousands of subscribers, this unusual blend of social and political commentary enriched by occasional works of fiction contributed to the relative financial security enjoyed by the author and his family in the last decade of his life. Its last issue contained
Fyodor Dostoevsky by Vasily Perov, 1872. © ARCHIVO ICONOGRAFICO, S.A./CORBIS the text of a speech that Dostoyevsky made at the dedication of a Pushkin monument in Moscow in 1880. Pushkin is described as the unique genius of universal empathy, of the ability to understand mankind in all its manifestations-a feature that Dostoyevsky found to be characteristic of Russians more than of any other people.
Brat’ia Karamazovy (The Brothers Karamazov, 1878-1880) became Dostoyevsky’s literary testament and indeed can be read as a peculiar synthesis of his artistic and philosophical strivings. The novel’s focus on patricide is rooted in the fundamental role of the father in the Russian tradition, with God as the heavenly father, the tsar as father to his people, the priest as father to the faithful, and the paterfamilias as representative of the universal law within the family unit. It is this underlying notion of the universal significance of fatherhood that connects the criminal plot to the philosophical message. Thus, the murder of father Fyodor Karamazov, considered by all three brothers and carried out by the fourth, the illegitimate son, becomes tantamount to a challenge the world order per se.
Dostoyevsky’s significance for Russian and world culture derives from a number of factors,
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among them the depth of his psychological per-ceptiveness, his complex grasp of human nature, and his ability to foresee long-term consequences of human action-an ability that sometimes bordered on the prophetic. Together with his rhetorical and dramatic gifts, these factors outweigh less presentable features in the author’s persona such as national and religious prejudice. Moreover, Dos-toyevsky’s willingness to admit into his universe utterly antagonistic forces-from unabashed sinners whose unspeakable acts of blasphemy challenge the very foundations of faith, to characters of angelic purity-has led to his worldwide perception as an eminently Christian author. But it also caused distrust in certain quarters of the Orthodox Church; as a matter of fact, his confidence in a gospel of all-forgiveness was criticized as “rosy Christianity” (K. Leont’ev), a religious aberration neglecting the strictness of divine law. From a programmatic point of view, Dostoyevsky preached a Christianity of the heart, as opposed to one of pragmatism and rational calculation.
Dostoyevsky’s impact on modern intellectual movements is enormous: Freud’s psychoanalysis found valuable evidence in his depictions of the mysterious subconscious, whereas Camus’ existentialism took from the Russian author an understanding of man’s inability to cope with freedom and his possible preference for a state of non- responsibility.
Dostoyevsky was arguably the first writer to position a philosophical idea at the very heart of a fictional text. The reason that Dostoyevsky’s major works have maintained their disquieting energy lies mainly in their structural openness toward a variety of interpretative patterns, all of which can present textual evidence for their particular reading. See also: CHEKHOV, ANTON PAVLOVICH; GOGOL, NIKOLAI VASILIEVICH; GOLDEN AGE OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE; PETRASHEVTSY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bakhtin, Mikhail M. (1973). Problems of Dostoyevsky’s Poetics. Ann Arbor: Ardis. Catteau, Jacques. (1989). Dostoyevsky and the Process of Literary Creation. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press. Frank, Joseph. (1976). Dostoyevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Frank, Joseph. (1983). Dostoyevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Frank, Joseph. (1986). Dostoyevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Frank, Joseph. (1995). Dostoyevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Frank, Joseph. (2002). Dostoyevsky: The Mantle of the Prophet, 1871-1881. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Pattison, George, ed. (2001). Dostoyevsky and the Christian Tradition. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press. Scanlan, James. (2002). Dostoevsky the Thinker. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
DUDAYEV, DZHOKHAR
(1944-1996), leader of Chechen national movement, first president of Chechnya.
One of ten children in a Chechen family deported to Kazakhstan in 1944 and allowed to return home in 1957, Dzhokhar Dudayev graduated from the Air Force Academy, entered the CPSU in 1966, and eventually became major general of the air force, the only Chechen to climb that high within the Soviet military hierarchy. Reportedly, he won awards for his part in air raids during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. In November 1990, Dudayev, an outsider to the Chechen national movement, was unexpectedly elected by its main organization, the Chechen National Congress, as its leader and commander of the National Guard. Having called for local resistance to the August 1991 coup in Moscow, Dudayev seized the opportunity to overthrow the CPSU establishment of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Republic by storming the Supreme Soviet in Grozny, forcing the resignation of key officials, and winning the presidency in a chaotic and irregular vote. On November 1, he decreed the independence of the Chechen Republic, soon ratified by the newly elected Chechen parliament (Ingushetia separated itself from Chechnya via referendum to remain within Russia). Political divisions in Moscow and latent support from sections of its elite helped to thwart a military invasion, while Dudayev bought or obtained most of Moscow’s munitions in Chechnya from the federal military. The peaceful half of his rule (1991-1994) was plagued by general post-Soviet anarchy and the looting of assets, collusion between federal and local criminals and officials, and lack of economic brainpower, exacerbated by the outflow of Russ412
DUGIN, ALEXANDER GELEVICH
General Dzhokhar Dudayev and armed supporters in Chechnya. © Tchetchenie/CORBIS SYGMA ian-speaking industrial cadres as a result of his eth-nocratic policies. In mid-1993, Dudayev disbanded the opposition-minded Constitutional Court and dispersed the parliament (an example that he then advised Yeltsin to follow). From then on, he was faced with armed rebels, aided by Moscow hardliners. Initially a secular ruler, by late 1994 he shifted to Islamist rhetoric. In December 1994, after failed negotiations and a botched attempt by pro-Moscow rebels to dislodge him, Chechnya was invaded by federal troops. Dudayev had to flee Grozny and thereafter led the armed resistance in the mountains, up until his death in a rocket attack by federal forces in April 1996. See also: CHECHNYA AND CHECHENS
Dunlop, John B. (1998). Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Lieven, Anatol. (1998). Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
DMITRI GLINSKI
(b. 1962), head of the Russian sociopolitical movement Eurasia; editor of the journal Elementy; and a leading proponent of geopolitics and Eurasianism with a strong Anti-Western, anti-Atlantic bias.
In the late 1970s Dugin entered the Moscow Aviation Institute but was expelled during his second year for
