Blog Marcos L. Mucheroni Filosofia, Noosfera e cibercultura

Imagining that all Russian literature is Soviet is, above all, ahistorical because great masters of literature predate the Soviet period: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) and Leon Tostoy (1828-1910), not to mention Gogol, Pushkin and others.

Dostoevsky was a master at exploring ethical and spiritual issues in his characters, he also addresses issues of faith, redemption and the search for truth.

Dostoevsky was imprisoned for political reasons, his style of literature was realistic, but from a philosophical point of view, to give a more precise connotation, he was an existentialist, his anti-tsar ideas (the Russian monarchy) make many interpreters place him as a “revolutionary”.

Dostoievsky belonged to a group known as the Petrashevsky Circle, despite being from different currents, they were mostly progressive and wanted the end of Russian feudalism.

Among his best-known works are: The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot and Crime and Punishment, although they are ethical and existentialist dramas, there is within these works the ideal of pan-Slavism, an ideal of unity between all Orthodox Christian and Slavic nations and in this sense,  they were conservative, as other currents defended integration into Europe.

The Idiot was a novel that began in September 1867 when the author was in Geneva and concluded in January 1869 in the city of Florence. This alone would indicate its universal character and with themes that go beyond the literary and political scope.

The Idiot tells the story of the young Prince Myshkin who, after several years in a sanatorium in Switzerland, returns to Russia and comes across a world mired in indolence and material life.

Contrary to the title, the character seen by many as an idiot for refusing values ​​and the spirit of indolence by returning to his country, feels like an idiot to a certain extent, but teaches us that it is possible to live outside the unethical and immoral standards of the world. your time.

The character resolves to be courteous and sincere in a corrupted world and the author writes about him: “No one should expect more than this from me. Maybe here they also look at me like a child; It’s okay” and adds: “But can I be an idiot now, if I feel able to see, for myself, that everyone takes me for an idiot? When I arrived, I thought: “I know they take me for an idiot; However, I have discernment and they don’t realize it!…”.

So the Russian drama of experiencing pan-Slavism or integration into the West was already present.