DOSTOYEVSKY’S VISION OF TOTALITARIANISM “From then onwards - TopicsExpress



          

DOSTOYEVSKY’S VISION OF TOTALITARIANISM “From then onwards he realized that human life was not a movement from a backward past to a better future. Instead, every human being stood at each moment on the edge of eternity.” “It isnt the revolutionaries who are demons. Its the ideas to which the revolutionaries are enslaved.” “What Dostoyevsky diagnosed — and at times suffered from himself — was the tendency to think of ideas as being somehow more real than actual human beings.” When Fyodor Dostoyevsky described in his novels how ideas have the power to change human lives, he knew something of what he was writing about. Born in 1821, the Russian writer was in his 20s when he joined a circle of radical intellectuals in St Petersburg who were entranced by French utopian socialist theories. A police agent who had infiltrated the group reported its discussions to the authorities. On 22 April 1849, Dostoyevsky was arrested and imprisoned along with the other members, and after some months of investigation they were found guilty of planning to distribute subversive propaganda and condemned to death by firing squad. The punishment was commuted to a sentence of exile and hard labor in Siberian prison, but the tsars authority to decree life or death was confirmed by forcing the prisoners to undergo the ordeal of a mock execution. In a carefully stage-managed charade Dostoyevsky and the rest of the group were taken on the morning of 22 December 1849 to a regimental parade ground, where scaffolding had been erected and decorated with black crepe. Their crimes and sentence were read out and an Orthodox priest asked them to repent. Three of the group were tied to stakes in readiness for execution. At the last moment there was a roll of drums, and the firing squad lowered its rifles. Reprieved, the prisoners were put in shackles and sent into Siberian exile — in Dostoyevskys case for four years of hard labour, followed by compulsory service in the Russian army. Dostoyevskys experience had altered him profoundly. He did not abandon his view that Russian society needed to be radically changed. He continued to believe that the institution of serfdom was profoundly immoral, and to the end of his life he detested the landed aristocracy. But his experience of being on what hed believed was the brink of death had given him a new perspective on time and history. Many years later he remarked: I cannot recall when I was ever as happy as on that day. [after getting a reprieve] From then onwards he realized that human life was not a movement from a backward past to a better future, as he had believed or half-believed when he shared the ideas of the radical intelligentsia. Instead, every human being stood at each moment on the edge of eternity. As a result of this revelation, Dostoyevsky became increasingly mistrustful of the progressive ideology to which he had been drawn as a young man. Dostoyevskys indictment of nihilism is presented in his great novel The Devils. Published in 1872, the book has been criticized for being didactic in tone, and there can be no doubt that he wanted to show that the dominant ideas of his generation were harmful. But the story Dostoyevsky tells is also a dark comedy, cruelly funny in its depiction of high-minded intellectuals toying with revolutionary notions without understanding anything of what revolution means in practice. The plot is a version of actual events that unfolded as Dostoyevsky was writing the book. A former teacher of divinity turned terrorist, Sergei Nechayev, was arrested and convicted of complicity in the killing of a student. Nechayev had authored a pamphlet, The Catechism of a Revolutionary, which argued that any means (including blackmail and murder) could be used to advance the cause of revolution. The student had questioned Nechayevs policies, and so had to be eliminated. Dostoyevsky suggests that the result of abandoning morality for the sake of an idea of freedom will be a type of tyranny more extreme than any in the past. As one of the characters in The Devils confesses: I got entangled in my own data, and my conclusion directly contradicts the original idea from which I start. From unlimited freedom, I conclude with unlimited despotism. Though he criticized him for relying too much on individual acts of terror, Lenin admired Nechayev for his readiness to commit any crime if it served the revolution. But as Dostoyevsky foresaw, the use of inhuman methods to achieve a new kind of freedom produced a type of repression that was much more far-reaching than the theatrical cruelties of tzarism. Dostoyevskys novel contains a lesson that reaches far beyond Russia. Early English translations bore the title The Possessed - a misreading of a Russian word more accurately rendered as The Devils or Demons. But the earlier title may have been closer to Dostoyevskys intentions. Though at times he is merciless in his portrayal of them, it isnt the revolutionaries who are demons. Its the ideas to which the revolutionaries are enslaved. Dostoyevsky thought the flaw at the heart of Russian nihilism was atheism, but you neednt share his view on this point to see that when he writes of the demonic power of ideas he has fastened on a genuine human disorder. Nor do you need to approve of Dostoyevskys political outlook, which was a mystical version of nationalism deeply stained with xenophobia. What Dostoyevsky diagnosed — and at times suffered from himself — was the tendency to think of ideas as being somehow more real than actual human beings. We like to think that liberal societies are immune to the dangerous power of ideas. But its an illusion to think we dont have demons of our own. Possessed by grandiose conceptions of freedom, weve tried to change the systems of government of countries we dont begin to understand. Like the deluded revolutionaries of Dostoyevskys novel, weve turned abstract notions into idols and sacrificed others and ourselves in the attempt to serve them. bbc/news/magazine-30129713
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 17:16:12 +0000

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