Fyodor Dostoevsky: then, now and forever

If you ask any person in any part of the world about what comes in his mind when he thinks of Russia, the response will probably sound like this: snow, vodka, beautiful women, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. Indeed these two writers are very often associated with Russia and “the mysterious Russian soul”. We may argue about who did it best; their views and personal philosophy can be arguable, but one thing remain indisputable: their contribution to literature was enormous and of great importance.

Dostoevsky has always been and still is one of my favourite Russian authors. The uniqueness of Dostoevsky does not only lie in the manner of narration that at times can be ironic, caustic and even violent, but what distinguishes him among other Russians is the profound examination of the human soul.

 The writer was born on November 11, 1821 (new style) in Moscow. He was the second of seven children. His father is often described as a despot who later was murdered. Fyodor’s mother, on the other hand, is described as a tender and sensitive woman with musical talent and interest in literature. She died when Fyodor was a young man of 15. In 1843 Dostoevsky graduated from St. Petersburg’s Academy of Military Engineers as lieutenant, but during his work at the military department he soon realized that it gave him no creative satisfaction. His biggest desire was to write.

At first he started by translating Honore de Balzac’s “Eugenie Grandet” and George Sand’s “Le derniere Aldini”. Soon after (in 1846) he published his first novel “Poor Folk”. Before its publication the novel was passed to a legendary critic Vissarion Belinsky who promptly declared that Dostoevsky was the heir of Gogol. Belinsky’s praise made Dostoevsky “the new literary genius of Saint Petersburg”. However the moment of glory didn’t last long, to be precise – 15 days. Exactly 15 days separated the publications of his first and second novels. The early reviews on “the Double”, his second novel, were extremely negative. Even after his first success, Dostoevsky had never recovered his confidence. His only salvation lay in creation of even greater stories, which would remain in the history of the world literature and would help him “establish his reputation”.

 The negative feedback on “the Double” and the decline of his reputation together with his father’s murder, his own exile and the gambling madness – all these unfortunate events influenced his writing and shaped his unique literary style.

 In the line of the most read novels “The Brothers Karamazov” and “The Crime and the Punishment” should come first. Both of these are fundamental, must-read books. “The Crime and the Punishment” is one of the greatest philosophical novels ever written, like Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” (only reversed). The fatal deed is done at the very beginning of the book, thus Dostoevsky leaves the biggest part of it to self-analysis, followed by madness. Dostoevsky is insuperable when it comes to a deep physiological analysis of a person and he does it better when his characters are in extreme mental states or even on the verge of suicide. The author believed that in the borderline states a man is better perceived than in everyday life. Besides the main characters in “The Crimes and Punishment” we also notice another “character”, the one which is always present in his prose. Its Saint-Petersburg, the city that both obsessed and oppressed him. In this novel we see how ambiguous that relationship was for Dostoevsky.

 “The Brothers Karamazov” was the last of Dostoevsky’s novels and many critics agree it was the greatest one. It’s a story of three brothers, three lives and I say lives, because Dostoevsky breathed life over them. All characters are so full and realistic you almost don’t want to abandon them and it makes you want to read and re-read the book countless times. “The Brothers Karamazov” is full of discussions about man and God. Dostoevsky does it deliberately, believing that characters are more expressive in dialogues than in monologues. Dialogues gave a bigger sense of drama and importance. Thus he discusses with the reader his most important interest – the religion. Dostoevsky had a very specific view on religion, which I must say, was shattered at times by the suffering and doubt. Another interest in the novel is presented by Father Zosima, his wisdom and humanity. Dostoevsky planned a sequel to “the Brothers Karamazov”. There are some indirect versions that Alyosha would become a tsar killer and that he would enter in the revolutionary movement.

 Another prominent novel that I have to mention here is “The Idiot”. The central idea of that story is “to depict a completely beautiful human being”. Prince Myshkin is a Russian Holy Fool, a descendant of Don Quixote. The writing and the publication of the novel were certainly very tortured. “The Idiot” was written abroad, mostly during his stay in Italy. Another event that influenced his writing a lot was the loss of a 3-months old daughter from his second marriage. Dostoevsky started gambling suicidally and had epileptic fits. He was only cured by the moment he started writing “The Possessed” in 1871. In total his gambling addiction lasted for 10 years.

 Thus, his personal struggling and suffering influence his writing once again. In “The Idiot” Dostoevsky confronts death. A dead man who is totally flesh without life, damaged and destroyed, with no hint of a possible resurrection. “In a world where God is simply dead flesh, a good man becomes simply an idiot”. Dostoevsky’s works were first translated between 1912 and 1920 thanks to Constance Garnett, the wife of a literary agent. Her knowledge of Russian was not particularly good and she was apt to leave out the bits she could not quite get the sense of. However she adored her work and her style had a natural animation and flow.

 I personally believe that reading Dostoevsky should be a must for every person. And you shouldn’t read him if you’re looking for a character to discover and a new story to live. Dostoevsky will not offer you that. From the very first pages he will absorb you and take you into that imaginary world, but not his world. He, a master of psychological insight, will take you inside yourself. Dostoevsky is a most precious writer, for, he offers you a very precious lesson – the lesson of self-discovery.

Good bye, Lenin! Good bye, wall!

During the past century we have witnessed the two most destructive wars of all times, the latter of which resulted in the division of the world in two parts. From one side - the potent Western world represented by America with its capitalism, and from another side - idealistic Soviet Union, the Eastern countries and socialism. The decades of frictions between the two major powers of the world led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. There is no more  Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, People’s Republic of Bulgaria and no German Democratic Republic.
 I was born right about the time when the Soviet Union entered in decline and the collapse was inevitable. There is not much that I remember of my Soviet childhood, if not the long waiting lines at the supermarkets, milk in glass bottles or my family’s vacation in Georgia. My family’s memories are quite different from what I could have grasped at the age of 4.
The year of 1989 – glorious for the Western culture and tragic for the Eastern culture. While liberated Germany was enjoying its freedom and America was finally enjoying its glorious victory in the Cold War, the Soviet Union was at the beginning of its end. In the course of the following years and during the famous “perestroika”, Russia found itself in a deep political and socio-economic crisis. The utopic dream Karl Marx once wrote about and Vladimir Lenin tried to put in practice revealed itself a complete failure in the eyes of the whole world. Countries were ruined, boundaries shift, families divided by “the iron curtain”. The beautiful dream that so many people believed in, had become a living nightmare.

 There have been films addressing the problems of that period the history, but very few managed to transmit the “feeling” and the atmosphere of that difficult moment. “Good bye, Lenin!” – is an undoubtful masterpiece of German cinema. The director Wolfgang Becker approaches the viewer in a very honest and humorous manner. Even the film title “Good bye, Lenin!” being so short still contains the sense of irony and absurdity. The title somehow holds the unbearable pain, so all that humour that was supposed to be in those words is substituted by irony. In my opinion that feeling of despair, wounds that are still open and bleeding, storms of uncontrolled anger toward the destiny and the absurdity of life – all that results in irony veiled by humour and touching melancholy.
The story is very original and captivating. A story of a young man and his incredible capacity to love. Certain scenes in the film are so emotionally deep that they touch everyone’s heart, especially those of us who have been through those difficult times and still hold them in memory. There are some really powerful scenes, such as when Christiane goes out in the street and sees the huge Lenin statue fly towards her and then fly away carried by a helicopter, as if her whole past, her whole life is flying away from her to never return.
But what most touches your heart is love. It is the most tender and pure kind of love, the love of a son (Alex) to his mother (Christiane). Christiane outlives two big dramas in her life. The first one is the loss of a husband who flees to the Western Germany and prefers to stay there. Christiane survives the first drama dedicating herself completely to the social activities in the former GDR. Not having any personal life, she “marries” the socialism. However even that (probably the most meaningful) relationship of her life is meant to fail.
Alex, having already saved his mother once after his father left, knows she won’t be able to survive another drama. So he saves her again from all the possible disappointments. When his parents’ marriage fell apart, Alex created a whole new world where he was an astronaut, taking his mother to the Moon. When the GDR fell apart, Alex decided to create a whole new country, the dream Germany where he and his mother always wanted to live. And once united, this perfect Germany was governed by the first German astronaut, Sigmund Jahn.
“Good bye Lenin!” not only gives you a history lesson, but what's more important: a lesson of love. The kind of love that everyone can only dream of, because it’s the most solid and pure love. The love of a son to his mother. And if you are lucky enough to experience the unconditional love of a child, who is ready to create the most absurd reality just to make you smile, to make you happy and live a little longer - than no matter what political circumstances there are in the country, no matter how much you have suffered or how many times your heart has been broken, this love will always keep you alive. For, even when you die, your child will always carry you in his heart.