The novel "Demons" is one of the most political works F.M. Dostoevsky. An essay that is quoted at all times and political systems. The novel will never lose its relevance as long as there is politics and a means of profit in the world. As long as there is a lust for power and a passion to achieve greatness and dominance over humanity.
But "Demons" is also one of the most mysterious works, because it was written abroad, far from strict Russian censorship. And when moving to Russia, on the border with Russia, Dostoevsky burns drafts of the novel "Demons" and the novel "The Idiot". What was secret in these novels that the writer was afraid that they would be discovered?!
graphics by A. Matveev
"... We put on laurel wreaths on lousy heads..."
"... everything is from idleness. Everything is from idleness, both good and good. Everything is from our lordly, sweet, educated, whimsical idleness! .."
"... We do not know how to live by our labor [...] to acquire an opinion, first of all, we need labor, our own labor, our own initiative in business, our own practice! We will never get anything for free. We will work, we will have our own opinion. And since we will never work, then those who have worked instead of us up to now will have an opinion for us, that is, all the same Europe, all the same Germans - our two-hundred-year-old teachers ... "
"... Russia is too great a misunderstanding to be resolved by us alone, without the Germans and without difficulty..."
"... The negligence of an apology was equal to a new insult..."
"...put some very last insignificance on the sale of some crappy tickets to railway, and this insignificance will immediately consider itself entitled to look at you as Jupiter when you go to take a ticket to show you its power. “Let me, they say, I will show my power over you ...”
graphics by A. Matveev
"- ...What could be more stupid than a stupid good man? - An evil fool, ma bonne amie *, an evil fool is even more stupid..." (*my good friend)
"...never bring to last line- and this is the first rule in marriage ... "
"... there is no greater happiness than to sacrifice yourself..."
"... Today, how many perish because thoughts are directed badly! .."
"... A man is afraid of death, because he loves life, that's how I understand it, [...] and so nature ordered..."
"...marriage is the moral death of every proud soul, of every independence..."
"... the wise are not afraid to face the truth..."
graphics by A. Matveev
"... If people lie, why shouldn't the cards lie..." (about fortune-telling on cards)
"... There are things [...] about which it is not only impossible to speak intelligently, but about which it is stupid to even start talking..."
"...smart people silent, not talking...
"... I can't speak. Those who can speak well, they speak briefly ..."
"... be silent - great talent, and, therefore, it is indecent for me, and secondly, it is still dangerous to remain silent ... "
"... to make it solid and steadfast, well, at least for a short time; moreover, from true, real grief, even fools sometimes grow wiser, also, of course, for a while; this is a property of such grief ..."
"... the real truth is always implausible, do you know that? To make the truth more believable, you must certainly mix lies with it. People have always done this..."
"... chopping heads is the easiest thing to do, but having an idea is the hardest thing!.."
"... A woman will deceive the very all-seeing eye. Le bon Dieu *, creating a woman, of course, knew what he was exposed to, but I'm sure that she herself prevented him and forced herself to create in this form and ... with such attributes; otherwise who wanted to make such troubles for himself for nothing? .. "(* Lord God)
"... poems are all the same nonsense and justify what is considered insolence in prose ..."
"...Our Russian liberal is first of all a lackey and only looks to clean someone's boots..."
"... a person, in addition to happiness, just as exactly and completely in the same amount, also needs misfortune! .."
"... The best thing would be without a role at all, your own face, isn't it? There is nothing more cunning than your own face, because no one will believe it. I, frankly, wanted to take a fool, because a fool is easier than one's own face ; but since a fool is still an extreme, and an extreme arouses curiosity, I finally settled on my own face ... "
"... The golden mean: neither stupid nor smart, rather mediocre and jumped off the moon..."
"... A person is unhappy because he does not know that he is happy; only because. That's all, everything! Whoever finds out will immediately become happy, this very minute ..."
"... An atheist cannot be Russian, an atheist immediately ceases to be Russian," remember this...
"... It has never happened that all or many peoples had one common god, but each one always had a special one. A sign of the destruction of nationalities, when the gods begin to become common. When the gods become common, then the gods and faith in them together with the peoples themselves. stronger people, the more special his god. There has never been a people without religion, that is, without the concept of evil and good. Every nation has its own own concept about evil and good and your own evil and good..."
"... The people are the body of God. Every people is only a people as long as it has its own special god, and excludes all other gods in the world without any reconciliation; as long as it believes that by its god it will win and drive out of the world all other gods..."
"... I am a person without talent and I can only give my blood and nothing more, like any person without talent ..."
"... the local city is the same as what the devil was carrying in a basket, but crushed ..."
"... It is clear, however, that the whole second half human life is usually made up of nothing but habits accumulated in the first half ... "
STATEMENTS OF DEMONS (FROM A NOTEBOOK)
Cases of the manifestation of demons (from notebook priest). Source: books by Hieromonk Panteleimon (Ledina) "Intrigues of demons", and a book by the same author "Invisible battle. Intrigues of demons against man" published by the Orthodox Foundation Blagovest.
SPIRITUAL TALK
Once a spiritually ill woman came to her friend. The old woman was digging in the garden at that time. They sat down on the porch and began to talk about “the one thing you need.” Soon the guest got ready, asking for forgiveness for distracting the hostess from work. She waved her hand: "These things will always work out, let's talk about the Lord again."
Subsequently, the sick woman said: “My demon really didn’t like that the old woman put the conversation about the spiritual in the first place. “It would be better if she dug in the garden, she was engaged in worldly affairs,” he repeated more than once.
ABOUT AWE
An old woman was walking along the church, loudly banging her stick on the floor. The demon shouted, “They will beat you with sticks for this!”
AT THE CEMETERY
In the cemetery near the church, where the sick woman liked to come, there were many monuments and only occasionally crosses came across. Instead of icons (as is customary according to Orthodox custom), many graves have photographs of the dead. Sometimes they were located directly on the crosses.
The demon that lived in this woman was very happy that people put candles on the graves and light them in front of the monuments and photographs of the dead, and not in front of the icons and the holy cross; I was glad that on some graves there are glasses of vodka for commemoration.
ABOUT TV
A father came to the monastery with his spiritually ill mother. The demon, through the lips of the possessed during the prayer, shouted: “ They have peace in the house! I won't get out of it!” After the prayer, the serving priest asked: “What kind of “peace” is this in your house?” It turned out that the “world” was created by two televisions that worked in their house from morning until late at night.
PILGRIMNS
ABOUT EMERGENCY
The priest spoke to the demoniac
- “Ambulance”invented by us,” the demon suddenly declared
- How so you? - the priest was indignant. - This is to help the sick!
- And I'll explain to you why we are: before, as it became ill for a person, they called a priest with the Holy Gifts for confession and communion, and now - an ambulance that brings the patient to such conditions where there are no icons or other shrines. He dies without repentance, and his soul goes to hell with us.
PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE MONASTERY
During Lent, secular photographers came to the monastery and began to take pictures of the monastery life. The demon immediately yelled through the lips of the obsessed woman sitting in the corner: “ It was I who sent them to the monastery by fasting - to distract nuns and believers from prayer!”
PRAYER FOR SHOW
Once, in a conversation with me, a monk boasted in the presence of a possessed woman: “ Here, father, yesterday I prayed from nine to nine!” Later, during a fit, the demon remembered this incident and rejoiced: “ This is our way! (Meaning flaunting his exploits - Ed.) It would be nice if he still grieve that the service is long, but it’s hard to stand - he’s tired, they say”
I also remember that the demon once shouted: “ Why do you teach to hide prayer? How I like it when they run around with a rosary and a prayer book!”
Any discovery without the need of their labors crosses them out, making them fruitless.
ABOUT HOLY WRITING
Bes said: I do not like the Psalter - it forgives sins". Then they asked: And the gospel?” - “The Lord Himself says... I can't stand it!”
DEMONIC TRICKS
Before the start of the Divine service, I saw that a crowd of believers had gathered around one possessed woman. Approached. It turns out that believers ask questions to the demon, and he willingly answers them, and quite subtly and cunningly. I interrupted this “performance”, explaining to the believers that the demon, as the first slanderer, cannot be trusted, and only an experienced priest can question him and give a correct assessment of his words. In this case, the purpose of all enemy responses was to:
1) incite enmity;
2) slander the innocent;
3) to force the sorcerers to blame for everything, and not themselves, forgetting that nothing happens without God's permission for our sins;
4) to inspire fear that it is useless to repent, you still will not receive the forgiveness of sins,
5) to teach murmuring in order to deprive in eternity of the reward for enduring sorrows and illnesses
BRIGHT FACE
To one priest, the demon, through a woman possessed with hatred, said: I stopped being friends with you a long time ago. If you sin, then when you repent, your face becomes bright again”
ABOUT CARS
Make a sin, - the demon suggested to the priest
- Which? he asked
- Buy a car.
HOLY BELT
I went to one priest at the altar, and his altar boy was possessed. In the altar lay belts with the inscriptions “ Alive in the help of the Most High...“The demon, through the mouth of the altar boy, addressed me:“ See the belts? I'm not afraid of them now, until they are consecrated”.
Another time, in front of another sick woman, I said about the consecration of the belt, that I was thinking of putting it to the shrine, then hanging it on the icon that stands on the throne, and consecrating it according to the order of consecrating any thing " I will not wear this belt and will not let you wear it", - said the demon.
REPORT FOR MONEY
One obsessed woman came to me with a request to bless her to go to a reprimand somewhere far away. When I heard from her that the priest takes money for a reprimand, I did not bless her. Then the demon cried out through her: “ Bless, bless her to go! Let him lose time, spend money and accumulate sins on the road”
“WAIT...”
In one monastery, the priest said aloud:
“I wish I had a TV that showed only the holy: instructions on how to live like God, how to be saved, how to please God, how to overcome your sinful habits". The demon, who was possessed by a demon, did not remain silent: “ Look what you want! Wait!”
ABOUT A DETAILED CONFESSION
The spiritually ill woman repented for about an hour. The confessor sat and patiently listened to the confession. At the end of the confession of sins, the confessor read a permissive prayer. Then the demon shouted through the mouth of the sick woman: What did you do?! All my life I worked and wrote sins to her, and you made my charter empty in an hour!”
ABOUT DESIGNATION OF THE APARTMENT
Here is what Archimandrite Ambrose (Yurasov) said: “I served in the parish, in Zharki, Yuryevsky district Ivanovo region We had a woman working in the kitchen, Raisa from Alator. She said that her husband was a drunkard, fought, rowdy. Raisa called the priest, and he consecrated the house. In the evening, the husband comes home from work, and the wife saw him through the window and thought: will she know that the house is consecrated? He looks, but he's still not there. It's been fifteen minutes already. She opened the door, and he was lying in the hallway. Not drunk - sober! “ What are you doing here? Come into the house!” - And they say: “ I can't, there's no place for me here”. - “Yes, come in! And he crawled on all fours into the house. I crawled to the table, took off the receiver and put it on the floor; turn it on and say: At least it's my consolation". Raisa was very surprised then when she saw what power the consecration of the house has.
ABOUT SPIRITUAL PLATES
A spiritually ill woman told me. She bought a record in the monastery with bell ringing, came home and put to listen. As soon as the demon heard the ringing of the bell, she no longer had the strength to stand on her feet. So all the time, while the bells were ringing, the sick woman was lying, wrapped in rugs
WEAPON AGAINST IMP
The sick woman asked me to give her a cassette with spiritual chants. I serve, and the demon says: “ You gave her a weapon against me. Now she will not be bored and yearn”
ABOUT THE RESPECTIVE ATTITUDE TO THE HOLY
There was a case when spiritual sick woman was in the room into which the prosphora had just been brought. It is known how unclean spirits are afraid of the shrine, but something was wrong here. And as in response to a dumb question, the demon finally spoke out “ Yes, I'm not afraid of these prosvirki at all! Do you want to eat everything?”
Only later it turned out that the women who brought these prosphora were arguing about who should carry them in the cold, and on the way they laughed and talked idle.
120 QUESTIONS
Somehow, a sick woman shows me 120 superstitious questions. I looked at them and smiled, One void". Then the demon could not stand it and said: Why are you laughing? We fill the heads of women with these nonsense”
“YOU JUST PRAY...”
Once the demon cunningly told me:
- You already do one thing - either pray or read the holy fathers
In response to my bewilderment, he readily explained:
- If you only pray, you will not know the law of God. If you only read, you will not have help from God for fulfillment.
THE WATER HAS BEEN SPOILED
Once I blessed two spiritually ill people, who, I note, thought incorrectly about Orthodoxy, to pour holy water. After a while, the psalmist comes running and says that the consecrated water has gone bad. When I approached, I saw that all the water had become viscous and yellow, and even an unpleasant smell emanated from it.
PRAYER WITH ERRORS
While praying for the sick, I asked a believer to read a prayer. She began to read it with wrong accents. The demons spoke with one voice: Power is lost, power is lost”
PRIESTS-”TVs”
One, then still a non-church person, told how at a festive service, when there was a large meeting of the clergy, he stood with his acquaintance, who was spiritually ill, and during the solemn exit of the clergy, the demon shouted through the lips of his companion: “ These are TV priests! I'm not afraid of them!”A friend later said that before this incident it never occurred to him that those who watch TV turn out to be in the mind of a demon
MORE ABOUT TV
From Tikhvin, a certain woman, Raisa, came to the monastery for a lecture. Since the report was made twice a week, the sick woman rented a room in the city. Some time after Raisa began to go to reprimands and to monastic services, a real stream of foam gushed out of her mouth. “ I come out with air and foam!”- the demon shouted through her lips and, naturally, tried with all his might to resist this. Certainly not without it.” help”The mistress of the house suddenly turned against Raisa and refused her housing. The woman rented a room in another place, from a believer who went to the monastery, went to confession, took communion, and held holy icons. As soon as Raisa moved to a new place, the foam stopped, and the demon said to the abbot: “ You are nobody! I'm not afraid of you, I'm the master of the house!". Such a change occurred, as it turned out later, only because of the presence of a TV in the new house. As soon as Raisa changed the apartment again, the demon again began to come out with foam
“SINS ARE FORGIVEN...”
One evening, when we were all reading the evening rule together, and the reader came to the last prayer: “ I confess to You the Lord my God and Creator...”, the demon panicked: “ Sins are forgiven! Sins are forgiven!“Here, it turns out, what it means to list sins in prayer with heartfelt sympathy and repentance
THE GRACE OF THE PRIESTHOOD
HOW I LIVED AND DIED
In one parish there lived a peasant, a former district policeman, a man of a very drunken life. When his wife came to God and began to visit the temple, he poured out all sorts of abuse on her, what he didn’t say, didn’t invent, and finally kicked her out of the house altogether. He died badly. The drunk had a blow in the barn, only a day later his neighbors found him in manure.
ABOUT THE POWER OF FASTING
One sick woman (the demon of gluttony sat in her) asked for my blessing to go to a familiar priest, who undertook to read spells over her. I have blessed
After a while, she arrives, and I ask:
- Well, how?
- No, I didn't feel anything when he read it.
Then the demon inside her spoke angrily: “ He wanted to kick me out, a glutton, but he got drunk on sausages! Doesn’t he know that you can kick me out only through fasting and prayer?! “
JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM...
One day the believers began to talk about the Holy City of Jerusalem. Bes also said: Jerusalem is yours and the people are ours". This is what it means to not recognize Jesus Christ.
UNWORTHY PARTICIPATION
The parishioners, observing a strong fit of demon possession, pitied the sick woman and sympathetically said to the priest who was standing right there: “ Father, how is it? After all, she goes to church and takes communion often, why is there a demon in her?"The demon, hearing these words, yelled:" Yes, just like her, let her commune at least every day! I am not at all afraid of such communion!“Then it turned out that the ailing woman was not preparing for communion according to the Orthodox rite. Great is the Sacrament given to us, but how great a reverence must we have for it!
PRAYER OF GRATITUDE
I advised one sick woman to serve a thanksgiving service for her temptations, to thank God for her sorrows. As soon as she agreed, her demon yelled: “ What are you doing? Fool what?!” - and she collapsed to the floor, as if knocked down.
SIXOPSALMY
ZOO
Once a demon shouted through the lips of a possessed woman:
- I don't like you! Why are you torturing me? I want to go to the zoo!
- The beast is God's creation, - I was surprised. - How do you want to go to the zoo?
- Animals are a creation, and the zoo is entertainment. And entertainment is ours!
THE POWER OF THE CROSS
Before sitting down on the sofa, I made the sign of the cross as usual. Suddenly, an unclean spirit, who was in the possessed woman sitting in the same room, said:
- Look you! Doesn't want to sit on a demon!
- What would happen? - I was surprised.
“I should have seen that,” he replied. - Bad thoughts, desires would climb into my head ...
ABOUT EXCESSIVE OPENING
It happened that, as soon as she returned from the temple, a friend came to visit one believer, possessed by an evil spirit. The hostess opened the door: A! Come in, come in... But I've just come from the service; I took communion and now I read thanksgiving prayers". After a while, the demon remembered this incident: “ Well, you must! Nothing sticks to your teeth! Everyone is blabbering out!”
ABOUT SOUL, BATH AND BATH
Pleasure and rest of the body without need is a sin. Let me tell you a story to prove it. Once a demoniac comes and says:
- The shower was invented by us.
- How are you? This is to cleanse the body of dirt.
- They do it not for the sake of need, but for pleasure. Likewise, they wash in the bath, and steam in the bath - everything is for pleasure.
And when, some time later, the sick man was invited to sit down on a soft ottoman, the demon cried out: What luxury!”
ABOUT FORBIDDEN BOOKS
Having visited a spiritually ill woman, I found her copying one of the religious novels, like “ Paradise Lost and Regained". When I explained to her that it was a sin to read it, the demon exclaimed through her mouth: “ This is what I gave her!”
THE HOLIDAY IS COMING...
Soon the feast of Peter and Paul! - the demon rejoiced.
- Why do you rejoice at the feasts of God? I asked him.
- And I'll go to the forest for a holiday, for mushrooms, for berries! Then I'll go to the market to sell. Whoever buys and eats without crossing, - so I will enter it, if God permits!
“I WANT APPLES...”
One possessed woman often came to us, whose demon was yelling: “ Why are you poisoning me with cabbage? I want sausages! I want meat!“What was our surprise when, shortly before the feast of the Transfiguration, at a time when the Church still does not bless us to eat apples of the new harvest, the demon shouted: “ I don't want sausage! I want apples!”
CONFESSION CONFESSION DIFFERENCE
Once, through the mouth of a sick woman, the demon told how a certain priest confessed to the people: “ They only said a few words to him, and he is already covering the stole. That's great! Doesn't let me name a single sin! And it happens that under the epitrachelion and two or three of them immediately bow their heads”
TERROR FOR THE ENEMY
In one room, many photographs of elders and ascetics of piety were hung on the walls. When a spiritually ill woman entered this room, she fell unconscious when she saw them.
ABOUT PETS
One believer began to tell me in the presence of a possessed woman that an old cat had died in her:
- So how is it? Did you cry? - demon revived
- No! I rejoiced and rested, - the woman said with a challenge
- In vain, - the demon twirled. - We should cry for the cat
CAT CASE
I'm not commenting, just stating a fact. While still a layman, I visited with my friend, deacon V., Matushka Maria Starorusskaya. I don't remember if it was my first or second trip. We talked with mother in her small cell, lit only by lamps. The seventy-year-old mother was blind from childhood. The conversation took place in the semi-darkness on the couch. Father V. asked the elder questions about himself, while I, thinking, “digested” what my mother had said. And then it happened. There was a cat in the room. More precisely, someone invisible dragged her. The animal went mad with fear. Someone dragged her into the red corner on the rug, where mother used to pray, and, like a tube, squeezed it out! The animal immediately ran away, and a bunch of...
That this is the action of the spirits of malice was clear even to us, people inexperienced in the spiritual life.
PRECEDENT
One diocesan administration organized screenings of Orthodox films in the cinema. The demons were pleased:
- We are pleased, - they rejoiced, - that they visited our dwelling, wiped all our dirt with their cassocks.
They like it when the church authorities arrange banquets. To one priest of a strict life, demons spoke through a sick woman:
- You would go, just sit. You do not drink and do not eat, just stay - we will be happy!
Although the participants of these meetings are baptized and pray, the enemy is glad: by their presence in such places, the clergy, as it were, legitimize their existence.
ABOUT ICONS
Looking at the icons of the saints, just painted by the artist, I said: “ Here, thank God! Will believers now pray to these saints". Immediately the demon reacted: “ If artists would not charge dearly for icons, but how much they would give for labor, then all the saints would pray for them”.
Another time I show the possessed person a photograph of the icon, and the demon: We look at which icon the photo was taken from, we especially dislike photos from miraculous and old (i.e. prayed - ed.) icons. It is also important who took the picture, and whether with reverence ...”
The decisive impetus for the creation of the novel was the so-called "Nechaev case" - the murder of a student of the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy I.P. Ivanov by five members secret society"People's massacre" headed by S.N. Nechaev. Dostoevsky saw in this crime a symptom of a cruel social malady with unpredictable destructive consequences. He decided to write a work in which he wanted to show how dangerous this denial of religion, morality, family, human ties is. Thus the idea of "Demons" was born.
2) The role of epigraphs.
As epigraphs to the novel "Demons" Dostoevsky uses fragments from two works: an excerpt from Pushkin's poem "Demons" and a parable from the Gospel of Luke. Both fragments are unconditionally related to the concept of Dostoevsky's novel and shed light on it. The first of them, as it were, reveals the mood of the writer that gave rise to his idea - his horror before the chaos of modern social reality, before the ambiguity of the prospects for the development of life; the second conveys his hopes for the coming "healing" of society, its exit to harmony and moral health.
In the first epigraph, the picture of vague whirling in the haze of a snowstorm is consonant with the novel. Dostoevsky foresaw the terrible, destructive consequences that “nechaevism” and the accompanying “Shigalevism” bear: instead of equality, slavery; instead of freedom, barracks; instead of brotherhood, general denunciation, hatred and fear uniting everyone. However, "possession" expresses itself not only in the field of political radicalism. In Possessed, the reader is immersed in a shaky atmosphere of universal vanity, pride, loss of solid moral guidelines, unbelief. It is in such an atmosphere that criminal ideas crystallize without encountering any public resistance. The novel takes on the features of a genuine tragedy. Like Shakespeare's chronicles, it ends with the death of most of the main actors: Stavrogin, Shatov, Kirillov, Lebyadkin, Lisa. Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky also dies, having experienced a deep spiritual insight before his death. His last words turned to Russia, which he compares with a sick man possessed by demons.
However, plot content"Demons" is not indicated by epigraphs. To a much greater extent with the content of this novel and the very nature of its images corresponds folk tale about Solomon, possessed by demons. This legend, which is distinguished by a dynamic, dramatic plot, with a widely developed system of episodes, containing detailed descriptions, is a kind of folk “occult novel”, the characters of which are demons. Their "morals" and characters are revealed through the story of intrigues and intrigues, the networks of which they weave around Solomon. Ideas about demons and their constant dangerous activity directed against morality and faith were widely circulated. Their origins go back to the deep antiquity of pagan cults, their vitality was supported by dual faith, on the one hand, and the mystical-religious concepts of Christianity, on the other.
Image system.
In fact, the entire novel "Demons" is devoted to unraveling the mystery of Stavrogin, since the spiritual confusion of the protagonist, his spiritual duality captures first several of his students, then entire circles and, finally, the whole city, and the collapse of his personality symbolizes for Dostoevsky the religious crisis experienced by Russia. The writer skillfully concentrates all the action of "Demons" around the personality of the protagonist: the exposition - Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky - Stavrogin's spiritual father, four women - Liza Tushina, Dasha, Marya Timofeevna, Shatov's wife - they are all part of him tragic fate; four men - Shatov, Kirillov, Pyotr Verkhovensky, Shigalev - these are the ideas of Stavrogin, which began own life, and, finally, petty demons - Virginsky, Liputin, Lebyadkin, Erkel, Lyamshin - they were also born by Stavrogin. Now it turns out that the crime committed by demons in a provincial Russian town is a hundred times worse than the atrocity of Raskolnikov or the debauchery of Svidrigailov, for there is nothing more terrible, according to Dostoevsky, than belonging to an underground group that justifies the shedding of blood of innocent people. One of the representatives revolutionary movement Peter Verkhovensky performs. Political biography Pyotr Stepanovich is foggy and dark. On the one hand, he participated in the drafting of some kind of proclamation and fled to Switzerland, on the other hand, he regularly received money from Russia at the exact Geneva address, and four years later he returned home; therefore, he did not become an emigrant and was not accused of anything. In addition, a rumor is stubbornly spreading around the city that he has repented before the government, naming, among other things, several names of revolutionaries. At the heart of the organization that Pyotr Verkhovensky wants to create is the principle of unquestioning obedience to the center. A person who joins an organization loses the right to free decision-making, from now on he is completely dependent on instructions from above. To prevent dissent within the group, all members are called upon to keep an eye on each other.
Verkhovensky is convinced that no moral laws. Its goal is the world revolution, the destruction of the farce and the establishment of equality - socialism. He has a theorist - Shigalev. His theory is a parody of Saintsemonism and Fourierism (the dream of a utopian future, the dream of heaven on earth). Theory: Divide society into 2 parts. One is to gain the freedom of the individual, the second must lose the individual, turn into a herd. This is a society of denunciation, surveillance, everyone is equal and everyone should. This society is the "equality of slaves". Despotic methods are used as mechanisms of power. It is necessary to lower education, science, talents. None higher abilities(“sink the genius”). General equalization. The levers of power are drunkenness, gossip, denunciation, depravity. contempt for the people. There must be a common sin of villainy as a guarantee of unity. It is a mechanism of power and influence. In the person of Verkhovensky, Dostoevsky presented the type of political adventurer, conspirator. The writer reveals their psychology, their personal selfish motives. At the root of everything lies immorality. The mechanisms of political adventure are revealed.
The victim is Shatov, a former member of the revolutionary movement, who lost faith in their ideas. According to contemporaries, Dostoevsky put his own ideas into his mouth. I.I. Ivanov, who was killed by the "People's Reprisal", served as its prototype. Dies at the hands of a bunch of Verkhovensky. He is not just an opponent, he personal enemy Verkhovensky. Shatov spat in his face for betrayal. From here came personal revenge - a hidden, personal motive for the murder.
Stavrogin inspires Shatov with the idea of fidelity folk morality, the idea of faith in God. Through the surname "Shatov" a projection is made on spiritual instability. Until the finale, Shatov is split between faith and unbelief. His wife Mari returns to him, pregnant by Stavrogin. He takes care of her with all his heart. At the peak of this joy, he is killed. The scene of his murder is filled with mystical horror. In his own way, he embodies the duality of Stavrogin, his quest throughout his life.
Stavrogin inspires the engineer Kirillov with the idea of absolute freedom. Kirillov is not included in the "five". He believes that one must overcome his fear through suicide. Suicide is a challenge to God. It proves the omnipotence of man. He sacrifices himself for the idea of becoming a MAN-God (“Whoever dares to kill himself is God”). But his tragedy lies in the duality of mind and heart. The mind denies God, but the heart loves life. He kills himself out of hopelessness (the inability to live without God).
Stavrogin's suicide does not change anything, since even during his lifetime he suffered the most terrible punishment - spiritual death. His soul decays, and its decay gives rise to Stavrogin's spiritual children: Shatov, Kirillov, Peter Verkhovensky, Shigalev, and they, in turn, give rise to more petty demons etc. - demonism spun, swirled in Russia.
Genre specificity of the novel-warning.
In "Demons", a chronicle of twenty years and thirty days, everything surprisingly coincided: the chronicle of the era and the heartfelt poem, the naivety of the story and the ardent love for Russia, violent fantasy and strict historicism of thinking. The point of time depicted in Possessed presented itself to Dostoevsky as one of the “all-expressing” points. And it is no coincidence that this novel (more than any other work) has firmly entrenched (grown) the definition: "novel-warning", "novel-prophecy".
"Demons" is a prophetic book. Dostoevsky saw with his spiritual vision that the Russian revolution would be exactly like this and could not be otherwise. He foresaw the inevitability of demon possession in the revolution. Russian nihilism, operating in the Khlystian Russian element, cannot but be a frenzy, a frenzied and whirlwind. This frenzied vortex is described in "Demons".
In 1916 Vyacheslav Ivanov in his work "Dostoevsky and novel-tragedy”(collection“ Furrows and Borders ”) introduced the concept of“ novel-tragedy ”. This concept, emphasizing the tragedy of Dostoevsky's novels and worldview, the special dramatic nature of the construction, is largely correct. It has undergone a noticeable evolution, cleared of the mystical shades of the original use and has become a working term. Soviet literary criticism(for example, F. I. Evnin adheres to it). Despite the widespread use of this genre definition, it is far from indisputable: for example, the concept of a tragedy novel is criticized by M. M. Bakhtin in the book “Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics”. The term tragedy novel should not be understood literally: Dostoevsky's genre is not a "hybrid" of a novel with tragedy, but a novel with traits of tragedy that are very clearly manifested in the concept of the whole, composition, spatio-temporal relations, etc.: before everything is a novel. Engelhardt's remarkably deep definition has already been cited above: Dostoevsky's novel is ideological novel, a novel about ideas.
And mind; there has never been such an example, except for one minute, out of stupidity. Socialism in its essence must already be atheism, for it proclaimed, from the very first line, that it is an atheistic establishment and intends to settle on the principles of science and reason exclusively. Reason and science in the life of peoples have always, now and since the beginning of centuries, performed only a secondary and service position; and so it will be done until the end of time. Nations are formed and moved by a different force, commanding and dominating, but the origin of which is unknown and inexplicable. This force is the force of an insatiable desire to reach the end and at the same time it denies the end. This is the power of the unceasing and relentless confirmation of one's being and the denial of death. The spirit of life, as Scripture says, "rivers of living water", the drying up of which is so threatened by the Apocalypse. The beginning is aesthetic, as philosophers say, the beginning is moral, as they identify. "The search for God," as I call it most simply. The goal of the entire movement of the people, in every nation and in every period of its existence, is the only search for God, one's own god, certainly one's own, and faith in him as the only true one. God is the synthetic personality of the whole people, taken from its beginning to its end. It has never happened before that all or many peoples had one common god, but each one always had a special one. A sign of the destruction of nationalities, when the gods begin to become common. When the gods become common, the gods and faith in them die along with the peoples themselves. The stronger the people, the more special their god. There has never been a people without religion, that is, without the concept of evil and good. Every nation has its own concept of evil and good, and its own evil and good. When many nations begin to become general concepts about evil and good, then peoples die out, and then the very distinction between evil and good begins to blur and disappear. The mind has never been able to determine evil and good, or even to separate evil from good, although approximately; on the contrary, he always mixed shamefully and pathetically; science gave fist permission. In particular, semi-science, the most terrible scourge of mankind, worse than pestilence, famine and war, was not known until this century. Semi-science is a despot such as has never come before. A despot who has his priests and slaves, a despot before whom everything bows down with love and superstition, hitherto unthinkable, before whom even science itself trembles and shamefully indulges him.<…>The people are the body of God. Every nation is only as long as it has its own special god, and excludes all other gods in the world without any reconciliation; while he believes that with his god he will win and drive out all other gods from the world. This has been the belief of all since the beginning of the ages, all the great peoples, at least all those who have been marked in some way, all those who have stood at the head of mankind. You can't go against the fact. The Jews lived only to wait for the true God, and left the true God to the world. The Greeks idolized nature and bequeathed to the world their religion, that is, philosophy and art. Rome deified the people in the state and bequeathed the state to the peoples. France throughout its long history was only the embodiment and development of the idea of the Roman god, and if she finally threw her Roman god into the abyss and fell into atheism, which they call socialism for the time being, it is only because atheism is still healthier than Roman Catholicism. If great people does not believe that there is truth in it alone (precisely in one and precisely exclusively), if it does not believe that it alone is capable and called upon to resurrect and save everyone with its truth, then it immediately ceases to be a great people and immediately turns into ethnographic material, not to a great nation. A true great nation can never come to terms with secondary role in humanity, or even with the paramount, but certainly and exclusively with the first. Whoever loses this faith is no longer a people. But there is only one truth, and, therefore, only one of the peoples can have a true god, even if other peoples have their own special and great gods ... - VII
But "Demons" is also one of the most mysterious works, because it was written abroad, far from strict Russian censorship. And when moving to Russia, on the border with Russia, Dostoevsky burns drafts of the novel "Demons" and the novel "The Idiot". What was secret in these novels that the writer was afraid that they would be discovered?!
graphics by A. Matveev
"... We put laurel wreaths on lousy heads..."
"... everything is from idleness. Everything is from idleness, both good and good. Everything is from our lordly, sweet, educated, whimsical idleness! .."
"... We do not know how to live by our work [...] to acquire an opinion, first of all, you need work, your own work, your own initiative in business, your own practice! You will never get anything for nothing. We will work, we will have our own opinion. And since we will never work, then those who have worked instead of us up to now will have an opinion for us, that is, all the same Europe, all the same Germans - our two-hundred-year-old teachers ... "
"... Russia is too great a misunderstanding to be resolved by us alone, without the Germans and without difficulty..."
"... The negligence of an apology was equal to a new insult..."
"... put some very last insignificance at the sale of some lousy railroad tickets, and this insignificance will immediately consider itself entitled to look at you as Jupiter when you go to get a ticket to show you your power. ka, they say, I will show my power over you ... ""
graphics by A. Matveev
"-...What could be more stupid than a stupid good man? - An evil fool, ma bonne amie*, an evil fool is even more stupid..." (*my good friend)
"... never bring to the last line - and this is the first rule in marriage ..."
"... there is no greater happiness than to sacrifice yourself..."
"... Today, how many perish because thoughts are directed badly! .."
"... A man is afraid of death, because he loves life, that's how I understand it, [...] and so nature ordered..."
"...marriage is the moral death of every proud soul, of every independence..."
"... the wise are not afraid to face the truth..."
graphics by A. Matveev
"... If people lie, why shouldn't the cards lie..." (about fortune-telling on cards)
"... There are things [...] about which it is not only impossible to speak intelligently, but about which it is stupid to even start talking..."
"... smart people are silent, not talking..."
"... I can't speak. Those who can speak well, they speak briefly ..."
"... to be silent is a great talent, and, therefore, it is indecent for me, and secondly, it is still dangerous to be silent ..."
"... to make it solid and steadfast, well, at least for a short time; moreover, from true, real grief, even fools sometimes grow wiser, also, of course, for a while; this is a property of such grief ..."
"... the real truth is always implausible, do you know that? To make the truth more believable, you must certainly mix lies with it. People have always done this..."
"... chopping heads is the easiest thing to do, but having an idea is the hardest thing!.."
"... A woman will deceive the very all-seeing eye. Le bon Dieu *, creating a woman, of course, knew what he was exposed to, but I'm sure that she herself prevented him and forced herself to create in this form and ... with such attributes; otherwise who wanted to make such troubles for himself for nothing? .. "(* Lord God)
"... poems are all the same nonsense and justify what is considered insolence in prose ..."
"... Russian atheism has never gone beyond a pun..."
"...Our Russian liberal is first of all a lackey and only looks to clean someone's boots..."
"... a person, in addition to happiness, just as exactly and completely in the same amount, also needs misfortune! .."
"... The best thing would be without a role at all, your own face, isn't it? There is nothing more cunning than your own face, because no one will believe it. I, frankly, wanted to take a fool, because a fool is easier than one's own face ; but since a fool is still an extreme, and an extreme arouses curiosity, I finally settled on my own face ... "
"... The golden mean: neither stupid nor smart, rather mediocre and jumped off the moon..."
"... A person is unhappy because he does not know that he is happy; only because. That's all, everything! Whoever finds out will immediately become happy, this very minute ..."
"... An atheist cannot be Russian, an atheist immediately ceases to be Russian," remember this...
"... It has never happened that all or many peoples had one common god, but each one always had a special one. A sign of the destruction of nationalities, when the gods begin to become common. When the gods become common, then the gods and faith in of them together with the peoples themselves. The stronger the people, the more special its god. There has never been a people without religion, that is, without the concept of evil and good. Every people has its own concept of evil and good and its own evil and good.. ."
"... The people are the body of God. Every people is only a people as long as it has its own special god, and excludes all other gods in the world without any reconciliation; as long as it believes that by its god it will win and drive out of the world all other gods..."
"... I am a person without talent and I can only give my blood and nothing more, like any person without talent ..."
"... the local city is like what the devil was carrying in a basket, but crushed ..."
"... It is evident, it is true, that the whole second half of human life is usually made up of nothing but the habits accumulated in the first half..."
"... You need to be a really great person to be able to resist even against common sense..."
"...Russia is a game of nature, but not of the mind..."
"... Von Lembke decisively began to think, and it was harmful for him to think and was forbidden by doctors ..."
"... the highest artistic talents can be the most terrible scoundrels and that one does not interfere with the other ..."
"... Almsgiving corrupts both the giver and the taker and, moreover, does not reach the goal, because it only increases begging. Lazy people who do not want to work crowd around the givers, like players at a gambling table, hoping to win ..."
