Belinsky, had been captivated by Utopian Socialism, with its Christian-messianic overtones and the great cause of the day, a cause shared by Dostoevsky, was the abolition of serfdom. Gogol was the preeminent writer of his time, having transcended the romanticism of Pushkin and Lermontov the literati, led by the critic V.G. Petersburg, enveloped by the great literary-political cross-currents of Russia under Tsar Nicholas I. In this new Russia, there would be no God, no soul, the young would banish the old, and science and calculation and progress would supplant all that was human and poetic.įyodor Dostoevsky embarked on his writing career in January 1846, with the publication of the novel Poor Folk. In his novels and journalism, he depicted the many horrors ahead: the violence, the thought control, the upending of ancient mores, and the resulting spiritual vacuum. Long before there were Bolsheviks, show trials, and five-year plans, there was one man who predicted, with an almost otherworldly foresight, the whole Soviet calamity.
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