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Revolutionary Self-Fulfilment? Revolutionary Self-Fulfilment? Individual Radicalisation and Terrorism in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment and The Devils This thesis is presented for the degree of Master of Arts of The University of Western Australia. Marco Ceccarelli B. A. Honours (UWA) School of Humanities: European Studies University of Western Australia 2009 This thesis does not contain work that I have published, nor work under review for publication. _________________________________________ ii Abstract This thesis analyses Fyodor Dostoyevsky‘s discussion of individual radicalisation and terrorism in three of his major novels: Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment and The Devils. Whilst the issues of radical ideology and terrorism have often been independently discussed by Dostoyevsky scholars, little attention has been devoted to the study of the process of radicalisation undergone by Dostoyevsky‘s protagonists, whereby the extreme fulfilment of radical ideals culminates in political violence. This investigation traces the evolution of Dostoyevsky‘s individual in the context of the radically changing socio-political environment of nineteenth-century Russia. The development of this individual will be examined throughout the novels as he initially questions, and is hostile to, radical ideology, gradually embraces its tenets and tests its validity through the use of violence and eventually engages in terrorist activity. Dostoyevsky felt himself impotent in the face of the gradual assimilation of utilitarian, materialistic and nihilist ideals by the new generation of Russian intellectuals. In the emulation of Western revolutionary culture, he came to see a threat to Russian nationhood, to true Russian identity and to traditional Russian values such as Orthodox Christianity. In his novels he sought to examine and question the ideologies of leading theorists influenced by Western radical thought; ideologies that he believed were flawed, deceptive and contradictory. This study focuses on the development of the themes of radicalisation and terrorism in the three chosen novels. Emphasis is laid on the devastating impact of radical ideology and terrorist activity on the individual. iii Acknowledgments Firstly, I would like to express my immense gratitude to my mentor and supervisor, Professor Peter Morgan. I would like to thank him for having inspired me through his knowledge and involvement in European Studies. I feel privileged to have been followed and guided by Peter throughout the duration of my candidature as a post-graduate student. I would also like to thank Professor Rob Stuart for his assistance in 2008. Rob‘s insightful and committed advice allowed me to continue my studies undisrupted. I thank my fellow scholars Ashok Collins, Joshua Brown and Golnar Nebizadeh who have particularly assisted me by proofreading and giving me advice as well as moral support through their friendship. I am grateful for all the help offered by the School of Humanities, the Scholars‘ Centre and the University Library in providing all the resources for this project. In particular, I thank Muriel Mahony, Susana Melo De Howard, Jenny Golding and Graeme Rymill for their constant availability whenever I was in need of assistance. I also want to thank Dr Nicole Touati for the unforgettable opportunity she gave me to broaden my knowledge of terrorism and radicalisation at the Logan‘s - Centro Studi sul Terrorismo of Rome in 2008. Finally, but most emphatically of all, I am extremely grateful to my family, firstly my parents, for encouraging me to continue my studies and for supporting me in many different ways. Secondly, my brothers and sisters, in particular Sara and Serena for the support and the help provided in the last few months of this project. This thesis is for Caterina Ceccarelli. iv Table of Contents Abstract iii Acknowledgments iv Introduction 1-7 Chapter 1. 8-42 A Revolutionary Tradition: Historical Patterns of Individual Radicalisation and Terrorism in Nineteenth-Century Russia I. Radicalisation in the Context of Nineteenth-Century Russia II. Fathers and Sons: The Two Generations of the Russian Intelligentsia III. Nihilism IV. Russian Populism V. Terrorism VI. Sergei Nechaev, Catechism of a Revolutionary and the People‘s Will Chapter 2. 43-82 Testing Radical Ideology: Individual Radicalisation in Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment I. Notes from Underground: Questioning Radical Ideology II. Part I: Attack on the New Men of the 1860s III. Part II: Attack on the Social Romantics of the 1840s IV. Crime and Punishment: One Step Closer to the Terrorist Mentality V. The Murder of Ivánovna VI. Dostoyevsky in the Other Characters of Crime and Punishment VII. Epilogue: Redemption or Obduracy? v Chapter 3. Terrorism and Self-Destruction in The Devils 83-121 I. Peter Verkhovensky: The Motivations of a Terrorist II. Stavrogin: The Source of Nihilism III. Kirilov IV. Shatov V. The Forbidden Chapter: At Tikhon‘s VI. Stepan Verkhovensky Conclusion 122-126 Bibliography 127-136 vi Introduction On December the 22nd, 1849, the young aspiring Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky stood in the snow-covered Semenovsky square of St. Petersburg, arms and feet shackled, waiting to be executed by the firing squad of the reigning Tsar, Nicholas I. His involvement in the Petrashevsky Circle, a radical socialist group dedicated to social and political reform, was about to cost him his life. The imperial forces pointed their rifles at three of his comrades, his turn would be next. What was going through Fyodor Dostoyevsky‘s head at this time? Had his commitment to Western radical ideology been worth this conviction? Was he really going to perish for having belonged to a utopian socialist group? Moments before the guards pulled the trigger on his fellows, a roll of drums signalled the arrival of an officer on horseback carrying a pardon for the prisoners. The execution had been staged by the Tsar, the real sentences were read out to the prisoners, Dostoyevsky would be condemned to four years hard labour in Siberia before spending another four years in the service of the Russian army. The arrest and mock execution of the Petrashevsky circle members was one of the strategies used by the Tsarist regime to warn the Russian population that radical conspiracy was forbidden in Russia. Tsar Nicholas I was well aware that a revolutionary subculture was secretly taking shape in major cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg. The assimilation of Western radical ideology by Russian intellectuals posed a serious threat to the stability of the autocracy. Nonetheless, he enjoyed playing the role of all-powerful yet temperate ruler. The exiled Dostoyevsky returned to St. Petersburg ten years later a changed man. His time spent in the Siberian prison of Omsk led him to reject his earlier political radicalism and re-discover traditional Russian values such as the spirituality of the Russian Orthodox church, the respect for the established order and the unique, religiously based, communistic spirit of the Russian people. Before his imprisonment, Dostoyevsky had begun to pursue a 1 career in writing. At the age of twenty five he had written Poor Folk,1 a novel which, having gained the praise of both the prominent critic Vissarion Belinsky and the young poet Nikolai Nekrasov, brought Dostoyevsky to confirm his vocation as a novelist and pursue his interest in the existential sufferings and social problems of the Russian people. In Siberia, he gained a deeper, more realistic understanding of these issues and once able to freely write again, he returned to their discussion in works such as The Insulted and Injured2 and Memoirs from the House of the Dead.3 The publication of these works signalled the rise of a remarkable new author on the Russian literary scene. In the years to come, Dostoyevsky developed a stylistic genre which has been defined by scholars such as Malcom V. Jones as ―fantastic realism,‖ a definition which embraces his immersion in German idealism and Christian beliefs, the influence on him by writers such as Gogol, Dickens and Balzac and his anticipation of Nietzsche and Freud.4 Twentieth century critic Mikhail Bakhtin‘s work on Dostoyevsky enriches this definition as he labels the Russian author‘s style as ―polyphonic‖5 and introduces another dimension through which his novels can be studied. Dostoyevsky undoubtedly stands as one of the greatest Russian writers of the nineteenth-century. 1 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Poor Folk, trans. Robert Dessaix (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1982). Originally published in 1846. 2 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Insulted and Injured, trans. Constance Garnett (London: Heinemann, 1915). Originally published in 1861. 3 Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Memoirs from the House of the Dead, trans. Jessie Coulson (London: Oxford University Press, 1956). Originally published in 1862. 4 Malcolm V. Jones, Dostoyevsky After Bakhtin: Readings in Dostoyevsky's Fantastic Realism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 1. 5 According to Mikhail Bakhtin, Dostoyevsky introduced a new novelistic genre into Russian literature: the polyphonic novel. Bakhtin‘s illuminating study entitled Problems of Dostoyevsky’s Poetics affirms that Dostoyevsky‘s novels are essentially characterised by the plurality of independent voices and consciousnesses. Bakhtin argues that Dostoyevsky‘s heroes differ from the traditional objectified image of heroes in previous European novels in that their voices possess an exceptional independence which often goes beyond their
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