"The Russian people are “used to living in fiction rather than reality.”

北米ドストエフスキー協会の声明。やはりこうなるんだな。（ドストエフスキー学者にして）ドストエフスキーを釈明しなければいけないと思わされ、言わされてしまう風土が、私にはとても「自由」なものだとは思えない。なにより、ドストエフスキーへの愛が足りないと感じる。 https://t.co/Zd2btVFeZj

— spartacus (@accentdeverite) March 20, 2022

ドストエフスキーの「良い面」をナショナリズムから都合よく切り離すことはできないだろうな。現にキャンセル圧力がかかっているのか、先回りして防衛的に振る舞っているのか知らないけれど。

— mozu (@mozumozumozu) March 20, 2022

MARCH 3, 2022 What classic Russian literature can tell us about Putin’s war on Ukraine

知らんかった・・・・けど面白い記事

According to Nina Khrushcheva, granddaughter of communist leader Nikita Khrushchev and professor of international affairs at the New School in New York City, the Russian people are “used to living in fiction rather than reality.

学校の授業を通じてロシア文学の影響は甚大という意味だけど、現実よりフィクションの中に生きているという状況は、情報統制されているロシア国民もーーはからずもーー暗喩しているような気もしないでもない。

It is important that we give credit where credit is due. Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky — Putin’s two favorite writers — each have created some of the most convincing arguments in favor of non-violent resistance to evil in the history of the human race. In a time when religious morality was decaying, these two revitalized faith in the goodness of God and, by extension, man.

トルストイもドストエフスキーも非暴力による悪への抵抗、神の善性、したがって人間の善性に対する信仰を説いた、と。

In the trenches, Tolstoy came to the conclusion that our political justifications for war are mere propaganda stories, designed to raise the fighting spirits of foot soldiers. The hero of his writing, he declares, is neither the Ottoman nor the Russian Empire, but the truth — or the belief that, in war, everyone loses.

トルストイは戦争の残虐性を目の当たりにして、戦争においては勝者はいない、と。

Attempts at Westernizing Russia sparked a countermovement calling for the country to distance itself from its neighbors. Followers of this movement believed that the Russian character, however elusive, was incompatible with Western values. Rather than joining Europe, they thought Russia should join forces with other Slavic countries to form a superpower capable of checking Western expansion.

This countermovement, also known as Pan-Slavism, is key to understanding Putin’s popularity in Russia, not to mention his attitude toward Ukraine. 

ロシアでは・・・あるいはロシアでもーーー西洋化と反西洋的な 汎スラヴ主義の葛藤があるわけだね。

Dostoevsky’s Pan-Slavism

Like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky believed in the inherent value of every human life. 

As Dostoevsky’s faith in socialism dwindled, his devotion to Russia — its people, its culture, and its history — increased. After serving years of hard labor in Siberia, Dostoevsky returned to Saint Petersburg to found a literary journal with brother Mikhail. Its writers called themselves pochvenniki, men who advocated a common allegiance to and respect for Russia’s soil and natural resources. 

Devotion to Russia was accompanied by antipathy, even hostility, toward European countries. Later in life, Dostoevsky traveled through Europe to seek treatment for his epilepsy and to escape creditors. In letters, he expressed a deeply rooted longing to return home while simultaneously reflecting on the many ways in which European people were spiritually inferior to Russians. 

He daydreamed of a war between Europe and Russia and felt certain that Russia would win

As Hans Kohn mentions in an article from 1945 titled “Dostoevsky’s Nationalism,” the author’s philosophy of humility and compassion is at odds with the enthusiasm he showed whenever the Russian Empire waged war to expand its territory. Dostoevsky waited for the moment when, in Kohn’s terms, “the Slav world under Russia’s leadership would fulfill its destiny.” 

Dostoevsky used even stronger terms. “The present peace,” he wrote in his diary, “is always and everywhere much worse than war, so incomparably worse that it finally becomes outright immoral to maintain it… War develops in [man] for love of his fellow men and brings nations together by teaching them esteem for each other. War rejuvenates men.”  

　ドストエフスキーは社会主義を卒業してナショナリズムにはしってしまう・・・欧州人よりロシア人のほうが優れている、現在の平和は腐っており、ロシアが盟主としてスラブ民族を統一して、戦争のなかで同胞愛を育んで戦争に勝つと夢想していたわけだね。

No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends.

プーチンの演説における引用もこういうところからきているのかね？

ーー全然わからない！　かというと戦前の日本の思想状況にも似たようなものがあったから、わからなくてもないね。

　ただ、ロシアにせよ、アメリカにせよ、戦勝国は戦争の反省をする機会を逃したね。