DOSTOEVSKY’S RELIGIOUS-POLITICAL THOUGHT AND FRENCH SOCIALISM
DOSTOEVSKY’S RELIGIOUS-POLITICAL THOUGHT AND FRENCH SOCIALISM

Summary/Abstract: This study concentrates on the influence of French socialism on Dostoevsky’s thought. My claim is that Dostoevsky saw the issue of socialism as crucial for European modernity and considered France as the setting for two conflicting types of socialism: an authoritarian one and a fraternal one. I argue that Dostoevsky did not attack socialism in general, but the authoritarian (and the ensuing Russian revolutionary) type, and that he was, by contrast, heavily influenced by Romantic fraternal socialism. I attempt to explore the unfolding of the two antagonistic types of French socialism in Dostoevsky’s writings and to show that there is a consistent line of thought developed from his early interest in Romantic socialism to his mature understanding of Christianity.

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