{"id":8722,"date":"2022-05-28T10:54:25","date_gmt":"2022-05-28T08:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=8722"},"modified":"2022-06-20T21:10:46","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T19:10:46","slug":"ueber-die-moralisch-verwerfliche-russische-literatur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2022\/05\/on-morally-reprehensible-russian-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"On Morally Reprehensible Russian Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Several times I\u2019ve heard the term \u201cnew literary Russophobia,\u201d and indeed a few days ago I came across an article by Oksana Zabuzhko in the Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung (available online here<\/a>), which harshly criticizes Russian literature of the past centuries. According to her, Western intellectuals have interpreted it as being too European and have celebrated a questionable moral worldview that, in its most extreme form, has now led to the recent atrocities. After reading the article, I wondered whether this was really the case\u2014whether, in fact, the great works of Russian world literature depict a value system aligned with the perpetrators, one that encourages or justifies the crimes currently being witnessed in this terrible war. I want to venture a small analysis.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The article mentions several well-known authors\u2014Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Turgenev\u2014all widely read and internationally acclaimed even today. The first book referenced is Tolstoy\u2019s novel Resurrection<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cComparable to Katya Maslova, it nourished for two hundred years a worldview in which the criminal is not condemned but pitied and sympathized with.\u201d<\/p>Lessons from a Great Bluff \u2013 The Road to the Bucha Massacre Also Leads Through Russian Literature<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Tolstoy\u2019s Resurrection<\/em><\/a> tells the story of Katya, a simple servant employed by Prince Nekhlyudov, who seduces her and, as a result of this liaison, causes her social downfall into poverty and prostitution. It has been five years since I read the book, but what has remained deeply etched in my memory is its central theme: the moral transformation of Prince Nekhlyudov, who comes to recognize the injustice he has caused, gradually perceives the flaws of the legal system, and does everything he can to atone for his sin. Tolstoy condemns the inhuman treatment of criminals and the injustices of the legal apparatus, as well as Nekhlyudov\u2019s wrongdoing toward the young woman. What I certainly do not recall is any relativization of his guilt. I have always perceived Tolstoy\u2019s theistically influenced worldview as profoundly humane\u2014he always advocated love for one\u2019s neighbor, and the fact that he extends this compassion even to wrongdoers does not, in my view, justify the interpretation given in Zabuzhko\u2019s article.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cIf you feel no love for people, then simply remain quiet [\u2026] occupy yourself with whatever you wish, just not with other people.\u201d<\/em><\/p>Resurrection<\/em> by Leo Tolstoy (p. 518)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sentences like this can easily be interpreted as standing firmly against the actions of the current Russian administration\u2014and certainly not as justifying them. Consider, for example, how grain exports are currently being used as a political weapon.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Natasha Rostova\u2019s moral lapse in War and Peace<\/em><\/a> and Tolstoy\u2019s compassion for her are also cited as literary evidence that Russian literature \u201chas quietly sought to infect the West with its childish, passive insensitivity to evil\u2014and to present this as a virtue.\u201d<\/em> I find this a very far-fetched claim. In that scene, Natasha is young, impulsive, and seduced by a charming playboy. The cause lies more in her youthful naivety. To accuse Tolstoy of taking the side of the perpetrator seems quite absurd\u2014especially since this episode is not central to the book but rather a small part of a vast, complex narrative.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Without giving concrete justification, but referring to an essay by Milan Kundera, Zabuzhko also accuses Dostoevsky of being too lenient with wrongdoers. Kundera allegedly condemns him for his \u201ccult of emotion and his openly displayed contempt for reason.\u201d<\/em> I find that argument weak. When I think of Dostoevsky\u2019s Crime and Punishment<\/em>, a novel in which the protagonist Raskolnikov murders a pawnbroker to obtain money, this accusation simply does not hold. Raskolnikov considers himself a Napoleon\u2014a superior being\u2014and justifies his act by claiming he is destined for greater things. The rest of the book revolves around his realization that this is not true, ultimately leading him to accept imprisonment and his guilt. This is the exact opposite of what Zabuzhko criticizes. The moral depravity of Raskolnikov\u2019s act is made abundantly clear\u2014nothing is glossed over or excused. It has been a few years since I read it, but I certainly did not take away that the book\u2019s message is that committing crimes is acceptable and one can escape the consequences. I haven\u2019t read Dostoevsky\u2019s other works, so perhaps I\u2019m missing something, but from my perspective, his writings hardly justify the actions of today\u2019s Russian government.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Furthermore, Turgenev\u2019s story Mumu<\/em> is mentioned, in which a mute serf, at the command of his mistress, must kill his beloved dog\u2014and does so\u2014thus eliciting the reader\u2019s sympathy for the \u201cperpetrator.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cToday I recognize the people who curse Putin as those who went through the same school: they pity the soldiers he sent to Ukraine to massacre not only dogs but every living thing with fire and sword\u2014poor fellows, how they must suffer!\u201d<\/p>Lessons from a Great Bluff \u2013 The Road to the Bucha Massacre Also Leads Through Russian Literature<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I haven\u2019t read that particular story yet, but I have read quite a few of Turgenev\u2019s other works (for example, A Nest of the Gentry<\/em><\/a>). In Fathers and Sons<\/em>, his most famous novel, Turgenev contrasts the conservative, traditional Russian worldview with a Western-influenced nihilism. The social controversy that followed the novel\u2019s publication led him to leave Russia. I remember that he exaggerated this opposition somewhat, but whichever side he leaned toward, his voluntary exile shows that Russian society\u2019s thinking must have shifted. In any case, Turgenev can hardly be seen as a source of today\u2019s ideology. Moreover, I\u2019ve always perceived him primarily as a writer who vividly depicted rural Russia with all its natural beauty. He never struck me as someone wielding a heavy moral or political hammer. A Sportsman\u2019s Sketches<\/em>, his collection of short stories, I remember as a portrayal of the countryside\u2019s charm rather than an ethical treatise. I can\u2019t recall any endorsement of immoral behavior in his works.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Thinking further of other great Russian authors\u2014Pushkin, Chekhov, Goncharov, Gogol\u2014I cannot recall a single book that advocates questionable moral views. For me, as a Western reader, their works have always opened a window into a different culture\u2014one that feels foreign in many ways (especially in Gogol\u2019s case, as he lovingly describes the Russian steppe and invites readers into the rustic cottages of the deep provinces). There are, of course, plenty of rough characters\u2014people with dubious morals\u2014but none of these books present such behavior as right. All of them depict characters with an innate moral compass, whose violation is clearly shown to be wrong.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Looking back at Pasternak\u2019s Doctor Zhivago<\/em><\/a>, one must even assume the opposite of what Zabuzhko claims. Or consider Gaito Gazdanov\u2019s life, writing from exile about his homeland, longing for it but never being allowed to return\u2014not even later in life, as the Russian regime continued to forbid it. This paints a completely different picture, incompatible with the notion of a Trojan horse of Russian ideology smuggled into the West and eagerly accepted by its intellectuals.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

So, should one avoid reading Russian works today? By no means. Whenever I\u2019ve read these wonderful books, I\u2019ve felt the cultural differences, but it\u2019s always been clear that people\u2019s emotions, desires, and aspirations are fundamentally the same\u2014and that similarity is what connects us. Blinded ideology, moral failings, and culturally rooted social injustices can be found universally in all literatures. Likewise, every human being possesses an inner moral compass.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I can understand Oksana Zabuzhko, and why she wrote the article the way she did. Living in Kyiv, she has surely experienced the suffering firsthand, and many of the accusations she raises are likely justified. Many in the West have indeed acted shamefully as well. But to condemn all of Russian literature, to call for the scrutiny or removal of Russian authors from one\u2019s bookshelf\u2014that, I believe, is wrong. The accusations against Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Turgenev don\u2019t hold up to me. I cannot recall a single Russian book that justifies or glorifies war or the crimes within it. On the contrary, I vividly remember a scene from War and Peace<\/em>, drawn from Tolstoy\u2019s own experience in the Caucasus War, where enemy soldiers are executed before the gates of Moscow\u2014a passage that filled me with horror. Books always require two participants: those who write them and those who read them, perceiving them through their own worldviews.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Still, I might be wrong. Perhaps through my culturally shaped perspective, I fail to recognize certain underlying thought patterns that justify war and violence. Maybe one needs academic expertise to perceive such subtleties. But even then, that hardly argues against reading Russian literature\u2014if anything, it suggests that the authors were remarkably bad at transmitting such an ideology. Even if one of these classics did aim to turn readers into Slavophile war supporters, I doubt it would succeed. After all, such works are mostly read by thoughtful people\u2014readers who seek meaning in books and who are trained to question and evaluate what they read.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In conclusion, I can only say that there is nothing that speaks against picking up a Russian classic. Perhaps, in these times, it is even advisable\u2014to remind ourselves that not all people of a nation or culture can be judged by the same standard. It is always worthwhile to read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and all the other great Russian authors. Equating them with today\u2019s political actors is, in my opinion, a grave mistake. Read what you feel drawn to\u2014and the ability to do so freely is, for me, one of the most precious parts of that often-invoked concept: freedom.<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several times I\u2019ve heard the term \u201cnew literary Russophobia,\u201d and indeed a few days ago I came across an article by Oksana Zabuzhko in the Neue Z\u00fcrcher Zeitung (available online here), which harshly criticizes Russian literature of the past centuries. According to her, Western intellectuals have interpreted it as being too European and have celebrated … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “On Morally Reprehensible Russian Literature”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"\u00dcber die moralisch verwerfliche russische Literatur - lesestunden","description":"Schon mehrfach habe ich von einer neue \"literarische Russophobie\" geh\u00f6rt und tats\u00e4chlich bin ich vor ein paar Tagen auf ein Artikel von Oksana Sabuschko aus der"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/ueber_die_moralisch_verwerfliche_russische_literatur.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}