The Problem of “Higher Individuals” in the Works of F.M. Dostoevsky

This article deals with the controversial issue of F.M. Dostoevsky’s concept of “Higher Individuals.” The latter are people who rise above other people and have a special influence on society and on history. The authors argue that this concept is most clearly expressed in “The Diary of a Writer” (1876) as well as in the story “The Sentence”, along with Dostoevsky’s commentaries on this story. By means of a detailed analysis of Raskolnikov’s “theory” within the novel “Crime and Punishment”, it is demonstrated that only a superficial version of the concept of “higher individuals” is refuted in the heroes’ argumentations; at the same time, the novel’s characters – Marmeladov, his wife Katerina Ivanovna, and Raskolnikov – can be viewed as examples of different degrees in the personal accomplishment of this “higher personality” state. In conclusion, it is observed how a person must go through three stages of development in order to become a “higher character”: firstly, the experience of an existential crisis and the understanding of the lack of meaning in one’s life; secondly, the “rebellion” against the Creator of the world and its laws along with the rejection of the traditional church faith, whose rejection leads this person on the edge of suicide; thirdly, the acquisition of a new faith, first of all, a faith in one’s immortality, which happens in an unusual, unorthodox form, as is well demonstrated by the character of Svidrigailov in Dostoevsky’s novel. According to Dostoevsky’s doctrine, the meaning ofimmortality lies in the continuation of a person’s existence in a new form in the earthly world or in a “parallel” world similar to the earthly one, and not in the ideal Kingdom of Heaven, as the church claims. Finally, the authors maintain that the process of a character’s transformation into a “higher individual” was consistently and fully described by Dostoevsky in the stories of Raskolnikov and Ivan Karamazov.

Dante’s Models in Romantic Music

Dante’s impact on music has been studied completely enough, but so far mainly in an empirical and descriptive way. The article examines the works of romantic composers of the 19th - early 20th centuries, based on the plot of Dante’s “Divine Comedy”: Liszt’s fantasy-sonata “After reading Dante” and the “Dante-Symphony”, the “Francesca da Rimini” by Tchaikovsky (symphonic fantasy) and Rachmaninoff (opera). The author analyses compositional and stylistic models of the romantic music inspired by Dante’s poetry as a system, which is relevant for modern musicology, in particular, for the theories of musical language, style, and musical meaning. Along with the traditional musicological methods of analysis of form and intonational dramaturgy, an interdisciplinary methodology is applied, associated with the coverage of the entire system of musical compositional prototypes as a structuring of meaning. This has a pronounced narrative poetic nature in romantic music. The results of the study demonstrate a system of structural and semantic invariants (secondary, musical models) conditioned by Dante’s figurative world and manifested in melody, harmony, fret organization, composition. The conclusions of the article reveal the roles of Dante’s models of the world in the works considered in the following aspects: in the process of extreme intensification of the contrasts of romantic music in the semantic coordinates of “Hell – Paradise”; “Love – Death”; in the approval of the concept of Liebestod; in the creation of new, extreme expressive possibilities for the given style, which significantly expanded the idea of the boundaries of beauty and caused transformations in musical sound (harmony, texture, melody); in the formation of stable idioms of romantic music from Liszt to Rachmaninov; in the modification of the structures of a one-part sonata, of the cyclic symphony, and of opera, which have received the quality of a vectorial dramaturgical process and open dramaturgy.

Andrey Bely’s novel Petersburg as Dostoevsky’s hybrid hypertext

Andrei Bely’s “Petersburg” has been analyzed primarily with respect to its intertextual connections with Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov”. This essay offers a comparative analysis of Nikolai Apollonovich Ableukhov, the main character in A. Bely’s novel, and Nikolai Vsevolodovich Stavrogin, the main character of Dostoevsky's novel “Demons”. We see that, in reality, the “Stavrogin genealogy” of the younger Ableukhov begins already with his name and appearance and continues with extravagant acts committed or only conceived by him. In the context of intertextual connections, other character in Bely’s novel are also considered: Alexander Ivanovich Dudkin – as a kind of hybrid of Ivan Karamazov with Stavrogin, and Nikolai Stepanovich Lippanchenko – as the reincarnation of Pyotr Stepanovich Verkhovensky or his hybrid with Nikolai Stavrogin. We conclude that, on the whole, Bely’s novel is a hybrid hypertext of Dostoevsky’s, in which “Demons” serves in the role of the main hypotext, and “The Brothers Karamazov” plays the role of a secondary hypotext. Thus, the hypertextuality of Bely’s novel in relation to Dostoevsky’s works is its constructive feature, outside of which it cannot be adequately perceived and interpreted.

«Love Rejoices in Truth …»: to the 20th anniversary of the journal «Solovyov Studies»

This essay presents a description of the scholarly events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the journal “Solovyov Studies”. It gives an overview of the exhibition "20 years of the journal “Solovyov Studies”: 2001–2021," prepared by the editorial board of the journal together with the Library of the ISPU. It highlights a variety of the sections of the exposition and the materials presented, reflecting the development of the journal over two decades, the composition of its editorial board, including authoritative experts from Russia, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, the United States of America, Ukraine, and France. The reader’s attention is drawn to the information about the journal's position in various ratings schemes, both domestic and foreign, and citation indices, the share of publications by foreign authors and their geographical location, as well as the number of journal-views over the past five years. The article shows the role of scientific communications in the development of the journal, Information is given on the participation of the editorial board in international scientific events, on publications devoted to the journal and its presentations in Russian and foreign publications, universities and research centers. The article describes the Solovyov seminar’s cultural and student projects, which received substantial content and information support from “Solovyov Studies”. The level of interest of the scientific community in the journal is also noted.

Interpretations of Dante’s Esotericism in the Italian and French Studies in the Middle of the Nineteenth and the Second Half of the Twentieth Century

This article has a historiographic and methodological nature and is devoted to the problematic interpretations of the esoteric content of Dante’s ideas and works by French and Italian scholars from the middle of the nineteenth century to the second half of the twentieth century. Various definitions of Western esotericism are discussed in the light of contemporary approaches. The current interest in the study of Dante’s esotericism and the relevance of this topic are substantiated. The tradition in the interpretation of Dante's esotericism in Italy and France can be traced back to the occultists of the 19th century, who referred to each other's works: G. Rossetti, E. Arou, F. Boissard, J. Péladant, G. Pascoli and others. It has been demonstrated that the studies of Dante's esotericism during 1920s reached a new level of quality, which was adequate to the contemporary scientific requirements for Dante studies: in Italy, this happened in the person of Luigi Valli and his students, Arturo Reghini and then Julius Evola; and in France, at the same time, in the person of René Guénon. The criticism of Valli in the works by Guénon is analyzed in detail. The context of Dante's interpretation by Guénon is revealed in connection with the issue of Templar, Rosicrucian and Islamic influences (Sufism, Arab Neoplatonism). In this respect, a significant difference of tones was observed in the perception of Dante's esotericism within the general paradigm of integral traditionalism between Guénon and his Italian colleagues Julius Evola and especially Guido de Giorgio, whose fundamental work is still unknown to Russian scholars. An intense politicization of the perception of Dante's heritage by Evola and de Giorgio is also remarked in this article. Special attention is then paid to the study of Dante's esotericism by one of the leading Roman Catholic theologian of the twentieth century, Romano Guardini, who engaged a polemic correspondence with the integral traditionalists. Based on the results of our study, it was concluded that the research of Dante's esotericism by French and Italian authors for more than a hundred years can be characterized as a continuous chain of dialogue and polemics of various authors who knew about each other's works and used the appropriate links.

The structure of Solovyov's three lifetime poetry books: toward a problem statement

This essay examines for the first time the three editions, from 1891, 1895, and 1900, of Solovyov’s collected poetry from the point of view of their internal organization and relationship. The task posed is the identification and description of the most important components of the poetry book, which are present in all three editions and contribute to an understanding of the author's conception as it was realized in the books under consideration. To fulfill this task the comparative and descriptive methods of analysis are used. The evolution of the author’s artistic consciousness is described on the basis of the collected editions of Solovyov's poetry, his epistolary heritage, and the research of contemporary scholars. The different levels of the author's dialogue with the reader, with critics, as well as with poets and writers are highlighted. The author outlines the ways of researching the examined theme. In particular, the chronological order of the development of Solovyov's lyrical books, as well as the definite recurrence of the separate lyrical components in each of the three books, is shown. We see that the content of the author's three prefaces determines their function in the structure of the poetry books. The special role of critical works, included by the author in the third edition, in shaping the structure of the book of poems, as well as their relation with the foreword, is emphasized. The author concludes with genre renewal of art forms to solve new aesthetic tasks. Solovyov's aspiration to realize the life-creative conception within the framework of work on three lifetime editions is affirmed. In conclusion, the author substantiates the idea that the presented editions in their unity are a transitional genre form, which corresponds to the poet’s individual artistic searching and which establishes the literary trends of the turn of XIX–XX centuries.

V.S. Solovyov on the Correlation between Economy and Morality: Modern Aspects

The processes of the development of a market economy, entailing the commercialization in all spheres of social life, raise the question of the correlation between the role of human beings as economic subjects and our role as moral beings. In economics, this this issue is associated with the discussion about the way norms pervade economic theory, expressed in the dichotomy between holistic and individualistic methods. The scope of the influence of governmental bodies and large corporate structures on the socio-economic, cultural and natural environment highlights the philosophical problem of applying moral criteria to collective economic actors, which is reflected in the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The author, in this paper, opines that the question of introducing ethical principles into economic practice cannot be entirely resolved within the framework of economic theory and requires an appeal to moral philosophy. The problem of the correlation between the economic and the moral spheres is considered on the basis of V.S. Solovyov’s work “The Justification of the Good”. The principal economic ideas stated in this work are discussed in the context of assessments by past and present researchers, of economic history, and of philosophical and economic-managerial conceptions. The author presents a comparative analysis of V.S. Solovyov’s ideas about the correlation between economics and morality and the principal ideas behind corporate social responsibility. The author reveals axiological and teleological differences between the two conceptions. Whereas V.S. Solovyov deals with moral and religious categories and notions of progress, the concept of corporate social responsibility is based on economic and legal priorities and is focused on sustainable development. At the same time, the similarities identified between the concepts (such as their complex nature, the acknowledgement of the role of moral principles of the economic participants, the importance of environmental issues and legal regulators) lead us to conclude about the possibility of their further convergence and the surmounting of the limitations of corporate social responsibility based on the teachings of V.S. Solovyov.

Dostoevsky’s Three Hypostases [Review of:] Ivanov V.I. Dostoevsky. Tragedy-Myth-Mysticism. Ed. by A. B. Shishkin and O.L. Fetisenko. Saint Petersburg: Pushkin House Publisher, 2020. 476 p.

This review presents an analysis of the new edition of the classic book on Dostoevsky written by the Russian modernist poet and thinker Vyacheslav Ivanov, who was the last representative of an entire era of Dostoevsky’s interpreters. At first, a brief description of each of the three sections of Ivanov’s book is offered. In these sections, Dostoevsky is interpreted as a tragic poet, a myth-maker, and a religious thinker. Along with it, some features concerning M.Yu. Koreneva’s new translation from German are also analyzed. Special attention is then paid to a number of extensive comments on Ivanov’s book, which often become separate studies concerning Ivanov’s most significant ideas, symbols and mythologies (for example, Ahriman, Lucifer, Psyche, transcensus, “You are”). Furthermore, an overview of the appendices included in the publication is given. Among these, the most significant are: the transcript of a text that S.N. Bulgakov discussed in the Moscow Religious and Philosophical Society “Russian tragedy”; some notes concerning the lectures on Dostoevsky Ivanov gave at the Baku University in 1921–1923; the text on Dostoevsky and Nietzsche which A. Kruchenykh discussed at the Baku University in 1921; some reviews in German on Ivanov’s book; the chronicle “Dostoevsky in the Life and Thoughts of V.I. Ivanov (1883–1949)” compiled by A.B. Shishkin and A.L. Sobolev. In conclusion, a review of a number of articles written by modern Ivanov scholars (A. B. Shishkin, M.B. Plyukhanova), which are also included in the appendices to the book, is presented.

The Wisdom of God as the Eternal Feminine: Dante and V.S. Solovyov on Sophianic Unity

The paper deals with the continuity of ideas concerning the Eternal Feminine and Sophia as the Wisdom of God from the point of view of Dante Alighieri and Vl.S. Solovyov. The analysis focuses not so much on the very notion of Sophia as on the meaning, origins, and contexts of their conception of Sophianic unity. The latter, being an ideal form of reducing a multitude to a unity, is considered as either an alternative or a supplement to the model of totality that reproduces the binary and hierarchical structure which at the social and political level is considered to be the pattern of imperial centralism. The study proceeds from the consequences of Dante’s negation of the difference between the spiritual sense of the Holy Scriptures and the literary sense of secular poetry. It is shown that for Dante it was necessary, first of all, to understand under whose inspiration and guidance he composed his verses, which gave particular importance to the image of a guide in his magnum opus. I show that in this context Dante turned to the intuitive representation of the feminine idea as a guiding principle that was personified by Beatrice, although Dante did not use the term “Sophia” and could not use the term “the Eternal Feminine,” which did not yet exist at the time. The disputes in Dante’s time on the essence of monarchy are considered in connection with his understanding of femininity as the guiding principle of such a unity of humanity that could reject a rigid hierarchy and, thus, free itself from imperial centralism. It is pointed out that the social and political aspects of the all-encompassing Sophia, which also resolves contradictions as a supplement to the intrinsically contradictory Logos, were given great importance in Solovyov’s philosophy. The paper concludes that it was Solovyov, who, having identified Sophia with humanity as a whole, created the presuppositions for a detailed study of the structure of Sophia’s unity. This study ends with a discussion of the validity of the convergence of a non-hierarchical Sophianic unity with the deconstructive strategies of modern philosophy, the aim of which is the elimination of binary oppositions and hierarchies from the gender context.

A.N. Ostrovsky and F.M. Dostoevsky: to the History of the Relationship

The article reconstructs the relations between two contemporaries, two classics of Russian culture – Alexander Ostrovsky and Fyodor Dostoevsky. The relations are considered in the dynamics of their development. Despite the fact that contemporaries of Ostrovsky and Dostoevsky noted the playwright’s critical perception of Dostoevsky’s work, the emphasis is placed on the friendly nature of their relationship, the proximity of their aesthetic views, and the commonality of their creative framework. The article stresses that the proximity of their aesthetic views on artistic creativity will become the basis for Ostrovsky’s cooperation with the Dostoevsky brothers’ journal “Vremya” (Time). The research undertaken here analyzes the reasons for the termination of this cooperation and the nature of further relations between Ostrovsky and Dostoevsky, their mutual assessment of each other’s creativity. As a result, it is noted that although Dostoevsky did not enter Ostrovsky’s inner circle, in his plays the playwright addressed the issues that worried both of them.