Over the past year the literary world has been debating the appropriateness of teaching or reading Russian literature. In Ukraine, streets named after Lermontov and Dostoevsky, big hawks of Russian expansionism, are being renamed after writers who supported Ukrainian independence. Ukrainians have been taking down statues of native authors like Pushkin and Gogol, who were born and raised in Ukraine and wrote about the country and people, but also supported Russian colonialism in the region. Interestingly, they’re also trying to protect Chekhov’s childhood home/museum from Russian bombs — but still are renaming his street. It’s complicated.
The one author who seems to get a pass is Tolstoy. He was so anti war and against Russian imperialism, Russians who merely quote him in dissent are getting arrested and threatened with 15 years in prison for treason. I paraphrased a quote from Tolstoy in the third panel: obviously he wasn’t talking about Ukraine or Putin — but the war with Japan and the Tsar. Ballsy.
Dostoevsky was like his novels — a bundle of contradictions — and there is some debate about whether or not he would actually support Putin’s war. But he was a nationalist, definitely pro Russian imperialism and very antisemitic. And a bit of a raving nutter.
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