Dostoevsky's early involvement in social and political causes put him in touch with a radical socialist movement in Russia that erupted in the Communist Revolution over half of a century later.  His concern for the impoverished serfs led him to endorse utopian socialism, which is, in his view, Christian love in the economic realm.. The leaders of this movement in the 1850's, however, wee arrogant rationalists who vastly overestimated their ability to revolutionize the serfs. From this group came the Slavophiles, who saw Russian socialism as the wave of the future, for not only Russia, but for Europe and the world.  These intellectual leaders adopted the deterministic view of history, which explains all events as being caused by forces of environment or heredity; this interpretation leaves no room for free choice, since everything is f"fixed" by the past.  The socialist (Communists) vision of the future envisioned a classless society, where wealth was equally distributed.  The economic policies carried out through collectivization and the series of five-year plans beginning in 1928 were the direct descendants of these early dreams of utopian socialism. 
During his life, he was imprisoned (1849-1854)and approach to socialism changed. 
Before prison he believed:
      *society could and should be organized rationally into a socialist utopia
      *the intelligentsia could lead the peasants in revolution to bring about the utopia  ( He believed that
        peasants were morally inferior beings but capable of being inspired.
      *Christ's teachings can best be incarnated by a socialist utopia
      *Individuals may not be responsible, but determined by the social, economic, and other environmental forces
        in which they lived. 

After Prison Dostoevsky believed:
      *reason is inadequate; the most important needs of the human being are spiritual and emotional
      *the peasants have seeds of loving kindness and Christian faith within them, but they distrust the gentry so
        that an intelligentsai --inspired revolution in impossible.
      *Christ is crucial to inspire humans to love all mankind, the basic building block of a Christian utopia.
      *The freedom of the individual is of utmost value
      *The individual is persoanlly responsible for his or her actions, which are not determined.
These ideas separated Dostoevsky from the revolutionary leaders of the movement of eht 1860's and 1870's. 



Last modified: Tuesday, 26 June 2012, 5:39 PM