Dostoyevsky, The Man Behind: Memoirs, Letters & Autobiographical Works. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
he said to my mother. " How I regret that you did not see my success ! " Faithful to her rule of economy, my mother had decided not to accompany my father to Moscow; she now urged him to go to Ems as soon as possible for his usual cure, but Dostoyevsky had no idea of doing so. He was busy writing the single number of The Writer's Journal which appeared in 1880; it had an immense success. Dostoyevsky wished to consolidate the theory he had just enunciated at the Pushkin festival and reply to his opponents, who, after the first intoxication was over, tried to smother the new-born idea. He hoped to go to Ems in September; then, exhausted by all the emotions of his triumph and his political struggle, he abandoned his foreign journey, thinking he should be able to do without Ems for once. Unhappily, he did not realise how worn out he was. His iron will, the ideal which was burning in his heart and filled him with enthusiasm deceived him concerning his physical strength, which was never great.
He proposed to start again with the publication of The Writer's Journal, for which the single nvunber of 1880 was to serve as programme. Now that The Brothers Karamazov was finished, he became a publicist again and threw himself once more into the political arena. The first, and, alas ! the only number of 1881, which appeared in January, contained a detailed programme. This testament of Dostoyevsky's proclaims truths which no one would believe in his Ufetime, but which are being realised by degrees, and will be completely reaUsed in the course of the twentieth century. This man of genius foresaw events from afar. " Do not despise the people," he said to the Russian intellectuals; " forget that they were once your slaves; respect their ideas, love what they love, admire what they admire; for if you persist in scorning their beliefs, and in trying to inoculate them with European institutions which they cannot understand and will never accept, the time will come when the people will repudiate you in their anger, will turn against you and seek other guides. You demand a European parliament, and you hope to sit in this and to pass laws without consulting the people. This parliament will be nothing but a debating society. You cannot direct Russia, for you do not understand it. The only possible parliament in our country is a popular assembly. Let the people meet and proclaim their will. As to you intellectuals, your task will be to listen respectfully to the humble words of the peasant delegates and try to understand them, in order to give juridical form to their plain pronouncements. If you direct Russia in accordance with the desires expressed by the people you will not blunder, and your country will prosper. But if you isolate yom-selves in your European debating society you will sit in darkness, knocking one against the other; instead of enlightening Russia, you will only be getting bruises on your foreheads. Increase the number of your elementary schools, extend the network of your railways, and, above all, try to have a good army, for Europe hates you and would fain seize your possessions. The Europeans know that the Russian people will always be hostile to their greedy capitalist dreams. They feel that Russia bears within her the new word of Christian fraternity which will put an end to their Philistine regime. Not with the Europeans but with the Asiatics should we work, for we Russians are as much Asiatics as Europeans. The mistake of our policy for the past two centuries has been to make the people of Europe believe that we are true Europeans. We have served Europe too well, we have taken too great a part in her domestic quarrels. At the first cry for help we have sent ovu- armies, and our poor soldiers have died for causes that meant nothing to them, and have been immediately forgotten by those they had served. We have bowed ourselves hke slaves before the Europeans and have only gained their hatred and contempt. It is time to turn away from ungrateful Europe. Our future is in Asia. True, Europe is our mother, but instead of mixing in her affairs we shall serve her better by working at our new orthodox idea, which will eventually bring happiness to the whole world. Meanwhile it will be better for us to seek alliances with the Asiatics. In Europe we have been merely intruders; in Asia we shall be masters. In Europe we have been Tatars; in Asia we shall be men of culture. Consciousness of our civilising mission will give us that dignity we lack as caricatures of Europeans. Let us go to Asia, to that ' land of holy miracles,' as one of our greatest Slavophils has called her, and let us try to make the name of the White Tsar greater and more venerated there than the name of the Queen of England, or the name of the Caliph." 103
103 The above is only a resumi of the last number of The Writer's Journal, which deserves careful study as a whole. It makes manifest Dostoyevsky's Norman spirit, eager to fly to imknown regions, and to carry civilisation to the wildest places. This spirit is the more remarkable in him, because it is found in no other great Russian writer. Tolstoy, Turgenev and Gont-sharov breathe nothing of this pioneer spirit. The civilisation of the Mongols does not interest them.
This, Dostoyevsky's last will and testament, was incomprehensible to his contemporaries. His far-seeing mind had outstripped theirs. Russian society was hypnotised by Europe and lived solely in the hope of becoming entirely European some day. This idea had been greatly strengthened by the adhesion of our rulers. Like all the Slavo-Normans, the Romanovs hated the Mongols and feared Asia. Our Tsars, who owned several palaces in Europe, had none in Siberia or Central Asia, which they rarely visited. When Oriental princes came to Petersburg they were received politely but coldly. Faithful to the traditions of Peter the Great, the Romanovs worked obstinately at the introduction of European institutions into Russia. All our Imperial Councils, Senate, Duma, Ministries and Chancellories were faithful copies of the European models. Our girls' schools were imitations of French convents, and our military schools reproduced those of Germany. The Russian spirit was banished from those establishments, and my young compatriots who were educated in them preferred to talk French to each other. If our sovereigns succeeded in europeanising our nobles, they were unable to carry out the process with the people. The Russian nobles and intellectuals were weak, but the people were strong and remained faithful to their historic mission. Deprived of their European government, they immediately began to apply their Russian poUcy. Barely two years after the abdication of Nicholas II, Colonel Semenov was proclaimed Grand Duke of Mongolia, the Russians began to negotiate with the Emirs of Afghanistan and Kurdistan, and the Hindus were sending deputations to Moscow. The fact is that the Slav blood is decreasing more and more in the veins of the Russians, whereas their Mongolian blood increases year by year. If the Slavs of the West do not send their nationals to help us to colonise Asia, in a century more the Russians will be completely mongolised. The idea of their Slav fraternity is already waning perceptibly. In 1877-8 all Russia fought to deliver the Serbs and Bulgarians, and in 1917 our soldiers threw down their arms, indifferent to the invasion of Serbia by the enemy. Forgetting the Slavs, oiu: people are transferring their sympathies to the Mongolians. Formerly they fought to deliver their Slav brothers from the Tm-kish and Austrian yoke; now they dream of delivering their new brothers, the Oriental peoples, from their Eiu-opean oppressors. The Asiatic tribes in their turn are attracted to the Russians by their Mongohan blood, which becomes ever more apparent in our people. Russia has but to hold out her hand, and it is eagerly grasped by innumerable brown paws ! The Asiatics have long been awaiting this gesture. They are weary of barbarism and yearn for civilisation; they aspire to play their part in the destinies of the world. The civilisation the English offer them is too lofty for them; they cannot assimilate it, all the less because it is offered to them with scorn. The English are ready to construct canals and railways in India, but they refuse to mix with the natives and leave them to rot in their pagan superstitions. Yet nothing is so wounding to the Oriental as contempt, for nowhere is the sense of dignity so highly developed as in the East. The Oriental peoples will always be attracted to the Russians, for the bear is reputed a kindly, modest and generous beast. It is well known in the East that he is ready to give a fraternal salute to all the muzzles that offer themselves, regardless of their colour. He will gladly mate with the Mongolian and will love his yellow cubs as tenderly as his white cubs. Russia will give Mongolia her European culture, which is as yet small, and therefore easy to assimilate. She will proclaim the Gospel to them and invite the Orientals to the banquet of the Lord. In former times, the days of the Moscovite Patriarchs and Tsars, the Christian mission was considered to be the sacred duty of Muscovy. When the Russians had vanquished some MongoUan tribe, they at once sent their missionaries into the conquered provinces. They built churches and convents, they attracted the young Oriental princes to Moscow, and dazzled them with the fetes of the Tsars, the splendour and the friendliness of the boyards. The young Mongohans, fascinated by the first civilisation they had encountered, embraced Orthodoxy, together with all their tribe. The majority of our aristocrats and hereditary nobles are descended from these Mongolian princes, and are distinguished by their ardent patriotism. By suppressing the