Russian Orthodoxy

Though Dostoevsky’s own faith was in a constant state of transition—faith in childhood, conversion to atheism in his radical youth, followed by a renewal of faith (and struggle with its incompatibility with reason) post-Siberia—his knowledge of the Bible and Christian theism, specifically Russian Orthodoxy, was extensive. Basic beliefs in Russian Orthodoxy center on the teachings of the Bible and a belief in the Holy Trinity, and particularly in the two aspects of Christ—both God and man. The goal of life according to Orthodoxy is to become closer to God, finally achieving theosis, or union with God. As noted below (“The Story of Lazarus”), Christ’s resurrection is the central belief of Orthodoxy. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, resurrection is possible for all of mankind. The ultimate fulfillment of this promise is believed to occur after the Final Judgment, when the souls of believers will be reunited with their resurrected bodies, achieving the state of perfection lost due to the Fall of Man. This will be the New Jerusalem, when mankind will live in perfection.

A tradition separating the Russian Orthodox Church from most Western churches is their use of icons, sacred images of God or the saints, believed to be a direct connection between the worshipper and those pictured. It is important to note, however, that icons are objects of contemplation, not worship.

The idea of the Holy Trinity is presented in Crime and Punishment in Sonya, a name derived from “Sophia,” which, according to Russian scholar George Gibian, “in Russian thought occupies a position far more important than merely that of its literal meaning, wisdom. To Vladimir Solovyov, S.N. Bulgakov, Alexander Blok, and many others, the concept of Sophia supplemented that of the divine trinity. It has been variously defined as ‘cosmic love’ or love for ‘the divine ground of the created world’; through contemplation of Sophia one can merge all that is visible, admire its beauty, and penetrate to its essence. …In Orthodox thought Sophia has come close to being regarded as something similar to the fourth divine person.”

The Story of Lazarus  

The raising of Lazarus holds a number of important lessons in Christian faith. Here we see Jesus as both God, with the ability to perform miracles, and man, capable of compassion and grief, noted in the famous verse “Jesus wept.” The raising of Lazarus was Christ’s final sign or miracle before his death; in Russian Orthodoxy it is celebrated the day before Palm Sunday as Lazarus Saturday. Gibian notes, “the traditional emphasis of the Eastern Church is on Resurrection,” whereas the Western Church places more emphasis on the Passion.  

As a friend of Lazarus, Jesus received news of his illness, but chose to remain where he was for two additional days; upon reaching the family, Lazarus had been dead four days.*  Lazarus’ sister comes close to rebuking Christ, saying that if he had come, Lazarus would not have died. This can be interpreted as an example of and warning against Christian entitlement—the belief that, due to a believer’s relationship with God and faith in Him, one can ask and should expect anything one wantw. Man must recognize that God acts in accordance with his own will, and not that of humanity, and that ultimately man cannot dictate the manner in which God will act—God’s plan is unknowable. In the end, however, God gives more than He is asked, things greater than man’s expectations. And perhaps most importantly, the story of Lazarus is Christ’s most direct sign of His promise—resurrection not only of divinity, but of man.  

The Horse-Beating Incident

Raskolnikov’s dream of the beating death of a mare had its origins in an incident Dostoevsky witnessed as a young man:

“At a posting station along the road the Dostoevskys [Fyodor and his brother Mikhail] saw the whirlwind arrival of a government courier wearing the imposing full uniform of the time, crowned by the white, yellow, and green plumes of a three-cornered hat waving in the wind. The courier, a powerful and red-faced man, rushed into the station to drink a glass of vodka, emerged again rapidly, and leaped into a new troika. No sooner was he installed than he rose to his feet and began to beat the driver, a young peasant, on the back of the neck with his fist. The horses lurched forward as the driver frantically whipped them up, and the troika vanished from sight with the courier’s fist moving mechanically up and down in relentless rhythm as the whip rose and fell in a corresponding tempo. At the end of this account Dostoevsky imagines the young peasant, on returning to his village, beating his wife to revenge his own humiliation. ‘This sickening picture,’ he says, ‘remained in my memory all my life.’  

…[I]n the notebooks for Crime and Punishment he jots down, ‘My first personal insult, the horse, the courier,’ thus confirming the primacy of the experience for Dostoevsky and the formative role that he assigns to it in his own self-development…. ‘Never was I able to forget the courier, and much that was shameful and cruel in the Russian people I was then inclined for a long while, and as it were involuntarily, to explain in an obviously much too one-sided fashion.’

… ‘This little scene appeared to me, so to speak, as an emblem, as something very graphically demonstrating the link between cause and effect. Here every blow dealt to the animal leaped out of each blow dealt at the man. At the end of the 1840s, in the epoch of my most unrestrained and fervent dreams, it suddenly occurred to me that, if ever I were to found a philanthropic society [that is, radical or Socialist], I would without fail engrave this courier’s troika on the seal of the society as its emblem and sign.’”
(Frank)

White Nights

Due to its high latitude (59º 56’ N, around the same as Oslo, Norway and Seward, Alaska), the sun doesn’t set on summer nights in St. Petersburg, a phenomenon called “White Nights.” Petersburg nights are light from late May to early July, with the brightest nights falling from June 11th to July 2nd. The action of Crime and Punishment takes place over two weeks in the beginning of July.

Balalaika

A stringed instrument with a triangular body and three strings, of Russian origin.  

 

 

 

 


Sonia's House (to the left)
Present-Day Address:
Canal Griboedova emb., 73,
Corner of Kaznacheiskaya St.

Sonia’s Room:
“It was an old, green-painted house of three stories. …In a corner of the courtyard [Raskolnikov] found the entrance to a narrow, dark staircase, mounted it to the second floor and came out on to a passage that ran round the whole floor on the courtyard side. …It was a large room, but very low ceilinged, the only one let by the Kapernaumovs; the locked door to the left led to their other room. Opposite this, in the right-hand wall, was another door, always kept locked, which led into the next flat. Sonya’s room was rather like a barn; the irregularity of its angles made it look misshapen. One wall, with three windows which gave on to the canal, was set obliquely, so that one corner, forming a terribly acute angle, seemed to run off into obscurity, and when the light was poor the whole of it could not even be seen properly; the other angle was monstrously obtuse. There was hardly any furniture in this large room. To the right, in the corner, was a bed, with a chair beside it nearer the door. Against the same wall, very close to the door into the other flat, stood a plain deal table covered with a blue cloth, with two cane chairs near it. By the opposite wall, not far from the narrow corner, was a small, plain, wooden chest of drawers, looking lost in the empty spaces. This was all there was in the room. The yellowish, dirty, rubbed wallpaper was darkened in the corners; the room must have been damp and full of charcoal fumes in winter. Its poverty was evident; the bed had not even curtains.”
—Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky