Berdyaev's Debt to Dostoievski

Abstract

Tribute to the superlative greatness of Dostoievski came freely from the pen of Nicolas Berdyaev, and he frequently underlines his influence upon the cultural renaissance in Russia at the opening of this century. “Its representatives,” he tells us, “all put themselves under the standard of Dostoievski; they were children of his mind.” Speaking more particularly of the new trends in philosophy, he observes that “philosophical works often took the form of commentaries upon Dostoievski.” Acknowledgments of his own indebtedness to Dostoievski are frequent and no less explicit. His “own initiative into philosophy was,” he says, “largely due to Dostoievski”; Dostoievski's influence was “more important” for him than “philosophical and theological schools of thought”; and, although there were many thinkers and writers who nourished his “love for the freedom of spirit ... the moot important of these was Dostoievski.” In view of such acknowledgments it is surprising that writers on Berdyaev have not sought to demonstrate how central is the influence of Dostoievski upon him. They have, of course, noted the influence where Berdyaev himself underlines it, but they have asserted it only intermittently without demonstrating it systematically. Because of this, they have failed to bring into clear focus the central unity of Berdyaev's thought. They have been content to regard Dostoievski as one source among many, and, in consequence, have been led in their expositions to underestimate his influence by exaggerating the influence of others. It is the aim of this article to remedy that failure and to show that Berdyaev's philosophy is, in substance, though not, of course, in form, of the nature of a “commentary upon Dostoievski.”