Dostoevskii’s Zosima and Tolstoi’s Father Sergius: Literary Representations of Starchestvo

Abstract

Among the more intriguing influences on Tolstoi’s creative and spiritual life was the Orthodox tradition of the ‘elder’ (starets). This tradition, it is claimed, goes back to the early days of Russian Orthodoxy and, having fallen out of favour, was revived again only in the eighteenth century. Both Tolstoi and Dostoevskii admired and visited the most famous elder of their time, Amvrosii, at the monastery of Optina Pustyn. Both produce a fictional representation of an elder, Dostoevskii in The Brothers Karamazov (Zosima) and Tolstoi in the eponymous Father Sergius. Dostoevskii embeds his description of Zosima in the hagiographical tradition; he aims at creating a credible saint as a counterweight against Ivan Karamazov’s atheistic arguments in the novel. By contrast, Tolstoi’s Father Sergius struggles to adapt himself to the religious life and is unable to fend off the temptations that have driven him to become a monk in the first place, particularly ambition and lust. Predictably, perhaps, given Tolstoi’s antipathy to the Orthodox Church, his hero only finds peace by leaving the monastery to live a life of humble anonymity. For Tolstoi, real spiritual elderhood can only be effective in a context that cuts off all ties with the established church.