Jordi Morillas
University of Luebeck, Luebeck, Germany
Dostoevsky’s legacy in Spain: What have Spaniards learned from Dostoevsky?
Abstract. This article analyses various aspects of Russian life that Spaniards have been able to learn about thanks to the gradual translation of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s major literary works. Thus, for example, with “Notes from the Dead House” the Spaniards were able to experience the reality of the Tsarist prisons and obtain first-hand information about the psychology of a criminal, which would later have such a great influence on criminology; the Spaniards were introduced to Dostoevsky as a writer, who was dealing with purely philosophical and deeply psychological issues, thanks to “Notes from the Underground”; with “Crime and Punishment” the Spaniards understood the complexity of the Russian soul and the danger of socialist and capitalist ideologies to humanity, as well as the scientific selfishness embodied in the figure of Raskolnikov; and with “The Devils” the Spanish people were able to gain an understanding of both the ideological basis and the criminal methods that gave rise to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. The increasing knowledge about Dostoevsky’s life and work awakened the question among Spanish intellectuals who is better qualified to understand his thought: Is Dostoyevsky’s legacy solely and exclusively Russian? Is it true that Western nations cannot fully understand Dostoevsky? What is the relationship between the Spanish and the Russian people? Are Spaniards able to read and, above all, to understand the profound psychology of Dostoevsky and of the Russian soul in general?
Keywords: F. M. Dostoevsky, psychology, criminology, philosophy, politics, Spain, Russia.
Paper submitted: December 21, 2021.
For citation: Morillas J. (2022). Dostoevsky’s legacy in Spain: What have Spaniards learned from Dostoevsky? Russian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 32–39. DOI: 10.17238/issn1998-5320.2022.16.1.4.
