Khlystovshchina in the context of F. M. Dostoevsky’s ideology of pochvennichestvo

Abstract

The subject of this research is the themes of F. M. Dostoevsky’s writings on Khlystovshchina (Christ Faith), as well as his views on this sect. The object of this research is the articles “A Writer’s Diary”, novel “The Idiot”, draft notes to the poem “The Life of a Great Sinner”, main idea of the novel “Atheism”, as well as articles in the periodicals of the 1860’s dedicated to Khlystov heresy. The goal of this work consist in determination of the writer’s opinion on Khlystov heresy in the contexts of the ideology of pochvennichestvo (return to the native soil). Using the philological and historical methods, the author describes correlation of the core ideas of Dostoevsky’s writings with the history of non-Orthodox religious movements in Russia if the XIX century. The article generalizes the experience of studying the theme of Khlystovshchina in Dostoevsky’s works, and persuasively argues that Dostoevsky’s perception of the phenomenon of Khlystovshchina is justified by his ideology of pochvennichestvo, which defines the scientific novelty of this research. It is concluded that the writer’s interests to the sect is explained by the fact that he saw a unique, soil phenomenon that represents man’s cognitive activity. The research underlines that the pursued by Dostoyevsky parallel between the doctrine of the Lord Radstock and Stundism (alien to a Russian person due to protestant origin), Tatarinova Society, and Khlystovshchina reflects a profound idea of the writer on spiritual crisis emerged due to disintegration of intelligentsia and people.