An Unusual Dostoevskophile

Abstract

“The Unusual Russophile”, published in 1914 by Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish philosopher and writer, was his response to the events of the First World War, in which Spain did not take part. The publication of the Russian translation of this essay in the year marked by F. M. Dostoevsky’s bicentennial is of special scholarly interest. The “unusualness” of the Spanish russophile lies in the fact that he took the Russian side in the dispute about nations at war only because he stood for “the triumph of the spirit”, i. e. for the idea and feeling that the author of “Crime and Punishment” had had from life and the world.