Dostoevsky as a Columnist of Foreign Policy

Abstract

Among the social and literary roles of Dostoevsky, there is one that has not attracted the attention of researchers. He was not only a novelist, philosopher, journalist and editor, but also a columnist of international events. Dostoevsky’s interest in world politics was manifested in connection with the Crimean War of 1853–1856. Dostoevsky expressed his new beliefs in a series of political poems. They formulated a new program of his literary and civic activities. Dostoevsky had his own concept of world history and European politics, his own understanding of the causes and his own assessments of historical events. Dostoevsky consistently implemented these attitudes in all the publications that he edited. For him, the story was a personal act. In international events, he was interested in ethical assessments of the actions of politicians, their ideas and ideals. In this journalistic genre, Dostoevsky dared to say a new word. The writer realized his experience of analyzing world politics in such a genre as the writer’s diary, which became a logical development of “Political Reviews” in “Time” and “Epoch”, “Foreign events” in “Citizen”. Dostoevsky created a unique genre — “The Writer’s Diary”, in which a universal model of creativity and world history was implemented.