Dostoevsky, if you give a person what he needs. ~ For I want to be a man ~ ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~

Because I want to be a man

Larisa Buzina

K. Trutovsky.
Fedor Dostoevsky. 1847

While still a young man, a student at the St. Petersburg Engineering School, Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote to his brother Mikhail in Revel (Tallinn), setting out quite mature philosophical thoughts:

About ten years passed, and on the evening of December 22, 1849, the day of the execution of the Petrashevites, after his death sentence was commuted to hard labor, Dostoevsky wrote to Mikhail:

When I look back at the past and think how much time was wasted, how much of it was lost in delusions, in mistakes, in idleness, in the inability to live, how I did not value it, how many times I sinned against my heart and spirit - so my heart bleeds . Life is a gift, life is happiness, every minute could be a century of happiness.”

The handwriting of this letter is somehow incredibly jubilant, free, flying. It seems that his pen was guided by life itself, which had just gotten rid of death, had just been born again - a new, second life. Dostoevsky discovered the infinite value of life, the infinite value of living time, every minute while we exist in this world.

Is it not this meeting with death (in which he did not blink) that explains the fact that in his works he posed all questions in the most limitless acuteness, as questions of life and death; He experienced the personal fate of his heroes as his own and viewed them from the perspective of the universal fate.

F. M. Dostoevsky is a writer for all times, for the moral and spiritual qualities of man, which occupied the writer most of all, are, like the spirit, immortal. Dostoevsky is contemporary even today, because the time in which he worked and which he described is very similar to ours - the time of the introduction of capitalism. But Dostoevsky is also a writer of the future. He saw the main advantage not only around him, but also far ahead of him.

The fence of the Omsk fort,
to which Fyodor Dostoevsky was exiled in 1850

In an era of spiritual fermentation, when " social ideal“perceive only externally and superficially, when some rob, kill, destroy others and die fruitlessly and ingloriously themselves, while others either get lost in mental chaos or become mired in self-interest - there are only a few people who, not being satisfied with external goals and ideals, they feel and proclaim the need for a deep moral revolution and indicate the conditions for a new spiritual birth of Russia and humanity. One of the few harbingers of the Russian and universal future was Dostoevsky.

The general meaning of all his activities is to resolve the double question: what is highest ideal society and what is the path to achieving it, or more simply - why live and what to do?

Ask directly: “What should I do?” - means to assume that there is some kind of ready-made work that you just need to put your hands to, means skipping another question: are the doers themselves ready? After all, a bad or unsuitable employee can ruin the best business. Imagine a crowd of people who are blind, deaf, crippled, possessed by demons, and suddenly from this crowd the question is heard: “What to do?” The only reasonable answer is: seek healing; until you are healed, there is no matter for you, and as long as you pretend to be healthy, there is no healing for you.

Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.
1862

Fyodor Mikhailovich consciously rejected any external social ideal, that is, one that is not associated with inner world man or his rebirth. He knew too well all the depths of human decline, he knew that anger and madness form the basis of our lower nature. Until egoism, in its desire to appropriate everything and determine everything by itself, is defeated and crushed, no real work is possible.

By all accounts, Dostoevsky was a true humanist, for, knowing all human evil, he believed in all-human good. His faith in man was not idealistic, one-sided.

In his works, he portrayed man in all his fullness and reality, without deceiving himself or others. He opened up such nooks and crannies of the soul where not many dare to look. But this is the merit, the significance of people like Dostoevsky, that they do not bow to the power of fact and do not serve it. They have the spiritual power of faith in truth and goodness - in what should be.

Not being tempted by the dominion of evil and not renouncing invisible good for its sake is a feat of faith. In him lies all the strength of man. Whoever is not capable of this feat will do nothing and will not say anything to humanity. People of faith create life. These are those who are called dreamers, utopians, holy fools - they are also prophets, truly the best people and leaders of humanity.

So what did Fyodor Mikhailovich believe in? First of all, into the infinity of the human soul. Full reality infinite human soul was realized in Jesus Christ, in man, and, therefore, it is possible for everyone who strives for it. Dostoevsky showed through his favorite heroes that in every human soul, even at the lowest level, there is a possibility, a spark of this infinity and fullness of existence.

Dostoevsky's desk

Jesus Christ for Dostoevsky is the highest moral ideal, whom we must try to imitate, learn from him love, mercy, heroism and self-sacrifice. Not embarrassed by the anti-Christian character of our entire life and activity, he believed in the reality of God as superhuman Good and in Christ as the God-Man, he preached a living and active Christianity, the true teaching of Christ.

For Fyodor Mikhailovich, the true church is an all-human one, in which the division of humanity into competing and hostile tribes and peoples should disappear. All peoples must reunite in one common cause of worldwide revival. main idea, which Dostoevsky served with all his activities, was the Christian idea of free all-human unity, world brotherhood in the name of Christ.

Dostoevsky believed that it was Russia that should say a new word to the world. He believed in Russia and predicted a great future for it. Russia's calling, its purpose and duty is to reconcile East and West. The truth is one, it will unite all peoples. Possession of the truth cannot be the privilege of one people or an individual. Truth can only be universal, and the people are required to perform the feat of serving this universal truth, even at the sacrifice of their national egoism. The true work is possible only if a person has free forces of light and goodness, but without God a person does not have such forces.

Personality, in the understanding of Fyodor Mikhailovich, exists independently thinking man, impersonality is an imitator. Independent thinking is one of the most important dimensions of personality. Dostoevsky believed that in terms of independent thinking, anyone can become a person, regardless of their level of education. A simple peasant can be a person, but an academician can be impersonal.

A person can change his beliefs while remaining an individual, if there was something to change, if it was something of his own, and the exchange does not occur under the influence of fashion or profit. IN notebook Fedor Mikhailovich writes:

Dostoevsky has another dimension of human personality - value orientation in life. In fact, this is the problem of the meaning of human life. Impersonality sees the meaning of life in the possession of material goods (wealth, power), personality - in preserving and improving oneself, that is, one’s spiritual world. Impersonality is oriented towards “to have”, while personality is oriented towards “to be”. At the same time, personality in terms of independent thinking may turn out to be impersonality in terms of value orientation.

Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya,
wife of Fyodor Mikhailovich. 1868

Dostoevsky wrote quite often about the meaning of life, especially in “The Diary of a Writer,” and his position on this issue is expressed clearly and clearly: “Without a higher idea, neither a person nor a nation can exist. And there is only one highest idea on earth, and that is the idea of the immortality of the human soul, for all other “higher” ideas of life by which a person can live flow only from this one.” Fyodor Mikhailovich writes that a person’s spiritual accumulations do not die with the death of the body.

A person must independently comprehend himself and his purpose in the world. "Life goes breathless without an aim". Personality does not exist for itself. But the triumph of impersonality is so great that those who live for the sake of “being” seem to be an anomaly, “idiots.” However, Dostoevsky believes in the triumph of the individual: “self-willed, completely conscious and unforced self-sacrifice of oneself for the benefit of everyone is, in my opinion, a sign of the highest development of the individual, its highest power, the highest self-control, the highest freedom of one’s own will.” The limit of personal affirmation is self-sacrifice and dedication.

Fyodor Mikhailovich also gave a very clear concept of “the best people.” One of the notebooks says: “The strong are not better, but the honest.” Further: “The best people are known by the highest moral development and the highest moral influence." In the “Diary of a Writer” for 1876, in a chapter specially dedicated to the best people, Dostoevsky wrote: “In essence, these ideals, these “best people” are clear and visible at first glance: the “best person,” according to the popular imagination, is the one “who will not bow to material temptation, who tirelessly seeks work for the cause of God, loves the truth and, when necessary, stands up to serve it, leaving home and family and sacrificing his life.” Only such people are able to have a beneficial influence on society.

In Dostoevsky’s understanding, “to improve” means to get closer to the ideal, to get closer to Christ, to his way of life, “to become yourself first and foremost,” that is, the way God created, discarding all falsehood, all external husks.

Dostoevsky himself improved himself to last days own life. Already sick, knowing that he did not have long to live, he wrote to his wife from the resort where he was being treated:

A little later, Fyodor Mikhailovich formulates this idea even more clearly:

Being only begins to be when it is threatened with non-existence.” Just as in his youth on the Semyonovsky parade ground before the execution, Dostoevsky is again threatened with oblivion, but now the sentence cannot be overturned. In December 1880, almost a month before his death, he wrote to A.N. Pleshcheev: “Now I’m still just molding myself. Everything is just beginning."

Dostoevsky's house in Staraya Russa

Being a religious man in the highest sense of the word, Dostoevsky was at the same time a completely free thinker and a powerful artist. He never separated truth from goodness and beauty, never placed beauty separately from goodness and truth. These three live only by their union. Good, separated from truth and beauty, is only an indefinite feeling, a powerless impulse, abstract truth is an empty word, and beauty without goodness and truth is an idol. The infinity of the human soul, revealed in Christ, capable of containing the entire infinity of God - this idea is at once the greatest good, the greatest truth, and the most perfect beauty. It is precisely because beauty is inseparable from goodness and truth that it will save the world.

Beauty is also inseparable from love, but love is work, and even it needs to be learned.

“Seek love and store up love in your hearts. Love is so omnipotent that it regenerates us too.”

Constantly being among people, observing their antics, generated by the desire to look better than they are, but not wanting to make an effort to improve, Fyodor Mikhailovich thought what if all these respectable gentlemen wanted to become sincere and simple-minded at least for one moment? “Well, what if each of them suddenly found out the whole secret? What if each of them suddenly found out how much straightforwardness, honesty, the most sincere heartfelt gaiety, purity, generous feelings, good desires, intelligence - what a mind! - the most subtle, most communicative wit, and this is in each, absolutely in each of them! Dostoevsky wanted to tell them:

“Yes, gentlemen, all this is contained in each of you, and no one, not one of you knows anything about it! ...I swear that each of you is smarter than Voltaire, more sensitive than Rousseau, incomparably more seductive... Don Juan, Lucretius, Juliet and Beatrice! ...But your trouble is that you yourself don’t know how beautiful you are! Do you know that even each of you, if only he wanted, could now make everyone in this room happy and carry everyone along with him? And this power exists in each of you, but it is so deeply hidden that it has long begun to seem incredible. And really, really, does the golden age exist only on porcelain cups? ...And your whole problem is that it seems incredible to you.”

(366 words) The great Russian writer F. M. Dostoevsky once said: “Life is suffocating without a goal.” But it’s hard to disagree with this. Every person needs a life guide, a fulcrum, a personal guiding star. Without this, there is no need to cope with difficulties, endure pain, or become better. If existence loses its purpose, then it is not clear why all these routine actions day after day? Thoughts about the futility of life, becoming obsessive, drive a person crazy, and that same internal feeling of “suffocation” that the classic spoke about sets in. There are many examples in the literature confirming this idea.

For example, in Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” main character cannot find use for his abilities. He tries various activities, entertainment, addictions, but everything is in vain: he does not find the desired meaning in life. His flight to the village is very significant. There he tried to take up farming, make life easier for his peasants, and become an active landowner. But soon he got bored with this and was drawn to society, but in the local “salons” the manners and treatment of the nobles evoked in him only an ironic smile. This goal failed, like dozens of previous ones. After the murder of Lensky, Evgeniy sets off on a journey, wants to play the role of a lonely and proud wanderer, but he did not have enough poetry for poetic freedom, and here he is again in the capital - nobody and with nothing. He, once cold and impassive, rushes to the married Tatyana with burning eyes and a reckless impulse. But this repentance only means that the hero is in despair, his life has “suffocated without a purpose.”

In Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time,” Pechorin has the same problem: his existence is aimless. He wanders through life, playing with other people's destinies, abandoning his own, but he never finds his high origin. Grigory is talented, charming and smart, it would seem that all roads are open to him, but he stands at a crossroads and goes nowhere, content with random adventures like meeting smugglers and kidnapping Bela. Pechorin's problem is that he cannot find a worthy, all-consuming goal for himself. The hero sees the insignificance of popular aspirations, so they cannot captivate him. Seeing no way out, he rushes into an adventure, where he dies like a moth to the flame.

It is obvious that the aimless life of the heroes has “suffocated.” She lacked freedom, inspiration, direction - everything that is air for the soul. Dostoevsky wanted to say that the thread of fate does not meander without a destiny, which a person must unravel, otherwise his fate will not be fortune, but evil fate.

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There must be a moral purpose in a person's life, otherwise existence will become empty, boring and useless. Finding the meaning of your being in the world is not easy, sometimes it takes whole life to understand your purpose. A person who has not found his calling suffocates from the meaninglessness of everything that happens to him; most often he is immersed in apathy, indifferent and indifferent, but he can also be active, but this activity leads to nothing.

Let's compare the two literary heroes to understand that people react differently to their aimless lives: some plunge into a moral sleep of life, others madly chase the lures of passions, but they all come to disappointment. In the literature there is a type extra person. This is a hero who has not found himself, has not learned his path in life.

In the novel by I. A. Goncharov "Oblomov" title character He lies on the sofa all day, unable to solve a single problem, even everyday tasks. Ilya Ilyich is wonderful, kind and soft man, but he did not find himself. Who is to blame for this? Maybe upbringing? Yes, Oblomov was formed in a manorial estate, where servants did everything for him.

The Oblomovites cared only about food, sleep and peace, and were afraid of the slightest changes in life. Undoubtedly, upbringing decided the fate of the hero. But in childhood and adolescence he communicated with the active and active Stolz, they swore to each other that they would benefit society. Stolz did not betray this oath, but Oblomov gave in to fate. I think there is another reason why Ilya Ilyich lost the meaning of his existence. This is the St. Petersburg environment where there is no sincerity, kindness, or cordiality. Once Stolz managed to get his friend off the couch for two whole weeks, and Ilya Ilyich went to visit him. But then he rebelled, claiming that secular society the dead are even worse than him, because vulgarity, slander, and gossip reign there. Ilya Ilyich admits that the light was locked inside him and could not find a way out. In fact. Oblomov, a dreamer and idealist, who found his refuge in the house of a simple widow on the Vyborg side, resigned himself to an aimless existence.

Another hero - Grigory Aleksandrovich Pechorin - does not lie on the sofa, like Oblomov, but, on the contrary, madly chases after life, carried away by “the lures of empty and ungrateful passions.” The absence of a moral goal in life, a lack of understanding of one’s purpose is, obviously, main reason that “disease” that affects the hero and about which the author writes in the preface.

Boredom is the leitmotiv state of Pechorin in all five chapters of the novel “A Hero of Our Time.” His life is a chain of disappointments, because there is no moral concepts He was not vaccinated as a child. Savor in St. Petersburg he quickly got tired of it. he thought that in the Caucasus, under the bullets of the Chechens, boredom does not exist. But he was wrong: it turns out that you can get used to the whistling of bullets. Choking without a moral goal, not finding application for his inclinations, Pechorin interferes in the destinies of other people and plays the role of an “axe of fate” in their lives.

We came to the conclusion about the importance high goal in life, without this goal life has no meaning.

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Updated: 2017-09-29

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Wise and inspiring quotes from Fyodor Mikhailovich that will give you food for thought.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is a real researcher of the human soul; he was nicknamed the “psychologist of the pen” because he empathized with all his heroes. He is a writer who managed to penetrate into the darkest depths of the human soul. His influence on spiritual development humanity is difficult to underestimate, as is the literature of the whole world.

We have selected 30 outstanding quotes from the great thinker that give rise to thought:

Compassion is the most important and, perhaps, the only law of existence for all humanity.

Freedom is not about not restraining yourself, but about being in control of yourself.

In everything there is a line beyond which it is dangerous to cross; for once you have stepped over, it is impossible to go back.

Happiness is not in happiness, but only in its achievement.

We must love life more than the meaning of life.

The Russian people seem to enjoy their suffering.

Life goes breathless without an aim.

There is no happiness in comfort; happiness is bought through suffering.

Beauty will save the world.

No one will make the first move, because everyone thinks that it is not mutual.

A writer whose works have not been successful easily becomes a bitter critic: just like a weak and tasteless wine can become excellent vinegar.

He is a smart man, but to act smartly, intelligence alone is not enough.

If you set off towards your goal and start stopping along the way to throw stones at every dog barking at you, you will never reach your goal.

Truth without love is a lie.

Seek love and store love in your hearts. Love is so omnipotent that it regenerates ourselves.

B true loving heart either jealousy kills love, or love kills jealousy.

It takes very little to destroy a person: you just need to convince him that the work he is doing is of no use to anyone.

A person who knows how to hug - good man.

It's amazing what one ray of sunshine can do to a person's soul!

Here you need to speak eye to eye... so that the soul can be read on the face, so that the heart is reflected in the sounds of the word. One word spoken with conviction, with complete sincerity and without hesitation, face to face, means much more than dozens of sheets of paper written on it.

The soul is healed next to children.

He who wants to do good can do a lot of good even with his hands tied.

In fact, people sometimes speak about the “brutal” cruelty of man, but this is terribly unfair and offensive to animals: an animal can never be as cruel as a person, so artistically, so artistically cruel.

My friend, remember that silence is good, safe and beautiful.

The main thing - do not lie to yourself. He who lies to himself and listens to his own lies reaches such a point that he no longer discerns any truth either in himself or around him, and therefore begins to disrespect both himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and in order, not having love, to occupy himself and entertain himself, he indulges in passions and coarse sweets and reaches the point of complete bestiality in his vices, and all from continuous lies to both people and himself.

Big people don’t know that a child, even in the most difficult matter, can give extremely important advice.

The mind is a scoundrel, it will justify anything!

Don’t clog your memory with grievances, otherwise there may simply be no room left for beautiful moments.

I want to talk to at least one person about everything, as if I were talking to myself.

To love a person means to see him as God intended him to be.