«Misery is a Vice» and «Who is Happy in Russia?»: Injustice and Compassion in Nekrasov and Dostoevsky

Abstract

The historical and hermeneutic dialogue between Nekrasov and Dostoevsky acquires special significance as an opportunity for a new dialogue between believers and non-believers, which is necessary for general social and cultural development. Nekrasov was actually a believing Christian, but he received a lot of resonance in Soviet education as a bearer of secular ideals. His new consideration today, after the religious renaissance of Russian culture, is an interesting and promising task. At the same time, Dostoevsky's question of «eschatological antinomianism» turns out to be decisive also in this context: the need to sanctify suffering and the necessary hope for its overcoming are two sides of the same ontological and epistemological paradox, which is always valid for all Christians as well as for all thinkers, preoccupied by common human destinies.