Civilization #53: Dostoevsky and the Soul of Russia

Okay, good morning. Uh, today we are doing the Russian Empire and to review, we've done America and Britain so far and we've discussed the civilization. Today we'll do Russia and then on Thursday we'll start Germany. Um, let's simplify the differences between these three great modern civilizations that are struggling for world domination even today. So as we discussed last week um the defining characteristics of the Anglo-American civilization is their belief in utilitarianism.

Okay. They want they want to know what is practical, what works. Um their idea of Christianity is the supreme god is a force that elects. And what this means is that um not everyone will go to heaven. only a minority will go to heaven and this minority are those who have proven themselves the most worthy.

Okay. The last idea of the Anglo-American civilization is that the meaning of life is the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Essentially the pursuit of wealth. Okay. So that these are the um characteristics of the Anglo-American civilization.

Um on Thursday we will start the German German civilization and what you will um see is that the Germans are very different. Um they are not utilitarians they are very idealistic very romantic. Um for them God is a force that demands you to be your very best. Okay not a few people but everyone. And the Germans believe in the unity of will.

Okay. everyone has to work together and promote German civilization. Today we do the Russians, okay? And the Russians are a very different civilization. Uh first of all, they're much more fatalistic than the Germans and the Americans.

They don't believe that you have control over your life. They believe that you can only accept what is given to you and make the most out of it. Um for them, God is a force that redeems and saves all. God is merciful. God is forgiving.

Okay, this is a very different conception from both the German and the Anglo-American conception. The last concept that we will look at today is for them the um essence of life is to understand the mystery, miracle and authority of the human heart. Okay. So whereas the Americans and British place an emphasis on science on mastering the world um uh the material world and whereas the Germans are extremely idealistic they want an understanding of existence. The Russians are focused very much on the human heart.

Okay. For the Russians the greatest mystery um the most knowledge is within the human heart. And this is what we will focus on uh today. Okay. So, um the leading question for today's class, the question that I'm sure you're all interested in is why did Putin invade Ukraine?

What is driving the Russian invasion of Ukraine? And um there are lots of easy explanations. What I will show you today is the answer is actually extremely complicated. What Putin himself has said in multiple interviews is there are historical um sociological philosophical issues at work here and westerners don't really understand what he's saying. Okay.

So what I'm going to do today is I'm going to explain to you what he really means. Okay. So um if you look at the year 1300 um you could not expect Moscow to eventually become the Russian Empire. At this point in history the Mongols have controlled most of the world and Moscow along with other areas um in the um empire there are vassal states. Okay they pay taxes they pay tribute they provide troops to the Mongol Empire.

But it's the Empire that is the um great power at this stage. So but so why but if you look at history okay you will see a very similar pattern where it's not really the greatest power that will eventually uh overwhelm everyone. It's always the marginal power. Okay. So going back to and reviewing what we've learned so far, remember when we discussed the Aztecs, the Aztecs were very much a poor isolated um backward people.

Um but eventually through innovation, through tenacity, for resilience, they will come to conquer most of Central America. Same thing with theQing dynasty in China. Right at this stage in history, maybe 300, 400 B.CE, C, you would not expect theQing Empire, uh, theQing dynasty to overwhelm all of China and become China's first great national empire. Maybe the Chu, maybe the way Chi, they're all stronger at this point in history, but it's the marginal uh power that seems weak at first that will overwhelm. Same thing with Macedon.

Okay. At this point in history in the year uh 400 300 BCE it's Athens, Sparta uh thieves that are powers but eventually Macon will not only over will not only overwhelm the great peninsula but they will go over to Persia and conquer the Persian Empire as well. Same thing with Rome. Rome um at this point in history maybe 500 B.CE it is the weakest of all these Italian states. Um the uh itricians are the main power and they are the poorest, the weakest, the smallest of all these great tribes but eventually over uh the next centuries they will conquer everyone.

Same thing with the Franks. Um after the Roman Empire, the Franks will slowly expand from central Europe and overwhelm uh most of Europe to create the Holy Roman Empire. Okay? And the same thing with the Prussians. Uh next class we'll discuss the Prussian Empire which becomes modern day Germany.

They start off as this landlocked um um isolated central area within uh Europe but eventually they will spread out to conquer all of uh Germany. Okay. So the lessons we can learn from uh these case studies is there are three forces that drive these marginalized powers to become the great power of the day. Okay. So for Moscow it's a pro constant process of creative destruction.

First of all open cooperative competition. So they're always surrounded by these adversaries and because they don't really lack and because they don't have natural defenses, they don't have mountains, rivers, um it forces them to be tough and unified in order to feed their enemies. And it's toughness and unity that will allow Moscow to emerge as a great power um in Central Asia. Advantage by disadvantages. Okay, you're better off being weak because if you're weak, it forces you to be innovative and open.

Okay, so they say um necessity is the mother of invention. The last factor is vaselage. Okay, so the idea that historical humiliation and subjection force reflection and resilience because Moscow for the longest time was subjected um to vassels by the Mongols. It forced them to be humble and humility allows you to reflect deeply on your own weaknesses to be honest with yourself and eventually triumph over all your adversaries. Okay, so these are the three factors that will drive the massive expansion of Moscow.

Okay, Moscow starts off as this very small principality within the Mongol Empire and then it will eventually become the successor to the Mongol Empire. All right. Um so let's look at the origins of the uh of Russia. So the history is we have to go back to the Viking age, right? This this is about the year 900,000, right?

So the Vikings are in uh Sweden and Denmark and Norway. And because it's so poor and because it's becoming overly populated um they will start to expand over to England to Greenland to other areas and then sorry can you open the door and then they will also move east. Okay. Why are they moving east? because all the great wealth of of the age is located in the Bison Empire in Egypt and as well as the Abbisid Empire um in Iraq and Persia.

Okay. So they're they they're here to establish trading post and when they establish trading poles what will happen is that first of all they will intermar with the local Slavic population as well as the um steps people. Okay. They will also build an alliance with the Bisantine Empire and become basically vassels to the Bisantines. All right.

Um what will happen is over time their trading posts will become cities and they will expand outwards. So the tradition the custom at at this stage in history is if you're noble um you must go and conquer new lands. When you conquer new lands, you can enslave the people to work for you. Okay, this is a very feudal system. Okay, so this forces a process of constant expansion.

If they don't expand, they only fight amongst themselves. So the Kian ruse expands very quickly throughout this uh area. Um eventually they'll all be conquered by the Mongols and when the Mongols leave it leaves a vacuum of great powers. Okay. So the great power of this age is the grand ducky of Lutherania.

Okay. Um Novagrad is also great power. Moscow is the weakest. But again as I said over time because it is weak it's forced to be united. It's forced to be resilient.

It's forced to be innovative. And over time what it will do is it will overwhelm uh Novagrad and become the Russian Empire. Okay. And as you can see, what will happen is the Russian Empire will expand really quickly until it absorbs the entire uh Mongol Empire as well as unify all of um northern Asia. Okay, it is now the largest landmass in the world.

Okay. Um so um the thing to understand about the Russians is that even though it's a very uh large country, most of it is not able to be cultivated. Okay? So it has very uh low population. Most of the wealth is located in the in over here.

Okay? This is basically Ukraine. This is what's driving the invasion because historically most of the wealth uh in Russia has been located in the Ukraine area. And if you go over here, it's basically just forest and mountains. So why are they moving uh eastwards when there's very little resources here?

The answer is fur. Okay, fur. Uh fur is very valuable commodity. They go and they um they trade fur for a living. Okay.

Um some of the great sars of Russian history is Ivan the great and his son is Ivan the Terrible who will expand Russia uh greatly. Okay. Um the thing to understand about Russian expansion is it's really not driven by state policy. It's really driven by oppression and misery. And what this means is that because Russia is essentially a feudal state, the only way to build a better life is if you escape eastwards and you basically eth ethnically cleans that area and build a new settlement.

Okay? So that's what's driving this. And what will happen is as these people move further eastwards, the state will follow them in order to collect taxes. Okay? And sometimes the state will inter intervene in order to protect these people from u their adversaries in the local areas.

But it's a very brutal process that takes centuries. And the Russians win out because uh there's more of them and also because they have musketss and the local people do not have musketss. Okay. So as you can see the expansion is very rapid only applies about 300 years. Um and as I mentioned it is an extremely brutal process.

Okay. So these are paintings of uh the brutality involved in this eastward expansion. It involves ethnic cleansing. It involves enslaving people. Okay.

Yeah. It's a brutal process and these paintings are meant to capture the brutality of the process and you can see the misery involved. Okay, so these people who are being conquered, they're either being ethnically cleansed or they're being forced to immigrate or they're being enslaved. Um it's a very similar process with the Americans. Um and these will eventually come become the two great empires um of the 20th century as well as really the 21st century.

Okay. So the Americans have the same situation where they're expanding westwards and the Russians are expanding eastwards. The difference is this. The Americans are expanding westwards for better opportunities. Okay.

To build up to to get wealthy to build a better life. The Russians are expanding eastwards because they are trying to escape misery and oppression and slavery. Okay? That's a difference. And because of this difference, even though there there have many similarities, the fundamental belief systems of these two nations are very different.

Americans are fundamentally optimistic. Russians are fundamentally fatalistic, pessimistic. Okay. All right. Um, so let's summarize the differences between the Slavic East, the Russian East, and the Germanic West.

Okay. Uh, Slavic gives us the word slave. Why? Because for the longest time, the Slavs in Europe, in Eastern Europe, they were pagans. They weren't Muslims.

They weren't Christians. And the custom at that time is you can only enslave people who are not of your religious belief. Okay? So, the pagans were the most valuable people because they can be they can be be enslaved by everyone. So Vikings came uh the Muslims came the Christians came to enslave the Slavic people and sell them off to the Bisantines the bassetss um and that's why we get the word slave.

Okay so let's look at the three major differences between Russia and Germany. The first major difference is that the Russians believe they are here to the Bison Empire which is a very top-down centralized bureaucracy and this is something we discussed uh before the Germans uh believe they are here to the Holy Roman Empire which is a confederation. Okay, as we discussed when we discussed the Holy Roman Empire, it was impossible for anyone to conquer all of Europe. And so um the Holy Roman Empire was based on consensus. It was based on diplomacy.

Okay. It was based on intermarriage. So this is a much more democratic much more uh independent system than the bisonantines. Second major difference is the Germans have the Catholic Church. The Russians have something called the Eastern Orthodox Church.

This sounds similar but what I will show you as we move on is it's actually night and day. Okay. These two belief systems are extremely different. Third major difference is um Germanic west the Germans they are culturally coherent. They believe they speak the same language.

They believe that they come from the same culture. Whereas the Russian Empire it is culturally incoherent. Okay. It uh encompasses a vast array of different cultures, languages uh and belief systems. All right.

Okay. So the Russian Empire starts with Peter the Great. And what Peter the Great does is he modernizes Russia and forces a decisive war with Sweden, which is at Europe right now, the great military power. Okay? So for most of Russian history, the European powers didn't really take Russia seriously.

And they just thought that the Russians are part of Asia. They're really not part of Europe. And it was Peter the Great who's determined to westernize Europeanize Russia and prove Russia a European power. Okay. And he does that um for three reasons.

All right. Let's Oh, sorry. Sorry. For many reasons. Okay.

He does it because Russia right now is an empire and as an empire you need a unifying ideology, a philosophy. And for the Russians for the longest time even Putin shares this philosophy is they believe they are trying to restore the biscan empire and be the third Rome and save civilization. Okay. So so what do I mean by this? All right.

So the first Rome of course was Rome. Second Rome was Carenapole. The third Rome now is Moscow. And not only that but they believe they are the true heroes to the Christian tradition. All these other Christian religions out there Catholic, Protestant, they are corrupt forms.

It's the Orthodox Church that is the true here to the Roman uh Christianity. All right. Um quest for military supremacy means that right now at this stage in history all the great um militaries are in Europe. Okay. So eur Russia basically needs to copy imitate uh the Europeans.

So what so what Russia does is it imports a lot actually German soldiers and mercenaries to learn German military technique quest for absolute power means that all these SARS Peter the great captain the great they're in they're interested in centralizing authority they want to remove this feudal system and centralized power and all in their hands okay delusion of authority of church and nobility so uh in Europe the Catholic church is above the kings okay so Peter the great wants to subject the church to his authority as well as the nobility. Uh right now the great threat the great rival to the Russians is the Ottoman Empire. Okay. And and last is the contempt of Asia. Okay.

So um even though the Mongols probably influence the Russians much more than the Vikings, the Russians believe the Vikings are their true um um ancestors, not the Mongols. They try to they try to like erase the Mongols from their own history. They're kind of ashamed of it. Okay. So again um as I mentioned at this time in Europe about the year 1700 Sweden is the great military power of the age and Peter the Great and Charles the 12 of Sweden they get into this major conflict and Peter the Great um is not that great.

Okay. Um he he has a lot of issues, but Charles II is a complete disaster. And the reason why is he's a young man. He's only about 27 when he invades Russia who fancied himself as Anton the Great. Okay.

And as we discussed, Anton the Great was very problematic because he was very tyrannical and also because he believed he was invincible. So Charles the Great decides to go invade Russia. And this is a disaster. Why? Because Peter great will um use something called a scorch earth policy.

Basically he knows that he cannot on the battlefield defeat the Swedes. So what the Russians do is they retreat and burn down all the fields. So the army cannot feed itself. Okay, this is called scorch earth. And this is important because uh this is how the Russians will defeat Napoleon in 1812.

And this is important because this is how the Russians will defeat uh the Germans in uh World War II. Okay. So uh this is very sim this is a very uh familiar pattern in history. Um as I mentioned the great enemy of Russia at this time are the Ottomans. Okay.

And so the Russians and the Ottomans will clash over the um Cruma. Okay. The Crimea. And this will lead to something called the Korean War uh in 1854. Okay.

So, Peter the Great again, he wins because uh Charles II um makes disastrous military decisions during this war. But this is this begins the Russian Empire. Okay. For the first time, Russia is now considered a great European power because it's defeated the great military power of Europe, Sweden. Okay.

So these are paintings celebrating the great Russian victory over the Swedes. So after this victory, Russia will expand very greatly. And then um after the Peter the Great, the the the next great westernizer of the Russian Empire is Katherine the Great. Uh what's important first to remember about um Katherine the Great is she's actually not Russian. She's actually German.

She's she was born in Prussia and she married into the Russian noble family. It was very common at this stage for the European powers to intermar with each other and most of the uh Russian nobility a lot of them actually have German blood and they actually spoke French at home. Okay. So so uh this Russianization created a process where the nobility now is very European. They speak French.

they have German ancestry and the um the peasants are Slavic. Okay. And so this creates a massive divide in Russia. Captain the great will extend uh Russia greatly as you can see from this map. The great um event that basically frustr is the defeat of Napoleon in 1812.

Napoleon, as we know, the great conqueror. He invades Russia in 1812 and he defeats the Russian army. But what the Russians do that no one can possibly imagine they would do is they burn down the capital, Moscow. Okay, Moscow is the cultural capital. It is the heart and soul of the Russian Empire.

And they burn it down to starve Napoleon's army. And the Europeans thought this was a incredible act of barbarism. Okay. But for the Russians, they believed it was an incredible act of self-sacrifice that saved the Russian Empire. In fact, uh the great Russian composer, he wrote a symphony dedicated to uh uh celebrating the victory over Napoleon called 1812 overture.

Have you guys heard the overture? All right, let let me play it for Okay. I'm pretty sure [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you so the Russians thought that by getting Napoleon by making a sacrifice they not only saved Russia but they saved all of Europe. They saved Western civilization basically. [Music] Okay.

Okay. So, I'm sure you you guys have heard of it, right? Okay. But this is to celebrate uh the freedom of Napoleon by Tchaikovski. Okay.

Um, after the defeat of Napoleon though, the Europeans take notice of Russia, especially Britain. Remember, Britain is this great naval power that is dedicated to a divide and conquer policy of of Europe. They basically gang up against whoever is the growing power in Europe. So as as Russia's as Russia is growing uh the British encourage the Ottomans and the French to unite against Russia to prevent Russia expansion into the Ottoman Empire. Eventually uh the Russians will defeat the Ottoman Empire but the Korean war is a major setback for the Russians and this creates something called the great game where the Russians um are now being helmed in by the by the British.

Okay. So the British and the Russians now will now will now fight for supremacy over Central Asia. A disaster the next disaster for the for the Russians is the Russell Japanese war where Russia gets heavily defeated by the Japanese and this sort of instigates revolutionary settlement and fever in Russia. And of course, what follows next is the great disaster, the first war, where the Russians are defeated mightily by the Germans. And this creates something called the 1917 Revolution, which destroys the Russian Empire and creates the uh Soviet Empire.

Okay. Um so this is just a brief history. We'll go into the revolution at a future date. Okay. Okay, it's a very important event and I I want to dedicate a whole class to it.

But that's a brief background um of the Russian Empire. Okay, so now let's talk about the civilization. And as um I discussed westernization has a ma has been a major trend in Europe. But because of westernization, there are three major contradictions that are created within the uh Russian Empire. Okay.

And these three contradictions will go on to create Russian civilization. Okay, these contradictions are it's both European and Central Asian. Okay, it's both Viking and It's both it's both um Slavic as well as Tartar. Okay, so there's a lot of e ethnicities, a lot of cultures within Russia. And there's a contradiction.

Second contradiction is it fancy itself as a Christian Orthodox nation. In fact, the true Christian nation, but it's also very pagan. Uh remember there's this massive um east eastward expansion um in the process um there's a lot of war there's a lot of violence okay it's very pagan and the peasantry um even to this day maintain a lot of pagan rituals a lot of pagan beliefs and the third great contradiction is between enlightenment and empire so Katherine the great who was Prussian she tried to saw herself as an enlightened monarch. She was best friends with Voltater. They they never met but they were pen pals and she saw herself as an enlightened despot who was trying to bring reason and justice and goodness to Russia.

Okay. But at the same time it's an empire and it's a brutal empire that um uh and the Russians engage in a lot of barbarism. Okay. So this is also a massive contradiction. And so if you study Russian civilization, okay, it is unique because of these three major contradictions.

So let me show you how they influence Russian arts and literature. Okay. Um let's look at some of the major Russian cultural figures. And um there are too many to name, okay? There's just a lot of them, but I'll just go through the most famous.

Um this is actually Pushkin who is considered the Shakespeare of Russia. He's the great innovator of Russian language. He basically modernizes the language and he's a poet um and a very romantic figure in Russia. He's basically the national poet of Russia. Something really interesting about him is his grandfather was an African general.

Okay. Who who who was uh who who became a noble in Russia. So he's about 1/8 black and he's very proud of it. And so what's important for us to remember is again for most of of human history race was not a concept. Okay?

People didn't really care what race you were. Um this is Anton Chvk who is considered the greatest short story writer in human history. Okay. uh music Russian music is extremely uh Russian music is just it's beautiful. Okay, where I'll I'll play you some uh some clips of Russian music.

Okay, this is Glanka was a very famous composer. The most famous composer of course is PeterChaikovski. Okay, and he is famous for three ballets that are still performed today. um the Nutcracker which is performed Christmas. This is his most famous Swan Lake.

Okay. So, let's let's hear some music from Swan Lake just so you can you can appreciate the beauty u and the depth of Russian music. What what's astonishing about this music is that this music can flow into your essence, your soul. Okay? This music comes from the soul.

And to create music this beautiful, your soul must suffer. Okay? Your soul must engage in misery, pain and suffering in order to create such beauty. [Music] Okay. So this is just um uh haunting beautiful music that Tchaikovsky created.

Okay. Uh Sleeping Beauty is also a really famous play by um um Tchaikovski. Igor Shvinsky is considered the first great modern composer and he composed something called the rights of spring. Okay, this is 1913. It was first performed in Paris.

It was so revolutionary that it caused a riot uh within the music hall. Um this uh ballet what it tries to do is it tries to fuse the pagan tradition into modernity. Okay. Uh I'm going to play some excerpts from the rights of spring. And you can see how revolutionary this music is.

And and and I want and what I want you to notice is this music expresses encapsulates the contradictions within Russian civilization between the pagan and the Christian. [Music] You can feel the rawness, the energy, the violence, the aggression, the sensuality. [Music] Okay. So this musical, this ballet, it's about the rights of spring. So it goes back to a Slavic tradition where they celebrate the mother goddess and it's spring.

So they to celebrate the transition uh perform games and have festivals and what ends what ends the spec festivities is the sacrifice of a maiden. Okay. She will dance until she dies and when she dances to her death her her heart will explode. Okay. And this symbolizes how the mother god is gives life to the world by making um by dancing and basically um pouring out her blood into the world in order for plants for uh the seasons to change and then her heart will will explode.

And in this world, what's important for us to understand is it's all interconnected and it must be balanced out and and harmonized. So if the mother goddess sacrifices herself in order for there be life, then the maiden must sacrifice herself to thank the mother goddess. Okay. All right. So now let's move on to Russian literature.

In Russian civilization, there are two great prophets. They are Leo Toy Stoy and Theodore Dossfki. Together they will create uh modern Russian civilization, the sensibilities, the beliefs, the philosophies of modern um Russian civilization. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to reconcile the contradictions within Russia through their uh novels. Okay, these are the great novelists uh in the human tradition.

All right. So, Toy Story's most famous novel is Anna Karinina, which is considered also um the greatest work uh of literature, the greatest novel ever written. Okay. And I want to first read some passages from Anacrina. This is the beginning.

Okay. This is most one of the most famous beginnings in world literature. Happy families are all alike. Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Everything was confusion in the Oblaskki's house.

The wife had discovered that the husband was carrying on an an intrigued with a French girl. Okay. So, what Toy Story is telling us from the first couple paragraphs is Russianization, Europeanization, it is a process of corrupting the Russian soul. Okay. The idea that you bring in a French girl and the husband is gonna sleep with her.

It's corruption. Okay, now this is this is important because Yoblaskki the husband they are now um engaged in a divorce and Anacrin and Nina will come from St. Petersburg to try to reconcile husband and wife and Anakin and Nina herself will commit adultery. she'll fall in love with um a man named uh Ronsky. They'll have a very passionate affair and this passionate affair will destroy uh both Ronssky and Anakarin Nina and Aarina has a husband and a child back at St.

U Petersburg. She asks for divorce. The husband won't give it to her. U and then she slowly falls into depression and then she commits to killing herself. Okay, so let's look at look at her the monologue.

that she has within herself before she decides to kill herself. Okay, so she's trying to explain why she's unhappy. My love keeps growing more passionate and egoistic. Okay, selfish. While his is winning and waning, and that's why we're drifting apart.

So, they've been together for a long time, but she feels that Ronsky is no longer as passionate as he used to be, while she is becoming more passionate. And there's no help for it. He has everything for me and I want him more and more to give him him himself up to me entirely. He wants more and more to get away from me. We walk to meet each other up to the time of our love and then we have been irresistibly driven in different directions and there's no altering that.

He tells me I'm insanely jealous and I have told myself that I am insanely jealous but it's not true. I'm not jealous but I'm jealous and I sorry I'm not jealous but I'm unsatisfied. Okay, this is the most important word unsatisfied. Okay. It tells us that she's a very selfish person who's using love as a way to fill the void in her heart.

She feels that this relationship, this adultery will give her meaning in her life. And what she doesn't understand is when that happens when you um try to possess someone, you can't love that person because love is really about um giving yourself all to another person. Okay? So think think about Dante. Dante never got anything from Beatric but he loved her regardless.

Okay. So this is where Anakarina fails. She doesn't really understand what love is. Okay. And she's very selfish.

Also a huge problem for Anakarina Nina is because she betrayed her husband she now fears that her h that Brony will now betray her. Okay. So do you see the psychology here? And that's why she can't she can't love because she broke the fundamental condition for love which is trust. Okay.

So this is telling us that the heart is a mystery. It's something that you cannot reason out. Something that you can never fully understand. Okay. In theory if you find someone more attractive, if you think you're better off with him, then you should go be with him.

Okay? That's western civilization basically pursue your own happiness. But what toys is telling us is the heart is something you cannot master. Okay? Maybe your mind you can master the reason the logic you can master but the human heart works by its own set of logic and you must respect the human heart.

If you want to love then you must give and not receive. If you want to love base your love on trust. Do not betray yourself. Do not betray others. Okay, does that make sense?

All right. So, now let's move on to really the man who who is at the heart and center of Russian civilization. His name is Theodore Dosski. Okay, so let me give you some background about Theodore Doss Dosski. Um, both Toy Stoski were extremely passionate Christians.

They really believed in they believed in the Christianity. they and they had deep empathy for the people around them. Um, Toy Story was born very wealthy, he he was of of the nobility, he inherited a lot of money, but because he was so distraught by the suffering around him because his wealth was basically based on the oppression of the peasantry, right? He actually wanted to give up all his money, he wanted to throw it all away and become a beggar. He wanted to become poor.

And it was only at the insistence of his family that prevented him from doing what he felt he felt his heart demanded of him. Theo Dossi comes from the lower nobility. His father was a doctor. Um and as a young man he he was a revolutionary and he particip participated in these um literary revolutionary circles. He wasn't violent but he had these subversive ideas.

So he was he was arrested and he was condemned to death. He was put in front of a firing squad uh along with others who were part of the subversion and at the last minute he was his sentence was commuted. He was spared by the SAR and he was sent to hard labor in Siberia for a number of years and this was a very traumatic but it was also a extremely enlightened experience for Dossi. It made him think very deeply about the meaning of life. Okay.

So um he writes something called Crime and Punishment which is really the great novel of of of Russian civilization. It has to do with a man Russov who he's young. He's brilliant. He's a university student but he's poor. And he decides that in order to escape his circumstance, in order to control his fate, he's going to murder a woman, a potent broker who has a lot of money.

No one likes her. no one will miss her. And then he will he will take her money and then build a new life for himself. Okay? And this will be become a basis for his greatness.

And he reasons out that you know what as a great individual, as a genius, I'm going to contribute so much to humanity. So if I kill a old woman no one likes, it won't really matter. Okay? So he's been thinking about this for like a long time and he's all he's got it all reasoned out. And what crime and punishment will show us is reason is nothing.

It doesn't really matter. What matters is the heart. Okay. All right. So, um, first I want to talk about Dashk's understanding of God.

Okay. Which is the Russian understanding of God. So, at a bar at the beginning of the novel, Rascanov meets an middle-aged man who's a drunk. Okay? He's he's he's alcoholic named Marmar Laddov.

Okay, Mar Ladov. And Mar Laddov um is extremely pitiful man because what he's done is he's he's uh he's like a middle-aged bureaucrat um and he's been poor and he marries a poor widow as well and they have like four children to feed. So the widow decides to prostitute um M Marlo's daughter Sonia to make money. Okay. And then Mar Millov in a fit of tremendous regret, he goes and finds a job.

And this seems like it's going to resolve all problems from the family, right? But he does something that no one really can predict or expect. He decides to steal all the manu all the money within the household, quit his job, and get drunk every day. Okay? And you hear this and you're like, um, that makes no sense.

But again, that's the beauty of Russian literature. It's it's focused on what what drives us psychologically. It's not about what is reasonable, what is logical. It's really about what we what we do in these circumstances. Okay?

And so Marlo, he's driven to despair because he he feels he sacrificed his daughter. Okay? He hates the fact that his daughter has become a prostitute and he cannot allow himself and his family to live happily ever after now that his daughter is a prostitute and that's why he decides to be become alcoholic. And then they talk about God. Okay, they talk about God and what the nature of God is.

And this is very important for us to understand Orthodox Christianity. He says to Russo, why am I to be pity? You say, "Yes, there's nothing to pity me for. I ought to be crucified. Crucified on a cross, not pity, not pied.

Crucify me, oh, judge me, crucify me, but pity me. And then I will go of myself to be crucified, for it is not merrymaking, I seek, but tears and tribulation. Do you suppose you that sell that this pin of yours has been sweet to me? It was tribulation I saw it at the bottom of it. Tears and tribulation and I found it and I have tasted it.

But he will pity us who has had pity on all men. Who has understood all men in all things. He is the one. He too is the judge. He will come in that day and he will ask where's the daughter who gave herself for her cross consumptive stepmother and for the little children of another?

Where's the daughter who had pity upon the filthy drunkard her earthly father undismayed? by his beastness. And he will say, "Come to me. I have already forgiven thee once. I forgiven thee once.

Thy sins which are many are forgiven thee. For thou has loved much. He will forgive my sona. He will forgive. I know it.

I felt in my heart when I was with her just now. He will judge and he will forgive all the good and the evil, the wise and the meek." Okay. So this God that the Orthodox Christians celebrate, it's a forgiving God. It's a merciful God. It is a knowledgeable God, a wise God.

Why? Because we humans cannot be trusted to be wise. We humans are we suffer the mysteries of the heart. We do not know ourselves. We do not know our nature.

And therefore we are bound to suffer. And it's and God understands this. And that's why God will ultimately redeem us all when the time is appropriate. Okay? So it's fatalistic but at the same time it's also optimistic.

Okay. So um let us summarize what the differences are between the Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox religions. Okay. And again these are different branches of Christianity and they seem similar but in reality they are extremely different. Okay.

So the Protestants believe that we choose to sin. We have free will. The Catholics don't believe in free will. They say we are born in sin. And the Orthodox are fatalistic.

They believe we are born to sin. We cannot control our own nature. Okay, that's the first major difference. Second major difference is only a few will be saved and redeemed. Okay, the Protestant is a very unforgiving religion.

Only if you work hard and become very wealthy will you be saved. The Catholics believe that no, everyone can be saved and redeemed. And the Orthodox believe we are beyond salvation and redemption. The human heart is so dark, so mysterious that we are beyond salvation and redemption. And that that is why God is great because only God can save and redeem us even though we are beyond salvation and redemption.

Okay. Um the third major difference is the protests believe that our faith in God will save and redeem us. The Catholics believe obedience to God, oh sorry, obedience to the to the church is what will save and redeem us. where whereas the orthodox believe that um only God can forgive us and if God forgives us we can't really control right so these are the three major differences and this is important because the orthodox religion is at the heart and center of Russian civilization okay so let's see how this influences crime and punishment um so this is a very important passage in crime and punishment And we'll be discussing this a lot as we move on. Okay.

So, here Rconovv, he's killed the old lady. He's stolen her money, but now he feels tremendous regret and he doesn't know why. He can't sleep. Um he's he he he he falls into sickness. He doesn't know why this is happening because he's already reasoned it out, right?

And then he meets Sonia who again is Marlo Adolf's daughter and he and he confesses to her what he's done and not only that but he tries to explain why he's done this. Okay, this is a very important passage in western civilization. I saw that if one waits for everyone to get wise it will take too long. So he's basically given up on humanity. Afterwards, I understood that that would never come to pass.

That men won't change and that nobody can alter it and that it's not worth wasting effort over it. Yes, that's so that's a law of their nature, Sonia. That's so. And I know now, Sonia, that whoever is strong in mind and spirit will have power over them. And who is greatly daring is right in their eyes.

He who despises most things will be a lawgiver among them. And he who dares most of all will be most in the right. So it has been till now and so it'll always be a man must be blind not to see it. Okay. So let's go back to the French revolution.

Ropes pier is someone who fundament fundamentally believes that everyone can be reasoned with that reason exists in all of us. If we appeal to reason then people will be good. Napoleon is someone who believes that I must lead the man. People are weak. I must be strong.

Okay. So what what is saying is like I killed the old lady because I'm trying to prove that I'm Napoleon and not Ropes PR. It's people like Napoleon who will change history, who will save us. Ropes Pierre can only be sacrificed. Okay.

And this is important because what do wants to show in crime and punishment is that this sort of reasoning it sounds right but it goes against the human heart and when that happens when the reason and the heart come into conflict the heart will always triumph and this can only lead into misery. Also what will happen is that very important uh thinkers like Fredick Nichi as well as Stigman Ford they will read this and interpret it in their own way. Okay so Frederick Nishi will read this and think no this makes sense. Okay it's not that RC rcoff is wrong it's that he didn't believe this enough. All right so we'll talk about this next class.

All right. So, um, Rconovv, he's being pursued by the police and it it's obvious that he's the culprit. It's obvious that he's guilty. But what happens is someone else confesses to the crime and we don't know why, but someone else confesses to the crime. And at this point, you would think that is now happy.

He's now free to do whatever he wants. This shows that it is God's will that he become great. is God's will that he kill and become great. But what happens next is he decides to confess the crime. And the confession is the confession strikes is so striking and so nonsensical that the law the legal system doesn't know really doesn't know what to do with him.

So they basically sentence him to like hard labor in Siberia for a few years. It's it's the lightest crime. So it's the lightest punishment he could have ever received. Okay. And at this point you would think that okay now he's happy with himself because he killed someone he felt regret and now he he's doing some punishment and then eventually he will be redeemed.

Okay. But this causes even more anxiety in him. It causes more confusion in him. Okay. He did not repent of his crime.

He doesn't feel guilty or remorseful for killing the landl. Okay. At least he might have found relief in raging at his stupidity, as he had raged at the grotesque blunders that had brought him to prison. But not in prison, in freedom he fought over and criticized all his actions again, and by no means found them so blundering and so grotesque as they had seemed at the fatal time. In what way, he asked himself, "Was my theory ster than others that have swarmed and clashed them clash from the beginning of the world?

One has only to look at the things quite independently, broadly and in uninfluenced by commonplace ideas. And my idea will be no means seem so strange. Oh, skeptics and half punny philosophers. Why do you halt halfway? He he doesn't really understand what's happening.

He doesn't understand what his problem is there. There was nothing wrong with his plan. There's nothing wrong with what he did. And now he's being punished for what he did. and he does he cannot escape his own reason.

All right. Now, um we have to go all the way back to the beginning of this course when we discuss Homer in the Iliad. Remember, Achilles had the same problem. Achilles saw the death of his friend Petroas and he swore vengeance against Hector and then he killed Hector and then he started to mutilate Hector's body. And after he did so, you would think he would found relief and ctharsis.

But it only made him even more depressed, more miserable. Okay, so this is what Homer and Dosski is telling us. Don't try to reason things out. You try to re reason things out, it will only make you miserable because the truth is not within reason. Okay?

The truth is within the human heart. Why does my action strike them as so horrible? He said to himself, "Is it because it was a crime? What is meant by crime? My conscience is at rest.

Of course, it was a legal crime. Of course, the letter of the law was broken and blood was shed. Well, punish me for the letter of the law and that's enough. Of course, in that case, many of the benefactors of mankind who snatched power for themselves instead of inheriting ought to have been punished at their first steps. But those men succeeded.

And so, they were right. And I didn't. And so, I had no right to have taken that step. is only in that he recognized his criminality only in the fact that he had been unsuccessful and had confessed it. Okay, so he keeps on reasoning and he decides that the source of his misery is his weakness.

Okay, he killed the lady and he felt regret for doing it. So this proves he's not great. Napoleon would have felt any regret. Julius Caesar would have laughed about it. Alexander the Great would have bragged about it.

But he felt regret and therefore he is weak. Okay. And that is where his reasoning gets him and it makes him more miserable. Okay. But he finds salvation in redemption and he finds salvation in redemption in the love of Sonia.

So right now Rasharakov he's in Siberia in prison and Sonia comes all the way to be with him. Okay. And this this is how the novel ends. How it happened, he did not know. But all at once, something seemed to seize him and fling him at her feet.

He wept and threw his arms around her knees. For the first instant, she was terribly frightened and she turned pale. She jumped up and looked at him trembling. At the same moment, she understood and a light of infinite happiness came into her eyes. She knew and had no doubt that he loved her beyond everything and that at last the moment had come.

Okay. So this is what saves him. He love he surreners himself to his love for Sonia. He surrenders himself to Sonia and that's what ultimately saves him. So think back to the Iliad, right?

What saves Achilles? What saves Achilles is Pry comes, kisses his hand, forgives him, and then Achilles surreners himself to Pry. They be they cry together. Okay. So the source of salvation and redemption is in our hearts not in reason.

You have to surrender yourself to your love either for the other people like Sonia or to God. That's where salvation is. Okay. All right. So the other great novel of Dosski is called the brothers uh Kamazov.

Okay. Um, and it's much too long to read, but there's a very important passage within a novel. It's about a thousand pages called the Grand Inquisitor. The Grand Inquisitor, he is in charge of the Inquisition in Spain. And as you know, the Inquisition in Spain in 1492.

It is horrific. Christians um who have who are who have their own ideas are being persecuted. They're being slaughtered. Okay? And it is a nightmare.

So, what happens is Jesus in heaven, he sees this pain. He sees his suffering and it bothers him. So he descends to the earth and when he he's walking among men and right away people recognize who he is. They um worship him. Then he's dragged before the Grand Inquisitor.

He becomes a prisoner to the Grand Inquisitor. And at this point you would think the Grand Inquisitor would be happy to see his God. Instead he gets really really angry at Jesus. Okay. Thou did not love them at all.

Thou who did come to give thy life for them instead of taking possession of man's freedom, you did increase it and burden the spiritual kingdom of mankind with its suffering forever. You did desire man's free love that he should follow you freely, entice and taken captive by you. In place of the rich and ancient law, men must hereafter with free heart decide for himself what is good and what is evil, having only your image before him as his guide. But did you not know that he would at last reject even your image and your truth if he is weighed down with a fearful burden of free choice? They will cry aloud at last that the truth is not in you.

For they could not have been left in greater confusion and suffering than you have caused, laying upon them so many cares and unanswered unanswerable problems. Okay. Okay. So the idea here is this. So one question that Jesus would have for the Grand Inquisitor is I sacrificed myself to free my people to give people the free choice, free will to love me freely.

Instead, you guys have built this great Christian empire, the Catholic Church to oppress everyone. Why did you do that? And the grandchild is saying to him, it's because people don't want free choice. People don't want free will. They only told what to do and you refuse to be their king.

You refuse to be their emperor. You demand of them that they reason that they love you freely. And people don't want to don't want to do that. So we had no choice but to oppress people to build a church as a great oppressive empire in order to liberate people from the burden of free choice. Okay, does that make sense?

That's the argument here. You did come to give Sorry. And how are the other weak ones to blame because they could not endure what the strong have endured? How's the weak sort of to blame that it is unable to receive such terrible gifts? Can you have simply come to the elect and for the elect?

He's also saying to Jesus, listen, you tell us that only by believing in you freely can we be redeemed. But that takes power. That takes strength. What about those who cannot do such a thing? How about the weak?

How about the lost? Will you condemn them to hell? That's not very merciful. Okay. Okay.

So, this is how the story ends. When the inquisitor sees speaking, he waited some time for his prisoner Jesus to answer him. His silence weighed down upon him. He saw the prisoner have listened intently all the time, looking gently in his face and Emily not wishing to reply. The old man long longed for him to say something, however bitter and terrible, but he suddenly approached the old man in silence and softly kissed him on his bloodless age lips.

That was all his answer. The old man shuddered, his lips moved. He went to the door, opened it, and said to him, "Go and come no more. Come not at all. Never, never." and he let him out into the dark alleys of the town.

The prisoner went away and the old man the kiss glows in his heart but the old man aderes to his idea. All right. So what this is saying is this the grand inquisitor he has this novel. He has this philosophy of why Jesus is bad of why we should worship Satan of why we need an empire why we need oppression. And it all makes sense.

Okay. And now Jesus must respond. And Jesus responds with an act of forgiveness, with an act of charity. He kisses the Grand Inquisitor. And this is exactly like Pry kissing Achilles, right?

Prime didn't go to reason with Achilles. Pry went to kiss Achilles hand to forgive him. Okay. Now, what's important for us to understand is the kiss glows in his heart. The old man aderes to his idea.

We can't change someone's reason ever, but we can change his heart with an act of mercy and forgiveness and love. That's a secret of humanity. The bay gets you nowhere because people are stubborn about their ideas. But the heart, even though it's a mystery, it's still loving. It's still open.

So if you touch it, you change people forever. Okay. All right. So, let's go back to the original question. Why did Putin invade Ukraine?

What Putin has said over and over again is we invaded Ukraine to save Russian civilization. And that's the answer because for the Russians, their civilization is unique. It is distinct and it's beautiful. It's worth dying for. Okay.

And the Okay. So um even though the Russian Empire is gone, Putin and Russians believe they are the heirs to the empire. Okay. So let's look at the differences between the American civilization and the Russian civilization to understand why this war happened. The Okay, sorry.

Um to be very clear, this is how the America the Russians see the Americans. Okay, does that make sense? This is how the Russians see the Americans. First of all, they see the Americans extremely materialistic. Okay.

The only thing that matters is things, buying things, consuming things, obtaining things. But not only that, but the Americans believe that this is the only good in the world. It's universal. Everyone, everyone wants to buy things. So, we should just let everyone buy things.

And the Americans are expansionist, which means that not only is it right and good for people to buy things, but everyone should have the right to buy things. So if you are preventing people from buying things, you are a dictator. You are a tyrant. Okay? It is a responsibility to liberate the world so we can all become consumers.

North Korea, Iran, they ought to be liberated so that their people can buy things from us. Okay? So that's the American civilization. The Russians think no, we are a spiritual people. We are unique and we demand sovereignty.

We demand the right to live the lives we choose to live. We demand the right to be who we are. Okay? And if it means fighting America, if it means our deaths, if it means sacrifice, we will do so because our civilization is the greatest in the world. Because our conception of God is the correct conception.

Because our truth is the real truth. All right? So in other words, this is really a class of civilizations. And in a class of civilizations, um there can only be one winner. There can be no compromise.

Okay? So this war in Ukraine, it is signaling something much more devastating, much more um cataclysmic. All right? And so this is what's going on. All right?

That's it, guys. Any questions? You guys, is is this clear to you? All right. Any questions about what we discussed?

So Yeah. Great. Yeah. So, right. So, you're right.

So, Russian literature is very romantic and the idea of romantism, it's a response to enlightenment, right? Because in enlightenment with Khan and Rouso, the argument is that reason is the ultimate salvation. Through reason you can save yourself and you can save civilization. Okay? If it's logical, then it's truthful.

And the and the romantics and the idealist, sorry, the romantics are saying, "No, that's not true." Okay? And what DSKV doskev is saying is telling us that is that this is nonsense. Reason doesn't really get you anywhere. Okay? For reason, you can reason that it's okay to to kill millions of people.

Okay? Logic doesn't really get you anywhere. What what you have to do is listen to your heart. Okay? Think about the heart.

That's where the truth lies. All right? So, so it's very much a reaction against the enlightenment in Europe at this time. Okay. Dossiia is also saying like Toy Stoy westernization of Russia is only corrupting us.

What we need to do is return to our true selves which is an orthodox civilization. Okay. Because that's that's a true Christianity. All right. Okay.

So, great. Any more any more questions? is so pessimistic and how can they still have okay that's a great question okay so the question and it's wonderful question if I just said that Russians are fatalistic then how are they so resilient okay so um um you can't logically figure it out okay is is I can't logically explain to you the feeling, but it's like knowing that the world is doomed. Okay, we're heading towards doom and what we do isn't that important. It compels you to live your best life.

Okay, so that's what meaning is. meaning is with the knowledge that the world is ultimately headed towards doom, you as a person are compelled to live your best life nonetheless. Okay? And that's a very um very pagan, very viking mentality. Okay?

So before Christianity, this was true for for for for people. It's okay. the world is going to end. What matters is the life you lead today. Okay.

So, um um so I mean it's problematic because I I mean Americanization, westernization has has such a huge impact on global culture, right? And we think that we think in very utilitarian terms. We should do something because it gets us somewhere. Okay? And Russian civilization, it's it's very much like we should do something because we know it doesn't get us anywhere.

And that's what truth is. That's what life is about. That's the meaning of life. That's the purpose of life. Even though you know it won't get you anywhere, you should still do it because that's where the meaning is.

Okay. If you think about it, um um if you if you go deeper, then it's also like a profound faith in God. Okay? Like you know the world is ending but you still work hard to make it better. And that's what faith in God really is.

Does that make sense? If you know like if you do something and God rewards you, that's not faith really. Does that make sense? Okay. So, so I I I I understand it's really hard for us to understand, but what I'm trying to show you in this class is it's hard for us to understand because we think in a certain way.

And if you think in a certain way, you have to use logic and reason and language. And what do the CCFC and Toy Story is telling us is like that's very limiting. Okay. Sometimes you have to listen to your heart and your heart knows I know the world is doomed because because that's just reality but nevertheless I have a responsibility to my children. I have a responsibility to my neighbors to the people I love to try my best regardless.

And that's what faith in God that's what faith in each other that's what true love really is. Does that make sense? Okay. All right. Great great question though.

And I'll be honest with you, I'm confused by this as well, okay? Because, you know, I I'm I'm so western in my thinking, but I think um again, it's it's you've got you have to train yourself not to be so logical at times, right? Okay. Any more questions? Does that make sense to you?

Okay. Oh, great question. Why are the Russians so pessimistic? Okay, first of all, it's really cold in Russia. Okay, if you're if it's cold, you're not you're not that optimistic, right?

Second of all, Russian civilization is is built on violence, right? Um the Americans basically went over and were able to steal the the continent from the natives. and they just didn't really put as put that much much of an existence. But Russia was built on tremendous violence. Not only did the Russians have to um get rid of the Mongols, they'd have to fight the Swedes, the Germans, uh the uh French, they fought everyone basically.

It it was like a never- ending process of war. And then and then the their conflicts within their people. Okay. So Russia is a very violent society and so that leads to a natural pessimism. Okay.

So another way of saying this is even though Russia is huge, it's not that many resources and people have to fight constantly fight over these resources whereas America it's huge, lots of resources and people if you work hard you can obtain a lot of resources. Okay? So that leads to a optimistic attitude. So the question really isn't why Russians are fatalistic because most people are fatalistic. The question really is why are Americans so optimistic, right?

Okay. Does that make sense? Okay. Any more questions? Was this clear to you guys?

Okay. I and I I I know it's hard. Okay. But but I I will say like um Russian civilization um even though I personally would would never want to live in Russia. Okay.

U because there's a lot of racism in in in Russia. Um but it's it it is a unique beautiful civilization. Um and and I hope that in the future you have a chance to read Toys. Um because they are really the best novelists ever. Okay.

So um next class we will start the uh Germans. Okay, German civilization.