Dostoyevski and the Fate of Holy Russia

[Nathaniel Kapner]

Feodor Dostoyevski has put into the mouth of many of his characters
sentiments similar to the quote, " Whoever does not love his
fatherland on earth, will not love his heavenly fatherland."

Dostoyevski brings this concept out most poignantly in "The Idiot."

Dostoyevski's central character,"Prince Myshkin" is at a dinner
party. The Prince is an epileptic, which no one was aware of.
(Dostoyevski was an epileptic) Prince Myshkin is sitting next to an
expensive antique table-lamp, of which, the hostess asks the Prince
to move very delicatly around. The Prince senses that something
disastrous between himself and 'the lamp'is imminent.

A discussion ensues regarding a Russian who becomes a French Roman
Catholic. The prince is appalled.

Prince Myshkin, normally shy and self-effacing, breaks into a
feverish tirade, the content of which is: 'The Fatherland and Holy
Orthodoxy is the Russian's only salvation. To 'expatriate' and
embrace the Roman Catholicism of the West with its inherent atheism
is tantamount, not so much as to apostasy, but rather, TO TREASON!
And THAT TREASON will eventuate into the denial of God and the
inevitable destruction of Russia Herself.' (The reader instantly
becomes aware of Dostoyevski's prophetic import )

The Prince's tirade reaches to a pitch in which he now loses all
control of himself, enters into an epileptic fit, flings his hands
into the air, hits 'the lamp' which crashes into a hundred pieces
onto the hardwood floor. The Lamp of Holy Russia is EXTINGUISHED!

The post-1917 reader understands it all.

Nathaniel

[DavidHawthorne]

I read this book a few months ago and couldn't put it down. Dostoyevsky was truly prescient and the dinner party scene you described was incredible in its depth. And that was a good catch on the lamp being shattered- I missed the symbolism as I was reading it: very clever, Brother Nathaniel!

In Christ,
David Hawthorne

[joasia]

I think there is too much emphasis on the homeland. I'll give you a perfect example...Belo-Russia.

Before 1939 it was part of Poland and therefore those people who were born, lived and died there, were Polish and Catholic. After 1939, it became part of Russia and those people grew up being Russian and Orthodox.

I have a friend who's aunt and uncle are Polish and Catholic, but he is Russian and Orthodox. They were born in the same town. They are of the same bloodline.

So what makes a person Russian? In this case, only the position of the border.

What about the parts that were Russia and are not now? Shouldn't they be considered still part of Russia because it was before?

I say this because I am Polish and Orthodox. I converted, through the Greek passage. I am affiliated with three countries and yet I feel that my faith is beyond the issue of land.

It's not necessary to love your homeland in order to love the heavenly land. Patriatism grounds the faith in a person's heart, instead of raising it above the worldly concerns. Even Christ said He had no home on this earth.

[Nikodemus]

To Joasia

I agree with you100%. I converted to catholicism whn i was nineteen, having a swedish identity (still has) and swedes are histirically (after reformation) quite anti-catholic. When I found the orthodox church I was deeply attracted to the russian churc (especially). Then someone told me: But you are 50% greek, why dont you go to the greek orthodox church? I never reflected upon this question before, becuase religion and ethinicty are to totally different subjects. Bu I never go to the orthodox church (greek or russian or serbian) as a greek, I go there as a sinner, looking for medicine to heal my sickness.

Yours in XP

Nikodemus

[Nathaniel Kapner]

Dear Joasia and Nikodemos,

Below is an excerpt from the propechies of St Seraphim of Sarov. I thought it might lend something to our discusion from a different point of view, [though perhaps a bit to the left of center of the theme], but none the less, significant:

"The Jews and the Slavs are the two peoples of the destinies of God, the vessels and witnesses of Him, the unbroken arks; but the other peoples will be as it were spittle which the Lord will spit out of His mouth. The Jews were scattered over the face of the whole earth because they did not accept and did not recognise the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the times of the Antichrist many Jews will be converted to Christ, since they will understand that the Messiah whom they mistakenly wait for is none other than he about whom our Lord Jesus Christ said: ‘I have come in the name of My Father, and they have not received Me, another will come in his own name, and they will receive him.’ And so, in spite of their great crime before God, the Jews were and are a people beloved before God. But the Slavs are beloved of God because they will preserve true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to the end. They will completely reject the Antichrist and will not accept him as the Messiah, for which they will be counted worthy of great blessings by God. They will be the first and most powerful people on the earth, and there will be no more powerful state than the Russian-Slavic in the world.

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 “Jesus Christ, the true God-man, the Son of God the Father by the descent of the Holy Spirit, was born in Israel, while the true antichrist-man-god will be born amidst the Slavs and Russians. He will be the son of a virgin adulteress of the tribe of Dan and the son of the devil through the artificial transfer to her of male seed, with which the spirit of darkness will dwell together in her womb. But one of the Russians who will live to the birth of the Antichrist will, like Simeon the God-receiver, who blessed the Child Jesus and announced His nativity to the world, curse the antichrist at his birth and will announce to the world that he is the true antichrist.” [1] 

---

[1] St. Seraphim, from various sources, including a text supplied by Fr. Victor Potapov. See also Literaturnaia Ucheba, January-February, 1991, pp. 131-134 (in Russian).

[joasia]

So there is hope for a true Orthodox Patriarch of Russia and not this Alexei who is obviously an ecumenist. And a President who has the true faith?

[michigan]

But the Lord said to go out and baptize all nations. Even if the Slavs ultimately will be the ones who (as a whole) end up preserving the faith, does that mean we don't need to preach the Gospel and welcome people from all nations and cultures? Does anyone here think the Russian monarchy will be restored? Or is that a separate issue?