“The Other” Orthodox in F. M. Dostoevsky’s Geopolitical Worldview: The Christian Caucasus and the Greeks

Abstract

In F. M. Dostoevsky’s geopolitical worldview, the division of the world into “ingroup” and “the other” (“outgroup”) often occurs not according to the principles of state-administrative division but based on national and confessional factors. The research aims to explore the geopolitical images of Armenians, Georgians, Bulgarians, and Greeks in Dostoevsky’s legacy. It shows how the belonging of a nation to Christianity, Orthodoxy, and the Slavic world affect the writer’s understanding of the nation as “in group” or “the other.” The study demonstrates that Christian Armenians and Orthodox Georgians turn out to be “the others” to the writer, even though they are part of the Russian Empire and its confessional system as well. At the same time, the Bulgarians — the Balkan Orthodox Slavs — are “in group,” while the Orthodox Greeks are “the other.” The reason for Dostoevsky’s aversion to the Greeks lies in the potential threat they pose, in his opinion, to the future of the pan-Slavic Orthodox state, of which Dostoevsky is a fervent supporter. The study allows us to conclude that for Dostoevsky, the belonging of an ethnic group to the Slavic world turns out to be more significant than his confessional commitment to Christianity.

Keywords

• dostoevsky
• the geopolitical picture of the world
• the russian empire
• orthodoxy
• the bulgarian exarchate
• pan-slavism
• georgians
• armenians
• bulgarians
• greeks