Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky do not view man as merely one sex. In other words, according to them, a man from any of the four corners of the world is not the only thing that you suggest the same prescription and it goes everywhere. According to them, the most important role in the structure of man is the region where he was born and raised. If this region was very easy to live in and full of facilities, then the physical, nervous and psychological structure of the people living there would be loose accordingly. But on the contrary, the people of this region will be very different from those who are historically inhabitants of a difficult region of the earth.
If you want to put this idea of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky into practice, compare the rural and urban inhabitants of the same country. If you want to understand more than that, then look at the difference in the living conditions of the people living in the hilly and plain areas of Pakistan. The terrain structure has such a profound effect on the human structure that there is a clear difference between the food of the hill people and the plains people. For example, bread is the preferred food of the people of the plains while rice is the preferred food of the people living in the hilly areas. And it is a scientifically proven fact that food has a profound effect on the human psyche and mood. For example, vegetarian nations avoid war as much as possible, while meat nations are warriors.
Thus, in the psychological analysis of the Russian man, both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are of the opinion that the Russian is a resident of one of the most difficult regions in the world. Not only the cold in this region is very severe but its duration is also longer than in other regions. So the people here have to work harder to stay alive and healthy. Which now includes two very important things in the mood of the Russian race. One is that the Russians are very brave. They need a lot of courage to make a living. Second, the Russians are extremely realistic
So now we can better understand why Tolstoy attaches so much importance to family and community life. It is Russia’s difficult living environment that adds to its importance. Because man always needs the help of others to face difficulties. Western philosophy, on the other hand, plays brick by brick with the family. There are two very important characters in Russian literature to keep the Russians brave forever. These characters are found not only in Tolstoy and Dostoevsky but also in other writers. The first character is Lishne Chalavik. Which means superfluous man. This is a very interesting character. The whole of Russian literature deserves credit for its creation and promotion. The superfluous person is the one with the highest education. Which has an abundance of resources.
He lives a life of luxury. His brain is very fertile. When he speaks, the flowers of wisdom bloom. When he writes, he builds castles of lofty ideas. But it is zero in practice. That is, he is only a conqueror of speech, he has no character at all. He can only speak and write. In other words, he is like a liberal intellectual like Hassan Nisar. And this is the worst character of Russian literature. They created this character to discourage inaction in his society, which means that the role of “mullah” has been used in our Urdu literature for that purpose.
Thus the real man in Russian literature is the one who does not have very high ideas but he has action and character. Because the colors of life are created by action, not by thought. Fyodor Dostoevsky in particular makes it clear that the less one thinks, the happier he will look. Then he says in detail that my favorite person is a “fearless man”.
The man who thinks and speaks less but does more. It even jumps into action, regardless of the consequences. You must be thinking that such people are fools. Dostoevsky thinks so. So he’s a dog, you must be thinking that such a man is a fool. so what? Everyone is a little bit stupid. This is the foolishness from which man learns. What is the use of intellect that prevents a person from becoming active?
Dostoevsky, therefore, believes that the atmosphere of luxury and individualism that European thought creates does not correspond to the Russian mood. Any philosophy there would not only be useful for Russia but would also be detrimental. He explicitly states that the Russians must stay away from the modernity and rationality of the West.
And this system will be based on the fact that man’s goal is not to make it possible for him to achieve many comforts by making many scientific advances.
To this day luxuries have not been able to quench the thirst of man. He who has all kinds of comforts is also dissatisfied. This journey of luxury does not stop. And even after their acquisition, the question remains, what to do now? According to Dostoevsky, there is only one thing that can satisfy a person, and that is a purposeful life.
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s insistence on avoiding Western thought and atheism was in vain. The movement that began to ripen there during his lifetime led to the 1917 Revolution in Russia. The socialist system that came there was derived from Europe. Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin did have their own system, but this increased the severity of the poison. Dostoevsky was completely ignored by the revolutionaries and only the work of Tolstoy was promoted.
In particular, his novel War and Peace was given to the Soviet army, which strengthened morale. At the end of World War II, a drama based on it was made in 1946. It is a proven fact that the winner of World War II is the Soviet Union. Hitler’s defeat began in Leningrad. And the first army to enter Germany was from Russia.
Russia sacrificed 16.8 million lives in the war, while the United States and Britain combined have lost less than a million. Soviet officials believed that Tolstoy’s war and peace played a central role in this victory, which shaped the causes and consequences of Napoleon’s defeat in such a way that Hitler’s defeat became possible. And that is why the Western powers have always avoided confronting Russia on the battlefield.
Although Tolstoy dominated the Soviet era. But later on, what Dostoevsky said was that the European system could not work in Russia. The communist leadership realized this by the 1970s. So after the 70’s, Dostoevsky gradually came to the fore. Tolstoy stood where Lenin and Stalin had stood. No one followed him. From just behind, Dostoevsky came first, equal to Tolstoy, and then overtook him.
Post-Soviet Russia was convinced that Dostoevsky’s truth was that no external system was useful to us. The Russians had come to the conclusion that unrest against the socialist system had already begun to spread within ten years. And then there were circles against it, just as there were circles against slavery in the lives of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. But Stalin brutally crushed him.
Between 1930 and 1953 alone, 8 million people were pushed into the cold hell of Siberia’s Gulag as punishment, of which 1.7 million lost their lives but nothing happened. Finally, in the 1970s, Communist officials also came to the conclusion that Dostoevsky was right. This system has failed. So when they started to loosen it, it started to fall apart. And then the Afghan war ended. (to be continued).
