Dostoevsky and the Soul of Russia

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0:00Okay, so good morning. Uh today we're doing the Russian Empire. And to review, we've done America and Britain so far, and we discussed industrialization. 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'll start the German German civilization. And what you will um see is that the Germans are very different. Um they're not utilitarians. They're 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

2:01Americans. 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 their 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 Russians 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

4:01this point in history, the Mongols have controlled most of the world, and Moscow, along with other areas um in the um empire, they were vassal states, okay? They paid taxes, they paid tribute, they provided troops to the Mongol Empire, but it's the Mongol Empire that is the um great power at this stage. So, but So, why But if you look at history, okay? You'll 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, through resilience, they will come to conquer most of Central America. Same thing with the Qing Dynasty in China, right? At this stage in history, maybe 300, 400 BCE, you would not expect the Qing Empire uh the Qing Dynasty to overwhelm all of China and become China's first great national empire. Maybe the Chu, maybe the Wei, Qi, 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 uh BCE, it's Athens, Sparta, uh Thebes that are powers, but eventually, Macedon will not only will not only overwhelm the Greek 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 BCE, it is the weakest of all these Italian

6:01states. Um the uh Etruscans 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 will 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 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 defeat 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 vassalage, okay? So, the idea that historical humiliation and subjection force reflection and resilience. Because Moscow, for the longest time, was subjected um to vassals by the Mongols, it forced them to be humble, and humility allows

8:01you 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, 1000, 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 So, can you open the door? Uh and then that they will also move east, okay? Why are they moving east? Because all the great wealth of of the age is located in the Byzantine Empire, in Egypt, and as well as the Abbasid Empire um in Iraq and Persia, okay? So, they they're here to establish trading posts. And when they establish trading posts, what will happen is that first of all, they will intermarry with the local Slavic population as well as the um steppe people, okay? They will also build an alliance with the Byzantine Empire and become basically vassals to the Byzantines. 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

10:01um you must go and conquer new lands. When you conquer new lands, you're going to 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're going to fight amongst themselves. So, the Kievan Rus 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 Duchy of Lithuania, okay? Um Novgorod is also a 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 Novgorod 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, that 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 over here, it's basically just forests 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 a very valuable

12:01commodity. They go and they uh they trade fur for a living. Okay. Um some of the great tsars 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 ethnic ethnically cleanse 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 intervene in order to protect these people from uh 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 muskets and the local people do not have muskets. Okay. So, as you can see, the expansion is very rapid, only approximately 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.

14:03Um 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 are expanding eastwards because they are trying to escape misery and oppression and slavery. Okay, that's the difference. And because of this difference, even though there are there are many similarities, the fundamental belief systems of these two nations are very different. Americans are fundamentally optimistic. But 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? 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 Byzantines, the Abbasids, 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 heirs to the Byzantine Empire, which is a very top-down, centralized bureaucracy. And this is something we discussed uh before. The Germans uh believe they are heirs to the Holy Roman Empire, which is

16:03a 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 Byzantines. 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 was 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

18:05trying to restore the Byzantine 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 Constantinople. The third Rome now is Moscow. And not only that, but they believe they are the true heirs to the Christian tradition. All these other Christian religions out there, Catholic, Protestant, they are corrupt forms. It's the Orthodox Church that's the true heir 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, you're Russia basically needs to copy, imitate uh the Europeans. So, what So, what Russia does is it imports a lot of actually German soldiers and mercenaries to learn German military technique. Quest for absolute power means that all these tsars, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, they're in they're interested in centralizing authority. They want to remove this feudal system and centralize power in all in their hands. Okay? Dilution 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 influenced 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 erase the Mongols from their own history. They're kind of ashamed of it. Okay. So, again, as I mentioned, at this time in Europe, about the year 1700, Sweden is the great

20:06military power of the age. And Peter the Great and Charles the 12th of Sweden, they get in this major conflict. And Peter the Great is not that great, okay? He He has a lot of issues. But Charles the Second is a complete disaster. And the reason why is he's a young man. He's only about 27 when he invades Russia, who fancies himself as Alexander the Great. Okay? And as we discussed, Alexander 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 the Great will use something called a scorched 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 scorched earth. And this is important because this is how the Russians will defeat Napoleon in 1812. And this is important because that's how the Russians will defeat the Germans in World War II, okay? So, this is very This is a very 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 Crimea, okay? The Crimea. And this will lead to something called the Crimean War in 1854. Okay. So, Peter the Great, again, he wins because Charles the Second 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.

22:11Okay. So, these are paintings celebrating the great Russian victory over the Swedes. So, after this victory, Russia will expand very greatly. And then, after the Peter the Great, the next great Westernizer of the Russian Empire is Catherine the Great. What's important for us to remember about Catherine the Great is she's actually not Russian. She's actually German. She 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 intermarry with each other. And most of the Russian nobility, a lot of them actually have German blood. And they actually spoke French at home. Okay? So, so this Westernization created a process where the nobility now is very European. They speak French, they have German ancestry, and the the peasants are Slavic, okay? And so, this creates a massive divide in Russia. Catherine the Great will extend Russia greatly, as you can see from this map. The great event that basically thrust Russia as a great power 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,

24:11the great Russian composer, he wrote a symphony dedicated to celebrating the victory over Napoleon, called the 1812 Overture. Have you guys heard the overture? All right. Let me Let me play it for you, okay? I'm pretty sure you heard it before. So, Charles fought back by defeating Napoleon by making the sacrifice. They not only saved Russia, but they saved all of Europe. They saved Western civilization, basically. Okay. Okay. So, I'm sure you you guys have heard of it, right? Okay. But this is to celebrate the defeat of Napoleon by Tchaikovsky. 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, if as Russia is growing, the British encourage the Ottomans and the French to unite against Russia to prevent Russia expansion into the Ottoman Empire. Eventually, the Russians will defeat the Ottoman Empire, but the Crimean War is a major setback for the Russians. And this creates something called the Great Game, where the Russians

26:11are now being held in by the by the British, okay? So, the British and the Russians now will not will not fight for supremacy over Central Asia. A disaster The next disaster for the for the Russians is the Russo-Japanese War, where Russia gets heavily defeated by the Japanese, and this sort of instigates revolutionary sentiment 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 Bolshevik Revolution, which destroys the Russian Empire and creates the uh Soviet Empire, okay? So, this is just a brief history. We'll go into the revolution at a future date, okay? It's a very important event, and I I want to dedicate a whole class to it. But that's a brief background of the Russian Empire. Okay. So, now let's talk about the civilization. And as I discussed, Westernization has has been a major trend in Europe. But because of Westernization, there are three major contradictions that are created within the 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 Mongol. It's both It's both Slavic as well as Tatar, okay? So, there's a lot of ethnicities, a lot of cultures within Russia, and it's a contradiction. Second contradiction is it fancies itself as a Christian Orthodox nation. In fact, the true Christian nation. It's also very pagan. Remember, there's this massive eastward expansion in the process, there's a lot of war. There's a lot of violence, okay? It's very pagan. And the

28:11peasantry, even to this day, maintain a lot of pagan rituals, a lot of pagan beliefs. The third great contradiction is between enlightenment and empire. So, Catherine the Great, who was Prussian, she tried to saw herself as an enlightened monarch. She was best friends with Voltaire. They didn't 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 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 art and literature. Okay. Let's look at some of the major Russian cultural figures. And there are too many to name, okay? There's just a lot of them, but I'll just go through the most famous. This is Alexander 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 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, who who was 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 Chekhov who is considered the greatest short story writer in human history, okay? Uh music. Russian music

30:11is extremely Russian music is is beautiful, okay? I'll I'll play you some uh some clips of Russian music, okay? This is Glinka, was a very famous composer. The most famous composer, of course, is Peter Tchaikovsky. 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 uh and the depth of Russian music. What 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. 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 Tchaikovsky. Igor Stravinsky is considered the first great modern composer. And he

32:13composed something called The Rite of Spring. Okay? This is 1913. It was first performed in Paris. And 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 Rite of Spring. And you can see how revolutionary this music is. 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. You can feel the rawness, the energy, the violence, the aggression, the sensuality. Okay? So, this musical, this ballet, it's about The Rite of Spring. So, it goes back to a Slavic tradition where they celebrate the mother goddess. And in spring, so they to celebrate this transition uh perform games and have festivals. And what ends what ends the fes- fes- festivities is

34:15the 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 goddess 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 to 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 Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. 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, Tolstoy's most famous novel is Anna Karenina, 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 Anna Karenina. 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 Oblonskys' house. The wife had

36:15discovered that the husband was carrying on an an intrigue with a French girl, okay? So, what Tolstoy is telling us from the first couple paragraphs is Westernization, Europeanization, it is a process of corrupting the Russian soul. Okay? The idea that you bring in a French girl and the husband's going to sleep with her. It's corruption. Okay? Now, this is This is important because the Oblonsky, the husband, they are now um engaged in a divorce. And Anna Karenina will come from St. Petersburg to try to reconcile husband and wife. And Anna Karenina herself will commit adultery. She'll fall in love with um a man named uh Vronsky. They'll have a very passionate affair. And this passionate affair will destroy uh both Vronsky and Anna Karenina. Anna Karenina has a husband and a child back at St. um Petersburg. She asked for divorce. Her husband won't give it to her. Uh and then she slowly falls into depression. And then she commits to killing herself, okay? So, let's look at look at the her the monologue that she has within herself before she decides to kill herself, okay? So, she's going to explain why she's unhappy. My love keeps going more passionate and egoistic, okay? Selfish. While his is waning and waning, and that's why we're drifting apart. So, they've been together for a long time, but she feels that Vronsky is no longer as passionate as he used to be, while she is becoming more passionate. And there's no help for it. He is everything for me, and I want him more and more to give him himself up to me entirely. He wants more and more to get away from me. We walked 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

38:16jealous, 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 of think about Dante. Dante never got anything from Beatrice, but he loved her regardless. Okay? So, that This is where Anna Karenina fails. She doesn't really understand what love is. And she's very selfish. Also, a huge problem for uh Anna Karenina Nina is because she betrayed her husband, she now fears that her that Vronsky 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 that cannot reason out. It's 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 Tolstoy is telling us is the heart is something you cannot master, okay? Maybe your mind 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.

40:16If 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 Fyodor Dostoevsky. Okay? So, let me give you some background about Fyodor Dostoevsky. Um both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky were extremely passionate Christians. They really believe in They believe in the Christianity. They And they had deep empathy for the people around them. Uh Tolstoy was born very wealthy. He was He was of the of the nobility. And 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. Fyodor Dostoevsky comes from the lower nobility. His father was a doctor. Um and as a young man, he was he was a revolutionary. And he 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 with others who were part of the subversion. And at the last minute, he was his sentence was commuted. He was spared by the Tsar. 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 enlightening experience for Dostoevsky. 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

42:19has to do with a man, Raskolnikov, 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 pawn 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 the 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. 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 Dostoevsky's understanding of God, okay? Which is the Russian understanding of God. So, at a bar, at the beginning of the novel, Raskolnikov meets a middle-aged man who's a drunk, okay? He's He's He's an alcoholic named Marmeladov, okay? Marmeladov. And Marmeladov 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 Mar- Marmeladov's daughter, Sonya, to make money. Okay? And then Mar- Marmeladov, in a fit of tremendous regret, he goes and finds a job. And this seems like it's going to resolve all problems in the family, right? But he does something that no one

44:19really could predict or expect. He decides to steal all the men and 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's reasonable, what is logical. It's really about what we what we do in these circumstances, okay? And so Mar- Marmeladov, 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 Raskolnikov, "Why am I to be pitied, you say? Yes, there's nothing to pity me for. I ought to be crucified, crucified on a cross, not pity feet not pitied. 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 pain of yours has been sweet to me? It was tribulation I sought 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 and 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, come son of 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 beastliness?' And he will say, 'Come to me. I have already forgiven thee once. I have forgiven thee once. Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven

46:19thee, for thou hast loved much.' He will forgive my Sonya. He will forgive, I know it. I felt it 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 Christian 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 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 Protestants believe

48:20that 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. All 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 Raskolnikov, 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 falls into sickness. He doesn't know why this is happening because he's already reasoned it out, right? And then he meets Sonya, who again is Marmeladov'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 Sonya 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 the law of their nature, Sonya. That's so. And I know now, Sonya, that whoever is strong in mind and spirit will have power over them. And the one 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 always be. A man must be blind not to

50:21see it. Okay? So, let's go back to the French Revolution. Raskolnikov is someone who fundamentally fundamentally believes that everyone can be reasoned with, that reason exists in all of us, and 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 Raskolnikov is saying is like, I killed the old lady because I'm trying to prove that I'm Napoleon and not Raskolnikov. It's people like Napoleon who will change history, who will save us. Raskolnikov can only be sacrificed. Okay? And this is important because what Dostoyevsky wants to show in Crime and Punishment is that this sort of reasoning, it sounds right. But it goes against the human heart. When that happens, when the reason and the heart come into conflict, the heart will always triumph. And this can only lead Raskolnikov into misery. Also, what will happen is that very important thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche as well as Sigmund Freud, they will read this and interpret it in their own way. Okay? So, Friedrich Nietzsche will read this and think that, no, this makes sense, okay? Or it's not that Raskolnikov 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 Raskolnikov, he's being pursued by the police. And 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 to the crime. And at this point, you would think that Raskolnikov is now happy. He's now free to do whatever he wants. This shows that it is God's will that he become great. It's God's will that he kill and become

52:22great. But what happens next is he decides to confess the crime. And the confession is the confession strikes it's 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's 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 landlady, 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 thought 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 superior to others that have swarmed and clashed them clashed from the beginning of the world. One has only to look at the things quite independently, broadly, and uninfluenced by commonplace ideas, and my idea will by no means seem so strange. All skepticism have plenty philosophers, why do you halt halfway? He He doesn't really understand what's happening. He doesn't understand what his problem is. There's There's nothing wrong with his plan. There's nothing wrong with what he did. And now he's being punished for what he did. 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 discussed Homer in the Iliad. Remember, Achilles had the same problem.

54:22Achilles saw the death of of his friend Patroclus. 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 catharsis. But it only made him even more depressed, more miserable. Okay? So, this is what Homer and Dostoyevsky is telling us. Don't try to reason things out. You try to 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." It's only in that he recognizes criminality, owning 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 not 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. It only makes him more miserable. Okay, but he finds salvation and redemption. And he finds salvation and redemption in the love of Sonya. So, right now, Raskolnikov he's in Siberia in prison, and Sonya comes all the way

56:23to be with him. Okay? And this is 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 the 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 surrenders himself to his love for Sonya. He surrenders himself to Sonya. And that's what ultimately saves him. So, think back to the Iliad, right? What saves Achilles? What saves Achilles is Priam comes, kisses his hand, forgives him, and then Achilles surrenders himself to Priam. They 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 Sonya or to God. That's where salvation is. Okay? All right. So, the other great novel of Dostoyevsky is called The Brothers uh Karamazov, okay? Um and it's much too long to read, but there's a very important passage it within the novel. It's about 1,000 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 this suffering, and it bothers him. So, he descends to the earth.

58:24And when he's 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. 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 men's freedom, you did increase it and burden the spiritual kingdom of mankind with suffering forever. You did desire men's free love that he should follow you freely, entice and taken captive by you. In place of the rigid 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 is 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 Grand Inquisitor is saying to him, "It's because people don't want free choice. People don't want free will. They want to be told what to do. And you refuse to be their king. You refuse to be their emperor. You demand

60:24of 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 soul 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 ceased 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 evidently not wishing to reply. The old man 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 aged 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 adheres to his idea. All right, so what he's saying is this. The Grand Inquisitor, he has this novel, he has this philosophy

62:26of 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 Priam kissing Achilles. Right? Priam didn't go to reason with Achilles. Priam went to kiss Achilles' hand to forgive him. Okay? Now, what's important for us to understand is the kiss glows in his heart, but the old man adheres 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 the secret of humanity. They beg at 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 it is unique, it is distinct, and it is beautiful. It's worth dying for. Okay? And now 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

64:26Americans. First of all, they see that the Americans are 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 our responsibility to liberate the world so we can all become consumers. North Korea, Iran, they all have to be liberated so that their people can buy things from us. Okay? So, that's the American civilization. The Russians think like, "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 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 uh Is Is this clear to you? All right, any questions?

66:27About what what what what what what we discussed? Yeah, great. Yep. So, right. So, you're right. So, Russian literature is very romantic. And the idea of romanticism, it's a response to the Enlightenment. Or because the Enlightenment with Kant and Rousseau, 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 idealists Sorry, the romantics are saying, "No, that's not true." Okay? And what Dostoevsky Dostoevsky is saying is telling us that is that this is nonsense. Reason doesn't really get you anywhere. Okay? Through 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? What Dostoevsky is also saying like Tolstoy, westernization of Russia is only corrupting us. What we need to do is return to our true selves, which is an Orthodox

68:27civilization. Okay? Because that's that's the true Christianity. All right? Okay? So, great. Any more Any more questions? Okay, that's a great question, okay? So, the question And it's one of a question. If I just said that the Russians are fatalistic, then how are they so resilient? Okay? So, um um you can't logically figure it out, okay? It's like 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 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 is it's

70:27very 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 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 Dostoevsky in 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 responsibility to my children. I have 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'm 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?

72:27Okay. 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. The natives 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 Mongols, they they have to fight the Swedes, the Germans, uh the French. They fought everyone basically. It was It was like a never-ending process of war. And then that and then the the 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 people have to fight constantly fight over these resources. Whereas America is huge, lots of resources, and people if you work hard, you can obtain a lot of resources, okay? So, that leads to an optimistic attitude. So, the question really isn't why Russians are fatalistic because most people are fatalistic. The question really is why Americans are so optimistic. Right? Okay? Does that make sense? Okay? Any more questions? Was this clear to you guys? Okay? I and I I'm 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? Um because there's a lot of racism in in Russia. Um

74:27but it's it it is a unique, beautiful civilization. Um and and I hope that in the future you have a chance to read Tolstoy, Dostoevsky um because they are really the best novelists ever. Okay? So, um next class we will start the uh Germans, okay? German civilization.