Joseph Frank
DOSTOEVSKY AND THE SOCIALISTS
No encounter in Dostoevsky's life is more important than
his meeting in May, 1845, with the temperamental, passionate· and
dominating figure of the critic Vissarion G. Belinsky. "Furious Vis–
sarion," as Belinsky was known to his friends, was far more than
simply a literary critic in the Russian literary world of the eighteen–
forties---<>r perhaps we should say that he conceived of his criticism,
almost by necessity, as an instrument of social enlightenment. In a
society where no free expression of opinion was tolerated, Belinsky
managed, in his never-ending stream of articles and reviews, to serve
as the rallying point for all the impotent discontent and dissatisfac–
tion stirring in the breasts of the Russian intelligentsia. Part of Belin–
sky's influence certainly came from his alertness and receptivity to any
trace of such discontent in the literary productions of the rising young
generation, and from his unselfish efforts to recognize and aid talent
wherever he found it. One such talent, which he immediately greeted
with enthusiastic acclaim, was that of Fyodor Mikhailovitch Dostoevsky.
The external history of this encounter between the two, which
Dostoevsky himself narrates in his
Diary of a Writer,
is very well–
known. The struggling young author, who shyly turns over the manu–
script of his cherished first novel,
Poor Folk,
to his friend Nekrasov;
the joyous and boisterous visit to Dostoevsky's apartment, at four in
the morning, of Nekrasov and Grigorovitch, unable to contain their
excitement over this new masterpiece; the promise to purvey the
manuscript to Belinsky by the latter's protege, Nekrasov; finally, the
fateful summons to meet the great man himself, and the thrill of
receiving the accolade from the most powerful figure in Russian
letters. All this
has
been repeated over and over again in the inter-
