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VARIETY
A LITTLE THEORY OF DESTINY
Certain peoples-the Russians, for example, and the Span–
ish-are so haunted by themselves that they
pose themselves
as a unique
problem : their development, singular at every point, compels them to
fall back on their series of anomalies, on the miracle or the insignificance
of their fate.
Russia's literary beginnings were, in the last century, a kind of
apogee, a lightning-like success which inevitably disturbed her: it was
only natural that she should be a surprise to herself and that she should
exaggerate her importance. Dostoevsky's characters put Russia on the
same footing as God, since they extend to the former the mode of in–
terrogation applied to the latter: must we believe in Russia? Must we
deny her? Does she really exist, or is she nothing but an excuse? T o
question oneself in this fashion is to pose a regional problem in theological
terms. But for Dostoevsky, as a matter of fact, Russia, far from being a
regional problem, was a universal one, to the same degree as the existence
of God. Such an approach, abusive and preposterous, was possible only
in a country whose abnormal evolution must astound or confound men's
minds.
It
is hard to imagine an Englishman wondering if England has
a meaning or not, or assigning her, with tremendous rhetoric, a mission :
he knows he is English, and that is sufficient. The evolution of his coun–
try does not entail an essential interrogation.
Among the Russians, Messianism derives from an inner uncertainty
aggravated by pride, from a determination to assert their faults, to im–
pose them on others, to discharge upon them a suspect overflow. The
aspiration to "save" the world is the morbid phenomenon of a people's
youth.
Spain is self-absorbed for the contrary reasons. She, too, had dazzling
beginnings, but they are faraway now. Having arrived too soon, she con-
Copyright
©
1956 by Editions GalIimard.
