Austria as an Object of the Geopolitical and Ideological Views of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky and his works are of considerable interest to both Russian and foreign researchers. At the same time, certain issues have practically not been considered in historiography. In particular, his geopolitical ideas were reduced mainly to a discussion of the pressing Eastern Question. In the framework of this article, attention is focused on Austria-Hungary, one of the key states in the world politics of the 19th century. The methodological basis of the work is the ideas of subjectivism and the possibilities of a symbolic mapping of the world realized through the creation of a certain picture or a verbal description of the map based on the mental schema, which is theoretically justified in Russian political science. In the framework of this study, this model was applied to recreate an imaginary map of Austria-Hungary in Dostoevsky's A Writer's Diary and notebooks. An analysis of the specified materials made it possible to identify five cases that reveal the image of Austria-Hungary in Dostoevsky's work: Chancellor Klemens von Metternich and his policy as a representation of the essence of Austria; Austria as the "younger brother" of Prussia/the German Empire; Austria as opposing Germany, on the one hand, and Russia, on the other; Austria as a "helper" and "patron"/"treacherous conqueror" of the southern Slavs; Austria as located in the "most advantageous geopolitical position", or the end of the "patchwork empire". The elaboration of each of the cases made it possible to come to a number of interesting conclusions regarding the representation of Austria-Hungary as an object of Dostoevsky's geopolitical and ideological views. Dostoevsky sees Austria-Hungary primarily from the perspective of an antagonist of the Russian Empire, for which Vienna is one of the main geopolitical (struggle for the Balkans and southern Slavs) and ideological (Orthodoxy against Catholicism) enemies. On Dostoevsky's imaginary map, Austria is surrounded by enemies and even Germany is only a temporary ally, since there are contradictions between them at the civilizational level (Catholicism against Protestantism). In addition, Berlin and Vienna see too many desirable territories owned by each other: the German-speaking territories in Austria-Hungary for the former, and the South German Catholic territories in the German Empire for the latter. In summary, it can be stated that Austria-Hungary ultimately represents a classic "patchwork empire", full of disparate elements, which allows Dostoevsky to predict its quick collapse, despite some current achievements obtained thanks to the fast new battle between France and Germany, the instability of Russia's positions, as well as the final weakening of the "sick man of Europe".

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