F.M. Dostoevsky on Russian entrepreneurship: art image and real features

This article views some problems associated with the work of agreat writer, F.M. Dostoevsky. For the first time an attempt was made to identify the Russian merchants' place and activities in novelsand publications of the great writer, where their social psychology and mentality were reflected fairly accurately. The main conclusionsof the article are reduced to the fact of the growing attention to the Russian merchants in Dostoevsky's novels. The Russian merchantscarried negative aspects of enrichment foremost inspired by the West and also many features of the Russian national character that werepertinent to the Russian social movement "nationalist trend", to which Dostoevsky belonged. The writer spoke about deficiency in"practical men" in Russia that are professionals primarily in the field of commerce, state government and its regions. Society at thattime, and, in our opinion, nowadays, lacked professional education and moral and ethical qualities. Nevertheless, the domination of thebourgeoisie became evident for F.M. Dostoevsky, too. That is why along with critisism in Dostoevsky's works there were the OldTestament merchants with the same beliefs as his. It was the social movement "nationalist trend" that made it possible to hope for thebest results in formation of the post-reform period Russian civil society. Dostoevsky's realism in the merchants description also based onthe fact that he came from the merchant Nechayev down the female line. His relatives in that line permanently supported him, helpedhim to enroll in the Engineering School, paying for his study. Later they helped him with money, when the writer was in Siberia, andthen published literary magazines. Studying Dostoevsky's works we can hope Russian and local oligarchs stop to care only about thierwell-being and pay attention to people's needs.Dostoevsky considered that Jews were one of the main bourgeois principles guides to theRussian life that is why sometimes he was not fairly considered anti-Semitic. In his several works, he spoke about the power of money.For instance in Notes from the Underground - "money is chasing liberty", The Insulted and Injured - "money is power". Ganya Ivolginfrom The Idiot declared - "money gives the person originality", according to the character from The Gambler - "money is everything".The character from The Raw Youth vividly demonstrated passion for money; he was not ready to kiss women, but 10 rubles notesfalling in his hands due to the naive speculations. He invented a theory about the hidden power of money, where the happiest man wasRothschild, the banker. The hero did not recognize any other values, until he fell in love and it helped him get rid of these obsessions.However, soon Dostoevsky changed his mind and began taking the New Time more tolerantly and wisely with its inhabitants, first ofall, merchants. In his most famous novel "Crime and Punishment" in the background in the letters of Rodion Raskolnikov's mother therewas a merchant, Afanasy I. Vakhrushev, characterized as a "good man" understanding the problems of the Raskolnikov family.

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