One of the most surprising legacies of last year is the revival of interest in, and discussion about, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881), both outside and inside Russia. Quoting Dostoyevsky has become very fashionable in Russian political debates and amongst Gen-Z on Tik-Tok and Instagram.

The favourite Dostoyevsky book for Gen-Z is White Nights, a short story of a young man living in Saint Petersburg who suffers from loneliness and who befriends and falls in love with a young woman, sold 50,000 copies in the U.S. and Europe last year. That is more than any other book in the Penguin Classics category. Sales of Dostoyevsky’s heavyweight books, including The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment are reported to have tripled over the past three years, since the start of the war in Ukraine and, notably since a well know western TV journalist controversially suggested that all Russian literature, music and culture should be cancelled in the West until Russia withdraws from eastern Ukraine. Dostoyevsky might well have noted the irony in the fact that sales of his books are being driven by the so-called Gen-Z, also the Russian military call sign in Ukraine.

Why has this happened? To some extent it reflects the saying that “no publicity is bad publicity” – the start of the war and the constant news coverage has awakened curiosity in the history and culture of both Ukraine and Russia. Books about both, for both countries, are more prominent in western bookstores.

The appearance of reviews about White Nights on the increasingly influential platform BookTok provided the main catalyst for the increased interest and book sales. A recent Financial Times article said that a poll in 2022 found that three-fifths of 16-25-year-olds said BookTok had helped them discover a passion for reading. BookTok, it appears, is The Times Literary Review for Gen-Z. The surge in interest gives truth to one of Dostoyevsky’s memorable quotes “there is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.”

Within Russia, quoting Dostoyevsky has become very popular with people on all sides of the political divide (a relative concept) interpreting passages from his books to support their social views and political positions. And of course, Dostoyevsky allows for that as his political views did several 360-degree turns in his lifespan. Some cite him as liberal and anti-military while others claim him to have been an imperialist and a militarist. Both sides readily quote passages from his books to support their interpretations.

Interpreting Dostoyevsky became politically charged late last year with the release in Russia of a TV adaptation of Crime and Punishment. After each episode was shown, a fresh debate and controversy followed with nationalists very much to the forefront in condemning the director’s interpretation as promoting liberal “western” values and being anti-Russian. One result of this is that Emir Kusturica, an award winning (Cannes) director who now heads the Army Theatre, says he will make a film with his interpretation of the author’s life.

Perhaps he will cite and contextualize one of the more memorable quotes from The Brothers Karamazov “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he is a prisoner”

 

Chris Weafer, the founder and CEO of Macro Advisory and former head of research at multiple Moscow-based investment banks