Dostoevsky: Demons discussion

There is a very funny scene at the end of Section VI, after Stepan disgraces himself to the leftist Petersburg intellectuals by expressing a preference for Russian poetry over utilitarian materialism.

"The decision was that, after the founding of the magazine, she should at once turn it over to them, along with the capital, under the rights of a free co-operative... most touching of all was that, of these five people, four certainly had no mercenary motive"

A pointed jab at "power grabs" clothed in collectivist rhetoric.

Earlier in Section VI we are treated to a laundry list of ideological causes, ranging from spelling reform to women's rights. Any of these may be credible individually, but the overall effect is a humorously incoherent platform.

Incidentally "restoring Poland up to the Dnieper" refers to giving up the Russian partition of Poland, ceding Russian lands west of the Dnieper River; today this territory makes up Belarus, the Baltics, and western Ukraine. The modern Polish state is comprised primarily of the former Austrian and Prussian partitions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian...