Dostoevsky: Demons discussion

ProjectD's entry for this section (Mostly summarizing and a few questions, along with a C&P of the article by Chisholm):
https://projectdblog.wordpress.com/20...

A few points from Derek Chisholm's article, "Dostoevsky as Political Prophet":

1. The connection and backstory to the political conspiracy and murder that inspired the novel are explained (Nechaev's group under Bakunin’s "International Brotherhood").

2. "The name for the novel’s central character, “Stavrogin” is a Russian word that is derived from the Greek word “stavros,” which is equivalent to the English word cross. Stavrogin is a cross and his fate in the novel symbolizes secular Russia’s rejection of God and her sacrifice by demonic ideas about social and political change."

3. Chisolm claims that Dostoevsky saw the book of Revelation as a map for events that would unfold in the future. To me, this connects to the comments from this section from Shigalyov who suggests his proposal for a new social order in the book he proposes to explain over the course of 10 more meetings. The conspirators and Nihilists had their own view of the next stage of history which either corresponded with or ignored the visions of Revelation.

3. Chilsolm refers to the writings of Geir Kjetsaa as one of his sources. Kjetsaa was a professor at the University of Olso and president of The Dostoevsky Society. In 1988 his biography of Dostoevsky focused on the application of Dostoevsky's Orthodox Russian religious views to his works, which other Western and Soviet writers had not extrapolated on very thoroughly: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/02/21/bo...