Religion of Revolution
As spiritual beings, people need something to believe in and a moral system to which to subscribe. Many find fulfillment of that spiritual longing in religion, but everyone seeks a sense of purpose somewhere. In Dostoevsky’s 1872 novel Devils (otherwise known as Demons or The Possessed), published a quarter of a century before the Russian Revolution, he utilizes literature to describe a value system of revolution which would soon attempt to subvert Christianity as the prevailing system of the time.
Dostoevsky poses an anti-religion to Christianity, the Religion of Revolution. The novel is delivered through the events surrounding one core group of revolutionaries, otherwise known as the quintet, who are led by Pyotr Stepanovich, recently returned son of a liberal-thinking scholar. The purported goal of the Revolution is not only political upheaval resulting in a new order, but total dismemberment of institutions— namely, the church. While the movement may claim atheism, the belief that there is no God (or more accurately, it claims anti-theism, a movement against God), it cannot avoid setting up its own hierarchies, its own gods, its own moral system, and thus, its own religion. Not only is this anti-religion expressed through the conversations of the characters, but it is also embodied through the characters themselves, who form an anti-Trinity, acting as the key forces behind the Revolution. The anti-Trinity orchestrate the Revolution, live out the Revolution, and bring others to the Revolution.
Pyotr acts in the book as God the Father, orchestrating all aspects of the story for his purposes. Pyotr, speaking of the group of revolutionaries, says he “[knows] every step [the quintet] take,” demonstrating his omniscience by his use of wealth to pay off spies. Although the quintet know that Pyotr is controlling them and hate it, their every action still plays into his will (p. 571). In fact, the character of Kirilov demonstrates subtly at first and then explicitly the nearly total control that Pyotr exerts on his followers, even to the point of knowing in advance and ordering Kirillov’s suicide (p. 364-365, 569, 575). In yet another instance, when Yulia Mihailovna’s fête falls to pieces, she blames the failure on the absence of Pyotr (p. 514), although the disaster was of course used for his purposes. Pyotr from the start is the one controlling the narrative (p. 174), and Pyotr is the only one who knows for sure the timing of the Revolution (p. 362).
Stavrogin represents God the Son, the incarnation of the ideals of the Revolution. He comes down from his place on high to cause trouble amongst the people, yet instead of saving them, he sins against them (p. 43, p. 433, p. 542). Pyotr cannot enact his plan without Stavrogin, who becomes the symbol of the Revolution (p. 407). Without him, the groups of quintets, microcosms of the revolution who Pyotr claims are spread throughout Russia, are “a poor foundation; what [the Godhead wants] is one magnificent, despotic will, like an idol, resting on something fundamental and external…” (p. 548). Liza, the lady who loves him, calls him “the vampire Stavrogin” (p. 544) as he vilely sucks the life out of those he touches, until at the end, he finds himself so disgusting that he commits the highest sin against himself and destroys himself fully and finally.
Finally, the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, is Fedka, the little-seen, yet greatly influential character. In order for the Revolution to take hold and spread, it requires a foundation of fear in the minds of the people, a foundation which can only be achieved through the spread of ideas among the populace, particularly among those unknowing members of the Revolution who already act in accordance with the Revolution’s general sentiment (p. 407). To accomplish this purpose, Fedka (at Pyotr’s command) started the fire along the river (p. 534) not only to kill Lebyadkin and Marya, but so that “the fire is in the minds of men” (p. 537) to reinforce the Revolution through the destruction of lives and livelihood. Fedka is particularly useful to Pyotr as an influencing force for Kirillov, living with him and affecting his understanding of life lived in the expectation of death (p. 578-579).
In the Religion of Revolution, the tie that binds the devilish Trinity together is blood wrought through premeditated murder (p. 402). The murderous sentiment that pervades the novel and dialogue is used also to create fear-driven piety (or, with the invention of a new word, pyoty) among followers, namely the quintet.
The Revolutionary Trinity, with its first person who steers the Revolution, second person who is the symbol living out the Revolution, and third person who works on the hearts of the people, seems to have all the elements of an anti-religion. At the end of Devils, however, we see the Trinity fall apart and the Revolution fails due to disunity among the members. The murderous sentiment said to bind them together is not strong enough to keep all under Pyotr’s control, Stavrogin falls out with the ideals of the Revolution, and Fedka’s adoration turns from Pyotr to Kirillov, Pyotr’s puppet.
In conclusion, the reader seeing the revolutionary movement looking to uproot religion may find the form that the revolution takes particularly curious: it maintains a trinitarian structure. Every person seeks satisfaction in something; perhaps there is a certain appeal of the perfection of the Trinity which attracts the human soul, even when moving towards destructive ends.