There is no war without innocent victims. The barbaric invasion of Ukraine ordered by Putin is no exception: civilians die from Kiev to Kharkiv and here with us it can even happen that common sense dies. And that Fyodor Dostoevsky, perhaps the greatest novelist in the history of universal literature, finds himself on the list of outlaws with the sole fault of being Russian. Worsened by the fact that he died 141 years ago and therefore cannot distance himself from the Moscow government. It happened in Milan where Paolo Nori, writer and russologist commissioned by the Bicocca University to give four lectures on the author of Humiliated and offendeda surreal email was delivered from the university.
Dostoevsky “humiliated and offended”
It was written: «Dear professor, the Vice Rector for Didactics communicated the decision taken with the rector to postpone the journey on Dostoevsky. The aim is to avoid any form of controversy, especially internal, in this moment of great tension ». After Nori told the story in a live Instagram, arousing the indignation of intellectuals and enthusiasts, the director Giovanna Iannantuoni turned around, speaking of “a misunderstanding in a moment of great tension”. In short, Nori’s four Milanese lessons on Dostoevsky will take place, but this story full of paradoxes invites us to reflect on two or three things. All concerning the very particular moment we are living.
Woe to confuse governments and peoples
To begin with, the compactness that Western democracies are showing against Putin’s regime is commendable and unprecedented, the legitimate and appreciable decision to ask all Russian opinion leaders to distance themselves from Ukrainian events but woe to confuse governments and peoples. Especially since the Russian people could play an important role in this war. In fact, it is difficult to think that the Red Army could face a defeat on the field in Kiev. The only hope is that in Moscow – where demonstrating against the established order is extremely dangerous – the front of dissent will increase.
Censorship cannot be the answer
Censorship is a tool of autocratic regimes that sounds very bad where there is democracy. It is not with closure that, in these parts, we are used to winning wars. No one in the West has ever dreamed of banning Ėjzenštejn’s cinema during the Cold War, just as I am still free to leave the house to buy a copy of my fight with all the absurdities it contains. Reading to know, to know to understand: this can only be the spirit. Even when, after understanding, you can not help but condemn.
There is nothing to censor in Dostoevsky
If we then enter into the merits, there is not a single line of Dostoevsky that can create embarrassments or misunderstandings with the war in Ukraine in the background. On the contrary: it can be said that, together with that incurable pacifist Tolstoy, he is our greatest ally against all that Putin represents. We have serious doubts that the Russian president has read both. On the other hand, Dostoevsky, who inMoron he asked God for the fact that children are dying, he would not hesitate to be imprisoned once again in the Peter and Paul Fortress to ask the last Tsar to account for all this havoc.