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70 Chapter Two Dostoevsky as Editor: Conflicting Visions of Russian Modernity in The Citizen AT THE END OF 1872, following the end of the serialization of Demons, Dostoevsky returned to the world of journalism for the first time since the closure of his journal Epoch in 1865, becoming the editor of Prince Meshchersky’s weekly journal The Citizen. He edited sixty-five issues of the journal, from January 1, 1873, to April 22, 1874.1 Sitting down to plan one of his first articles for the publication, he wrote a set of notes detailing the problems he saw as besetting contemporary Russia: the social and spiritual collapse of the gentry and the cultural forms and values they represented; the moral degradation of the intelligentsia; the loss of any common beliefs and values; the loss of respect for institutions such as the gentry and the church; and, perhaps most importantly, the loss of a common understanding or language among the citizens of the country.2 In his notebooks and in the journal itself, these problems are presented as a result of the modernizing Great Reforms of the 1860s. Where Time had begun optimistically in 1861, calling for the reconciliation of the intelligentsia and the narod, The Citizen, coming out a decade later, took the social breakdown caused by the modernization of the previous decade as a given. Its twofold task was to represent and respond to that collapse, to seek out the positive values among the social and intellectual debris of the reform era. The notes conclude with Dostoevsky’s announcement that the journal will present a picture of this breakdown of beliefs, values, and forms. The journal’s mission will be not merely to inform its readers of the social and political events of the day but to build up a picture of the underlying currents that produced these events, to examine their connections with one another and with the historical evolution of the nation. It must identify the outlines of the emerging social forms of this new epoch in Russian history. It must find a way of counteracting the communication breakdown of the contemporary moment so as to communicate those outlines to its readership. It must provide society with an image of itself. This will involve restoring respect to Dostoevsky as Editor 71 the values of the past, even while recognizing the changed social conditions of the new historical moment. An editorial statement entitled “A Wish” that appears in the first issue of The Citizen published under Dostoevsky’s editorship suggests how the journal might overcome the communication breakdown to which most other newspapers and journals had contributed.3 Where other newspapers and journals concentrate on depicting Russian society’s scandal and disorder, The Citizen will celebrate the positive values that still exist among those living in society’s dark corners, honest workers who have devoted their lives to serving the public good. It concludes with the comment that “the story of a beautifully fulfilled life, a life of noble exploits— isn’t this in our time of doubt and negation the best weapon against all our social ills?” The fragmentary notes from the end of 1872 hint at The Citizen’s crucial role in staging Dostoevsky’s multiple conceptions of Russian modernity. Because he took on the editorship at a moment when the journalistic world was focused on the ten-year anniversary of the Great Reforms, he was called upon to participate in the widespread public discussion about the reforms, about their place in Russian history and their significance for Russia’s present and future. His editorial responsibilities required him to keep up with press coverage of contemporary social and political issues, which brought him into contact with many different voices and interpretations of the state of contemporary society. His participation in journalistic dialogues both engendered a sense of frustration over the way other journals contributed to the communication breakdown afflicting Russian society and redoubled his sense of the urgency of finding a way to bypass this breakdown, of bringing his readers an image of the new society of which they were part and of cementing their citizenship in this new society. Dostoevsky’s 1873 notebooks reveal the underlying historical, social, and literary preoccupations that find expression in The Citizen and testify to the development of two competing historical interpretations of the meaning of the Great Reforms and their legacy. Alongside the representation of the 1870s as characterized by social fragmentation and hermeneutic collapse emerges a vision of...

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