Dostoevsky’s Portrayal of the Jesuits — Analyzed within the Context of Russia in the 1860s and 70s

Paper written for my Spring 2022 Jesuits: Ignatius to Francis course.

Introduction

Since its inception, the Society of Jesus has been accused of being a scheming, lying, Machiavellian organization that aimed at taking over the world. These fears manifested themselves particularly intensely in Russia, which was a refuge for the Jesuits after their expulsion from Europe in 1773. In Russia, especially after their 1820 removal from the country, the Jesuits were feared. They were seen as morally corrupt agents of chaos, used as scapegoats for problems, and many Russians believed that they were attempting to topple Russian society. This led to a swath of anti-Jesuit literature, whether it was as overt as a treatise declaring the evil of the Society of Jesus, or rather a character with stereotypical Jesuit characteristics covertly placed in a work.

This paper will explore the depiction of the Jesuits in the work of Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, as he is one of the most prominent authors from the period following the Jesuit expulsion from Europe and their existence in Russia. Dostoevsky’s own writing will be inspected, looking for the ways in which he portrayed the Jesuits in his most famous works like Crime and Punishment and Demons. Then, his writing will be analyzed within the historical context of the time. This will be done by comparing Dostoevsky’s views with those of other Russians by examining other sources, such as parliamentary debates and the Monita Secreta. Finally, this paper will investigate if the anti-Jesuit conspiracy theories that emerged are founded in any official Jesuit literature, such as the Formula of the Institute.

Established social prejudice and personal experience laid the groundwork for Dostoevsky’s contempt of the Jesuits. Russian arts and literature had already made anti-Jesuit imagery emblematic of the worst the West had to offer. Dostoevsky’s survival of a mock execution, experiences with Polish Catholics in Siberia, and time abroad in Germany allowed him to make the caricature personal. In this way, dread of the corrupting influence on Russian culture of the West, most dangerously in the form of Roman Catholicism, became Dostoevsky’s own dread, a dread he expressed in his development of Jesuit characters and use of anti-Jesuit imagery throughout his writing.

Dostoevsky

In order to analyze Dostoevsky’s depiction of the Society of Jesus in his literary works, one must first truly understand the man behind the pen. As previously mentioned, there are three specific events in Dostoevsky’s life that greatly impacted his worldview, specifically his view of the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits, as well as the states bordering Russia. As a young man in 1847, Dostoevsky was enthralled with the social issues of the time. He frequently met with fellow social realists to discuss prevalent matters, most important the concept of the liberation of the Serfs.[1]However, this group of young progressives, called the Petrashevsky, proved to be too placid for his liking, which prompted Dostoevsky to attend the meetings of a far more radical, socialist group, known as Speshney’s Secret Revolutionary Society.[2] This group devoted itself to class revolution and the dissemination of illegal propaganda, which Dostoevsky actively contributed to.[3] Naturally, the Russian government did not approve of the existence of the organization, and in April of 1849, the Tsarist police arrested many prominent members of the group, including Dostoevsky.[4] For the next eight months, Dostoevsky was kept in a maximum security prison, where his only solace was the Bible and other various spiritual books.[5] It was here that he developed the habitual practice of consulting the Gospel for potential signs and guidance for his life.[6] After his stay in prison, he was brought into Semyonovsky Square, where it appeared that he was going to be executed by a firing squad. Moments before the soldiers were to pull their triggers, Dostoevsky was spared, and rather than face death, he instead was subjugated to exile in Siberia. The process of the mock execution, as well as his prison sentence and four-year exile, would go on to define Dostoevsky’s writings.[7] The mock execution gave the author severe depression and caused him to suffer seizures for the rest of his life.[8] It was a defining moment in Dostoevsky’s life that he repeatedly references throughout his own personal diary, and may have been a partial catalyst for his hatred of Poles and socialism that is analyzed later in this paper. From this point forward, he cast aside his progressive agenda and became “belligerently anti-revolutionary.”[9] His work became dark, twisted, and incredibly reactionary.

The House of Dead

It was in exile that Dostoevsky mingled amongst other prisoners, namely dissidents willing to use force to gain independence for Ukraine and Poland and bring liberation to their people. This experience greatly impacted his writing and perceptions of Poles.[10] It is Dostoevsky’s interaction with these people that inspired The House of Dead, a quasi-autobiographical book in which he writes about the tales of suffering and death that he had seen firsthand in Siberia.[11]The novel, which was published in 1860, provided Dostoevsky an opportunity to unleash the rage, anger, and sadness that built up over his time away from society, as well as the psychological madness that was caused by the mock execution.[12] In The House of Dead, the target for these tumultuous emotions are Polish inmates. From the very beginning, Dostoevsky makes sure to distinguish between the Polish and Russian prisoners, always portraying the Poles as others.[13] What is most important here is that while he uses unquestionably negative diction to paint the Poles as reprehensible people, he also refers to them as “jesuitical,” and is always “deeply skeptical” of their actions.[14] By linking the shameful qualities that he assigns to the Poles to the Jesuits, Dostoevsky is creating a connection that is evident in almost all of his other works. Through this connection, he is able to paint the picture that Jesuits are scheming, morally corrupt servants of the Roman Catholic Pope, which is the first reference to his Jesuit stereotype. Dostoevsky continues his use of inflammatory diction to describe the Poles, and by association the Jesuit stereotype, as “morally sick” and “irritable” people who, by nature of their perceived shortcomings, believe in the concept of an independent Poland.[15]

In The House of Dead, Dostoevsky’s attack on the Jesuits is far less severe than in his other works, but still, it serves as a foundation for the way that he develops his characterization of the order over time. The connection to Poles is certainly an important one, as he uses it for the grounds of his arguments in many of the following literary works. By referring to Poles, whom Dostoevsky portrays as lower class, morally inferior people, as “jesuitical,” Dostoevsky is using his own life experiences as a basis for his hatred of the Poles, and by association, the Jesuits. It was his time in exile that he got firsthand experiences with the Poles that he grew to detest, and thus the dehumanizing description of Polish Catholic prisoners is based on his life alone and has nothing to do with any other societal factor. Dostoevsky looked to deal with the trauma that accompanied the mock execution and subsequent exile from Russia, and found a perfect target in the Polish Catholic prisoners.

Winter Notes

Dostoevsky explicitly states his hatred of the Jesuits for the first time in Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, which was an essay written in 1862 covering Dostoevsky’s trip to Europe. In this text, Dostoevsky’s depiction of the Jesuits evolves to incorporate conspiracy theories commonly associated with the Jesuits at the time as the author began to settle back into life after prison. An example of an anti-Jesuit trope used can be found when Dostoevsky writes about the Catholic clergy (but it is implied that he means the Society of Jesus) and how in order to procure funds, they “with lengthy, crafty, even scientific accusations burdened the soul of a beautiful and extremely wealthy lady” and “enticed her to go live with them in the monastery.”[16] The idea that the Jesuits preyed on wealthy widows for money was a common conspiracy theory in Dostoevsky’s time. It is important to note that he describes this process as “scientific,” suggesting that the Jesuits had mastered it in a reproducible, streamlined fashion. The very same theme appears in the Monita Secreta, an alleged set of instructions for the Jesuits that outlined how to best propagate the Society’s mission, which included an entire section on how best to “win over rich widows.”[17] With this in mind, Dostoevsky’s portrayal of the Jesuits as greedy exploiters of widows is not unique to him, but rather a symptom of a greater, universal European conspiracy against the Jesuits. It demonstrates the development of Dostoevsky’s portrayal of the Jesuits after he returned to society upon being released from prison. Rather than merely depicting them as bad by association, he is explicitly labeling Jesuits as morally corrupt in Winter Notes.

Crime and Punishment

Dostoevsky further explores Jesuit morality in his next work, Crime and Punishment. This novel shows what Dostoevsky thinks will happen when Russians believe in a Jesuit, Western moral code. Published in 1866, this novel tells the story of Raskolnikov, a broke but educated commoner, who believes that good and evil are relative, and that nothing can be labeled as a crime, morally speaking.[18] Raskolnikov also thinks that once in a generation, there is a great individual, who due to their own superiority, is exempt from all societal constraints, like laws. Raskolnikov provides Napoleon and Alexander the Great as examples of great individuals, and claims the idea has Western influences. Under this ideology, Raskolnikov attempts to prove that he is one of these great individuals by killing a pawnbroker whom he is indebted to. While he succeeds in killing two people, guilt ultimately destroys him.

Raskolnikov’s actions have a casuistic dimension. Casuistry refers to the examination of moral issues on an individual, case-by-case basis, rather than looking at the broader, generally accepted societal principles.[19] Raskolnikov knew that murder was viewed by society to be wrong, however in his specific situation, he viewed it as acceptable for his purpose. Dostoevsky explained the casuistic nature of Raskolnikov’s moral reasoning, and even compared it to that of the Jesuits: “We [Raskolnikov, talking to himself] will probably learn for a while from the Jesuits and will console ourselves, convince ourselves that it is necessary this way, really necessary, for a good purpose.”[20] Like Raskolnikov, according to Dostoevsky, the Jesuits are willing to employ casuistic moral standards in which they will view circumstances as individualized and act in whatever manner is best for them.

This is not the only connection between the Jesuits and Raskolnikov. Dostoevsky equates Raskolnikov’s “great individual” theory to the mission of the Society of Jesus. Because, in Dostoevsky’s eyes, Jesuits were only loyal to the Pope, and thus felt morally empowered to act according to their own moral code, due to their superiority over everyone else.[21] In this regard, Dostoevsky saw the Jesuits as an organizational example of Raskolnikov’s ideology, which was used to justify murder in cold blood. The fact that Raskolnikov states Napoleon as an example of his “great individual” theory is important because it links the actions of Napoleon, the actions of Raskolnikov, and the Society of Jesus, to casuistry. Dostoevsky believed that Napoleon’s conscience gave him permission to do whatever it took to become more powerful, namely pushing through Europe and invading Russia. It appears that for Dostoevsky, the West is synonymous with many things, including Napoleon, the Jesuits, and the Poles. Dostoevsky views Raskolnikov’s actions as a manifestation of the Western practice of casuistry. It is the result, the death of Russian citizens, that leaves Dostoevsky so afraid of the influence of Western principles in Russia. He was not unique in this fear.

Western Conspiracy

The overall Russian fear of the West, and more specifically Poland and the Jesuits, can be traced back to the Time of Troubles. This was a period of political instability in Russia that spanned from 1598 to 1613. In 1598, Fedor I, the last member of the Rurik dynasty that had ruled Russia since the ninth century, died.[22] This created a power vacuum and many rushed to seize the throne of Russia. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, seeing the instability in Russia, backed two candidates for the Russian throne. The Jesuits, who were interested in spreading their influence in Russia, wholeheartedly supported the Polish interference in Russia and backed each of the Polish candidates.[23] The first candidate claimed to be Dmitry,[24] the half-brother of Fedor I and the legitimate heir to the throne. He held the throne briefly from 1605 to 1606, but was assassinated while in office. Determined not to suffer the same fate, the second Polish-backed candidate, also claiming to be Dmitry, began besieging Moscow in 1608.[25] This Polish force, which received full support of the Jesuits, took Moscow in 1610, but was repelled shortly thereafter. Baron Adrian von Flodroff, a Protestant mercenary who offered to help defend Russia, described the Polish invasion as “unjust.”[26] He also stated that the Jesuits supported Poland because Poland promised the order “as a gift all the monasteries of Muscovy [Russia].”[27]This passage from Flodroff explains why the Jesuits accompanied the Poles into Moscow, and forever intertwined the Russian fears of a Western invasion and a Polish insurgency with the Jesuits. While their time in Russia was short-lived, the Polish invaders made a lasting impression on Russia. Following the Time of Troubles, the Poles and Jesuits were hated throughout Russia for their attempts to further destabilize the country.

After the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), Russian opinions shifted drastically to the right, becoming incredibly xenophobic and nationalistic, which increased the contempt for Poland and the Society of Jesus. [28] All foreign influences in Russia began to be purged, including the Jesuits, who were seen as just another attack by the West in an attempt to infiltrate and undermine traditional Russian values, similar to what occurred during the Time of Troubles.[29]The Jesuits became the perfect target for the Russian people because of their high visibility on the international level and ultimate loyalty to Rome.[30] Additionally, their universities were seen as breeding grounds for the Western ideas that had produced the French Revolution, and subsequently the Napoleonic invasion of Russia.[31] Napoleon’s malign influence in Russia cannot be understated. It is the topic of Leo Tolstoy’s greatly influential War and Peace, a novel demonstrating the demoralizing and destructive effect Napoleon had on Russia, with the overall theme that Europe forever presents a great threat to Russian wellbeing and stability.[32] Attacks against the Jesuits for their perceived involvement in this great European threat were somewhat personal given the past history, but the Jesuits were also merely seen as pawns in a conspiracy theory of Western expansion into Russia.

Because of their involvement in the Time of Troubles, loyalty to Rome, Western presence, and ties to ideology that birthed the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, the Jesuits were banned from Russia in 1820. However, this did not stop the anti-Jesuit conspiracy. Russians would use the Jesuits as scapegoats for many problems facing Russia, including the increasingly common whispers of revolution in Poland.[33] Many Russians even believed that Jesuits would enslave entire societies using mass uprisings, like the invasion of Moscow and a large insurgency movement in Poland in 1863, to achieve their goals.[34] Poland, a Roman Catholic state, sought independence from the authoritative rule of the Russian Tsar, yet Russians alleged that their aspirations were far more noteworthy.[35] According to some Russians, Polish rebels intended to invade Russia, reinstitute the practice of serfdom[36] and turn Russia into a proxy state for the Pope.[37] The free Poland would become a global superpower, while Russia toiled away under the rule of the Roman Catholic church and under the subjugation of Western ideals.[38] However, many Russians believed Poland was not acting alone. The Jesuits, with their well-established reputation for schemes and deception, were accused of spearheading the Polish insurgency.[39] One Russian pamphlet described the Polish revolution as a collaboration between “Polish landlords and Latin priests” who attempted to “destroy the Orthodox Faith.”[40] These accusations explain how the Jesuits could still be involved in the region, even though they had been expelled 40 years earlier. In 1862, a Russian staff general named the Society of Jesus as the primary reason for troubles in Poland: “The Jesuits made a deep ulcer: the doctrine of the Jesuits touched the conscience of every citizen, shaking belief, giving rise to noxious fanaticism, degenerating soon into bigotry… Jesuits put down deep roots and was the cause of the biggest disasters… [they] sprinkled poisonous seeds in secret that decomposed the health of the body and corrupted all parts of social, religious, and civil life.”[41] This type of theory, one that claims that the Jesuits are masterminds behind all social and political revolutions in Europe, had followed the order since its inception. While Russians did not have hard evidence of Jesuit involvement, the common Jesuit stereotypes, as well as past involvement, were convincing enough. Furthermore, in an 1863 Russian parliamentary debate, an anti-Roman Catholic member of Parliament declared that “The Jesuits had never been more active than they were now. They had drawn us into the Crimean war…. The secret organization in Poland was nothing but an organization of the Jesuit body. They made Poland the basis of their operations against Russia.”[42] It was not just extremist members of Russian society who vehemently feared the Jesuits. It was the entire population, top to bottom.

When attempting to understand Dostoevsky’s portrayal of the Poles in The House of Dead, and the Jesuits and their Western ideology in Crime and Punishment, one must put his words in the historical context of the time. Dostoevsky’s disdain for his fellow Polish prisoners was largely based on his own experiences with arrested Polish revolutionaries and the way he coped with the devastating mental trauma the mock execution had on him. However, it would be incredibly difficult for his thoughts on Poles to be unaffected by their external societal perception. Dostoevsky believed, just like many Russians, that the Poles were attempting to colonize and catholicize Russia, and that they worked with, or even for, the Jesuits — just like they did in the early 1600s.[43] Would he have felt the same abhorrent dislike for the prisoners if Russian society did not feel the same way? It is impossible to say for sure, but it is very likely that Dostoevsky’s opinion of the Polish prisoners was fostered in part by the common Russian perception of Poles that surrounded him. The same can be said for his thoughts on the Jesuits, but to an even greater degree. Jesuits were expelled from Russia one year prior to Dostoevsky’s birth,[44] so it is quite possible that Dostoevsky had never personally met a Jesuit, at least within Russia’s borders. And still, he believed that they were attempting to poison Russia from within. Raskolnikov is a manifestation of Jesuit morality, and his actions serve as an allegory for what Dostoevsky believes Jesuits will do. In Crime and Punishment, Russians are killed due to the influence of the Western, Jesuit ideology of casuistry on one singular person. In Dostoevsky’s eyes, if these ideas permeated through Russian society, it would mean the fall of Russia itself. He saw the Jesuits as Machiavellian schemers who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Just like his fellow Russians, Dostoevsky saw Napoleon as an example of a Western threat who had revolutionized their own society and then looked to do the same to Russia.[45] He believed that this threat was reoccurring, and its next iteration was in Poland. These fears, as previously shown, are not entirely his own, but rather a product of Russian fear of the Jesuits at the time. Thus, Dostoevsky’s portrayal of the Jesuits in his work is to a great extent affected by the world around him.

The Citizen

A particularly striking example of Dostoevsky’s fear of the Jesuits, one that is likely rooted in the Jesuit involvement in the Polish invasion of Moscow, can be found in an excerpt from The Citizen, a newspaper run by Dostoevsky himself. In it, Dostoevsky warns of a threat brewing in the West: “The Pope, discalced and on foot, poor and naked, can go to the people with an army of 20,000 Jesuit fighters, at catching the souls of men. Will Karl Marx and Bakunin withstand this army? Hardly.”[46] In this passage, Dostoevsky lays out the perfect cocktail of anti-Jesuit conspiracy. He is able to tie in the militarism of the Jesuits, the idea that the Jesuit’s only loyalty is to the Pope, the fear of the West invading Russia, and linking the Roman Catholic church and the Jesuits to socialism, all in one fell swoop. This is the first time Dostoevsky digs into the conspiracy of the Jesuits as militant and illustrates how his portrayal of the Jesuits developed from merely morally conspicuous characters, like in The House of Dead, to a full-fledged standing army rearing to invade Russia.

The idea that the Jesuits are “fighters” is not an idea unique to Dostoevsky, and from its inception, the Society of Jesus has carried militaristic undertones, to some extent by their own doing. For example, the very first line of The Formula of the Institute, a charter written in 1539 by Ignatius of Loyola at the founding of the order, calls Jesuits “soldiers of God.”[47] In this text, Ignatius also writes that the Jesuits pledge to go wherever they are needed in order to propagate their faith under rule of the Pope.[48] These words, when combined with the Russian fear and distrust of the West that existed during the time of Dostoevsky, are the perfect fuel for anti-Jesuit propaganda warning of the Pope commanding an army of Jesuits, looking to spread his faith abroad. Furthermore, the direct Jesuit involvement in the Polish invasion of Russia provided evidence for the theory of the militant, power hungry Jesuits. For this reason, once again, Dostoevsky’s depiction of the Jesuits in such a negative manner was not caused by his own personal experiences, but rather they are a result of the state of distress that gripped Russia at the time.

Another interesting aspect of Dostoevsky’s passage from The Citizen is his mention of Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin, two prominent socialist philosophers of the time. The inability to withstand the army of Jesuits means that these socialists would be unable to resist the allure of the Jesuit force from the West. For Dostoevsky, this cements a connection between socialism and the Roman Catholic Church (including the Jesuits) that had not appeared in his work up to this point. The fact that Bakunin is Russian is especially important to Dostoevsky’s inclusion of his name, as it suggests that Dostoevsky fears that the ideas of the Jesuits will ignite the fire of socialism at home. Dostoevsky vehemently hated socialism, which was likely a combination of his past life experiences, as well as the surrounding society. As previously mentioned, he was arrested for his involvement in a socialist organization called Speshney’s Secret Revolutionary Society. It is reasonable to assume that Dostoevsky blamed socialism for his arrest and mock execution, which had dramatic and all-together very negative effects on his life, such as the development of seizures and depression.[49] Thus Dostoevsky’s hatred for socialism can be explained largely by personal experiences. But why does he link socialism and the Roman Catholic Church?

A Writer’s Diary

The answer can be found in Dostoevsky’s A Writer’s Diary, which was published in 1873[50] and consisted of a collection of short stories dispersed throughout a literary journal. These tales strike a firm connection between socialism and the militarism of the Jesuits. Dostoevsky repeatedly refers to socialism as the “monster of Catholicism,” and believed that “Jesuitism and socialism” would join forces to rejuvenate the Roman Catholic Church “with revolutionaries and socialists… to reshape Europe… in fire and sword.”[51] While it is not mentioned why he believes this, Dostoevsky clearly views the combination of Jesuits and socialism as an immense threat to all of Europe, which extends to his home country of Russia. Another striking passage from the collection is one in which Dostoevsky describes further the militaristic persona of the Jesuits: “This black army [the Jesuits] stands outside of humanity, outside of citizenship, outside of civilization; they derive exclusively from themselves. This is a status in statu, this is the army of the Pope; it needs nothing more than the triumph of its own idea — and then, let everything blocking its way perish; let all the other forces wither and perish; let everything that does not agree with them die — civilization, society, science!”[52] This excerpt serves as an encapsulation of Dostoevsky’s views towards the Jesuits and the threat they pose to Europe. In order to fully understand the quote, it must be broken down into pieces.

First, Dostoevsky’s description of the Jesuit’s as a group “outside of citizenship” is a common attack against the society. Because the Jesuits were international travelers with missions across the globe, they were often accused of not ever truly having a country they were loyal to. Additionally, the emphasis on being an international order is written into Jesuit foundational documents, such as the Formula of the Institute, which stresses the dedication of the Jesuits to travel to any foreign land to help propagate their faith. Another interpretation of the “outside of citizenship” description is that in A Writer’s Diary, just like in Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky is portraying the Jesuits as individuals who believe themselves to be superior to everyone else, hence their tendency to stand “outside of humanity.” Through this, using Raskolnikov’s “great individual” theory, the Jesuits, in Dostoevsky’s eyes, form an army and sweep through Europe, spreading their views. A final interpretation of this line is simply that out of hatred for the Society of Jesus, Dostoevsky is simply attempting to dehumanize them with this diction.

The second component of the passage from A Writer’s Diary is the link to Poland that, while not explicitly stated, can be surmised given Dostoevsky’s beliefs on the matters at hand. On the topic of Polish independence from Russia, he wrote that “The Vatican… supported all of her [Poland’s] fantasies with all its strength.”[53] As such, Dostoevsky saw the Roman Catholic Church as a destructive instrument that looked to destroy European institutions. Because, as stated by Dostoevsky, Poland’s “ideal is to stand in place of Russia in the Slavic world,”[54] The Western Church, by supporting Poland, would be helping push Russia to the destruction that Dostoevsky feared so greatly. As stated in the original passage, “civilization, society, [and] science” will all be crushed by a radical Western army of Jesuits, likely in connectionwith the Polish insurgency, all supported by the Roman Catholic Church. Dostoevsky’s depiction of the Jesuits in A Writer’s Diary serves as a culmination of the anti-Jesuit conspiracy that had developed throughout his writing up to this point in his life. In the literary journal, he combines all of his Jesuit stereotypes included in past works. These include the militant nature of the Jesuits, the connection between socialism and the Jesuits, and even the great fear of a Jesuit-led Polish army intent on invading Russia and spreading Roman Catholicism.

As is the case with most of Dostoevsky’s writing on the Jesuits, the causes of his outlandish thoughts are likely two-fold. His firsthand experiences with Polish rebels and anger directed at Poles in the wake of his mock execution would go very far in fueling the fear of a Polish rebellion, but at the same time, this theory was so prevalent in Russia at the time that it is impossible to state that it would have no effect on Dostoevsky. The connection among the Poles and the Church and the Jesuits, however, appears to be to a great extent the product of Russian society. As demonstrated by the selections from a parliamentary debate and a propaganda pamphlet, the Jesuit-Polish conspiracy permeated all echelons of Russian society, which would have greatly determined Dostoevsky’s own opinions on the matter.

Demons

Demons, Dostoevsky’s chronicle-novel published in 1872, builds on Dostoevsky’s past anti-Jesuit conspiracy to show the potential downfall of Russian society once it has been influenced by Jesuitism and Westernism. In the novel, Western revolutionary movements influence the Russian youth, provoking them to commit “jesuitical” activities, because just like Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, they too believe they are “great individuals.”[55] This is caused by, which is a common theme in Dostoevsky’s work, the international conspiracy of a Jesuit army fixated on “the Roman idea of worldwide domination.”[56] Just like in other works, Dostoevsky warns of socialist Catholics who employ the “sword and the blood” to achieve their goals.[57] While A Writer’s Diary may have been the culmination of Dostoevsky’s Jesuit caricature, Demons shows what would happen if his fears were realized and a Jesuit, Western force successfully invaded his home country. Dostoevsky describes a version of Russia “where citizens will enjoy complete equality in their slavery,”[58] in which the Jesuits “enslave and equalize everybody in order for them to rule over everyone and live in luxury.”[59]This doomsday scenario, where the Jesuits have taken control of Russia, is one that Dostoevsky continually hints at throughout his work, but Demons is the only one of his works where he explicitly states what a Jesuit occupation of Russia would look like. This, unlike the majority of his other premonitions concerning the Jesuits, is founded in his own personal experiences. Around the same time he wrote Demons, he temporarily lived abroad in Germany, the battleground of one of the fiercest wars in European history — the Thirty Years War — which constantly reminded Dostoevsky of the destructive and expansive ambitions of the Catholic Church within Europe.[60] His time in Germany deeply provoked him, as Dostoevsky imagined a Thirty-Years-War-esque religious war fought in his homeland, where the Western Catholics would emerge victorious and enslave his fellow Russians. This drove him to describe the gruesome and bloody characteristics of his proposed Jesuit army in such animated detail in Demons. His portrayal of the Jesuits in this work is grounded in his own experiences living abroad, while he was away from Russian society, and thus it can be reasoned that these thoughts are his own. In Demons, Dostoevsky speaks from the heart, largely uninfluenced by the common Russian sentiments that appear in his other work.

Conclusion

There were three experiences in the life of Fyodor Dostoevsky that drove him to hate the combination of Poland, socialism, and the society of Jesus. The first two of these experiences occurred due to his arrest. He was imprisoned for his involvement in a socialist group and put through the psychological torture of a mock execution. This caused him to drastically shift his entire worldview, specifically, Dostoevsky despised all forms of socialist ideology following this. Furthermore, while in exile, Dostoevsky came face to face with Polish rebels who attempted to gain independence from Russia, and his fear of Poles can be attributed to these interactions. It was in prison that Dostoevsky first connected Poland, the Jesuits, and socialism. The third formative experience was Dostoevsky’s brief residence in Germany. His time abroad in land that had formerly been ravished by the Thirty Years War showed the destructive power of western religion. This caused him to perceive western Catholicism as violent and made him fear the devastating effects of its expansion.

Dostoevsky’s personal experiences were matched with an overall Russian hatred of the West and a dread of a Western influence invading Russia, as had occurred during the Time of Troubles and the Napoleonic Wars. This combination fostered an ever-evolving portrayal of the Society of Jesus. In his first books, like The House of Dead and Winter Notes, Dostoevsky’s anti-Jesuit sentiment was first expressed, but it was relatively benign. Dostoevsky describes the Jesuits as morally corrupt but does little to expand this. As he aged, his depiction of the Jesuits became more extreme. In his later works, from Crime and Punishment to Demons, his anti-Jesuit writing grew to become far more reactionary and fear driven. He portrays the Jesuits as a socialist, militant organization whose sole purpose was to expand Roman Catholicism as servants of the Pope. Dostoevsky used the Jesuits to represent a greater fear of a Western power corrupting Russia, which is a theme that motivates his writing.

Dostoevsky’s perception of the Jesuits was formed through a multitude of personal experiences and external variables. The fear of the West fueled a culture in Russia that, when combined with Dostoevsky’s survival of a mock execution, experiences with Polish Catholics in Siberia, and time abroad in Germany, manifested itself in Dostoevsky’s writing as a dread of Western, Roman Catholic influence in Russia, which Dostoevsky represents through his depiction of the Jesuits.

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Morton, Gary Saul. “Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., n.d. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fyodor-Dostoyevsky.

Pavone, Sabina, and John P. Murphy. The Wily Jesuits and the Monita Secreta: The Forged Secret Instructions of the Jesuits: Myth and Reality. Saint Louis, MO: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2005.

Rickard, J. “Polish-Muscovite War, 1609–1619.” History of War, July 26, 2007. http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_polish_muscovite_1609-19.html.

St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources. The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their

Complementary Norms: A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts, 1996, pg. 1–13.

[1] Jay, Jennifer. “Dostoevsky and Autobiography — Prison.” Middlebury College.

[2] Jay, Jennifer. “Dostoevsky and Autobiography — Prison.” Middlebury College.

[3] Morton, Gary Saul. “Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” Encyclopædia Britannica.

[4] Jay, Jennifer. “Dostoevsky and Autobiography — Prison.” Middlebury College.

[5] Jay, Jennifer. “Dostoevsky and Autobiography — Prison.” Middlebury College.

[6] Mermall, Thomas. “Unamuno and Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor.” Hispania 61, no. 4 (1978): 851, pg. 851.

[7] Jay, Jennifer. “Dostoevsky and Autobiography — Prison.” Middlebury College.

[8] Jay, Jennifer. “Dostoevsky and Autobiography — Prison.” Middlebury College.

[9] Mermall, Thomas. “Unamuno and Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor,” pg. 851.

[10] Blake, Elizabeth A. “Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground,” 2014, pg. 92.

[11] Jay, Jennifer. “Dostoevsky and Autobiography — Prison.” Middlebury College.

[12] Morton, Gary Saul. “Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” Encyclopædia Britannica.

[13] Blake, Elizabeth A. “Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground,” pg. 44.

[14] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The House of the Dead, pg. 209.

[15] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The House of the Dead, pg. 210.

[16] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, pg. 73.

[17] Pavone, Sabina, and John P. Murphy. The Wily Jesuits and the Monita Secreta: The Forged Secret Instructions of the Jesuits: Myth and Reality, pg. 221.

[18] Morton, Gary Saul. “Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” Encyclopædia Britannica.

[19] Blake, Elizabeth A. “Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground,” pg. 85.

[20] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment, pg. 38.

[21] Blake, Elizabeth A. “Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground,” pg. 201.

[22] Rickard, J. “Polish-Muscovite War, 1609–1619.” History of War, July 26, 2007.

[23] Chauhan, Yamini. “Time of Troubles.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014.

[24] Even though the real Dmitry actually died in 1591.

[25] Chauhan, Yamini. “Time of Troubles.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2014.

[26] Dunning, Chester. “A ‘Singular Affection’ For Russia: Why King James Offered to Intervene in the Time of Troubles.” Russian History 34, no. 1/4 (2007), 279.

[27] Dunning, Chester. “A ‘Singular Affection’ For Russia: Why King James Offered to Intervene in the Time of Troubles.” Russian History 34, no. 1/4 (2007), 280.

[28] Flynn, James T. “The Role of the Jesuits in the Politics of Russian Education, 1801–1820.” The Catholic Historical Review 56, no. 2, pg. 260.

[29] Flynn, James T. “The Role of the Jesuits in the Politics of Russian Education, 1801–1820.” The Catholic Historical Review 56, no. 2, pg. 261.

[30] Flynn, James T. “The Role of the Jesuits in the Politics of Russian Education, 1801–1820.” The Catholic Historical Review 56, no. 2, pg. 263.

[31] Flynn, James T. “The Role of the Jesuits in the Politics of Russian Education, 1801–1820.” The Catholic Historical Review 56, no. 2, pg. 260.

[32] Harrison, Elizabeth. “The Image of the Jesuit in Russian Literary Culture of the Nineteenth Century.” Modern Languages Open, no. 1 (2014), pg. 10.

[33] Fink, A.H. “The Importance of Conspiracy Theory in Extremist Ideology and Propaganda.” Leiden University, April 16, 2020, pg. 107.

[34] Fink, A.H. “The Importance of Conspiracy Theory in Extremist Ideology and Propaganda.” Leiden University, April 16, 2020, pg. 89.

[35] Fink, A.H. “The Importance of Conspiracy Theory in Extremist Ideology and Propaganda.” Leiden University, April 16, 2020, pg.110.

[36] Serfdom was abolished just before this in 1861.

[37] Fink, A.H. “The Importance of Conspiracy Theory in Extremist Ideology and Propaganda.” Leiden University, April 16, 2020, pg. 110.

[38] Fink, A.H. “The Importance of Conspiracy Theory in Extremist Ideology and Propaganda.” Leiden University, April 16, 2020, pg. 113.

[39] Fink, A.H. “The Importance of Conspiracy Theory in Extremist Ideology and Propaganda.” Leiden University, April 16, 2020, pg. 110.

[40] Fink, A.H. “The Importance of Conspiracy Theory in Extremist Ideology and Propaganda.” Leiden University, April 16, 2020, pg.110.

[41] Fink, A.H. “The Importance of Conspiracy Theory in Extremist Ideology and Propaganda,” pg. 108.

[42] Fink, A.H. “The Importance of Conspiracy Theory in Extremist Ideology and Propaganda,” pg. 120.

[43] Blake, Elizabeth A. “Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground,” pg. 66.

[44] Dostoevsky was born in 1821.

[45] Marullo, Thomas Gaiton. Religion & Literature 47, no. 3 (2015), pg. 158.

[46] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Citizen, 1873, pg. 138.

[47] St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources. The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms: A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts, 1996, pg. 1.

[48] St. Louis: The Institute of Jesuit Sources. The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus and Their Complementary Norms: A Complete English Translation of the Official Latin Texts, pg.2.

[49] Morton, Gary Saul. “Fyodor Dostoyevsky.” Encyclopædia Britannica.

[50] A Writer’s Diary was published in 1873, but it was written periodically in the years leading up to 1873. With this in mind, the contents of the work do not represent Dostoevsky’s perception of the Jesuits in 1873, but rather his perception of the Jesuits in the years leading up to 1873.

[51] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. A Writer’s Diary, pg. 110.

[52] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. A Writer’s Diary, pg. 107.

[53] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. A Writer’s Diary, pg. 58.

[54] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. A Writer’s Diary,pg. 59.

[55] Blake, Elizabeth A. “Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground,” pg. 113.

[56] Blake, Elizabeth A. “Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground,” pg. 141.

[57] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Demons, pg. 451.

[58] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Demons,pg. 323.

[59] Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Demons,pg. 272.

[60] Blake, Elizabeth A. “Dostoevsky and the Catholic Underground,” pg. 141.