1. Context and Synopsis
    • Original title: “Бесы” (Bésy; often translated “Demons” or “The Devils”), serialized 1871–72.
    • Historical backdrop: post-Emancipation Russia (1861), rising radicalism and nihilism.
    • Plot outline: A provincial town becomes the stage for a conspiracy led by Pyotr Verkhovensky, who manipulates disaffected intellectuals (notably the charismatic Nikolai Stavrogin) to foment chaos and revolution.

  2. Principal Characters
    – Nikolai Stavrogin: enigmatic nobleman, embodies spiritual apathy and moral ambiguity.
    – Pyotr Verkhovensky: radical agitator, represents manipulative political fanaticism.
    – Shatov and Kirillov: conflicting voices—Shatov rejects radicalism for Orthodoxy, Kirillov pursues suicide as “ultimate freedom.”

  3. Key Themes
    a. Nihilism and Violence
    – Ideological vacuum leads to terror as “the only decisive act” (Kirillov’s logic).
    b. Faith versus Doubt
    – Shatov’s appeal to Russian Orthodoxy clashes with the radicals’ atheistic materialism.
    c. Moral Responsibility
    – Stavrogin’s passivity underscores consequences of spiritual indifference.

  4. Literary Significance
    • A prescient critique of revolutionary terror; influenced later political fiction (e.g., Solzhenitsyn).
    • Psychological depth anticipates modernist concerns with inner conflict (see Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time, 2010).
    • Structural innovation: polyphonic narrative weaving personal drama and political intrigue (cf. Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of “polyphony,” 1975).

  5. Reception and Legacy
    – Controversial at publication for its scathing portrayal of radicalism; later hailed as Dostoyevsky’s most prophetic work on ideology run amok.
    – Continues to be studied for its insights into the roots of totalitarianism and the psychology of extremism.

References for Further Reading
• Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time (2009)
• Gary Saul Morson, “Polyphony and the Poetics of Freedom in Dostoevsky’s Demons,” Slavic Review, 1979

  1. Part I – The Chest and the Conspiracy
    • Nikolai Stavrogin returns to his native town and reacquaints with Varvara Petrovna and her adopted daughter, Marya Lebyadkina.
    • Pyotr Verkhovensky reveals his plot to exploit disenfranchised students and townspeople in order to spark a revolutionary upheaval.
    • A mysterious chest arrives from Moscow containing radical propaganda and weapons—symbol of the coming insurrection.

  2. Part II – The Secret Society
    • At a clandestine meeting in the woods, Pyotr recruits local intellectuals (including Stepan Trofimovich’s son Ivan Shatov and the nihilist Kirillov).
    • Shatov reproaches Stavrogin for moral emptiness and denounces revolutionary violence; Kirillov sketches his philosophy of suicide as “absolute freedom.”
    • De Boudin (an émigré informer) confesses he’s paid by the police—inciting paranoia and splitting the group.

  3. Part III – Personal Torments
    • Stavrogin’s past sin against Marya is revealed: he married her under false pretenses, then abandoned her, precipitating her mental collapse.
    • A town gala ends in chaos when radical pamphlets are distributed; Stepan Trofimovich’s reputation is ruined by Pyotr’s manipulations.
    • The “plot” takes on a life of its own as each conspirator pursues his private obsessions rather than a coherent political program.

  4. Part IV – Escalation and Tragedy
    • Kirillov, convinced that his self-murder will inaugurate mankind’s liberation, shoots himself—fulfilling the group’s darkest logic.
    • Shatov, betrayed by a friend, is kidnapped and later found strangled; his death marks the point where ideology turns murderous.
    • The town’s elite fracture: Princess Verkhovenskaya (Pyotr’s mother) commits suicide, overwhelmed by shame and grief.

  5. Part V – Collapse of the Revolt
    • Pyotr’s planned uprising dissolves in confusion—support evaporates when violence turns indiscriminate.
    • Stavrogin, confronted with the carnage he has enabled, confesses to his mounting guilt. He flees, leaving revolution and personal demons behind.
    • The novel closes on the defeated conspirators, the ruined town, and the unanswered question of moral and spiritual renewal in Russia.

References
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Devils (Demons), tr. Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky (1994)
• Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time, Vol. 2 (2010)

  1. Who Is Kirillov?
    • A former engineer and one of Pyotr Verkhovensky’s circle of conspirators.
    • Obsessed with the idea that true freedom lies in conquering the fear of death.

  2. Core Philosophy
    • Suicide as “absolute freedom”: by killing himself, he believes he overthrows God’s ultimate claim on human life.
    • Rational act, not despair—he views it as the final proof of human will.

  3. Role in The Devils
    • Intellectual foil to Shatov’s Orthodox faith and Stavrogin’s passivity.
    • His planned self-murder is pitched as the surest revolutionary act—sparking others to follow.
    • When he carries out the deed, it marks the moral nadir of the novel’s nihilistic logic.

  4. Thematic Significance
    • Embodies the extreme consequences of 19th-century Russian nihilism (no transcendent values ⇒ violence).
    • Anticipates existentialist explorations of self-determination (compare Camus on “philosophical suicide”).
    • Dostoyevsky’s warning: an ideology that denies God yet glorifies the self can only end in self-destruction.

Further Reading
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Devils, Part II (Kirillov’s monologue)
• Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time, Vol. 2 (2010) – pp. 435–450

Back to Graph