Běsi – Dostojevskij Fjodor Michajlovič (2023)

A new, illustrated edition of one of F. M. Dostoevsky's peak novels, considered the author's "darkest and cruelest" prophetic work, is supplemented with dozens of original drawings by the renowned St. Petersburg painter and illustrator Mikhail Gavrichkov. ***** Dostoevsky's penultimate novel The Possessed, set in a fictional city of Tsarist Russia in the second half of the 19th century, tells the story of an attempt at a revolutionary coup that culminates in uncontrollable frenzy and a carnival of violence. The immediate inspiration for the plot of the novel was the well-known case of the murder of student Ivan Ivanov, orchestrated by the nihilist, anarchist, and revolutionary Sergei Nechayev. However, the "Nechayev case" served Dostoevsky only as a starting point for a deep probe into the political, social, philosophical, and religious thought of his time. The Possessed are of fundamental importance as one of the keys to understanding Russian society and Russia in general – a country haunted by demons that pursued Dostoevsky's homeland during his lifetime and continue to do so today… ***** As S. N. Bulgakov aptly noted, "The Possessed is a novel not about the Russian Revolution, but about the illness of the Russian soul." ***** Our edition is supplemented with an afterword by a contemporary Russian writer and philosopher…