Yul Brynner
Yul Brynner portrayed Dmitri Karamazov in Pandro S. Berman's film version of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel, "The Brothers Karamazov." (Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
“For know, dear ones, that every one of us is undoubtedly responsible for all men and everything on earth, not merely through the general sinfulness of creation, but each one personally for all mankind and every individual man. This knowledge is the crown of life for the monk and for every man.”
– Elder Zossima, in “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1881)
I am re-reading “Karamazov” now, entranced by the compassionate actions and words of the fictional monk, Zossima, to whom nobles and peasants alike flocked for healing and wisdom. The author clearly aspired to Zossima’s example, while failing to live anything approaching such a saintly life himself.
New Burklo ident
The closest Dostoyevsky got to being truly “responsible for all men and everything on earth” was through his writing. And the reader of “Karamazov” takes on that responsibility with him by attending to his richly detailed descriptions of the play of summer sunshine on birch trees, the glow of a candle on an ikon, the subtle shifts of human emotion, the subplots and the sub-subplots of human affairs from the mundane to the portentous. The book as a whole is an act of compassion for the sum of the striving and the suffering of all beings on the planet.
One of Zossima’s fellow monks, Father Paissy, exhorted Alyosha Karamazov with these words: “..that science which has become a great power in the last century, has analyzed everything divine handed down to us in the holy books. After this cruel analysis the learned of this world have nothing left of what was sacred. But they have only analyzed the parts and overlooked the whole, and indeed their blindness is marvelous. Yet the whole still stands…”
Indeed, many of the parts of Christianity have deserved analysis, deconstruction, and re-interpretation - and some have merited abandonment altogether. Yet the whole still stands. Indeed, it still stands precisely because we have separated its myth from facts, so that we might more clearly see the profound truth in its myth.
At the end of the novel, a boy named Kolya mourned at the funeral of his schoolmate Ilusha. “Oh, if only I too could sacrifice myself someday for truth! …I would like to die for all humanity…”. Alyosha Karamazov, channeling the spirit of his beloved Elder Zossima, responded with loving words to Kolya and his friends. “…I cannot forget that all of you exist…” At the end of his speech to them, he said: “And now we go hand in hand.” The boys answered: “And always so, all our lives hand in hand!”
The mythic truth of the whole of Christianity, and of Dostoyevsky’s classic novel, is that the Christ sends us forth, hand in hand, to live and die for all humanity…
“History is written by the winners.” No one knows who came up with this oft-repeated truism.