Poets of the Underground: Dostoevsky and Egor Letov

• In Event: Dostoevsky on the Margins

Abstract

In my paper, I study Dostoevsky’s influence on the leader of the Siberian punk rock movement Egor Letov of the band “Civil Defense.” In the 1980s, Siberian punk was an important part of the political counter-culture that participated in the undermining of the Soviet regime during its last years, contributing to its eventual collapse. Analyzing Letov’s song lyrics, interviews, and essays published in rock samizdat periodicals, I demonstrate that Letov referred to Dostoevsky refracted through the prism of Western existentialism to re-conceptualize Siberian punk as a universal (“metaphysical”) protest rather than political dissent. This existential dimension of Letov’s works, I argue, allowed Siberian punk to retain its counter-cultural identity and inter-generational appeal even after the fall of the USSR. However, both Dostoevsky and existentialism help us understand the mechanisms that make Letov’s philosophical rebellion inseparable from politics. Just like Albert Camus, Letov praises Kirilov from Dostoevsky’s Demons who commits suicide to protest universal injustice, proving his “new terrifying freedom” and ultimately becoming a “man-god” in his eyes. The psychology of ressentiment (Nietzsche, Scheler) coupled with authoritarian ambitions hidden behind such protest implies not only self-destruction but also aggression and violence. Siberian punk demonstrates how an inherently anti-totalitarian movement may paradoxically contribute to a philosophical justification of political authoritarianism and aggression.

Author

• Vladimir Ivantsov, Oberlin College