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ELECTION 2016

How Dostoevsky Predicted

Trump's America
"Demons" warns readers about the destructive force of
demagoguery and unchecked rhetoric.
By Ani Kokobobo / The Conversation

August 24, 2016

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As a professor of Russian literature, Ive come to realize that its never a good
sign when real life resembles a Fyodor Dostoevsky novel.
Donald Trumps presidential campaign, with its riotous rhetoric and steady
stream of scandals, calls to mind Dostoevskys most political novel, Demons,
written in 1872. In it, the writer wanted to warn readers about the destructive
force of demagoguery and unchecked rhetoric, and his cautionary messages
largely in uenced by 19th-century Russian political chaos resonate in our
present political climate.
To show his readers just how bad things could get if they didnt pay attention,
Dostoevsky linked his political nightmare to unhinged impulses and the
breakdown of civility.
A passion for destruction
Dostoevsky was as addicted to newspapers as some of us are to social media, and
he often plucked crises and violence right from the headlines, refashioning them
for his ction.
Russia during the 1860s and 1870s the heyday of the authors career was
experiencing massive socioeconomic instability. Tsar Alexander IIs Emancipation
of the Serfs freed Russian peasants from a form of class bondage, while the
subsequent Great Reforms aimed to restructure the executive and judidical
branches, as well as the military, tax code and education system. The reforms
were supposed to modernize the country by dragging it out of the caste-like
system of estates and legal privilege. But it didnt do much to improve the
economic lot of the peasant.
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It was a reversal of Americas present political landscape. While today theres

simmering discontent from the right, in 19th-century Russia it was leftists who
were enraged. They were angered by the reforms for not going far enough and
had lost hope in the governments ability to produce meaningful change.

Sergei Nechaev in uenced Dostoevskys Pyotr Verkhovensky.

Wikimedia Commons
One of the only unifying ideas among the more radical left-wing political factions
of the period was the belief that the tsarist regime must be eliminated. Important
public gures, like Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin, advocated for destruction
of the status quo as an end greater than all ideologies. As Bakunin famously
exhorted: The passion for destruction is a creative passion, too.
Bakunins conviction that a new world could rise only from the ashes of tsarism
was actually put into practice by his one-time disciple, Sergei Nechaev, who was
the inspiration for Dostoevskys protagonist in Demons, Pyotr Verkhovensky.
A slippery slope from incivility to violence
In 1869, Nechaev orchestrated the murder of a young student, an event that so
shocked and angered Dostoevsky that it became the basis for Demons.
The novel begins in a boring provincial backwater inhabited by middle-aged
people and ineffectual young liberals, all engrossed in their romantic lives. Pyotr
Verkhovensky arrives and persuades many of these same characters to join his
underground revolutionary society. Passions are stirred and the local order
destabilized as the town enters a downward spiral that concludes with arson and
several murders.
Whats most relevant to our time in Demons is not its ideologues but the antiintellectual and impulse-driven nature of Pyotrs rebellion. In Pyotr, Dostoevsky
created a demagogue and pure nihilist, a political gure who appeals to peoples
baser desires. Under his in uence, the townspeople lose all impulse control and
grow reckless, rebelling against all conventions of decency for a good laugh. At
one point they desecrate a sacred icon; at another, they gleefully gather around
the body of someone who has committed suicide and eat the food hes left
behind.
If their pranks, insults and disorder seem harmless, the decline in the level of
public discourse act as a precursor to the violent and destructive acts at the
novels conclusion. A skilled psychological writer, Dostoevsky never saw violence
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How Dostoevsky Predicted Trump's America | Alternet

as divorced from normal human behavior. Whats most haunting about his works
is just how close otherwise ordinary people are from doing extraordinarily awful
things.
In Demons, narrative tensions escalate in a deliberately gradual way. What
begins as minor impoliteness becomes scandal, arson, murder and suicide.
Dostoevsky is essentially saying that criminal acts are rooted in social
transgression; uncivil behavior facilitates scapegoating, dehumanization and,
eventually, violence.
Make America Great Again!
Donald Trumps unconventional campaign for president powerfully evokes
Dostoevskys novel. Aside from his pro-gun and anti-immigration positions,
Trump doesnt offer many concrete political plans. As we evaluate what
motivated 14 million Americans to vote for him in the primaries, we might
consider new research showing that his candidacy has a primarily emotion-based
rather than ideological or economical appeal. There are notable antiestablishment sentiments among his supporters; many are disaffected, middleaged white people who believe that American institutions arent working on
their behalf.
And while his notorious campaign motto Make America Great Again is framed
in a positive way, it actually advances a version of Bakunins creative destruction.
It stands for purging the establishment, for recreating a nostalgia-tinged version
of some lost, past America. Weve already seen this destructive drive in its more
Nechaevist, low-brow form at Trump rallies, where several people have been
attacked.
Theres another aspect of Trumps popularity that ties him to Dostoevskys
Demons. Trump, in the way he carries himself, embodies the complete
disavowal of impulse control we see in the novel. Unlike most political
candidates, he speaks off the cuff, simultaneously re ecting and stoking the
anger and pessimism of his supporters.
For instance, he said he wanted to hit some of the speakers who criticized him
at the Democratic National Convention; in his words, theres anger, a need to
provoke and deep-seated irreverence. His supporters feel empowered by this.
Without weighing his policies, theyre viscerally drawn to the spectacle of his
candidacy, like the townspeople following Pyotr Verkhovensky in Demons who
delight in the gossip and scandals he creates.

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How Dostoevsky Predicted Trump's America | Alternet

To complete the parallel, we might turn to the novels ending, which could have a
sobering effect. Basic incivility gives way to an anarchic vision of creative
destruction; many die or lose their minds due to Pyotrs machinations. At one
point, seemingly without thinking, crowds crush a female character to death
because they falsely believe shes responsible for the violence in town.
When audiences at Trump rallies verbalize violence by screaming Lock her up
and Kill her, or when Donald Trump either wittingly or unwittingly
advocates Second Amendment violence, I wonder whether they arent coming
dangerously close to the primal violence of Demons.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original
article.

AniKokoboboisAssistant Professor of Russian Literature, University of Kansas.

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