The Image of the Grand Inquisitor in State and in Revolution. The Political Theology of Dostoevsky and Berdyaev

   Politics and religion have always been very closely intertwined in all the writings of Dostoevsky, but in his “Legend of Grand inquisitor” this connection is explored in a more fundamental manner for the first time. Apart from the idea of a direct causal relationship between religious and political concepts, quite prominent in the writings of Dostoevsky, The Legend of Grand inquisitor contains a more complex inquiry concerning the nature of political power in general. The researchers of Dostoevsky who have spotted this line of inquiry could not formulate it explicitly, and the political theologists who gave it an explicit formulation did not fully explain or develop it further. As such, a detailed and explicit politico-theological interpretation of Dostoevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor have not yet been formulated. The Grand inquisitor urges the people to submit to him voluntarily; thus, the three temptations — which form the foundation of his power — can be interpreted not only as certain instruments of enslavement, but also as elements of a social contract that would allow the sovereign-inquisitor to take responsibility for the salvation of people who relinquished their freedom to him. This interpretation also implies that the temptation of the Grand inquisitor is prominent in any earthly authority. Dostoevsky’s own proclamation of personal freedom would consequently also lead him to claim that any earthly power — any institution that exchanges earthly goods for human freedom — is wrong and unnecessary. Nicolai Berdyaev further develops these politico-theological intuitions of Dostoevsky as a critique of the Soviet government, which he claims to be the closest representation of the Grand Inquisitor in human history. Berdyaev points to the central role of the inquisitor’s three temptations in the formation of a “religion of socialism” and also draws an association between the tragedy of the Grand inquisitor — whose utopian intentions only lead to the further enslavement of people — with the failure of the Soviet enlightenment project.

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