Page 10 - GALIET BENEATH THE ICON: The Lamp Dostoevsky´s Kirillov IV

freedom). In the end, we shall discover how the lack of definite proof that God exists tortures him and how detrimental it proves for Kirillov to become a slave to his own master ideology. Kirillov is pushed by Peter against the “gun and the wall”. Kirillov’s tragedy is that he shoots himself on principle and dies an absurd and meaningless death amidst the red chaos of the Russian soul.
From the onset of the novel, we are told of Kirillov’s ambivalence about God and his struggle between being and not being. In Dostoevsky and Suicide,6 Shneidman suggests that there are different hypotheses as to Kirillov’s prototype:
“Kel’siev suggests that Kirillov is modeled after P.I. Krasnopevtsev, an artillery office who committed suicide. Gorssman presumes that Timkovsky, a member of the Petrashevsky circle, is the prototype for Kirillov...according to other hypothesis, the beliefs of Kirillov resemble closely those of one of the members of the Nechaev circle, Malikov, who has adopted the ‘New Religion’ according to which as soon as man believes that he possesses the qualities of God, all evil will disappear and life on earth will become paradise. Dostoevsky apparently sees the resemblance...he writes down in his notebook for 1875-76 that ‘I was told that Kirillov is not clear. I could tell you about Mal’kov (sic)’.”7
6 Shneidman, N.N. Dostoevsky and Suicide. London: Mosaic Press. University of Toronto. 59
7 Shneidman, N.N. Dostoevsky and Suicide. London: Mosaic Press. University of Toronto. 58
• 10 •