The article proposes a new interpretation of F.M. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment”. It is shown that in addition to realistic and socio-psychological plans, the novel contains a symbolic and mystical plan, which is the main one. A detailed analysis of the text of the novel and the preparatory manuscripts for it suggests that Dostoevsky used as the basis of the novel the Gnostic myth of our world as the creation of the evil God the Demiurge and of the fallen Sophia (lower divine aeon), who was captured by matter and awaiting the Savior (Jesus Christ), who is to be born in the world itself, to realize his destiny and, having found Sophia, unite with her in an act of mystical love (syzygy). The mythological image of the Savior, Jesus Christ, expresses Raskolnikov, the main character of the novel. The article proves that the murder committed by a hero can be explained as an inevitable and tragic consequence of the dual nature of any person: he has not only a higher principle, arising from a connection with the good God the Father, but also a lower, dark beginning, created by the evil Demiurge. Therefore, in his action, man inevitably brings not only good, but also evil. Raskolnikov in his fate reveals the tragedy of a man who seeks to change the world of evil by his actions, and shows a universal way out of this tragedy - the acceptance of the full responsibility for what is happening in the world and the all suffering. In this sense, it exactly matches the image of Jesus Christ in its Gnostic understanding.
The article deals with the symbolic meanings that the images of America and Switzerland have in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky. It is shown that the meanings of these two images are interconnected and constitute a dialectical contradiction, and each image, in turn, has two contradictory meanings - positive and negative. America acts, on the one hand, as a symbol of the openness and freedom of man, his desire to build the future on his own, but, on the other hand, it expresses a dead-end path of development based only on material values. Switzerland embodies the ideal of spiritual development, which is the inner essence of European civilization, but at the same time it symbolizes the patriarchal, sinless state of man, which does not correspond to real earthly life. Switzerland is the ideal of the heavenly state of an earthly person, but this ideal is impossible in real life. The tragedy of the impracticability of this ideal is most clearly demonstrated by Dostoevsky through the story of Prince Myshkin in the novel The Idiot.
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