Rossiia i Evropa

On the reception and transformation of Russian literature in Azerbaijan in the post-Soviet period

“…Two monographs by Mahrug Tagieva, published in 2019, are devoted to questions of the reception of the Russian writer's work. The interest in Dostoevsky was justified not only by the profound psychologism and religious content of his prose, the interesting judgments of the author and his characters on the fate of Russia, but also by the controversial statements about the place and role of his homeland in Europe, about the special position of Russia between Europe and Asia, largely in tune with the postulates and thoughts of philosopher N. Danilevsky, author of "Russia and Europe" [4], in which he didn't single out Turks as a separate cultural-historical type, but listed them among the peoples-destroyers of world civilizations. In our opinion, Dostoevsky's reasoning (enticing idea of "all-Slavic unity" and "acquiring Constanti-nople", along with the Marmara Sea coast and access to the Mediterranean) does not stem from the real historical relations between Russia and the Turkic world, but embodies the Russian Orthodox Church's thesis of returning Istanbul and is in close contact with Peter the Great's will be regarding this issue.…”