Dostoevsky and World Culture Dostoevsky and World Culture 2619-0311 2712-8512 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2018-1-168-183 Articles Dostoevsky in Jacob Wasserman's Works Krinicyn Alexander B. fedor@dostmirkult.ru 2021 1 1 168 183 Wasserman Dostoevsky modernism a philosophical novel national agenda religion ideology psychological insight Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The article analyses the reception of Dostoevsky’s works by Wasserman. Comparison of the writers’ ideologies shows that they both protested against the suppression of human individuality by society and shared the concept of every person’s responsibility for the whole humanity. Yet, Dostoevsky’s Christian philosophy was alien to Wasserman, who, due to his negative attitude to religion, puts nature and “the truth of life” in Russo’s sense in the first place. In “Kaspar Hauser” Wasserman uses Dostoevsky’s character of “the positively good and beautiful man” from “The Idiot”. The article looks at convergence between Dostoevsky and Wasserman both in the novel poetics (lengthy dialogues, confessionary monologues, detective plot combined with philosophical content) and typology of characters. A character-ideologist is easily recognized in many of Wasserman’s characters, who are possessed by some idea (like Etzel Andergast, Mauricius-father, Kaspar Hauser, Agathon Geyer) or inspired by images of their grandeur (Alexander the great, Nothaft, Varemme, Ervin Reiner). At the same time Wasserman continues to depict the “humiliated and insulted” poor folk, which is another convergence with one of Dostoevsky’s types.