How Tolstoy argued with Dostoevsky in his novel ‘Resurrection’

His personal library contained copies of ‘Crime and Punishment’ and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’ with numerous annotations and he repeatedly returned to them in his diaries and letters. For example, he called the opening chapters of ‘Crime and Punishment’ a masterpiece, though this did not prevent him from immediately criticising them for stylistic sloppiness and psychological artificiality. Tolstoy experienced Dostoevsky's death as a personal loss, calling him "the closest, dearest and most important person".

It was precisely this closeness, coupled with a profound divergence of views, that gave rise to the phenomenon of "rewriting". While Dostoevsky, in ‘Crime and Punishment’, explores the inner source of evil in the soul of an individual (Raskolnikov's rebellion against God and conscience), Tolstoy, in ‘Resurrection’, shifts the focus to the social nature of crime. According to Tolstoy, the primary evil is rooted not so much in the individual soul, as in a corrupt social order.

Another important point of contention between the writers is their reinterpretation of the plotline from the novel ‘The Idiot’. In Dostoevsky’s novel, Prince Myshkin attempts to save the fallen Nastasya Filippovna, even though he had no part in her downfall. In ‘Resurrection’, Prince Nekhlyudov himself seduces Katyusha Maslova, then repents and attempts to atone for his guilt.

Finally, the novel ‘Notes from the House of the Dead’ had a profound influence on Tolstoy's novel. He reread it and called it a "wonderful, edifying" book. It was from this work that he drew much of his views and perspective on the prison world and the disproportion between crimes and their subsequent punishments. As literary scholars note, ‘Resurrection’ is one classic's creative response to another. Tolstoy agrees with Dostoevsky on the main point – the necessity of moral rebirth through suffering – but proposes a different path to achieving this.