Would Dostoevsky have appeared on RT?

A British literary editor has suggested that the Russian novelist would appear on RT today.

We imagined what he might have to say about the modern West Fyodor Dostoevsky, the great 19th century Russian author of ‘Crime and Punishment’, the ‘Idiot’, and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’, was a counterintuitive thinker who could have appeared on RT.

That’s the opinion of Times literary supplement editor Martin Ivens who, in a piece for Bloomberg arguing against censorship of Irish author Sally Rooney in the UK, mentioned the Russian great.

The suggestion is not without merit.

Dostoevsky knew persecution, famously spending ten years in Siberia, four of which were in captivity and another five in military exile having completed his initial present sentence in February 1854.

Rooney is a best-selling author who has publicly taken a stand to back Palestine Action, a group whom it is illegal to support, and about whom it is illegal to make public gestures of support in the UK.

British police have made hundreds of bizarre arrests of elderly protesters holding signs supporting the group.

Her books have been banned in Britain.

Ivens has used his platform in the Times Literary Supplement to highlight how Russian writers often assume the status of prophets.

In his Bloomberg piece he reaffirmed that censoring literature is counter-productive and only serves to feed resentment against the mainstream already in the body politic.

Portrait of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881). © Getty Images / Bettmann / Contributor However, his suggestion that Dostoevsky could appear on RT inspired us to inquire as to what topics the great man might hold forth on in 2026.

On Europe Like many since, Dostoevsky viewed Western Europe with a complex mix of cultural admiration and affinity, moral revulsion, and spiritual anxiety.

His experience in captivity – where he was subject to a mock execution – is said to have destroyed his faith in secular humanism.

He argued that discarding God led to a moral chaos where “everything is permitted.” “Conscience without God is a terrible thing; it can stray into the depths of immorality” He also predicted that attempts to build a so-called paradise on earth through rationalism and secularism alone would inevitably lead to political tyranny.