The present essay aims to assess the efficacy of hermeneutical principles developed by Italian microhistory scholars in the analysis and interpretation of Russian culture during the Imperial era, both in its individual facets and in the overarching perspectives that emerge from them.
The example under examination is Dostoevskii’s povest’ The Landlady (Khoziaika, 1847). It is dissected as a juncture between diverse political and intellectual currents: on one hand, the Fourierist utopianism, and on the other, the idea of liberating human personality as advocated by Russian Westernizers influenced by Hegel’s philosophy of history. This intersection of ideologies, both familiar to the young Dostoevskii, enables us to fathom the metaphorical construct of the povest’, which would otherwise remain rather enigmatic. It also allows us to define its overarching meaning: an acknowledgment that, given the social and political conditions prevailing in Russia at the time, every attempt at progress is destined for futility.