F. M. Dostoevsky and A. S. Khomyakov: comparison at a distance

The article is aimed at finding the meeting points between the world view of F. M. Dostoevsky and the philosophico-historical heritage of A. S. Khomyakov. Dostoevsky's texts contain a lot of direct and indirect references at the works of the mastermind of Slavophilism; the writer was acquainted with his philosophico-historical and theological writings as well as the poems. For instance, the article makes an analysis and comparison of two closely related questions in social and political essays of Dostoevsky and Khomyakov: the focus on Russian culture compared with the European one and contrasting Orthodoxy with Catholicism. Proceeding from two core themes of Dostoevsky essays, namely, the identification of Russian civilization against the European one and the criticism of Catholicism, the given research taking into consideration existing significant similarities with Khomyakov's works seeks to specify some terms and stylistic techniques through the use of which these ideas become more accurate in Dostoevsky's essays, particularly in “A Writer's Diary”.