The Role of the Old-Russian Virtues of Humility and Love in the Formation of the Conception of the “Human” in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Texts

The article examines the conception of the “human” established in the Russian publicism of the 16th century and its transformation in the literary space of F.M. Dostoevsky’s texts. The focus is made on the key meaning-formative elements of the conception of the “human”, i.e. the Christian virtues of humility and love. According to the author, the Muscovy in the 16th century was noted for a large number of historic personalities, including statesmen, who manifested these Christian virtues in their life and expressed their understanding of the virtues in their publicist and epistolary heritage. Moreover, the 16th century manifests its clearly soteriological trend and strong eschatological expectations, which considerably affected the key topics, ideas and images of Russian literature. The publicists of the Muscovy period regarded salvation as the main target of man’s earthly path which could be reached through fighting human vices and cultivating in yourselves Christian virtues, particularly, humility and love. A harmonic coexistence of a human with Tsar’s authority was considered by the 16th century authors as one of the conditions for salvation. The reflections of Russian publicists of the 16th century on humility and love as the key human virtues were manifested and transformed in F.M. Dostoyevsky’s historiosophical heritage, in his conception of the “human”, vividly represented in the writer’s works.