Justice and how to attain it in Russian literature and film

This dissertation, “Justice and How to Attain It in Russian Literature and Film,” examines the national idea of justice and its correlation with the concepts of law and mercy in nineteenth‐ and twentieth‐century Russian literature and film. It posits justice as a moral, socio‐political and legal concept, as well as one that is inseparable from the “eternal questions” of Russian thought, such as the “unique Russian path,” “Russia and the West,” and “the people vs. the state.” Russian law‐related literary and cinematic works are analyzed in conjunction with their Anglophone counterparts, which highlights the “law‐justice paradigm,” legal nihilism and patrimonialism characteristic of Russian legal thought and the canon of Russian law-related literature. ❧ More specifically, this work focuses on literary and cinematic texts, which, in contrast to the Russian legal canon’s pessimistic treatment of law‐related themes, see justice prevail. Such a positive outcome becomes possible because it is assumed from the start that justice is unattainable through the standard judicial process, and so alternative methods of attaining it are used. Each of the three chapters of the dissertation, devoted to Pushkin, Leskov and Nikita Mikhalkov respectively, explores one way of attaining justice: by appealing to the authority’s mercy, by clever legal tricks and by resorting to vigilante justice. ❧ What unites the works analyzed in this dissertation, besides the fact that they all provide an account of the triumph of justice, is that none of them present justice as the ultimate goal but rather as a mere byproduct of a simple act of charity. This implicitly confirms Georgii Fedotov’s hypothesis about the amalgamation of justice and mercy as a characteristic feature of Russian legal thought. Moreover, all analyzed texts evince skepticism about the power of the word, reasoning and rhetoric in legal issues: the word and verbal activity never help one to attain justice but rather obstruct it. These two insights into the specificity of the Russian understanding of law, justice and mercy constitute the basis for the present research.

本博士论文题为《正义及其在俄罗斯文学与影视中的实现路径》，旨在探析19至20世纪俄罗斯文学与影视中的民族正义观念，及其与法律、仁慈概念之间的关联。本研究将正义界定为兼具道德、社会政治与法律属性的概念，且其与俄罗斯思想界的诸多“永恒命题”密不可分，诸如“独特的俄罗斯道路”“俄罗斯与西方”以及“人民与国家的对立”。本研究将俄罗斯涉法文学与影视作品与其英语世界同类作品对照分析，借此凸显俄罗斯法律思想与俄罗斯涉法文学经典所特有的“法律-正义范式”、法律虚无主义（legal nihilism）及家产制（patrimonialism）特征。
具体而言，本研究聚焦的文学与影视文本，与俄罗斯法律经典对涉法主题的悲观叙事形成鲜明反差，这些文本最终呈现了正义得以伸张的结局。此类正向结局之所以能够成立，是因为文本从开篇便设定：通过标准司法程序无法实现正义，故而需借助替代性手段达成正义。本论文共设三章，分别以普希金、列斯科夫及尼基塔·米哈尔科夫为研究对象，逐一探析三种正义实现路径：诉诸权威的仁慈、运用精妙的法律策略，以及采取私刑正义（vigilante justice）。
本研究所分析的诸多作品，除均展现了正义的胜利之外，还有一个共同特征：无一将正义视为终极目标，而仅将其视作单纯慈善行为的附带产物。这一结论隐性印证了格奥尔基·费多托夫（Georgii Fedotov）提出的假说：正义与仁慈的融合是俄罗斯法律思想的典型特征。此外，所有被分析的文本均体现出对语言、理性论证与修辞在法律议题中作用的怀疑态度：语言与言语活动非但无助于实现正义，反而会阻碍正义的达成。这两项关于俄罗斯对法律、正义与仁慈之认知特殊性的核心洞见，构成本研究的立论基础。