[ilSignorCarlo]

Italian here: this really happened, but I think that both the tweet and the HN title are misleading.

Paolo Nori, an Italian writer, not a university professor, was supposed to collaborate with the university to hold a free 4-lesson course on Dostoevsky. The university originally decided to cancel the course and the writer published a video saying that he couldn't believe what they were doing and that, of course, the decision didn't make much sense. Many people protested and complained and the university went back on their steps, but said that Nori, besides talking about Dostoevsky should've also presented some Ukranian authors. Nori refused because, again, he thinks the request doesn't make sense and also he's not an expert on Ukranian literature and doesn't know any author.

It's still an absurd situation, but I don't know if it should be framed as a ban

[pphysch]

I doubt that the ultimate motive was to "present Ukrainian authors", because they could have done that by hiring actual experts in this space, or even just giving out free books by such authors.

It seems like the ultimate motive was to "ban Dostoevsky" and they pushed until they found a way to do so with plausible deniability. I.e. "We didn't do dismiss you, you just chose not comply with our unreasonable policy changes".

[ilSignorCarlo]

no, sorry, it's not like that. Paolo Nori, the writer who was supposed to hold the course, is a well known and loved writer in Italy. Besides being an expert on Russian literature, he's also funny and his lessons are special because he's doing them. The same course on Dostoevsky by any other professor wouldn't have gotten the same attention and interest

[hirako2000]

He meant they could have hired other experts to cover the Ukrainian course part. and kept Paolo for the Russian expertise part of the course. the university clearly wasn't interested in getting attention on what he had to say. precisely because what he had to say would gather much attention.

[rambojazz]

The way I understand this situation is not that that they wanted to "ban" Dostoevsky. Instead, they tried to postpone it in order to avoid any escalation or negative reactions given the current times. Still doesn't make sense but it's a very different reason.

[xhevahir]

While I agree that this action sounds ridiculous, Dostoevsky has other marks against him than his merely being Russian. Some Dostoevsky scholars published a statement here: https://bloggerskaramazov.com/2022/02/28/north-american-dost...

[penjelly]

wow i never got that impression when i listened to 2 of his books but reading that post they mention it's more in his journalistic pieces so its possible. Im not a fan of banning books, but this Dostoyevsky Society almost certainly knows his works better then me.

[xhevahir]

There's also his antisemitism and what you might call his Christian (specifically, Russian-Orthodox) chauvinism, and his hostility to Western culture. Like the bloggers say, he's not very consistent in his positions, at least when you consider his work as a whole--his so-called "polyphonic" approach involves putting several worldviews in conversation with one another and showing no obvious preference for one over the others.

Interestingly, the Soviets discouraged reading Dostoevsky, as opposed to his rival Tolstoy, whom they saw as amenable to a Marxist reading.

[chrisweekly]

+1 Thanks for the additional context.