The article examines the validity of the interpretation of the character image of Pavel Smerdyakov in F.M. Dostoevsky's novel “The Brothers Karamazov” as a “man of ressentiment”. In this regard, the author analyzes the value content of F. Nietzsche's and M. Scheler's concept ofressentiment. The author substantiates that at the center of this concept isthe image of an aristocratic “lord”, from whose position any attempt by a“slave” to gain dignity is regarded as a manifestation of mental and physical deficiency – ressentiment. The article shows that Dostoevsky really brought out Smerdyakov as a type that has a great resemblance to the “manof ressentiment”, but is not reduced to it. The reason for the cardinal differences is that Dostoyevsky's character, permeated with ressentiment, is placed in a value universum in which the haughty, lordly gaze that seeks ressentiment in others is not encouraged. Dostoevsky sympathized too much with the humiliated and insulted and he identified with them too clearly to consistently take the position of a Nietzschean-Schelerian aristocrat searching for ressentiment in a rebellious slave.
Smerdyakov; smerdyakovism; Nietzsche; Scheler; Dostoevsky; ressentiment; normative model.