How Russia’s darkest writer became trendy among British teenagers
Throughout December, the internet buzzed with surprise over the sudden popularity of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novella White Nights among British youth. Thanks to viral posts on TikTok, people in the UK quickly snapped up a new edition of the book. This phenomenon isn’t entirely surprising; social media can turn any topic into a trend overnight. However, it’s nice to think of White Nights as something special — an enduring fragment of Russian culture that can’t be dismissed. And that’s true.
White Nights has been adapted for film 30 times, with only five adaptations produced in Russia; the rest come from the United States, Spain, Italy, South Korea, India, and Germany. In just the past 20 years, this novella has been translated into English five times. There’s something about it that calls out for regular reinterpretation and revival.
The protagonist of White Nights, an unnamed narrator, is the quintessential lonely man. His life consists of solitary walks through the streets of St. Petersburg, so lonely that he talks to the houses, even worrying about one being repainted from pink to yellow. When he leaves the city, he imagines himself in Italy. His social exclusion is so deep that he cannot bring himself to greet the people he sees every day. For him, the truest loneliness is being surrounded by others but feeling invisible.
He is also poor. When he meets Nastenka, he’s behind on rent, hoping to pay his debt with his next salary – his only source of income. Even his basic needs are unmet. And after opening himself up to Nastenka, a young woman who is equally unhappy and trapped by her circumstances, he seems to have won her love. But this fragile hope is shattered when Nastenka’s former lover returns, and she instantly – almost reflexively – leaps into his arms, leaving the narrator heartbroken and permanently consigned to the “friend zone.”
This concept – the friend zone – is as relevant today as ever. The narrator becomes a “Schrödinger’s man,” simultaneously loved as a friend yet excluded from romantic partnership. He serves as confidant and emotional support but is ultimately sidelined. Initially content to be Nastenka’s friend, he quickly falls for her. She, in turn, agrees to love him – or so it seems – until the return of her true love abruptly ends the narrator’s dreams.
Nastenka herself is a complex character. She’s a kind, beautiful girl who has grown up pinned to her blind grandmother. Her most vivid memory is a trip to the theater to see The Barber of Seville. She falls in love easily, almost impulsively. Can we blame her for this?
The story’s themes – loneliness, unfulfilled longing, and social disconnection – resonate deeply with modern young people. A world reduced to mobile phone screens fosters isolation. Making social connections has become increasingly difficult for several reasons: the atomization of society into information bubbles and the rising cost of living, which often puts young people in debt before they’ve earned their first salary.
And then there’s the quest for love. Finding a partner through a mobile app might seem convenient, but the paradox is clear: the more efficiently one searches, the more fleeting the connections become. Experience grows, but happiness often remains elusive.
In this way, the three central themes of White Nights intersect: detachment from society, personal loneliness, and longing for the unattainable. These universal struggles speak directly to young people navigating the fractured social and economic realities of today.
In a world of limitless options and shaky opportunities, one can feel adrift in a social elevator that leads nowhere. Enter Dostoyevsky, traditionally seen as one of the darkest writers in literary history, offering a lifeline. He says, “You are not alone. People felt this way 150 years ago in St. Petersburg, and they survived.”
Dostoevsky’s work reminds us that loneliness, disappointment, love, and loss are intrinsic to the human experience. His message, delivered through the lens of Russian psychological realism, is one of solidarity: “You are not alone in your struggles.”
This is why Dostoevsky endures. White Nights offers a kind of artistic textbook for navigating loneliness and heartbreak. In an era dominated by short-form videos and viral trends, it’s remarkable that a 19th-century Russian writer has found his way into the hearts of British teenagers through TikTok. But perhaps it’s not so surprising after all. Dostoevsky speaks to the timeless and universal aspects of being human, and that’s something no algorithm can replace.
This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team
