Undoubtedly, Dostoevsky’s works have a great influence on the worldview and in particular the linguistic
image of the world of modern Russian people, so it is interesting to consider basic concepts of Russian linguistic culture in Dostoevsky’s writings. The aim of this study is to identify the features of the representation
of the concept of fate in the works of this great writer. The subject of the study is the contexts in which the
keyword судьба ‘fate’ is used in Dostoevsky’s novels The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. In the paper, the
authors analyzed 40 examples of the contextual use of this concept in the first and 57 examples in the second
work as well as its synonyms доля ‘share’, жребий ‘lot’, удел, участь ‘destiny’, провидение ‘providence’, and
рок, фатум ‘doom’.
In the paper, the methods of conceptual and contextual analysis are applied. The conceptual component
of the concept of fate in Dostoevsky’s works is presented as a sequence of events in a person’s life and after his
death in the form of a soul, so it is related to the concept of God. The figurative component of the concept of
fate in Dostoevsky’s works is expressed by the idea of fate as a living being that can actively perform any actions in relation to a person, for example, to be favourable to him, or, conversely, cruel. The value component
of the concept of fate in Dostoevsky’s works is mainly represented by a description of what a person can do
with his own fate and the fate of other people, for example, to share their fate with them or to take part in the
fate of others as well as the idea of the justice of fate, associated with the idea of the justice of God’s judgment.
In Dostoevsky’s works, special importance is given to the idea of introducing one person to the fate of
another person. The most terrible punishment for a person is the indifference of others to his fate. At the
same time, in Dostoevsky’s works, one can clearly trace the attitude towards fate as predestination, or as
something that can be fought or somehow influenced. Different characters show different patterns of behaviour in this regard. Through the concept of fate, the writer-philosopher expresses the main ideas of his work:
the achievement of spiritual harmony through the unity of people and the idea of each person’s personal
responsibility for their own fate and the fate of other people, and the idea of the justice of God’s judgment
and the injustice of human judgment.