Retired captain Lebyadkin is perhaps Dostoevsky’s most insignificant, most worthless character. He is called a rogue, a scoundrel, a jester, a Falstaff, at whom “everyone laughs and who himself allows everyone to laugh at him if they pay money.” He lives in dirty rooms with torn wallpaper, sleeps on a filthy floor, and whips his foolish sister with a whip in the mornings and evenings. This “military-aesthetic” man does nothing but drink wine, talk about the “freedom of a social wife,” scatter revolutionary leaflets and write poems, which he himself values immensely. In Dostoevsky’s novel “Demons” (1871), he is assigned a secondary role, but he hardly plays one in reality, and therefore all the “unimaginable nonsense” that this seemingly insignificant character spouts is curious. Meanwhile, his reasoning is so deep and philosophical, that it’s time to talk about the integral and organic philosophy of Captain Lebyadkin. Possessing the ability for self-analysis and clear formulation of postulates, he sets out his existential philosophy with utmost clarity. His worldview, or rather the artistic presentation of his idea, which touches on the very foundations of human existence, is at the center of philosophical and scientific discussions of the era. Russian poets of the 20th century - Alexander Blok and Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Zabolotsky and Nikolai Oleinikov - show genuine interest in the work of the retired captain. Moreover, Captain Lebyadkin becomes a real phantom of today's life. The most insignificant, the most worthless character of Dostoevsky, against the will of his creator, turns into a really existing poet: he is quoted in the same way as some classic of literature is quoted. In short, the work of Captain Lebyadkin has such an unusual influence on the future that it is of serious interest to us: what kind of truth does this home-grown sage preach.

Evgeniy Lukin. The philosophy of Captain Lebyadkin. St. Petersburg, publishing house "Union of Artists", 2006.