The Possessed/The Devils

 Commentary magazine: Gary Saul Morson on the classic tale of woke totalitarianism written in Russia 150 years ago.

An excerpt:

From the meeting’s first moment, young people vie to outdo each other repeating revolutionary clichés taken as scientific fact, including the necessity of abolishing every religion, all traditions, and received morality. At last, an ideologue named Shigalyov insists on explaining his irrefutable “system” for establishing earthly paradise.