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Abstract: The article examines the influence of Plato’s Republic on Dostoevsky’s late novels. The role of the dialogue in the ideological discourse of Europe and Russia in the mid-nineteenth century is highlighted, and references to it in Dostoevsky’s five major novels and draft notebooks are traced, confirming the writer’s acquaintance with Plato’s work. The core analysis draws parallels between the socio-philosophical treatment of the concept of justice in the dialogue The Republic and Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. Thus, at the beginning of the dialogue, Socrates’ opponent Thrasymachus advances the thesis of the harm and uselessness of justice for ordinary citizens, and in the process of substantiating it nearly anticipates the main provisions of Raskolnikov’s theory. Socrates, in turn, refutes Thrasymachus with arguments like those addressed to Raskolnikov. The common vector of Dostoevsky’s and Plato’s interpretation of the theme of justice is shown. However, there is also a crucial difference: for Dostoevsky, a higher, divine standard of justice exists, one by which social justice must be measured. Dostoevsky’s characters often seem locked in a struggle with God — a God who permits real injustice—and they draw varying conclusions from this predicament, some even choosing to wage war against Him. For Plato, justice is the harmony of good human will that everyone should strive for in the real world, building a good society with their own hands: it is something fully comprehensible and reasonable for the intellect.

Keywords: Plato, The Republic (dialogue), idea, politeness, hero-ideologue, criticism of socialism, God-bearing people, Crime and Punishment (novel).