Swallowed whole. That’s how Ivan Matveich’s St Petersburg adventure began. He’d been teasing a crocodile at a department store. Now he found himself inside its belly.
The Crocodile in this story isn’t just any reptile. It’s a symbol. A symbol of Russia’s complex relationship with the outside world. A Russian civil servant swallowed by a German-owned crocodile. That’s the absurd heart of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s famous story “The Crocodile”.
Dostoevsky’s tale isn’t about the horror of being eaten alive. Instead it’s a biting satire. Ivan finds the crocodile’s interior surprisingly comfortable. His new home is warm and surprisingly spacious. He even starts to enjoy his unusual situation.
His wife Elena is beside herself. She desperately wants him rescued. She pleads with the crocodile’s owner. The owner refuses to harm his valuable pet.
Society outside the Crocodile is suddenly less appealing. Ivan’s meager salary doesn’t compare to the potential riches he could gain from his unique predicament. The Crocodile becomes a symbol of unexpected opportunity. Perhaps even a pathway to wealth.
Ivan even strikes a deal with the Crocodile. He becomes one with his unusual prison. Ivan feeds the Crocodile himself. In return the Crocodile protects him. A bizarre symbiotic relationship blossoms. It is a commentary on the economic principles of the time. Foreign capital and Russian ingenuity. A bizarre twisted partnership.
Newspapers like the Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti and Golos published articles on the strange situation. The economic implications were hotly debated. Foreign investment. Russian citizens. A strange new reality.
Ultimately Dostoevsky’s “The Crocodile” isn’t just a strange tale. It’s a sharp commentary. A commentary on Russia’s economic anxieties and its uneasy relationship with Europe. The Crocodile becomes a metaphor for the unknown. The unpredictable nature of life itself.