I'm 18. I got that part of C&P, how Raskolnikov was too nihilistic and miserable but was saved by the power of Sonya's love and redeemed through Christianity. I guess Dosto was telling nihilistic dudes to leave their toxic views behind and renew themselves into better men, come back from "the dead" like Lazarus - who is directly referenced in the novel- "the dead" in this case being the nihilistic/atheistic state of mind that Raskolnikov was suffering from. He told us how the power of love could save us from such things. Svidrigailov, a nihilist like Raskolnikov, could not redeem himself as he had no one to love him, and his ideology ultimately lead to him committing suicide, a warning from Dostoevsky to nihilists about how their views can lead to such a fate if left unchecked.
Comparatively, I understood Notes better. I admittedly reflected on that novel way more, and what I understood from it was that Dostoevsky was telling us how irrational human beings are, how philosophical ideas/theories that rely on human beings being rational are useless because of this. The Underground Man is meant to be an example, he contradicts himself constantly, he does things against his self interest, he's a "paradoxalist" as Dostoevsky calls him. He was telling us to get our heads out of ideologies, to leave behind "bookish" ideas and actually live real life, as seen from the Underground Man's final rant "... For we have arrived at the point where we look at "real life" as toil, almost compulsory service, and all of us privately agree that "life" as we find in books is so much better." - kind of ironic, considering that he is telling us this via a book, but I suppose that fits with the theme.
Also, is it just me, or is the book supposed to be somewhat humorous? The Underground Man is just one big joke. The whole scene he recalls with the guard bumping into him, that was definitely supposed to be humorous, considering how absurd it all was. Our poor anti-hero goes insane over bumping into some stranger, obsesses over it for years, and when he finally achieves his ridiculous goal of getting "revenge", the man completely ignores him. I guess Dostoevsky had a thing for dry humour.
I have to re-read it, and probably C&P. I should start taking notes.
I'll definitely learn more about the man himself. I know he was mocking the wannabe-western "intellectuals" that were cropping up in his era, who were, I assume, young guys adopting silly theories from the west. I actually see something very similar in my own country, many young people are adopting western ideas like feminism, liberalism, secularism (*especially* secularism), and this is creating a divide between them and the more conservative part of our society, who believe that such western ideas are unfit for us and go against our religion etc. I can understand how Dostoevsky felt, even though I don't know much about the history of Russia at that time.