№ 3, 2024 year

Only F. M. Dostoevsky’s brief message speaks about the completion of his play “Jew Yankel” in January 1844. The article formulates three hypotheses/assumptions about the content of the drama. The first correlates the writer’s idea with the literary tradition of portraying a Jewish moneylender, laid down by Shakespeare (“The Merchant of Venice”), Walter Scott (“Ivanhoe”), Pushkin (“The Miserly Knight”) and Gogol (“Taras Bulba”). The humanizing effect of V. Scott’s novel is emphasized. The second version associates Dostoevsky’s Yankel exclusively with the homonymous character from Gogol’s story, first published in 1835. It is proposed to take into account the author’s revision of the story for the 1842 edition, in which Yankel, in the process of building up the epic potential of the work, is endowed with a powerful vital resource and rises to the role of the antagonist of the title character. The third hypothesis refers to the trial of the Jews in the town of Velizh, who were accused of the ritual murder of a Christian child and acquitted many years later. Yankel Aronson died under investigation, which was conducted by inhumane methods. Evidence is provided to confirm that Russian society became aware of these events. The painful end of the Jewish youth could serve as a source of drama, structured with a focus on the writings that made a strong impression on Dostoevsky at that time: “The last day of a man sentenced to death” by V. Hugo and the melodrama “Ugolino” by N. Polevoy. All three versions confirm that pity was not only one of young writer’s motives, but also the ontological basis of his creative universe. The scientific significance of each of the proposed hypotheses also lies in the fact that their deployment allows to expand the understanding of the potential sources of the writer’s work, to reveal an unknown or little-known historical and cultural context of his early, least studied period.F. M. Dostoevsky, the lost play, hypotheses, the image of the Jew, sources of creativity, W. Shakespeare, W. Scott, N. Gogol, V. Hugo, N. Polevoy, the motive of pity

An article by S. B. Fedotova “Samson or Simeon? (on the name of the stationmaster in Pushkin’s story),” which served as the reason for this publication, was published in No. 2 of the Russkaya literatura for 2024. This article examines the paradoxical variability of the name of the title character (Simeon/Samson) in the story “The Stationmaster” in the 1830s editions and analyzed the reasons for this circumstance. The noted textual incident acquires special significance due to the fact that Pushkin’s work is read by the hero of Dostoevsky’s novel “Poor Folk” (1846) Makar Devushkin, speaking in his correspondence with Varenka Dobroselova about the caretaker Vyrin as an authentic image of himself. Devushkin repeatedly refers to Pushkin’s character as Samson Vyrin. Commentators of “Poor Folk” have long established that the hero of “Poor Folk” reads “The Stationmaster” in the first separate edition of 1831, where, however, as it turned out, the character’s name is Simeon. This contradiction is analyzed in the article in the light of the creative history of Dostoevsky’s first novel.Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Poor Folk, Stationmaster, Devushkin, Vyrin, artistic onomastics, textual criticism

F. M. Dostoevsky’s epistolary legacy includes more than 2000 letters from the writer and his correspondents. One of Dostoevsky’s correspondents in 1871‒1874 was V. I. Gubin, a lawyer, Dostoevsky’s attorney in the case against the publisher F. T. Stellovsky. He also advised the writer at the initial stage of the Kumanin inheritance case. One letter from Dostoevsky to Gubin and 15 letters from Gubin to Dostoevsky are known. V. I. Gubin’s letters allow us to complete the image of Stellovsky, a notorious speculator in the publishing business and reveal how the writer’s trial against his publisher proceeded. At the end of 1870 Stellovsky released Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” as the fourth volume of the writer’s Complete Works. For this publication, according to the agreement dated July 1, 1865, Stellovsky was obliged to pay the writer 870 rubles, but he cheated Dostoevsky. Having lost all hope of solving the case peacefully, Dostoevsky launched court proceedings against Stellovsky. First, his stepson P. A. Isaev became the writer’s attorney, and then the role was assumed by Ap. Maikov, who hired lawyer V. I. Gubin at Dostoevsky’s request. The proceedings against Stellovsky, which began in 1871, dragged on for almost 5 years. Judging by Gubin’s letters, who Dostoevsky said “ruined everything,” both the slowness of the bailiffs, to whom the attorney was forced to pay bribes, and the inability to determine the identity of the publisher’s guardians for a long time hindered the process. Gubin also suspected collusion between official authorities and the relatives or guardians of Stellovsky, who since 1872 could no longer take part in the trial himself, as he was being treated in a psychiatric hospital. One of Stellovsky’s guardians, N. M. Sokovnin, settled with Dostoevsky only in 1876. The appendix to the article contains letters from Dostoevsky and Gubin, each letter is accompanied by a textual reference and a commentary.F. M. Dostoevsky, V. I. Gubin, F. T. Stellovsky, A. N. Maikov, P. A. Isaev, N. M. Sokovnin, epistolary legacy, litigation

The concept of “citizen” in Russian has a long history. The dictionary of the Russian language of the 11th — 17th centuries notes the first use of the word in the 11th century: citizens were called townspeople, members of the city community. At the same time, the metaphorical meaning of the word was noted, when the righteous and saints were called “heavenly citizens.” In the 18th century, the word “citizen” acquired a wide range of meanings, including eminent and honorable citizens, merchants, bourgeois, artisans and other city dwellers. By the 1830s, a citizen was perceived as a patriot and defender of the fatherland. In the theological tradition, the concepts of “citizen” and “Christian” emerged as identical. These were the meanings of the word in Russian society. The title became the key to the direction and agenda of V. Meshchersky’s weekly “Grazhdanin” (“The Citizen”). Dostoevsky shared the mission of the publication. The idea of being a citizen was at the root of Dostoevsky’s work. It explained his ideological position during his testimony in the Petrashevites’ case, in his political poems of 1854–1856, in his journalistic works of 1860–1865, 1873–1874, in “The Writer’s Diary” of 1876–1881. The concept of a citizen is based on his recognition of the unity of creativity and journalism. Dostoevsky is characterized by a Christian, not class-based, understanding of citizenship, an understanding of the citizen as a Christian, which was expressed in the ideas of Russian statehood. Citizen Kuz’ma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky, who overcame the Time of Troubles, Empress Catherine the Great, who gave instructions, writers and poets Gavriil Derzhavin, Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolay Nekrasov expressed the conciliar ideal of the people — the state, political, patriotic, Christian ideas of Russia. The ideal and ideas are expressed in the concept of fellow citizens. This is a special type of community: not people, but citizens, not citizens, but fellow citizens. They were not only just townspeople (urban dwellers), but also peasants, merchants, nobles, priesthood — in a word, representatives of all of Russia’s social classes. Their ideas determined the content of “Grazhdanin” (“The Citizen”).F. M. Dostoevsky, V. P. Meshchersky, weekly publication, Grazhdanin, The Citizen, concept, citizen, idea, conception

The article provides an analysis of texts by F. M. Dostoevsky, in which he as editor and author of the “Foreign Events” column in the weekly “The Citizen” analyzed desperate attempts of the Roman pontiff Pius 9th to regain the secular power in the young Italian kingdom, which he had lost in 1870. The writer’s complex attitude towards Italian Old Catholics is considered against the background of their dialogue with the Holy Synod and the coverage of the Correspondence of the Prior of the Roman Embassy Church Archimandrite Alexander with Metropolitan Isador, the first Metropolitan of the Holy Synod. On the one hand, Dostoevsky appreciates the old Catholics’ intention to pass into the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church, on the other hand, he sympathizes with the persecuted Catholic clerics. Describing their attempts to restore the secular power of Pius 9th, Dostoevsky links their actions with the pontiff’s claim to world domination, about whose danger he warns as emphatically in the weekly as in his works, comparing his attack to the Apocalypse, and his very identity with the Antichrist. According to the writer, France’s support for the politics and the papal throne of Pius 9th holds a threat of a military clash between France and Germany.Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Citizen, Grazhdanin, problems of attribution, the Italian kingdom, foreign chronicles, geopolitics, Vatican prisoner, archimandrite Alexander Kulchitsky, metropolitan Isidore Nikolsky, Italian old Catholics

Dostoevsky’s interest in art is undeniable. Painting, music, and theater were reflected in his works of art. Dostoevsky’s wife, Anna Grigorievna, regularly mentioned in her memoirs the couple’s visits to museums and galleries during their stay in Europe. Certain works of art had a strong impact on the writer. Such an effect was produced on Dostoevsky by Hans Holbein the Younger’s painting “The Dead Christ.” In “Grazhdanin” of 1873, when the writer served as the editor of the publication, notes and articles appeared devoted to reviews of exhibitions, paintings, and photographs from the Hermitage collection. The authors published in “Grazhdanin” — A. N. Maikov, V. P. Meshchersky, and I. Yu. Nekrasov — addressed painting in their publications. Dostoevsky devoted the ninth chapter of “The Writer’s Diary” to the St. Petersburg exhibition, prepared for display in Vienna. He was interested in issues related to the misunderstanding of Russian art by other cultures. Art criticism in the weekly “Grazhdanin” took various forms. The authors of “Grazhdanin” published both general reviews and topical articles. Expressing paintings and photo reproductions through words is a difficult task even for experienced art critics with specialized art history training. A. N. Maikov acted as a scrupulous reviewer, noticing small but vital details in understanding a painting. The critic turned to the historical context to expand the image. In their examination of the latest events in Moscow and St. Petersburg, I. Yu. Nekrasov and V. P. Meshchersky respectively focused on art news. In Dostoevsky’s verbal description, paintings came to life and became dynamic. Writers were often unconcerned with the image details; they sought to convey strong and vivid artistic impressions in words.Dostoevsky, Grazhdanin, The Citizen, painting, A. N. Maikov, V. P. Meshchersky, I. Yu. Nekrasov, art, photography, poet, artist

A. S. Pushkin had a great influence on the development of Russian culture in the 19th century, including book publishing. Pushkin’s motifs and images have repeatedly appeared in the works of F. M. Dostoevsky. The last year of the writer’s life was marked by the triumphant “Pushkin’s Speech,” which turned the overall idea of Russian literature upside down. A. G. Dostoevskaya, who began an active bibliographic and publishing life after the death of her husband, followed the tradition of Pushkin’s publications in it. By the time the Complete Works of F. M. Dostoevsky were published, Pushkin studies had already actively solved textual problems, thereby facilitating subsequent researchers and publishers to work on compiling collections of works and bibliographies of writers. Systematizing her husband’s collected materials, A. G. Dostoevskaya focused on the bibliographic index of Pushkin’s works “Puschkiniana,” compiled by V. I. Mezhov. This is evidenced by the notes she made in her notebooks. The main consultant to the writer’s widow, who for several years had been independently preparing the first bibliography of Dostoevsky for publication, was P. A. Efremov, bibliographer, Pushkin scholar and editor of the Complete Works of A. S. Pushkin. In the poet’s anniversary year of 1899, A. G. Dostoevskaya published Dostoevsky’s Pushkin’s Speech in a separate edition, calling it “Pushkin” and thereby contributing to the celebration of the founder of Russian literature. Pushkin’s work played a significant role not only in Dostoevsky’s biography and literary legacy, but also in the bibliographic and traditional activities of the writer’s wife.A. G. Dostoevskaya, A. S. Pushkin, notebook, bibliography, Pushkiniana, collected works, textual criticism, Pushkin’s speech, publishing, Pushkin studiesё

Anatoly Koni was not only a judicial, state, public and scientific figure, a teacher, but also a writer who left his memoirs of figures of Russian culture and deserved the recognition of his contemporaries. They nominated him for the Nobel Prize in Literature, elected him a member of the jury of the Pushkin Prize in Literature, an honorary academician of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in the category of fine literature, an honorary member of the Pushkin Lyceum Society and a freelance employee of the Pushkin House. The article pays special attention to the beginning of the literary activity of lawyer Anatoly Koni. The reason this talented judicial speaker tried his hand at writing was the sudden death of Fyodor Dostoevsky. These two outstanding contemporaries were linked by a friendship that lasted from 1873 until the writer’s death. They met at court sessions at the trials of Vera Zasulich and Ekaterina Kornilova, made a joint trip to the colony of juvenile lawbreakers, and in the late 1870s lived nearby and had the opportunity to visit each other. The lawyer’s literary career began in 1881, with a speech about Dostoevsky as a criminologist, which later became a repeatedly reprinted essay. The article examines the autograph of the speech, preserved thanks to the writer’s widow Anna Dostoevskaya, and reveals the main features of Kony’s artistic skill, reflected in his subsequent creative works: the influence of his legal profession on literary work, his preference for an impassioned style and didactic pathos, the use of figurative means of expression, and biblical allusions. Koni constantly reworked, supplemented and repeatedly republished his memoirs about Dostoevsky, but they were generally structured into three original essays included in his collected works: “Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky,” “F. M. Dostoevsky,” “More About Dostoevsky.” These texts analyze the work of the author of “Crime and Punishment” from a legal professional’s point of view, and also note the characteristic features of the writer and the person — “a model and a great teacher.” It was in the essay on Dostoevsky that Kony’s talent of an inspired writer was discovered, but Anatoly Fedorovich himself also played an important role in Dostoevsky’s life and work, honestly revealing to the writer the contradictory features of the Russian justice system and being an example of an excellent lawyer. The study uses a wide range of archival and memoir sources: the autograph of the speech of Anatoly Koni about Dostoevsky, his memoirs, the lawyer’s correspondence with members of the Dostoevsky family, notebooks and memoirs of Anna Dostoevskaya.Anatoly Koni, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ivan Turgenev, Anna Dostoevskaya, literature, justice, writer, artist, thinker, lawyer, criminologist, autograph, essay, memory, notebook

Dostoevsky’s literary debut was his epistolary novel “Poor People.” Epistolary genres and subgenres are vital in many of the writer’s works. It can definitely be argued that Dostoevsky’s literary talent initially manifested itself in his letters to his brother Mikhail in 1838. Despite the ironic criticism of the genre, the author without any modesty called his letters “masterpieces of belles lettres.” This borrowing from the French chefs-d’euvre de la lettristique characterizes the young writer’s degree of ambition. The letters of Dostoevsky and his correspondents constitute a significant part of his literary heritage. They carry a huge aesthetic and artistic potential, which is underestimated in many ways. Critics and readers do not see the author as a poet and an artist, while Dostoevsky is a genius in any genre: whether novels, essays, feuilletons, or letters. The list of Dostoevsky’s correspondents included hundreds of addressees: extended family and relatives, friends and acquaintances, readers and fans, writers, critics and publishers, creditors and loan sharks, students and students of Higher women’s courses. Many of the writer’s interlocutors were prominent personas in Russia. Young women and divorced ladies wrote to him, asking for advice and guidance, and sometimes expecting mentoring in literary verse and prose work. The writer awakened in them the gift of words, imagination, and critical judgment. His readers comprised many who were congenial to the author. There are twelve works in Dostoevsky’s corpus of texts that he called novels, two of them epistolary — “Poor People” and “A Novel in Nine Letters.” There are more of them, if we turn to the writer’s epistolary legacy. Dostoevsky and his correspondents wrote letters, and they often served as the foundation of epistolary novels. The epistolary genre multiplies the collection of Dostoevsky’s novels, expands and enriches the creative legacy of the genius.epistolary, letter, message, genre, subgenre, epistolary novel, Dostoevsky

On September 4, 2024, Dmitry Andreevich Dostoevsky, the only great-grandson of the great Russian writer, who served selflessly on behalf of his great—grandfather, died at the age of 80. During his life, he gave more than one hundred interviews, led tours of the Dostoevsky Museum, starred in the film "Boys" based on the novel "The Brothers Karamazov", participated in scientific and public events in memory of the writer, made presentations and articles about A. G. Dostoevskaya. His grandfather is F. F. Dostoevsky, the son of the writer and A. G. Dostoevskaya, father — A. F. Dostoevsky, an engineer by training, contributed to the opening of the Dostoevsky Museum in Leningrad, the preservation of its archive and the publication of the Complete Works of the writer, was the author of articles about A. G. Dostoevskaya. The publication is dedicated to the memory of D. A. Dostoevsky, who connected the current generation with F. M. Dostoevsky by a short thread.Dostoevsky, family, descendant, ancestor, obituary, memory