№ 2, 2017 year

The primary focus of this article is to cast some light on the procedural aspects which resulted from the investigation into Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky's death. In this article we attempt to interpret the material evidence of the face-to-face interrogation of the two key witnesses to the case — Ivan Leibrecht and Vladimir Nechaev. The interpretation of the case is made based on the effective Russian legislation of the 1830s and the existing police investigation papers of the years 1839—1840. Thus, three main semantic lines of police inquiry have been disclosed, i. e. the cause of death, the source of the murder gossips (hearsay witnesses) and the problem of jurisdiction. Alongside this, discrepancies between the two legal bodies involved in the judicial proceeding — The Court of Kashira Uezd and Tula Criminal Chamber — have been brought to light.Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky, Darovoe, Cheremoshnya, legal text interpretation, homicide, investigation, procedural law

Mikhail Aleksandrovich Yazykov was not a writer, but he deserved well of Russian literature. This man was a friend and an assistant of talented writers that differed in characters and outlook, such as Ivan Panaev, Vissarion Belinsky, Ivan Turgenev, Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Alexander Herzen, Nikolay Ogarev, etc. Meanwhile, the scarce biographical data on his personality, available today, contain some mistakes (he is believed to have occupied an offi ce of his brother Pavel Yazykov, director of the Imperial Glass Factory, etc.). The acquaintance of Fyodor Dostoevsky with Mikhail Yazykov took place in the 1840s. The first mention of which appears in letters of the writer to his brother Mikhail in 1846. The recollection of one of their meetings on 1846–1847 Yazykov conveyed in his letter to the editors of the New Time (1881. No. 1799), where he testified that the writer suff ered from a mild form of epilepsy even before the period of hard labor in exile. Since the 1870s relations between Dostoevsky and Yazykov changed into friendship that lasted until the end of the writer’s life, as evidenced by their correspondence. So far, we have got acquainted with one letter of Dostoevsky to Yazykov and with seven letters of Yazykov to the writer. This article reveals new facts of the biography of Mikhail Yazykov, and what is more, represents the attribution of a letter to Dostoevsky dated back to October 14th, 1876, whose author was not identified before. This is the eighth letter of Mikhail Yazykov to the author of “A Writer’s Diary”. The appendix to the article contains the published correspondence between Dostoevsky and Yazykov and the letters of Nikolay Alfi mov to Dostoevsky and of Anna Butkevich to Mikhail Yazykov, and the letter to the editors of the “New Time” is reissued here.Fedor Dostoevsky, Mikhail Yazykov, Pavel Yazykov, “Otechestvennye Zapiski”, “Sovremennik”, “Circle of Belinsky”, commission office, correspondence, attribution, graphological analysis

In the framework of the study of the editorial archive of the daily “Grazhdanin” (1872-1879) there has been made an attempt of the commented publication of the letters of Shalikova N. P., writer, publicist, free-lance author of the journal “Grazhdanin”, to Dostoevsky F. M. (1815-1878). The article studies the question of the verification of the date put down on Shalikova’s letter to Dostoevsky – the 12th of April of 1877. The author’s date of the letter has been questioned twice, first by A.G. Dostoevskaya who dated it of 1872, and then, by researchers of the Manuscripts Department in the National Library of Russia and by the authors of the reference book “The Description of Dostoevsky’s Manuscripts” (Moscow, 1957), who dated the letter of April 12th, 1874. The analysis of the content of Shalikova’s letter and its comparison with other archival materials shows that the author’s date of the April 12th, 1877 is correct and does not need to be specified.N. P. Shalikova, A. G. Dostoevskaya, “Grazhdanin”, the collection of letters, chronological attribution

Based on the diaries, memoirs and letters of E. A. Stakenschneider we have revealed a kind of an ideologic novel with the plot concerning spiritual evolution of E. A. Stakenschneider from the revolutionary radicalism of P. L. Lavrov to the Christian conservatism of F. M. Dostoevsky. The problem of "teaching", spiritual leaders for the young generations of the 1860s and 1870s is evoked. Two "Thought Leaders ", who appreciated the spiritual beauty of a "smart hunchback", became her life teachers. She shared Lavrov’s opposition attitude, she was carried away by his uncensored poetry and learned the "practical philosophy" , she critically thought about his amazing width of views, about the combination of faith and scepticism, but the spiritual father of Lavrov considered "him to be a devoted Christian." An aesthetic insight of the young reader manifested itself in her comment made in 1861 about the originality of Dostoevsky’s style: "naturalness of unnaturalness". The experience of a handicapped taught her to deeply empathize with the misfortunes of others and rejoice in happiness of others. Having experienced the "truth" of atheism, she met "A Writer’s Diary" with enthusiasm, when the time of Dostoevsky came, who proclaimed the beginning of Christian anthropology. The article also puts forward a proposal that Elena Andreevna Stakenschneider could have become an archetype of Lisa Khokhlakova in the novel "The Brothers Karamazov".E. A. Stakenschneider, P. L. Lavrov, Fedor Dostoevsky, Christianity, nihilism, hedonism, conservatism, ego-document

While spending summer time in 1872—1880 in Staraya Russa F. M. Dostoevsky used to meet and to be on friendly terms with various people. Among his acquaintances in Staraya Russa there were priest Ioann Rumyantsev, lieutenant-colonel A. K. Gribbe and his niece A. G. Eliseeva, general E. I. Leontiev, actress of a resort theatre A. P. Orlova, bourgeois A. I. Menshova (the archetype of Grushenka in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”), journalist P. A. Gaideburov from Saint Petersburg, a married couple Jaclar. Moreover, his circle of acquaintances included the people hardly mentioned in the letters to his wife and those he could know by hearsay only. So, his relations with those people need further investigation. The present article shows the variety of Dostoevsky’s entourage. The contact with his neighbors could largely have an impact on the writer’s creative work.Staraya Russa, house of Dostoevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”, archives, memories, memory, priest Ioann Rumyantsev, A. K. Gribbe, P. A. Gaideburov, Dr. A. A. Rochel