№ 1, 2018 year

Two figures of Russian history — Count G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko and Prince V. F. Odoevsky — have been considered up to now the prototypes of the protagonist of Dostoevsky’s novel “The Idiot”. This opinion was conditioned by similar biographical events and traits of their characters and appearance. This article offers a new approach to the problem: spiritual life of a real person may be prototypical. Thus, E. A. Stackenschneider, Dostoevsky’s good acquaintance, represents a personality extremely exciting for the author of “The Idiot”: a handicapped person due to the insolence of Nature, who is deprived of a right for mere human happiness, she is experiencing and overcoming the metaphysical insult complex embodied in a variative way in the images of Ippolit Terentyev and Prince Myshkin in the novel. The diary of E. A. Stackenschneider (including its pages not published up to now) renovates the conception of the life context of the novel “The Idiot” and verifies the author’s claim about a non fantastic character of his hero.the novel “The Idiot”, prototype, Prince Myshkin, Ippolit Terentyev, diary of E. A. Stackenschneider, life context, literary image

The article studies international and political commentaries by S. A. Nikolaevsky published under the cryptonym of S. N. in the journal “Grazhdanin” in 1872—1873. Based on the study of archival materials and autobiographical remarks in the journal articles we have identified the personality of that little known employee of “Grazhdanin”: his first name and father’s name, an approximate time of birth and an exact date of death, his network of acquaintance, activity etc. The opinion, that was earlier made public, about the using of the pseudonym of Dorogobuzhsky tourist by Nikolaevsky is considered here and is recognized hardly probable. The question about the authorship of “Political Review” in issue 10 of “Grazhdanin” of 1873 and of two anonymous publications topically correlated to the reviews by Nikolaevsky — a series of sketches “What did the death of Napoleon III in France result in” (1873 № 2) and the article “France” (1873. № 21) — is discussed. The probable authorship of the last two texts is attributed to the publisher of “Grazhdanin” V. P. Meshchersky.S. A. Nikolaevsky, the body of authors of “Grazhdanin”, international review, epistolary, attribution

The article reviews the so called “Kumanin heritage case” which left a significant mark in biography and works of F. M. Dostoevsky. The “great importance” of the help that the writer had been receiving from wealthy Moscow relatives Kumanins throughout almost all his life is disclosed on the basis of nonficional materials. But monetary and estate heritage turned out to be “unlucky” for him, as V. M. Karepina pointed it out. As it resulted from Dostoevsky’s correspondence with his brothers and sisters, the archival materials, documents presented in a number of historical and biographical researches as well as from the court records with regard to that case, he became a victim of circumstances and intrigues. This viewpoint that is confirmed, in particular, by the story of his debt to the Ivanovs. Their relations failed to stand against the Kumanin “case” and led to a tragic outcome — death of the writer. In conclusion the article specifies the issues for further studying of the “the Kumanin heritage case” from the moral and legal points of view and in terms of its reflection in writer’s works, in which the motif of the “fateful heritage” has an important narrative and ideological meaning.F. M. Dostoevsky, “the Kumanin case”, biography, M. M. Dostoevsky, debt, A. F. Kumanina, heritage, A. P. Ivanov, trial, family

One of the particular features of the Dostoevsky family’s handwritten archive is that it contains documents containing verbatim records. This is the diary of Anna Dostoevskaya of 1867, rough novel “The Brothers Karamazov”, “A Writer’s Diary”, a series of memorial and business records made by the writer’s assistant. Most of these documents were deciphered in the 1950s—1970s by Ceciliya Poshemanskaya, however, there are documents, lines, words, left undeciphered or presumably deciphered while those deciphered require critical analysis. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the decoding of the transcripts of Anna Dostoevskaya 150 years since their creation, whether it is possible to repeat the experience of Ceciliya Poshemanskaya today. To achieve this goal, the main features of the stenographic system by Dostoevsky’s wife were identified, and difficulties in reading her transcripts were spotted. Anna Dostoevskaya used the German Gabelsberger cursive shorthand system adapted for the Russian language by Pavel Olkhin and currently forgotten. But she also updated this shorthand for her own use, inserting some logical acronyms “Samoslovy” inventing a “system in the system”, and thus, making the task of reading her transcripts more complicated. Our attention is focused on the earliest of A. Dostoevskaya’s shorthand documents still existing — the first part of the diary deciphered and edited by her and Ceciliya Poshemanskaya which provides a “key” to all the shorthand notes of the writer’s wife. Our experience of the work upon the given autograph showed that the methods employed by Ceciliya Poshemanskaya, more specifically the compilation of abbreviations dictionary used by Anna Dostoevskaya in her work and the use of this dictionary in further decryption, is still relevant today, especially due to the possibility of using modern digital technologies. The article presents excerpts from unknown archival materials of Anna Dostoevskaya and Ceciliya Poshemanskaya, shapes a plan in the study of verbatim records of Anna Dostoevskaya.shorthand, decryption, F. M. Dostoevsky, Anna Dostoevskaya, diary, Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, Pavel Olkhin, Ceciliya Poshemanskaya

The article explores some archival sources concerning St. Petersburg line of the Dostoevskys. Based on the original documents thirty three records from parish registers and lists of the deceased, kept in the Central State Historical Archive of Saint Petersburg, were published and analyzed. All the records are reproduced with the indication of the archival storage sites. Their studying allows considering the given archive as a valuable source of the documentary data on Dostoevsky’s genealogy and his family entourage. The documentary information on the burial at the Smolensk, Bolsheokhtinsky Georgievsky orthodox cemeteries in Saint Petersburg and at the cemetery of the Novodevichy Voskresensky monastery (Central State Historical Archive of St. Petersburg, Funds 457, 641 and 639) for the first time was introduced into scientific use. Two younger brothers and sister of F. M. Dostoevsky, their relatives (the Dostoevskys, the Rykachyovs, the Golenovskys, the Shevyakovs, the Stavrovskys), the descendants of the elder brother (the Dostoevskys, the Vladislavlevs) were buried there, as well as the relatives of the writer on the part of Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya (the Snitkins). Based on these documents some biographic data, presented by previous researchers, have been revised or updated.the Dostoevskys, the Golenovskys, the Shevyakovs, the Stavrovskys, the Snitkins, lists of the deceased, parish registers, the necropolis studies, archives