№ 3, 2023 year

Based on the digital archive of F. M. Dostoevsky, containing images and research transcripts of the texts of his notebooks (http://dostoevsky-archive.ru/), work was underway to create a commented corpus of the writer’s graphics in 2020–2023. This article discusses issues that have arisen in the course of practical work on filling the catalog of graphic samples, indicates possible ways to solve them, identifies ways to use the created online database. One of the main practical applications of the developed platform was the ability to use special tools to recognize hard-to-read Dostoevsky records. The choice of the description unit became important: instead of the minimum spelling unit — grapheme, the grammatical category of word forms was used. The emphasis on the word as the main unit of description created conditions for the gradual selection of material for an online dictionary of the writer’s manuscripts, if necessary, coordinating the requirements for graphics (as a description of the external features of the text, sketches) and grammar (as a structure-forming principle). The search for ways to solve the issues that arose resulted in the description of individual word forms: semantic homographs that are different parts of speech, suppletive forms of a word, proper names (including anthroponyms, toponyms, common names, as well as appellatives that are equivalents of proper names — this creates prerequisites for creating a dictionary of names inside the online dictionary of manuscripts). Structurally complex lexical units are also described as a single word form: polynomial synonyms, names, complex conjunctions and prepositions, introductory and phraseological combinations. A separate promising group for the study consisted of Dostoevsky’s author’s signs, hybrid in form: these include both words (“February”) and author’s signs (as symbols or proof-reading signs). When describing Dostoevsky’s calligraphic works, on the one hand, it became obvious that it was necessary to differentiate the variants of the writer’s calligraphic inscriptions, systematize the available knowledge about the peculiarities of his calligraphic handwriting and determine the criteria for selecting and describing the material. On the other hand, it turned out to be possible to use the samples already available in the database as the basis for the attribution of autographs and stationery copies in Dostoevsky’s handwritten legacy. Thus, the created electronic database of Dostoevsky’s graphics turned out to be the optimal platform for solving multidirectional tasks — codicology, textual studies, the study of the author’s language and style, attribution, scientific commentary, onomastics — and, thanks to the software potential embedded in it, has fairly extensive development prospects.Dostoevsky, notebooks, electronic catalog of graphics, textual studies, codicology, handwriting, cursive writing, calligraphy, onomastics, author’s marks, attribution, author’s style

The article carries out a handwriting examination of the manuscript of Dostoevsky’s third “Siberian Ode” “The Terrible War Has Fallen Silent!” (1856), stored in the Russian State Military Historical Archive. The need for such an examination is due to the fact that the manuscript is written in a special type of handwriting, which contains elements of calligraphy. In this type of handwriting, the outlines of many elements are oriented to the standards of calligraphic writing, fixed in textbooks, while the individual features of the writer’s handwriting are significantly weakened, making it difficult to establish the status of the manuscript — a copy of a scribe or an autograph (in our case Dostoevsky). The methodology of handwriting expertise was developed by the author in the article “Calligraphic Elements in Dostoevsky’s Handwriting as a Textual Problem” (Unknown Dostoevsky. 2022. No. 2), where the manuscript of the first “Siberian Ode” of the writer “On European Events of 1854” was analyzed, in determining the status of which opposing decisions were made in authoritative periodicals (white autograph/clerical copy). The examination proved that the manuscript of the 1854 poem was Dostoevsky’s autograph. This article is a direct continuation of the article written in 2022. The manuscript of the poem “The Terrible War Has Fallen Silent!” is written in a handwriting very similar to that of the first “Siberian Ode,” however, since its first publication in 1935 and to this day the status of the 1856 manuscript was that of a clerical copy. The conducted handwriting expert examination proved that the manuscript of the third “Siberian Ode” is a white autograph of Dostoevsky.F. M. Dostoevsky, The Terrible War Has Fallen Silent, On European Events of 1854, textual criticism, attribution, handwriting, calligraphy, fair copy, clerical copy, educational copybooks

Dostoevsky's handwriting has only recently become the subject of special research. This was facilitated by a number of tasks of studying the manuscript corpus of Dostoevsky's texts. Modern scholars often do not entirely know the grammar and graphics of the writer. A significant volume of Dostoevsky's manuscripts is written in illegible cursive. It is not always possible for researchers to confidently determine who created the handwritten text — the author or the scribe. In many cases, there is no relatively accurate printed reproduction of manuscripts. Some of the complex texts were read mistakenly. The use of digital technologies allows us to solve some of the research tasks. One of the auxiliary tasks is to study the typology of Dostoevsky's handwriting. By the 19th century, such common types of handwriting as cursive, tachygraphic writing and calligraphy had historically developed in Russia. There are different definitions of these concepts, but their meaning is most precisely explained by the semantics of words. The cursive reproduces the outlines of letters and words according to samples. Everyone learned to write properly according to cursive workbooks, but everyone had their own handwriting. In life, a person usually managed with one handwriting, as a rule, cursive. Tachygraphic writing is functional. Its task is to simplify the spelling of letters and speed up the writing process. Regular tachygraphic writing is legible, but rapid tachygraphic writing is not always legible. Calligraphy is often equated with cursive, but it was penmanship that was taught in cursive copybooks — beautiful handwriting according to the prescribed samples is dead. Dostoevsky wrote not by craft, but by inspiration, out of love for art. Patterns are excluded in Dostoevsky's calligraphy — it’s all about personal skill. It is enough to recall the multiplication of calligraphies by Myshkin in the novel "The Idiot". Dostoevsky adds four more original calligraphies to the five famous ones through Myshkin’s words. There is no such analysis in scientific literature. Dostoevsky aspired to a variety of handwritings. In his understanding, the letter expressed the spirit, the national character of a person and people, the meaning of speech and words. It is necessary to detail the types of Dostoevsky's handwriting.Dostoevsky, textual criticism, type, typology, handwriting, cursive, tachygraphic writing, calligraphy

The article aims to explore the correspondence between F. M. Dostoevsky and the famous artist and memoirist E. F. Junge, who was the wife of ophthalmologist Dr. E. A. Junge. Dostoevsky was Dr. Junge’s patient in the 1860s and 1870s. E. F. Junge met the writer in the last year of his life, and she was an admirer of his talent, as well as a correspondent. Two letters from E. F. Junge to the writer, sent in March and April of 1880, are known to exist. There are also two letters from Dostoevsky, one in draft form and the other a clean copy, dated April 10 and April 11 of the same year. The study places special emphasis on the autograph of Junge’s March letter to the writer. This letter was initially published by the bibliographer A. P. Novitsky in the preface to Junge’s memoirs, which were published in 1914. However, the autograph of the letter was subsequently lost. As a result, the letter written by Junge in March 1880 has been quoted from either the first publication or its republication, which was done in 1959 by A. S. Dolinin. In 2021, during the preparation of the description for “The Handwritten Legacy of F. M. Dostoevsky,” efforts were made to search for the document in the collections of the State Historical Museum, the Archive of the Russian Academy of Arts, and the Russian State Historical Archive. Unfortunately, this search yielded no results. The authors of the article eventually found a copy of the lost letter to Junge in A. G. Dostoevskaya’s notebook from 1881. Unlike Novitsky’s publication, this copy more accurately reflects the original letter. Therefore, the source for any future publications of the lost letter of Junge should be considered the copy found in A. G. Dostoevskaya’s notebook. The article also analyzes letters from the 1880s–1890s addressed to A. G. Dostoevskaya from E. F. Junge, as well as from A. I. Tolstaya (her mother) and A. P. Novitsky. For the first time, a donation inscription to Novitsky from the writer’s widow on the title page is published. The annex to the article includes three documents: a list of the March 1880 letter from E. F. Junge to Dostoevsky, taken from his widow’s notebook; a response letter from the writer, which reflects the edits he made and indicates errors in previous publications of the letter; and a letter from A. P. Novitsky to A. G. Dostoevskaya dated April 25, 1897.A. G. Dostoevskaya, F. M. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, E. F. Junge, E. A. Junge, A. I. Tolstaya, A. P. Novitsky, textual studies, letter, autograph, copy

“Soil” (“pochva”) as a metaphorical name for the political and literary direction of the “Vremya” (“Time”) and “Epokha” (“Epoch”) journals was the subject of newspaper and journal polemics in many periodicals in the 1860s, including the satirical and humorous press. One of the implacable opponents of the Dostoevsky brothers' magazines was the weekly “Iskra“ (“Spark”) (1859–1873), whose publications are considered in this study. In the fight against opponents, the authors of “Iskra” used the possibilities offered by satirical genres: they published caricatures, cartoons, parodies, satires, pamphlets, feuilletons, jokes on literary topics, fantastic scenes and dramatic fantasies. A feature of the controversy was the sharp criticism of the political and literary program of the Dostoevsky brothers’ magazines and their direction. The periodicals' hostility was mutual. F. M. Dostoevsky called Iskra “Firebrand” on two occasions and created a negative image of an employee of the satirical magazine in the story “A Bad Joke.” In response to criticism, the Dostoevsky brothers calmly explained the “soil” ideas, notions and concepts of their journals.F. M. Dostoevsky, M. M. Dostoevsky, Vremya, Time, satirical journalism, Iskra, pochva, soil, literary criticism, polemic, caricature, parody, irony

The article presents an overview of the technical side of the publishing business of A. G. Dostoevskaya based on the materials of her notebooks. Special attention is paid to the period of the release of the Complete Works of F. M. Dostoevsky. The writer’s widow began the production process of publishing books with the purchase of paper from the “Trading House of A. I. Vargunina,” and negotiations with the Panteleev brothers printing house about the appearance of the book, the cost of publication, typing, proofreading, printing and booklets. The next stage was connected with the release of the book from the printing house until the time of its sale: first of all, the issue of storing a huge number of books (several tens of thousands) was solved; Anna Grigoryevna rented storerooms and developed accounting systems for this purpose. After the publication was released from the printing house, it was necessary to check the books for flaws; it was also important to notify readers through ads and booksellers about the appearance of a new edition. The final stage of the publishing process was connected with the sale of editions of the Complete works of Dostoevsky: correspondence with buyers and booksellers, forwarding of works, transfer of books on commission and endless accounting and recording of all volumes — all this required a lot of effort and time and had its own specifics, and if you did not know precisely what to do, you could face a significant loss. At each stage of the publishing process, unforeseen difficulties arose caused by the inexperience of the first Russian individual publisher, the negligence of the persons with whom she had to deal, or a combination of circumstances. It describes not only the problems that Dostoevskaya had to face, but also the ways to solve them, requiring the publisher to be reasonable and firm in spirit. The materials presented for the release of the Complete Works of Dostoevsky are given in the article in the context of the book publishing process and book business of the late 19th — early 20th century, which is a necessary historical commentary on the publishing activities of A. G. Dostoevskaya.F. M. Dostoevsky, A. G. Dostoevskaya, archive, notebook, publishing house, Complete works, A. I. Vargunin, printing process, book trade

The article examines the synthesis of heterogeneous genres containing a teleological plot about the curse of a sinner: a synodic tale about the retribution of a sinner and a newspaper criminal chronicle. This plot is realized in Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot" with the help of the reception of the story about the merchant-perjurer A. A. Mazurin and his descendants who were punished for their sins. One of them is his grandson V. F. Mazurin, who killed his friend the jeweler Kalmykov. The sensational criminal case, known to Dostoevsky from the newspapers, made a strong impression on the writer. Thanks to this, the image of Rogozhin appeared in the novel, and the development of his relationship with Nastasia Filippovna, who foresaw her imminent death by his hand, was rethought. The legend of the ancestral curse that befell A. A. Mazurin is presented according to the memoirs of the famous Moscow entrepreneur N. A. Varentsov and is connected in the article with the description of death and the afterlife torments of sinners in synodic prefaces. The details of V. F. Mazurin's murder of the jeweler Kalmykov are covered by the court materials of the issues of the newspaper "Moskovskie Vedomosti", to which Dostoevsky could also refer.synodic foreword, teleological plot, eschatology, Christian symbolism, criminal chronicle, novel, F. M. Dostoevsky, Christian realism