Dostoevsky’s Siberian Letters (Book Review: F. M. Dostoevsky. “The Rebirth of My Beliefs”/ scientific ed. V. F. Molchanov, V. E. Vishnevskaya. Tobolsk, Izdatel’skiy otdel TROBF “Vozrozhdenie Tobol’ska” Publ., 2021. 40 p.) Cover Image

Сибирские письма Достоевского (Рец. на кн.: Ф. М. Достоевский. «Перерождение моих убеждений» / науч. ред. В. Ф. Молчанов, В. Э. Вишневская. Тобольск: Издательский отдел ТРОБФ «Возрождение Тобольска», 2021. 40 с.)
Dostoevsky’s Siberian Letters (Book Review: F. M. Dostoevsky. “The Rebirth of My Beliefs”/ scientific ed. V. F. Molchanov, V. E. Vishnevskaya. Tobolsk, Izdatel’skiy otdel TROBF “Vozrozhdenie Tobol’ska” Publ., 2021. 40 p.)

Author(s): Aleksandr Vladimirovich Otlivanchik
Subject(s): Russian Literature, 19th Century, Book-Review, Theory of Literature
Published by: Петрозаводский государственный университет
Keywords: ideological evolution; epistolary heritage; M. M. Dostoevsky; N. D. Fonvizina; A. N. Maikov; textual studies; charitable foundation Rebirth of Tobolsk; Siberian letters;

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the scientific publication “F. M. Dostoevsky. "The Rebirth of My Beliefs,"” prepared for the 200th anniversary of the great writer by the Tyumen Regional Public Charitable Foundation “Rebirth of Tobolsk” in cooperation with scientists from Petrozavodsk State University and the Department of Manuscripts of the Russian State Library. It is an edition that contains commentated letters by F. M. Dostoevsky from Siberia to his brother M. M. Dostoevsky, dated January 30 — February 22, 1854, N. D. Fonvizina (a letter written in the second decade of February 1854) and A. N. Maykov, dated January 18, 1856 in pre-revolutionary and modern orthography; their facsimile is attached to the publication of letters. This example of Dostoevsky epistolary work is of interest as the most important evidence of the profound shifts in the writer’s worldview during the years of Omsk penal servitude: the transition from the fascination with French theoretical socialism of the 1830s and 1840s to the soil-based Orthodoxy. The painstaking work of textual specialists contributed to the clarification of many incorrect readings of the published letters. For the first time, several fragments of the Siberian epistolary deleted by Dostoevsky have been correctly restored in the publication. The merits of the anniversary edition should include its experimental, highly artistic design (designed by graphic artist V. E. Valerius).

  • Issue Year: 9/2022
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 136-147
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Russian