Who is the Author of the Story Based on Dostoevsky's Novel "Crime and Punishment"? Cover Image

Кто автор рассказа по мотивам романа Достоевского «Преступление и наказание»?
Who is the Author of the Story Based on Dostoevsky's Novel "Crime and Punishment"?

Author(s): Irina Svyatoslavovna Andrianova, Elena A. Fedorova
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature, Russian Literature, Philology
Published by: Петрозаводский государственный университет
Keywords: Fyodor M. Dostoevsky; "Crime and Punishment", A. N. Ostrogorsky; V. P. Ostrogorsky; "Childhood Reading"; "In One’s Own Circle"; attribution; children

Summary/Abstract: The story "They have crushed the person! They have crushed him!" is forgotten now. Meanwhile it is attributed to Dostoevsky in the bibliographical references of A. G. Dostoevskaya and S. V. Belov and according to the opinion of the Education Committee under the Holy Synod ("Novgorod Eparchial Bulletin", 1879, № 1). The article for the first time raises a problem of the story’s authorship. It was published twice – in the magazine "Childhood Reading" (1870) and in the children’s digest "In One’s Own Circle" (1875) prepared by A. N. Ostrogorsky. In the second edition dreadful descriptions of the sufferings of the housefather crushed by the horses were mitigated, colloquial intonation disappeared, the expressiveness of speech decreased. The fact that this story was not included in the following editions of A. N.Ostrogorsky’s digest is explained by the statement of the Education Committee under the Holy Synod that it was too difficult for children’s perception. A comparative analysis of the story "They have crushed the person! They have crushed him!" and an episode with a similar subject in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel "Crime and Punishment" (Marmeladov’s tragic death) brings to light evident distinctions in the subject of narration, the nature of main characters, the style of narration. An appeal to the program article of the magazine "Childhood Reading" written by its editor (1869-1877) A. N. Ostrogorsky where he emphasized that the adaptation of the adult literary works for children was one of the essential directions for the journal development allows us to deduce that the author of the story "They have crushed the person! They have crushed him!" was A. N. Ostrogorsky. The article makes a reasonable assumption that it was V. P. Ostrogorsky, a cousin of A. N. Ostrogorsky, who received authorization to adapt the episode from the novel "Crime and Punishment". He had known Dostoevsky since their collaboration in the Journal ‘Vremya” and the writer did not object to that. The cousins Ostrogorsky shared educational and philosophical views of Dostoevsky, resorted to his biography and works in their writings after the writer’s death.

  • Issue Year: 2/2015
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 43-60
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: English, Russian