TY - JOUR

T1 - Solving the riddle of a writer’s defamation

T2 - Why did nikolay strakhov slander fyodor dostoyevsky?

AU - Kibalnik, Sergei

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2019, Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

PY - 2019

Y1 - 2019

N2 - As is well known, Nikolay Strakhov slandered Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his letter to Leo Tolstoy dated November 28, 1883; he identified him with some of his characters and accused him of their sins, including pedophilia. Many 20th-century philosophers and writers from Leo Shestov to Viktor Yerofeyev believed this slander. It is quite often reproduced now, even on web sites of some highly respected media outlets. This paper purports to explain why this slander happened. The explanation is based on several factors: Dostoyevsky and Strakhov’s relations, the counter position of Dostoyevsky’s notebooks with his perception of Strakhov’s personality and convictions, and the most recent ideas about cryptographic characters in the Russian classical novel. Contrary to widespread opinion, by the time of Strakhov’s false accusations of Dostoyevsky in his letter to Tolstoy, there were already plenty of motifs for them. The two writers stopped corresponding and talking to each other in 1875, and in 1876 Dostoyevsky gave a highly negative characteristicization of Strakhov in his notebook. The only reasonable explanation of this is the hypothesis that Dostoyevsky had learned that Strakhov was involved in spreading rumors about the autobiographical character of the chapter in Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed where Stavrogin confesses to the elder (starets) Tikhon to having seduced a little girl, and Strakhov somehow saw this negative characteristicization in Dostoyevsky’s notebook. Afterwards, this characteristic was almost literally reproduced in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov as Rakitin’s portrayal, and the character of Rakitin turned out to be a kind of cryptographic lampoon of Strakhov as a womanizer, lout, career-seeker and slanderer. Most likely, Strakhov “recognized himself” in Rakitin and later, perhaps, found proof of his surmise after gaining access to Dostoyevsky’s note-book. With the same words that Dostoyevsky used to brand Strakhov as a slanderer (who experienced orgasms) from slandering other people, Strakhov, in his letter to Tolstoy, suggested that Dostoyevsky was a lecher and a pedophile. He also mentioned in this letter the fact that was the main reason for the slander: it was Dostoevsky’s reading of the chapter “At Tikhon’s,” which was rejected by the Russkiy Vestnik editorial board, in a writers’ circle. Thus, most likely Strakhov “recognized himself” in Rakitin, and this provoked him to slander Dostoyevsky. It is also quite possible that later, having gained access to Dostoyevsky’s notebooks, Strakhov found proof of this in one of them.

AB - As is well known, Nikolay Strakhov slandered Fyodor Dostoyevsky in his letter to Leo Tolstoy dated November 28, 1883; he identified him with some of his characters and accused him of their sins, including pedophilia. Many 20th-century philosophers and writers from Leo Shestov to Viktor Yerofeyev believed this slander. It is quite often reproduced now, even on web sites of some highly respected media outlets. This paper purports to explain why this slander happened. The explanation is based on several factors: Dostoyevsky and Strakhov’s relations, the counter position of Dostoyevsky’s notebooks with his perception of Strakhov’s personality and convictions, and the most recent ideas about cryptographic characters in the Russian classical novel. Contrary to widespread opinion, by the time of Strakhov’s false accusations of Dostoyevsky in his letter to Tolstoy, there were already plenty of motifs for them. The two writers stopped corresponding and talking to each other in 1875, and in 1876 Dostoyevsky gave a highly negative characteristicization of Strakhov in his notebook. The only reasonable explanation of this is the hypothesis that Dostoyevsky had learned that Strakhov was involved in spreading rumors about the autobiographical character of the chapter in Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed where Stavrogin confesses to the elder (starets) Tikhon to having seduced a little girl, and Strakhov somehow saw this negative characteristicization in Dostoyevsky’s notebook. Afterwards, this characteristic was almost literally reproduced in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov as Rakitin’s portrayal, and the character of Rakitin turned out to be a kind of cryptographic lampoon of Strakhov as a womanizer, lout, career-seeker and slanderer. Most likely, Strakhov “recognized himself” in Rakitin and later, perhaps, found proof of his surmise after gaining access to Dostoyevsky’s note-book. With the same words that Dostoyevsky used to brand Strakhov as a slanderer (who experienced orgasms) from slandering other people, Strakhov, in his letter to Tolstoy, suggested that Dostoyevsky was a lecher and a pedophile. He also mentioned in this letter the fact that was the main reason for the slander: it was Dostoevsky’s reading of the chapter “At Tikhon’s,” which was rejected by the Russkiy Vestnik editorial board, in a writers’ circle. Thus, most likely Strakhov “recognized himself” in Rakitin, and this provoked him to slander Dostoyevsky. It is also quite possible that later, having gained access to Dostoyevsky’s notebooks, Strakhov found proof of this in one of them.

KW - Autobiographic character

KW - Cryptographic

KW - Defamation

KW - Dostoyevsky’s notebooks

KW - Fyodor dostoyevsky

KW - Lampoon

KW - Nikolay strakhov

KW - Pedophilia

KW - The brothers karamazov

KW - Writer

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078152291&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.21146/0134-5486-2019-50-3-115-134

DO - 10.21146/0134-5486-2019-50-3-115-134

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85078152291

VL - 50

SP - 115

EP - 134

JO - Social Sciences

JF - Social Sciences

SN - 0134-5486

IS - 3

ER -