Fyodor Dostoevsky - the anonymous columnist of the Citizen journal in 1873-1879: study of an unpublished article by L. P. Grossman

The research addresses the unpublished work by L. P. Grossman “Unknown feuilletons by Dostoevsky”, which is an attempt to attribute a number of texts of the satirical and humorous column entitled “The Last Page” published in The Citizen journal between 1873 and 1879 to Dostoevsky. The studied work has been introduced into academic circulation for the first time. The author uses archival materials to reconstruct the history of creation of the said article by L. P. Grossman, as well as to identify and date its earlier (1932-1934) and later (after 1934) editions. The article traces the evolution of the scholar’s intention which took place as the corpus of sources (primarily the epistolary ones) involved in the study expanded. It is also established that in his article “Unknown feuilletons by Dostoevsky” Grossman was the first among Dostoevsky scholars to point to the systematic nature of the great novelist’s contribution to “The Last Page” column of The Citizen journal. Grossman was also the first to attribute two pieces of “The Last Page” column published in 1873 (i. e., the short story “The Beggar” and the feuilleton “Scene in the editorial office of one of the capital newspapers”) to Dostoevsky. The research substantiates the relevance of studying Grossman’s hypothesis about Dostoevsky’s contribution to a number of “The Last Page” columns from 1875 to 1879.