Латинский язык Достоевского
Dostoevsky’s Latin language

Summary/Abstract: The article refutes the opinion found in some biographical studies, which states that Dostoevsky disliked the Latin language and showed no interest in it. An appeal to the writer’s letters, his journalistic and artistic works, surviving working notes suggests the opposite: Dostoevsky not only speaks positively of the Latin language, but also uses it in the process of creating his texts. An analysis of published works and surviving work notes revealed 67 Latin words and expressions. Many of the Latin insertions are encountered more than once, some have a distinct practical nature (for example, the NB anagram and its varieties). In terms of use, the Latin expressions used by Dostoevsky are from to medicine, jurisprudence, and Catholic church rhetoric, but for the most part they are common aphorisms and speech clichés. The article draws attention to the fact of Dostoevsky’s work with Latin text as a commentator and translator and proves that the fragment of the prophecy from the book of Johann Lichtenberger cited in the 1877 A Writer’s Diary was translated by Dostoevsky. Liberty (modified composition, insertion of additional words) and relative grammatical correctness (only two grammatical inaccuracies were found in the translation) testify to a fairly fluent command of Latin, which allowed Dostoevsky not only to translate the medieval religious text, but also to interpret it to illustrate his sociopolitical views.

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