An Unknown Letter of Anna Dostoevskaya to Nicolai Wagner Cover Image

Неизвестное письмо А. Г. Достоевской к Н. П. Вагнеру
An Unknown Letter of Anna Dostoevskaya to Nicolai Wagner

Author(s): Vladislav Razd"yakonov
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Literary Texts, Studies of Literature, Russian Literature, Philology
Published by: Петрозаводский государственный университет
Keywords: Anna Dostoevskaya; Fyodor Dostoevsky; Nicolai Wagner; spiritualism; family;

Summary/Abstract: This article carries on a theme touched upon in the second issue of the journal “The Unknown Dostoevsky” about relationship between Nikolai P. Wagner and Anna and Fyodor Dostoevsky. After the writer’s death N. P.Wagner asked the widow to permit spiritualists to raise a ghost of the deceased F. M. Dostoevsky. This request triggered a severe reaction of Anna Dostoevskaya provoking a psychological disorder. The letter of A. G. Dostoevskaya to N. P. Wagner of February 25,1881, published for the first time, reveals the details of an episode of Anna Dostoevskaya’s life that referred to the activities of the Russian association of spiritualists and was described by A. G. Dostoevskaya in her memoirs. This publication focuses on the peculiarities of perception of the spiritualist association and practice by Dostoevskaya and Wagner; discloses the conception of "family" in the spiritualist teaching and its meaning for a correct interpretation of the given episode in the relations between A. Dostoevskaya and N. Wagner.

  • Issue Year: 2/2015
  • Issue No: 4
  • Page Range: 28-33
  • Page Count: 5
  • Language: English, Russian