«Дело о смерти Михаила Андреевича Достоевского», или Над чем корпели судьи полтора года
The Case of Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky’s Death, or What Did Judges Sweat Away During a Year and a Half

Summary/Abstract: The primary focus of this article is to cast some light on the procedural aspects which resulted from the investigation into Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky's death. In this article we attempt to interpret the material evidence of the face-to-face interrogation of the two key witnesses to the case — Ivan Leibrecht and Vladimir Nechaev. The interpretation of the case is made based on the effective Russian legislation of the 1830s and the existing police investigation papers of the years 1839—1840. Thus, three main semantic lines of police inquiry have been disclosed, i. e. the cause of death, the source of the murder gossips (hearsay witnesses) and the problem of jurisdiction. Alongside this, discrepancies between the two legal bodies involved in the judicial proceeding — The Court of Kashira Uezd and Tula Criminal Chamber — have been brought to light.

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