Fedor Dostoevsky in the Correspondence of Elena Stackenschneider with Jakov Polonsky

Elena Andreevna Stackenschneider (1836–1897), memoirist and hostess of the literary and art salon in St. Petersburg in the 1870s — early 1880s, was keeping records on M. Dostoevsky and his creative work for 25 years (1860–1885). She used to remark his public speeches, describe his appearance and habits, give a critical assessment of his writings, and tried to identify the features of his artistic world, never doubting the magnitude of his talent. The unpublished correspondence of Yakov Polonsky with Elena Stakenschneider, as well as previously unpublished fragments of the diaries of the latter, made it possible to clarify the facts of the biography of Fеdor Dostoevsky and to enrich the collection of vital criticisms and evidence of his activities and creative work. Thanks to her meticulous and longstanding work in accumulating materials and keeping memoirs, her deep analysis of Dostoevsky’s genius whose underlying message consists in Christian axiology, it is possible to consider this woman one of the first female researchers of the writer’s creation. The example of E. A. Stackenschneider evidentiates how despite the negative criticism grew up the number of sympathizers of her ideas who aspired to keep the image and heritage of their great compatriot for the descendants.