Yevgeny Boratynsky as the Forerunner of Fyodor Dostoevsky: About One Topos in Literary Studies


This article is intended to answer the question of why researchers of E.A. Boratynsky often call him F.M. Dostoevsky’s forerunner– despite the fact that Dostoevsky’s statements about the poet have not yet been found, nor evidence that unequivocally indicates which works of Boratynsky Dostoevsky was familiar with. The material for this study was the work of literary critics and philologists of the xx–xxi centuries such as I.L. Al’mi, S.G. Bocharov, E. Vinokurov, V.V. Kozhinov, D.S. Merezhkovsky, G.A. Meyer, S.V. Rudakova. The article shows that the research thought reveals similarities in the worldview and aesthetic attitudes of the poet and writer, in their artistic methods, as well as in the character of the depiction of the inner world of heroes. It is noted that, paradoxical as it may seem, scientists find similarities in the works of Boratynsky and Dostoevsky, even at the level of artistic and expressive means. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the constructions of G.A. Meyer, who directly raised the question “Boratynsky and Dostoevsky” in the title one of his articles.