What Was the Name of the Stationmaster Vyrin in the Book “The Belkin Tales”, Which Makar Devushkin Read?

An article by S. B. Fedotova “Samson or Simeon? (on the name of the stationmaster in Pushkin’s story),” which served as the reason for this publication, was published in No. 2 of the Russkaya literatura for 2024. This article examines the paradoxical variability of the name of the title character (Simeon/Samson) in the story “The Stationmaster” in the 1830s editions and analyzed the reasons for this circumstance. The noted textual incident acquires special significance due to the fact that Pushkin’s work is read by the hero of Dostoevsky’s novel “Poor Folk” (1846) Makar Devushkin, speaking in his correspondence with Varenka Dobroselova about the caretaker Vyrin as an authentic image of himself. Devushkin repeatedly refers to Pushkin’s character as Samson Vyrin. Commentators of “Poor Folk” have long established that the hero of “Poor Folk” reads “The Stationmaster” in the first separate edition of 1831, where, however, as it turned out, the character’s name is Simeon. This contradiction is analyzed in the article in the light of the creative history of Dostoevsky’s first novel.