Crimean Motifs in the Works of F. M. Dostoevsky

The article states that F. M. Dostoevsky had never been to Crimea, yet the motifs associated with the peninsula were explicated in his artistic and journalistic heritage as a result of secondary reflection. Focusing on the idyllic images of Taurida captured in the poetry of A. S. Pushkin and N. A. Nekrasov, travel magazines and canvases by Russian marine artists F. M. Dostoevsky enriched the poetics of his later works with a comparison of the Southern Coast of Crimea with paradise on earth. The article suggests that the fantasy of the hero of “A Gentle Creature” (1876) about the blissful expectation of the call of eternity in the Crimean south is consonant with Dostoevsky’s own dream. It is specified that the external similarity of the Russian Black Sea region and the European Mediterranean could become a generalized prototype of the “happy land” from the “Dream of a Funny Man” (1877). At the same time, it is emphasized that, according to F. M. Dostoevsky, the historical role of Crimea is unique, because the peninsula, which became the baptismal font of Russia in 988, accepted the lot of Russia’s “great altar” in 1853–1856. The events of the Crimean campaign and the defense of Sevastopol were deeply felt by F. M. Dostoevsky. The weekly “Grazhdanin” (“The Citizen”), which he edited, often published notes on the battles of Sevastopol. It is proved that the asceticism of the Russian sisters of mercy was reflected in the images of self-sacrificing and empathetic heroines of the novels “Demons” (1871–1872) and “The Adolescent” (1875). Ultimately, the introduction of Crimean motifs into F. M. Dostoevsky’s texts contributed to the revelation of the semantic facets of the Russian idea, which is dominant in his work.