Two centuries of the Russian classics

2686-7494

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/2686-7494-2026-8-3-66-87

Research Article

Articles

The Historiosophy of the Estate in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Novel “Poor People”: Estate and Forest vs Estate and Steppe in Historical and Cultural Retrospective

Bogdanova

Olga A.

red@rusklassika.ru

25 09 2026

8 3 66 87

literary estate Estate and Forest Estate and Steppe F. M. Dostoevsky novel “Poor People ” retrospective approach Russia Eurasia

2026

For the first time in scholarship, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel “Poor People” is analyzed from the perspective of the estate’s topography. Recurring elements are revealed in the plot of the work: St. Petersburg as a place of action in the present tense is framed in the past by the forest estate where the heroine grew up, and in the future by the steppe estate where she goes to live with her husband. Unlike interpretations of Varenka’s marriage to Bykov as a path to inevitable death, the article establishes the positive meaning of this event for the heroine. Additionally, based on the literary criticism of the 1840s, the article revises the semiotics of Bykov’s character as the embodiment of the steppe. The use of the retrospective method proposed by the Japanese scholar T. Kinoshita allows us to see in the representation of the forest and the steppe (conventionally Europe and Asia) an early manifestation of Dostoevsky’s historiosophical concept about the importance for Russia of not only its original forest territories but also the annexed steppe and Asian spaces, ensuring its spiritual independence from Europe. It is concluded that the symbolic plot of Varenka’s journey from the forest estate, through initiation in Petersburg as the embodiment of the imperial idea, to the steppe expanse, conveys the common fate of Russia, the complexity and crisis of its historical growth, and the heroism of the Eurasian mission.

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