The young Dostoevsky in memory of A. E. Riesenkampf (based on the materials of the manuscript department of the Russian literature history state museum named after V. I. Dahl)

The memoirs of A. E. Riesenkampf about the young years of F. M. Dostoevsky written in 1881 have not been completely published up to now. The article presents the history and analysis of the existent publications and gives the excerpts having been excised for different reasons by the first publishers but containing numerous unknown details and facts. They describe the life circumstances, character and the peculiarities of the behaviour, preferences and interests of Dostoevsky, his contacts and acquaintances in 1838-1843, and result in updating the knowledge of the emerging author’s life. The article also introduces the facts related to the biography of the writer’s elder brother M. M. Dostoevsky. An opinion about the formation of the artistic method of Dostoevsky in the period of his development as a writer is put forward in the article as well as a supposition that two episodes of Riesenkampf’s memoirs were written on the basis of Dostoevsky’s stories.