Moral and legal dimensions of the “Kumanin case”

This article follows the previous publication «“The Kumanin Heritage Case” in life and works of F. M. Dostoevsky» (“The Unknown Dostoevsky” journal, 2018, no. 1, pp. 32-43), and studies moral and legal aspects of the writer’s biography, related to the “Kumanin heritage case”. It means his tense relations with co-inheritors, particularly with his siblings and blood relatives on his mother’s side of the family as well as with the lawyers and will executors of A. F. Kumanina. Disputes and conflicts among them were caused by both the particularities of the inheritance law of that time resulting in the testament revision, and ethical aspects. In this regard, the attitude of Dostoevsky in a long-lasting lawsuit is exposed to a detailed examination based on documentary and archival sources. Despite the fact of his participation in it, he followed the principle of high morals but not of “profits” or “law”.