Problems of human rights in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The adolescent"

The problem of human rights figures prominently in the novel "The Adolescent". The conflict of laws was associated with the legal status of the protagonist Arkady, who had both "a legal father" - the formed predial serf Makar Dolgorukiy and a birth father - the landowner Versilov. The position of Arkady’s mother Sofya as a serf girl determined her status as illegal wife, and the status of their children, Arkady and Sofya, as illegitimate children, disadvantaged in their rights and dignity. Sofya's redemption from Makar by Versilov, risk to be left destitute at her age, the fact that the husband forgot her in foreign country for half-year, and his attempts to marry other ladies testify to her dependent status. Dostoevsky reflected deeply on the legal status of illegitimate children, especially children of serfs, in Russia of the second half of the 19th century, when there were still the remnants of serfdom, and called readers to establishment of legal and social justice, equality of rights, benignity and mercy.