Shorthand system of Anna Dostoevskaya: the problems of decryption

The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project no. 17-34-01075-OGN а2. Abstract. One of the particular features of the Dostoevsky family’s handwritten archive is that it contains documents containing verbatim records. This is the diary of Anna Dostoevskaya of 1867, rough novel “The Brothers Karamazov”, “A Writer’s Diary”, a series of memorial and business records made by the writer’s assistant. Most of these documents were deciphered in the 1950s-1970s by Ceciliya Poshemanskaya, however, there are documents, lines, words, left undeciphered or presumably deciphered while those deciphered require critical analysis. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the decoding of the transcripts of Anna Dostoevskaya 150 years since their creation, whether it is possible to repeat the experience of Ceciliya Poshemanskaya today. To achieve this goal, the main features of the stenographic system by Dostoevsky’s wife were identified, and difficulties in reading her transcripts were spotted...