It is believed that one of the most famous phrases about Russian literature came out of the pen of the great writer. We checked whether this statement really belongs to Dostoevsky.

The story of Nikolai Gogol “Overcoat” was one of the first works where the image of a small person was disclosed - a phenomenon that would subsequently become a landmark for Russian literature of the XIX - early XX centuries. This influence at one time was described by a short, but capacious characteristic “We all left the Gogol's Overcoat”, which is traditionally attributed to Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The latter is easy to verify by visiting resources such as "Radio Liberty", "RIA Novosti" "Russian newspaper", the website of the museum "Gogol House"After reading the biographical book of Evgeny Solovyov "Dostoevsky", essay George Adamovich "Inheritance of the Bloc"as well as the famous novel by Benjamin Kaverin "Two captains". Such attribution is also popular in the West - up to an authoritative encyclopedia Britannica.

You can not try to find the desired phrase in the works of Dostoevsky himself - it is not there. Of course, Fedor Mikhailovich could not ignore the “overcoat” epoch -making for his time. In his first story "Poor people", written under the strong influence of Gogol, the protagonist Makar Devil, having read this work, recognizes himself in Akakia Akakievich and is indignant: “And why write this? And why is it needed? <...> But this is a malicious book, Varenka; It is simply implausible, because it cannot happen to be such an official. Why, after this, you need to complain, Varenka, formally complain. ” So Dostoevsky himself, to some extent, "left the" overcoat "." However, we are interested in where the attribution of this quote came from.

In some literary texts specifiedthat the quote has reached us thanks to the French writer and the historian of literature Ezhenu-Melchior de Vogue. In 1877-1882, de Vogue worked in St. Petersburg the secretary of the French embassy and was closely familiar with many Russian writers. The main impetus for the study of this version was article The prominent Soviet textologist Solomon Reiser, published in the journal "Questions of Literature" in 1968. In it, the author notes that Vogue's diary records three meetings with Dostoevsky in the 1879 and 1880s, but does not contain any mention of Dostoevsky’s creative connections with Gogol.

Nevertheless, it was Eugene-Mlekhior de Vogue, judging by all the testimonies with whom the Reiser agrees, he introduced the general public to the phrase, which soon became winged. It all started with Articles about Dostoevsky From the series "Modern Russian Writers", published in the journal Revue des Deux Mondes ("Review of the two worlds") in 1885. In it, de Vogue writes:

Translation: “True, Gogol set this topic in the story, entitled" Overcoat ". “We all came out of Gogol’s overcoat,” Russian writers rightly say; But Dostoevsky replaced the irony of his teacher with a feeling touching us. ” As you can see, there is no direct statement that Dostoevsky pronounced the quote, only the abstract “Russian writers”. There you can also find the statement of Vogue himself: “Between 1840 and 1850, all three (Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. - Approx. Author) came out of Gogol, the creator of realism.”

In the same 1885, another Article Vogue From the series "Modern Russian Writers" - this time about Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol. Here's what it said in it:

Translation: “The more I read the Russians, the better I understand how one of them was right, closely connected with the literary history of the last forty years when he told me:“ We all left Gogol’s overcoat. ” If we take, for example, Dostoevsky, then the continuity is obvious: the horror of the novelist is already present in his first book “Poor People”, and “Poor People” in the bud are present in the “overcoats”. ” A year later, the article entered the book Vogue "Russian Roman".

As you can see, in the second case, the Frenchman narrows the authorship of the quote to one specific writer, but does not call him a name. Nearby, Vogue is mentioned by Dostoevsky, but at the same time it would be somewhat unnatural to conceal the name of the author first, and in the next sentence to unceremoniously reveal it.

And even the presence of a completely correct translation of Vogue's book into Russian (1887) did not prevent the writer Evgeny Solovyov in his writer in 1891 Dostoevsky's biographies From the ZhZL series, put the phrase in the mouth of Dostoevsky directly: “We all left the Gogol's“ overcoat ”,” he said, and from this clearly expressed sympathy for the humiliated and offended and his literary activity began. ” It is Solovyov that, it seems, belongs to the palm of the championship in attributing that quote to Dostoevsky, while literary critics have several candidates at once.

1. Actually, Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. This version has arguments for both for and against. Dostoevsky really He began literary activities About 40 years before the Vogue article - thereby the novel “Poor People” in 1846. Minus is a strange wording in an article about Gogol, about which we wrote above.

2. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev. Supporters of this version bring The diary entry of the writer Olga Nikolaevna Smirnova about the conversation of her mother Alexandra Osipovna with Turgenev after the release of “Fathers and the Children”: “When I. S. Turgenev stained her and Gogol in“ Fathers and Children ”... She laughed sincerely and said to him:“ However, Ivan Sergeyevich, you yourself left, according to your own words, from the “Shinely”, and from under Kalanchi at the request of the governor. The first is more or less Noticed by critics Turgenev’s works also appeared four decades before the Vogue article.

3. Dmitry Grigorovich. The writer, with whom Vogue met in St. Petersburg and discussed the history of the publication of “poor people”. The definition of “closely related to the history of literature over the past forty years” is suitable for Grigorovich even better than Dostoevsky and Turgenev, who themselves created this story, and besides, at the time of their articles, they had not been alive for several years, that is, the “last” years have fallen somewhat somewhat. It was about Grigorovich Vogue that he “occupies an honorary place in the literature” - an epithet that correlates well with the definition above. In addition, it is Grigorovich in "Literary Memories" assertedthat in the 1840s all the “then literary young generation”, including himself and Dostoevsky, was under Gogol’s strong influence: “Everyone was equally passionate about Gogol; Almost everything that was written in the narrative kind was a reflection of Gogol’s stories, mainly the story of the Overcoat. ”

4. Boleslav Markevich. There are several facts in his favor at once. Firstly, in the Vogue created during the life of Vogue (and possibly agreed with him) English translation The author of the phrase is called his “Russian novel” “now the deceased dignitary and writer, now deceased.” For this definition, the Russian writer, the chamberlain and the actual state adviser, who died in 1884, is almost perfect, unlike the above colleagues. Markevich, nicknamed "The Littleer official" really met with Vogue, and later in the Necrologist for the death of Markevich, the Frenchman called him "bound for a quarter century with all literary battles." Pay attention to the rhyme “connected” - “connected” in two quotes. At the same time, it would be quite clear to Vogue's desire not to directly call Markevich’s name directly, since he came across a bribe in 1875 and soaked himself a reputation.

5. Finally, the quotation historian Konstantin Dushenko notes that the formula “get out of something / someone” was unknown in the Russian language at that time, but here In France, it was used. Note that many years later, in 1899, in one of his articles by Vogue for the first time attributed The phrase to a certain “great Russian novelist”, which confused the cards to all future researchers. Given all the circumstances, the option is not excluded that Vogue himself came up with a quote, and then he decided to popularize it through the attachment of some of the celebrities, but without concretization, in avoiding encryption in a lie.

Thus, there are no sufficient grounds to say that the words “we all left the Gogol's“ overcoat ”” said Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The person who made this statement of public property has never claimed this, and there are several worthy candidates for the role of the author of the quote.