In Russia and abroad they like to use a quote supposedly belonging to the pen of a Russian writer. We checked whether Dostoevsky wrote something like that.

Aphorism “On the level of civilization of society can be judged by its prisons” can often be seen in texts with an assessment of the penitentiary system in a particular country. Dostoevsky is attributed to it is attributed to sources such as "Gazeta.ru", Armenian And Azerbaijani Radio Liberty services, magazine "Butterfly", newspaper "Our time", The information and legal center"Human rights activists of the Urals" And "Bulletin of Moscow University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia". The phrase is widely used in scientific works And historical literature. The quote is no less popular in Canada, where, how Writes Journalist Patrick White, it can be “with sickening regularity” to hear at thematic conferences. The statement was also used in the trailer for the film "Air prison»About the US police unit engaged in the transportation of dangerous criminals. Often indicatedthat the words about the connection between the quality of prisons and the level of civilization of the society are taken from the story “Notes from the Dead House”.

Writer Fedor Dostoevsky firsthand He knewWhat is a prison. In the spring of 1849, among other participants in the circle Petrashevtsev The future classic was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Eight months later, he was found guilty “in intent to overthrow state order” and sentenced to execution, which at the last moment was replaced by four years of hard labor with the deprivation of “all the rights of the condition” and subsequent surrender to the soldiers. Dostoevsky served the punishment in the Omsk fortress among criminal criminals. He later described this stage of his life in the story "Notes from a dead house"(1862).

“Verified” studied the full text of this work and did not find a widely distributed phrase or similar thoughts. Such quotes as “of course, the prison and the system of violent work do not correct the criminal; They only punish him and provide society from the further attempts of the villain at his calm ”and“ a society that is indifferently looking at such a phenomenon [like bodily punishment] is already infected itself on its basis ”, although they are dedicated to the same topic, but they carry a slightly different meaning.

Moreover, we did not find any similar quote in a 30-volume complete Collected works The writer, neither in the database of the Google Book project for the 19th or XX century for someone else's authorship. The only exception is Russian translation Books of the American historian Howard Zinna "USA after World War II", published in the USSR in 1977. At the same time, the authorship of the quote is not indicated there. And on Russian-speaking sites, the phrase began to be attributed to Dostoevsky only in the second half of the 2000s.

All this, as well as a huge (compared to runet), the popularity of quote in English -speaking sources suggests that the search would be reasonable to continue in English. In the authoritative reference book Quotes Respectfully Quoted: Dostoevsky quote. Next to this phrase it is indicated: “It is attributed to Fedor Dostoevsky. Not verified. " Note that behind the ocean the statement has a much longer story: for example, it sounded in the US Congress and in 1969 year, and c 1971, and c 1977, and each time with a reference to the "Notes from the Dead House." In Michigan Law Review Approvedthat the quote can be found in a specific translation of the story to English made by Constance Garnett, but this information Incorrect. References to the phrase of supposedly Dostoevsky in sources until 1969 in the project "Google Books»It was not possible to detect.

What happened shortly before? In 1964, the Canadian playwright and former prisoner John Herbert wrote Social play On a prison theme called Fortune and Men's Eyes (a quote from the Shakespearean sonnet, which was translated into Russian as “in disconnection with the world and fate”). In his interview about the play Herbert often I quoted Allegedly, Dostoevsky’s words about prisons and civilization. In 1967, "in strife with peace and fate" was the first time set In New York, which began its popularity. Impressed by the raised topic, the director of the play David Rotenberg founded the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Prisoners and called it Fortune Society. The organization took Aphorism attributed to the Russian writer as motto And she began to place him in the first lane of her ballot.

Article about the Association Association in the newspaper Asbury Park Evening Press on August 3, 1968

Given the absence of earlier mention of the phrase, the responsibility for the appearance and distribution of quote allegedly from the “Notes from the Dead House”, in all likelihood, lies with the playwright John Herbert and the director, founder Fortune Society David Rotenberge. But they were not the first to express a similar thought. So, back in 1910, Winston Churchill declared In the House of Commons that "the mood of society in relation to crime and criminals is one of the most faithful trials for the civilization of any country." His compatriot, philanthropist John Howard one and a century earlier expressed The opinion is even more similar to Dostoevsky’s quote: “The state of prison and the conditions of detention of prisoners are good indicators of the development of any society and the degree of its civilization.”

Note that Dostoevsky often A more “Churchill” version of the phrase is also attributed: “The society should not be judged by the way it relates to its outstanding citizens, but by how it relates to its criminals.” But this attribution was widespread even later than Herbert's play appeared, and this version of the phrase seems likely to the almost identical Maxim of the American speaker of the late 19th century Robert Ingersolla. Apparently, the name of Dostoevsky appeared under it precisely thanks to the already fixed binding to the first quote similar in meaning.

Thus, many people expressed a rather obvious idea of the relationship between the quality of the penitentiary system and the level of civilization of society in one form or another, but Dostoevsky has nothing to do with it.

Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons.