ПРОБЛЕМА ДУЭЛЕЙ В КОНТЕКСТЕ ЖИЗНИ И ТВОРЧЕСТВА М. О. МЕНЬШИКОВА

Abstract

For the first time the article considers the publicist M. O. Menshikov’s view on dueling in the contemporary Russian society through the lenses of the journalist’s personal experience, his social and political essays, and also through the analysis of his cor-respondence with L. N. Tolstoy, V. G. Korolenko and A. S. Suvorin. A brief description of the episodes from the journalist’s life connected with challenges to the duel is given: Menshikov was summoned to the duel at least five times, but he refused every time considering dueling an obsolete and barbarous way to resolve disputes. Basing on the sources that are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the author ascertains the circumstances of the assassination attempt on the publicist’s life by the former zemstvo member N. N. Zhedenov and the reflection of the incident in his correspondence with L. N. Tolstoy and V. G. Korolenko, as well as the consequences of Menshikov’s public challenge to the duel by the admiral A. A. Ebergard. The theme of dueling was not a priority one in Menshikov’s creative work, who was better known as a literary critic and political publicist, but it is closely connected with his biography and allows us to establish new facts about the journalist’s life and work.