“...From Some Klepiki”: Dostoevsky's Russia in Letters and Documents

Abstract

The reason for writing this article was a letter received by the authors from the founders of the recently established local history museum in Spas-Klepiki, Ryazan region. This small town is actively working on the formation of museum funds and collections. S. A. Esenin, A. I. Kuprin, K. G. Paustovsky lived and visited here. According to the organizers, the history of the Dostoevsky family at the turn of the XX century should take a worthy place in one of the expositions. The article systematizes published and unknown archival materials about its stay in Spas-Klepiki and surrounding villages. The lands, forest and estate located here was inherited by F. M. Dostoevsky and his relatives after the death of his rich Moscow aunt A. F. Kumanina. The writer learned about the existence of Klepiki on August 19, 1879 from a letter to him from his wife, who visited the Ryazan region with their children. However, protracted litigation over the division of inheritance did not allow Dostoevsky to become a landowner legally, he did not have time to visit this land. On March 24, 1881 his widow and children were confirmed in the rights of inheritance. According to family correspondence, A. G. Dostoevskaya, accompanied by her son Fyodor, visited Spas-Klepiki in the 1880s and 1890s and stayed at the house of lawyer A. D. Povalishin. She described her way from Ryazan to the estate in her notebook of 1881, and here she also indicated the names of residents of Klepiki who could be useful to her. The writer's widow bought out the share of the estate in the Ryazan province, which was inherited by her husband's younger brother A. M. Dostoevsky. She sold part of her lands in 1895, and returned to the sale issue in 1905 at the request of her son Fyodor. Dostoevsky's son became a Ryazan nobleman in 1897, but he did not live in Ryazan permanently. The life of the Sher family, Dostoevsky's maternal relatives and co-owners of the "Kumaninsky inheritance", is connected with Spas-Klepiki. The search for Dostoevsky's documents in the Ryazan archives is relevant. Their discovery would help to reveal new facts of the writer's family’s stay in the Ryazan region and Spas-Klepiki, to expand the funds of the city’s local history museum, which needs Dostoevsky.