Litigation Against F. T. Stellovsky in the Correspondence of F. M. Dostoevsky and V. I. Gubin 1871–1874

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F. M. Dostoevsky’s epistolary legacy includes more than 2000 letters from the writer and his correspondents. One of Dostoevsky’s correspondents in 1871‒1874 was V. I. Gubin, a lawyer, Dostoevsky’s attorney in the case against the publisher F. T. Stellovsky. He also advised the writer at the initial stage of the Kumanin inheritance case. One letter from Dostoevsky to Gubin and 15 letters from Gubin to Dostoevsky are known. V. I. Gubin’s letters allow us to complete the image of Stellovsky, a notorious speculator in the publishing business and reveal how the writer’s trial against his publisher proceeded. At the end of 1870 Stellovsky released Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” as the fourth volume of the writer’s Complete Works. For this publication, according to the agreement dated July 1, 1865, Stellovsky was obliged to pay the writer 870 rubles, but he cheated Dostoevsky. Having lost all hope of solving the case peacefully, Dostoevsky launched court proceedings against Stellovsky. First, his stepson P. A. Isaev became the writer’s attorney, and then the role was assumed by Ap. Maikov, who hired lawyer V. I. Gubin at Dostoevsky’s request. The proceedings against Stellovsky, which began in 1871, dragged on for almost 5 years. Judging by Gubin’s letters, who Dostoevsky said “ruined everything,” both the slowness of the bailiffs, to whom the attorney was forced to pay bribes, and the inability to determine the identity of the publisher’s guardians for a long time hindered the process. Gubin also suspected collusion between official authorities and the relatives or guardians of Stellovsky, who since 1872 could no longer take part in the trial himself, as he was being treated in a psychiatric hospital. One of Stellovsky’s guardians, N. M. Sokovnin, settled with Dostoevsky only in 1876. The appendix to the article contains letters from Dostoevsky and Gubin, each letter is accompanied by a textual reference and a commentary.