The Molestation Motif in F. M. Dostoevsky’s Prose in the Context of the 19th-Century Legislation of the Russian Empire

Abstract

The article is devoted to a subplot of molestation of a girl, which is repeated in several works by F. M. Dostoevsky, in the context of the 19th-century legislation. We focus on two works: “Crime and Punishment” and the chapter “At Tikhon’s” that was originally intended to be a part of “Demons”. Molestation occurs in both texts, and there are intersections in a number of details. Both victims (the drowned girl and Matresha) are poorly socialized and suffer from abuse in their families. Both girls are fourteen years old. Researchers have already pointed out that a possible source for this plot was an article in “Severnaya pchela” covering the suicide of a thirteen-year-old girl, Marfa Arkhipova, who was accused of stealing. Dostoevsky significantly expanded the plot, adding molestation and making the girls older. This article is intended to prove that the change in victim’s age was not accidental. The age of fourteen years in the 19th-century legislation is the boundary that separates sexual crimes in general from sexual crimes against children. There was no direct ban on such plots in censorship regulations. However, it appears that an author who decided to depict this crime would at least have to deal with their editor’s discontent. This is exactly what happened with the chapter “At Tikhon’s,” when M. N. Katkov, the editor of “Russkiy Vestnik,” refused to publish it. It is difficult to speculate and say what reaction this text would have caused among censors, and readers — if published. We know, however, that this subplot later served as a reason for N. N. Strakhov to accuse Dostoevsky of pedophilia.