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 A.M.GORKY INSTITUTE OF WORLD LITERATURE
OF THE RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Povarskaya 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia
fedor@dostmirkult.ru

ISSN 2619-0311 (Print)
ISSN 2712-8512 (Online)

Moscow Estates in Dostoevsky's Biography: The Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor

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  • Author: Olga A. Bogdanova
  • Information about the author:

    DSc in Philology, Leading Research Fellow, Department of Russian Literature of the late 19th–early 20th centuries, Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia; Leading Research Fellow, Laboratory of Comparative Literature and Cultural Diplomacy, Institute of International Relations and Socio-Political Sciences, Moscow State Linguistic University, Ostozhenka St., 38, bld. 1, 119034 Moscow, Russia.

    http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7004-498X

    E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
  • Funding Sources:

    This study was funded by the Russian Science Foundation (Project No. 26-18-00190, https://rscf.ru/project/26-18-00190/).
  • For citation:

    Bogdanova, O.A. "Moscow Estates in Dostoevsky's Biography: The Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor." Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 3 (35), 2026, pp. 322-342. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2026-3-322-342
  • Received: 09 June 2026
  • Approved after reviewing: 28 June 2026
  • Published: 25 Sept. 2026
  • Issue: 2026 no. 3 (35)
  • Department: BIOGRAPHY
  • Pages: 322–342
  • DOI: Visit Website
  • EDN:

    https://elibrary.ru/AFOEUM
  • UDK: 821.161.1.0
  • BBK: 83.3(2Рос=Рус)
  • Publication Type: Research Article
  • Keywords: Fyodor Dostoevsky, childhood, Moscow, Russian estate, rural estate, urban estate, Moscow Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, Old Russian traditions, Europeanization in the 18th–19th centuries
  • Abstract: This article examines the estate context of Dostoevsky's childhood, identifying the urban and rural estates in Moscow and its surroundings associated with the future writer. For the first time in Dostoevsky studies, the Moscow Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor is examined as an urban estate. Drawing on the work of leading architectural historians and art historians, it is proved that, despite its social rather than proprietary status, it belongs to the estate-type buildings characteristic of Moscow and represent the estate culture characteristic of both old and modern Russia. The article also demonstrates the distinctive estate-based pattern of Moscow's urban development as an ancient Russian city, where patriarchal traditions and an ancient way of life were preserved even in the imperial Europeanized era. It is shown that Moscow in the first half of the 19th century, the time of Dostoevsky's childhood, combined elements of both the Old Russian and the modern European estate tradition. Special attention is paid to the spiritual continuity between the God's House (also known as the Poor House) of the Muscovite Rus era (with its inherent Christian charity and humility) and the Mariinsky Hospital, built in 1806 on its lands to provide charitable care for the poor. It is traced how the hospital-estate complex absorbed the main features of the estate lifestyle of pre-Petrine and post-Petrine Moscow. The article concludes that Dostoevsky's estate world was broader than has previously been assumed and was connected not only with his family's estate at Darovoye in Tula Province but also with the Moscow Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor.

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