"Dostoevsky and Italy"
On January 24, the International Seminar "Dostoevsky and Italy" was held in Rome. The event was organized by the cultural association "Friends of Great Russia," which established the International Pushkin Prize in Rome in 2014 to promote the Russian language and culture in Italy. The online seminar was attended by staff from the International Center for Dostoevsky Studies at Petrozavodsk State University, and students from the Institute of Philology—young researchers studying Dostoevsky's works and archives.
The key event was the presentation of the collective monograph "Dostoevsky and Italy" (2021), which was awarded the Pushkin Prize in Rome. The book was presented by the writer's great-great-grandson, Alexei Dmitrievich Dostoevsky, and one of the authors, MSUPE Professor Irina Vladimirovna Dergacheva.
This study analyzes the writer's Italian travels, the formation of his "Italian text," the reception of Italy in fiction and journalism, and the influence of his ideas on Italian culture. In her presentation, I.V. Dergacheva especially thanked the researchers from PetrSU—Professor Vladimir Nikolaevich Zakharov and the Director of the International Center for Dostoevsky Studies, Irina Sergeevna Andrianova—for their assistance in preparing the publication.
The seminar also featured a presentation of the book "Providence and Catastrophe in the European Novel: Manzoni and Dostoevsky" (2019) by the Italian Slavist Stefano Maria Capilupi, which offers a comparative analysis of the issues of faith, evil, and divine providence in the works of Catholic (A. Manzoni) and Orthodox (F.M. Dostoevsky) writers.
As part of the seminar, the organizers presented A.D. Dostoevsky with a painting depicting the writer reflecting on his faith. The audience asked the descendant of the classic writer questions about free will as Dostoevsky understood it, new archival finds, and his personal perception of his great ancestor's legacy.
The seminar underscores Italy's enduring interest in Russian culture. The work of Dostoevsky, who lived in Florence and Milan and remains one of the most widely read Russian authors in Italy, continues to unite researchers and cultural figures from both countries, serving as a bridge for dialogue beyond political contexts.
The event was held in Italian. We would like to thank Stefano Maria Capilupi, Associate Professor at Cassino State University, and Ekaterina Leksunova, a graduate of the Philology Faculty at PetrSU, a simultaneous interpreter, an Italian language teacher at the Derzhavin Institute in St. Petersburg, and a former employee of the International Center for Dostoevsky Studies for their assistance in facilitating the dialogue.
