International Scientific Conference “Dostoevsky and Italy”

The 2nd International Scientific Conference “Dostoevsky and Italy”, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great world writer, took place.
The event was organized by the Moscow State Institute of Culture, led by I.V. Dergacheva, Doctor of Philology Sci., specialist in the field of intercultural communication, textual criticism, creativity of Dostoevsky, author of a textbook on the Italian language.

The event was held in full-time and online formats, in Russian and Italian working languages ​​and brought together admirers and researchers of Dostoevsky’s work from Italy (Verona, Florence, Pisa, Palermo, Catania) and Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Staraya Russa, Kazan and Petrozavodsk ). Stefano Aloe, Vice-President of the International Dostoevsky Society (IDS), Associate Professor at the University of Verona, Editor-in-Chief of the IDS Dostoevsky`s Studies magazine, spoke about the influence of Dostoevsky on Italian culture. From the beginning of the 20th century, the names of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, according to the researcher, have become “the daily bread for Italian culture.” Dostoevsky was fascinated by Italy and its culture, during his life he visited Rome, Naples, Milan, Venice, Trieste, Turin, Livorno, Genoa, Bologna. But the most important city for his work was Florence. Florentine psychoanalyst Valentina Supino, the author of scientific works on the problems of adolescence, posed in the work of Dostoevsky, shared the results of her search for the addresses and apartments of the writer in Florence, where he stayed during his stay in Italy in 1868-1869. Professor Giuseppe Astuto from Catania described images of Italy in Dostoevsky’s Winter Notes on Summer Impressions.

Petrozavodsk University was represented at the conference by two participants. The plenary session was opened by V.N. Zakharov with a report on “Italian affairs” in the international reviews of the writer, touching upon his activities as a journalist, political observer. Head of the web laboratory I.S. Andrianova spoke about Dostoevsky’s wife as one of the first female collectors, describing her collection of autographs of Russian and foreign prominent figures. The researcher emphasized that the unique collection of autographs owned by A.G. Dostoevskaya and replenished with the help of her husband, is kept in the department of manuscripts of the Russian State Library in Moscow, but its digital copies are available in the web laboratory of PetrSU. I.S. Andrianova showed and described autographs from this collection in Italian. These are letters from famous figures of Italy: the Verona poet Aleardo Aleardi to the artist de Sanctis; Ricciotti Garibaldi, son of the famous G. Garibaldi, to A. N. Jacobi (Peshkova-Toliverova), a member of the Garibaldi movement; Italian opera singer Eliza Volpini to A.N. Jacobi; the Italian tragic actor Ernesto Rossi to AN Jacobi; the famous Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate in literature, admirer of the works of Gogol, L. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Gorky Grazia Deledd to A.G. Dostoevskaya. a member of the Garibaldian movement; Italian opera singer Eliza Volpini to A.N. Jacobi; the Italian tragic actor Ernesto Rossi to AN Jacobi; the famous Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate in literature, admirer of the works of Gogol, L. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Gorky Grazia Deledd to A.G. Dostoevskaya. a member of the Garibaldian movement; Italian opera singer Eliza Volpini to A.N. Jacobi; the Italian tragic actor Ernesto Rossi to AN Jacobi; the famous Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate in literature, admirer of the works of Gogol, L. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Gorky Grazia Deledd to A.G. Dostoevskaya.

Researchers from Italy with interest examined the manuscripts of the collection of the writer’s wife in their native language, offered cooperation and promised to help with the translation of the contents of these letters into Russian. The conference hosted a presentation of the Dostoevsky and Italy website , voiced the prospects of making this event an annual event, which would unite the efforts of Russian and Italian researchers to study the work and biography of the great writer and thinker, and disseminate his humanistic ideas.