The marriage allegation No. 17: text and fate (Dostoevsky’s wedding in Kuznetsk on February 6, 1857)

The article introduces for the first time the authentic text of the marriage allegation, compiled by the clergy of the Holy Mother of God-Odigitrievsky Church in the city of Kuznetsk in preparation for the wedding of Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky and Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva on February 6, 1857. The original of this document has not been preserved, as it probably burned down during a fire that occurred in the Kuznetsk Church in December 1919. In the biographical literature, the text of the marriage allegation, which dates back to a handwritten copy made around 1916 by the priest of the Odigitrievsky Church, Nikolai Rudichev, is preserved and now stored in the Memorial House of F. M. Dostoevsky in Semey (Semipalatinsk until 2007). In 1916, it was published with a number of inaccuracies by the priest and local historian B. G. Gerasimov in the now-missing publication “Siberian chronicle.” In this article, the marriage search is reproduced from a photocopy of the lost original, which was made in 1910 and is now stored in the Literary and Memorial Museum of F. M. Dostoevsky in St. Petersburg. The signature autograph of the writer under the text of the marriage allegation makes it an official personal document, which warrants the inclusion of the marriage allegation in the main body of the Academic Complete Works of the writer, in the “Official letters and business papers” section. A significant part of the article contains the polemic with the hypothesis of Siberian local historians M. M. Kushnikova and V. V. Togulev, who believe that the said marriage allegation was removed from the Church archives and destroyed before the fire of 1919. They believe that it was done in order to hide the forgery contained in its text, which makes Dostoevsky’s first marriage illegitimate. While agreeing that the document really did contain forgery, the author of the article relies on the then-contemporary legislation in proving that the conclusion about the illegality of the writer’s marriage is a great exaggeration, and the hypothesis about the seizure and destruction of the marriage allegation has no serious grounds.