On the status of editorials in Dostoevsky’s periodicals

Lots of anonymous articles were published in the periodicals edited by Dostoevsky in the 1860s–1870s. Traditional methods of their attribution often turn out to be ineffective. As a rule, discussing this issue researchers try to decide definitely who one or another article belongs to, but they do not take into consideration a specific character and practical aspects of journalistic and editorial work of those times, prerequisites and conditions of publication of articles, their genre singularity. Almost all the anonymous articles in these periodicals were editorial, written by editors or employees and authors under a commission of the editor in chief. Sometimes the editors office bought someone else’s text and revised it. The given articles manifested the journal’s policy, put into force ideas and instructions of the editor in chief. The authorship of the articles did not matter. The author was deprived of his rights for the article, which became the journal’s property. Thus, it is advisable to consider the editorials as a particular genre meant to formulate the journal’s policy, bring its program into effect, and implement the editor’s instructions. Their attribution is possible but not necessary. Among the anonymous articles in the journals “Vremya” and “Epokha” and the weekly “Grazhdanin” the most distinguished are the publications of F. M. Dostoevsky, as well as those prepared in collaboration with the following co-editors — M. M. Dostoevsky (“Vremya”, “Epokha”) and V. P. Meshchersky (“Grazhdanin”). In the editorial domain, the leading role belonged to F. M. Dostoevsky. As a specific genre, the given articles should be published and included into actual editions on history of Russian literature and journalism.