Dostoevsky in Boston: 17th Symposium of the International Dostoevsky Society

On July 14–19, 2019 at Boston University (USA) took place the 17th Symposium of the International Society of F. M. Dostoevsky (International Dostoevsky Society, IDS). For five days Boston became the world capital of the Great Russian and international writer although he had never been to America. The residents of the central city of New England began to show their interest in Russian culture at the end of the 19th century. One of the evidence of this is the cited in this article newspaper item “On Russian fashion in the United States” from the collection of Dostoevsky’s widow Anna Grigoryevna, kept in the collection of the State Literary Museum. Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), the most famous representative of American romanticism, was born in Boston. Dostoevsky considered him a highly gifted writer and published his works in the journal “Vremya”. In the creative heritage of Dostoevsky there are practically no cultural, historical realities associated with America. The toponym Boston is also missing, but the word itself is used twice. By chance, Dostoevsky inserted the name of the hard labor game derived from the name of Boston city, the American “cradle of freedom”, into his Siberian Notebook that he began keeping during his Omsk penal servitude. Earlier, while translating the novel “Eugene Grande”, Dostoevsky following Balzac had already used the word “Boston” to describe the pastime of the network of old Grande. This publication presents a brief outline of the history of the origin and development of the International Dostoevsky Society, highlights a number of reports, key events, and the main results of the 17th Symposium, bringing together researchers of Dostoevsky’s works from around the world.