The Reasons for the “Non-meeting” of F.M. Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy

Abstract

The well-known historical and literary paradox is considered again: the contemporaries F.M. Dostoevsky and L.N. Tolstoy were not personally acquainted, although they had the opportunity to do so more than once. The assumption is substantiated that the main reason for such a non-meeting was not only a combination of random circumstances, but also the incredible intuition of both writers: constantly reading each other, feeling the deepest spiritual closeness and understanding the mutual significance for literature and society, both avoided everyday meetings even on literary occasions, because they were afraid that a possible verbal discussion would lead to an involuntary, even temporary profanation of their views.

Keywords

• f.m. dostoevsky
• l.n. tolstoy
• n.n. strakhov
• i.s. turgenev
• a.g. dostoevskaya
• a.a. tolstaya
• pushkin celebrations of 1880