About the Genesis of “a Citizen of the Canton of Uri”

Abstract

The article explicates the process and principles of Dostoevsky’s modeling of the extremely antinomic image of Stavrogin. This anetinomicity is constructed, firstly, by placing a relatively traditional character in the innovative structure of the “ideological” “tragedy novel”, and secondly, by rooting the image of this pseudo-ideologist (a denationalized “groundless”, who settled in “suprahistorical” and “forgetful” Switzerland) in the national literary tradition (the genetic connection of “Demons” with “The Inspector”, and Stavrogin, respectively, with Khlestakov).