“Investigation of talent” in the debate of Nikolay Dobrolyubov with Fedor Dostoevsky

The article analyzes the interpretation of F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel Humiliated and Insulted, proposed by N. A. Dobrolyubov in his essay Downtrodden people (1861). The interpretation of the images of Ivan Petrovich, Prince Valkovsky (an unknown source of his philosophy of egoism, La Rochefoucauld’s Maxims, is introduced into scientific circulation), Nelly is of particular importance, as well as the question posed by the critic about the main character of the novel. The mutual understanding between the author and the critic comes to an end when their axiologically opposed contexts of understanding come into force. The novel of forgiveness / unforgiveness is interpreted by the critic as the novel of downtroddenness / protest. Having discovered the energy of moral and social nonconformism in Dostoevsky’s novel, Dobrolyubov redirected it from the “native” moral and social channel to his own, social and moral, one. The essay of the critic who created his own version of the novel and writer’s previous works, thereby contributed to the aesthetic and ideological self-determination of Dostoevsky.