ABSTRACT
Dostoevsky's famous letter to Maikov of 16th-28th August, 1867, published below, originally appeared in Russian in The Biography and Letters of F. M. Dostoevsky, Petersburg, 1883, with considerable omissions and the names of I. S. Turgenev and Goncharov left out. It was published in full in the September number of the Russky Archiv for 1902. In connection with this letter, in which Dostoevsky's dislike of Turgenev is expressed quite clearly, it may lie appropriate to add that the character of Karmasinov. The name Karmasinov is significant, as it alludes to Turgenev's predilection for radical views and his admiration of Western culture. According to the evidence of a reliable witness Turgenev, having perused the passage in The Devils with the description of Karmasinov, smiled good-naturedly and said that it was done in a perfectly Aristophanic manner. Dostoevsky has permitted himself a something worse than parody; in the character of Karmasinov he has presented me as secretly sympathising with the party of Nechayev.
