En fortælling omkring Fjodor Mikhailovitj Dostojevskijs besøg i København, 1865 … [A story around Fëdor Michailovič Dostoevskij’s visit to Copenhagen in 1865 …] En fortælling omkring Fjodor Mikhailovitj Dostojevskijs besøg i København, 1...

What is it about?

In November 2022, during a brief stopover in Copenhagen, I visited the Assistens Cemetery for the first time in a while and to my surprise discovered a newly erected bronze sculpture of Fyodor Dostoevsky. The plaque under Dostoevsky’s sculpture claimed that Dostoevsky had visited Søren Kierkegaard’s grave in 1865. This startling news seemed like an urban legend, if not an outright fabrication. I began my inquiry, which led me to a book by two of the people behind the monument.

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Photo by Photographer Frederik Trovatten on Unsplash

Photo by Photographer Frederik Trovatten on Unsplash

Why is it important?

In a longer article in Russian, entitled “Dostoevsky at Kierkegaard's Grave? (From the Latest Urban Legends about Dostoevsky)”, in Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie 182 (2023): 360-366, I published the full results of my research, including a review of the literature on the subject of “Dostoevsky and Kierkegaard,” an account of the decision-making process at the Technical and Environmental Directorate of the City of Copenhagen, and an outline of the artistic and bureaucratic career of the Russian sculptor who created the questionable monument. In this review, I focus on the book at hand concluding that, although the book is not without certain merits, it does not provide any concrete facts that could testify to Dostoevsky’s familiarity with Kierkegaard’s ideas, much less his desire to visit the philosopher’s grave. In other words, it does not justify the authors’ campaign for the monument at the Assistens Cemetery. For a follow-up journalistic investigation by Asker Hedegaard Boye, see https://www.weekendavisen.dk/2024-50/boeger/oensketaenkning-paa-kirkegaarden