It seems to be almost common knowledge that Dostoevsky was portraying Sergei Nechaev in his book Demons. Would anyone happen to know of any document where he actually admits this being the case or is this just widely assumed?
It seems to be almost common knowledge that Dostoevsky was portraying Sergei Nechaev in his book Demons. Would anyone happen to know of any document where he actually admits this being the case or is this just widely assumed?
I believe Dostoevsky mentioned the name 'Nechaev' a number of times in his notebooks while he was in the process of writing Demons.
There is a book by James Goodwin, 'Confronting Dostoevsky's Demons: Anarchism and the Specter of Bakunin in Twentieth Century Russia', in which there is a section that addresses this particular issue. You might be able to find it on google books if you're interested.
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