Path to Renewal: The Motif of Leaving the City (“Petersburg Chronicle” and White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky)

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Author: Tatiana G. Magaril-Il'iaeva

Information about the author:

PhD in Philology, Senior Researcher, Research Centre “Dostoevsky and World Culture,” А.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Povarskaya St., 25A, bld. 1, 121069 Moscow, Russia.

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7521-1898

E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For citation:

Magaril-Il’iaeva, T.G. “Path to Renewal: The Motif of Leaving the City (‘Petersburg Chronicle’ and White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky).” Dostoevsky and World Culture. Philological journal, no. 4 (32), 2025, pp. 35–57. (In Russ.)

https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2025-4-35-57

Received: 20 Aug. 2025

Approved after reviewing: 22 Nov. 2025

Published: 25 Dec. 2025

Issue: 2025 no. 4 (32)

Department: HERMENEUTICS. SLOW READING

Pages: 35-57

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2025-4-35-57

EDN:

https://elibrary.ru/TYSNNK

UDK: 821.161.1.0+82.0

BBK: 83.3(2Рос=Рус)+83

Publication Type: Research Article

Keywords: Dostoevsky, White Nights, The Landlady, “Petersburg Chronicle,” feuilletons, image of the sun, city.

Abstract: The article examines the episode in which the Dreamer, the protagonist of Dostoevsky’s White Nights, briefly leaves the city and, upon returning, meets Nastenka. From the ensuing dialogue between the characters, it appears that their encounter is a direct consequence of the Dreamer having gone beyond the city gate, where he “was happy; … walked, sang; … had been outside the city.” A strikingly similar composition shapes the scene in which Ordynov meets Katerina: the hero decides to take a walk and unconsciously wanders into “a wilderness where the city no longer existed.” When he returns, he encounters the heroine praying inside a church. The motif of leaving the city also appears as a recurring theme in the series of feuilletons Dostoevsky wrote for the “Petersburg Chronicle” column. This study shows that the act of stepping outside the city is not a minor plotline but reflects one of the central ideas of Dostoevsky’s early work. By turning to the “Petersburg Chronicle,” where this plotline is developed at much greater length, the article demonstrates that leaving the city represents a symbolic transformation of a person’s entire mode of being—a departure from a closed-off, soul-stifling, estranged state, a rejection of well-worn paths, and a transition to “immediate” life. Such a transformation enables a person to connect with another, to notice the other; this is precisely why both the Dreamer and Ordynov encounter their heroines only after venturing into nature. Meeting in this “transfigured” state, they recognize in one another someone they have long known and awaited, finding in each other abundant sources of life.

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