Dostoevsky and World Culture Dostoevsky and World Culture 2619-0311 2712-8512 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2025-4-79-143 Research Article Articles “Those Were Glorious Times, Sir!” The Napoleonic Wars and the Image of the Partisan Figner in Dostoevsky’s Short Story “The Demobbed” Podosokorsky Nikolay N. fedor@dostmirkult.ru 25 12 2025 1 4 79 143 Dostoevsky “The Demobbed ” “An Honest Thief ” Stories of an Experienced Man Alexander Figner the partisan movement Napoleon the Napoleonic myth the Napoleonic wars napoleonism veterans of the war of 1812 demobbed soldiers folk legends historical legends J.P. Butkov M.P. Zagoskin I.N. Skobelev A.V. Druzhinin “Legion of Revenge.” Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 This work is the first piece of research in the history of Dostoevsky studies dedicated to the early short story “The Demobbed,” which is part of the cycle Stories of an Experienced Man (From the Notes of an Unknown) (1848). Previously, this work was considered exclusively in review articles, books dedicated to a wide range of topics, or in the comments and notes to Dostoevsky’s Collected Works. A common place among researchers was the thesis that “The Demobbed” was just a sketch, building material for the writer’s later short story “An Honest Thief” (1860), however, the latter did not include a significant fragment from “The Demobbed” dedicated to the Napoleonic Wars and the charismatic, stern Russian commander of the international partisan detachment, the mysterious man Alexander Samoilovich Figner (1787–1813), who fiercely hated all the French, possessed outstanding intelligence abilities and even tried to kill Napoleon personally. The article substantiates the historical and literary value of the story “The Demobbed,” and its author proceeds from the artistic integrity of the work. Numerous examples reveal the originality of this story, which is based on many oral and written sources. A hypothesis is made about the influence of Dostoevsky’s “The Demobbed” on the story of the same name by Vladimir I. Dahl, published in 1857. The paper presents a critical review of the researchers’ statements and observations about Dostoevsky’s story “The Demobbed,” starting with the first critical reviews and ending with the latest comments. Special attention is paid to the type of Russian demobbed soldier (seasoned man) in the work as a participant in the Napoleonic Wars, those wars themselves, and the legends regarding Figner and Napoleon. In several cases, the article corrects and significantly supplements the commentary to “The Demobbed” of the existing academic edition of Dostoevsky’s Complete Works.