Dostoevsky and World Culture Dostoevsky and World Culture 2619-0311 2712-8512 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2026-1-150-169 Research Article Articles Dostoevsky’s Demons in the New Orthography: What Has Changed for the Reader? (Based on Part One of the Novel) Rumiantseva Kseniia G. fedor@dostmirkult.ru 25 03 2026 1 1 150 169 Dostoevsky Demons spelling footnotes stress marks Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 This article analyzes the changes introduced into Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel Demons following its republication under the new orthography. The study is based on a comparison between the original editions of the 1870s and the Complete Works (1972–1990). As a result of the spelling reform and editorial efforts to correct what were perceived as typographical errors in the original text, Dostoevsky’s novel reached modern readers in a modified form. Previous scholars have noted that even minor alterations—such as the addition of a comma or the replacement of capital letters with lowercase ones—can significantly affect the overall tone of a literary work. This issue therefore remains open for further investigation. The article addresses two specific questions. First, it examines footnotes providing translations of French passages. Contemporary readers no longer possess the same level of proficiency in French as members of the nineteenth-century Russian high society. Consequently, modern editions of Demons, in which French expressions occur frequently, tend to include translational footnotes. However, this practice may disrupt the reader’s concentration and immersion in the text. The second issue concerns the use of stress marks in the novel. In the original editions, stress marks were employed to prevent potential misinterpretation. Yet their function extends beyond purely grammatical clarification. Moreover, the text contains both left- and right-aligned stress marks. This article explores whether these instances should be regarded as typographical errors or as deliberate authorial strategies intended to emphasize particular words or phrases.