Abstract: In 1846-1848 three mystic texts of young F.M. Dostoevsky (not to mention his other works) were published in A.A. Kraevsky’s journal Otechestvennye Zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland), namely: The Double, The Landlady and White Nights. All of them are permeated with Gnostic and occult motifs. The novel White Nights, according to our hypothesis, tells about the postmortem pains of Petersburg ghosts that are doomed to roam the city, suffer from loneliness and dream of their past incarnation because they have “so little of the real life” but “their own life” where they anyway have “no one whom… you can say a word to”. There are a lot of hints in the text that the protagonist – the Dreamer – was a freemason before and possibly killed in a fire, and Nasten’ka whom he meets is a ghost of a suicide drown girl forced to wander between her past dwelling and the place where she died. The article analyzes the Masonic subtext of the novel dedicated to Dostoevsky’s friend of youth, the poet A.N. Pleshcheev who wrote several Masonic hymns. White Nights characters think the ideal to be in the mutual “fraternity” and actualize a number of legends and myths through their relationship the most important of which is the cycle of stories about King Solomon who built of the Temple of Jerusalem and the spirit of which the Dreamer compares himself with.
References
1. Berens B. Solomon [Solomon]. Berens B. Entsiklopediia mudretsov, mistikov i magov: Ot Adama do Iunga [Encyclopedia of wise men, mystics and magi: from Solomon to Jung]. Moscow, Izdatel'skii dom "Sofiia' Publ., "Mif' Publ., 2003, pp. 126-130. (In Russ.)
2. Gofman E.-T.-A. Nochnye etiudy. Ch. 2. Kroshka Tsakhes, Printsessa Brambilla; Rasskazy 1819-1821 godov [Night etudes. Part 2. Little Zaches, Princess Brambilla; Tales of 1819-1821]. Sobr. soch.: v 6 t. [Collected works: in 6 vols.], trans. from German. Moscow, Khudozh. lit. Publ., 1996. Vol. 3. 557 p. (In Russ.)
3. Grigor'ev A.A. Stikhotvoreniia [Poems]. Coll. and prefaced by Aleksandr Blok. Reprint of 1915 (1916), ed. by B.F. Egorov. Moscow, Progress-Pleiada Publ., 2003. 687 p. (In Russ.)
4. Dostoevskii F.M. Poln. sobr. soch.: v 30 t. [Complete works: in 30 vols.]. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1972-1990. (In Russ.)
5. Dostoevskii F.M. Poln. sobr. soch.: v 35 t. [Complete works: in 35 vols.], ed. by V.E. Bagno. 2nd ed., revised. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 2013 (continuing). (In Russ.)
6. Zhukovskii V.A. Stikhotvoreniia 1797-1814 gg. [Poems 1797-1814]. Poln. sobr. sochinenii i pisem: v 20 t. [Complete works and letters: in 20 vols.], ed. by O.B. Lebedev and A.S. Ianushkevich. Moscow, Iazyki slavianskikh kul'tur Publ., 1999. Vol. 1. 760 p. (In Russ.)
7. Karpachev S.P. Masony. Slovar'. Velikoe iskusstvo kamenshchikov [Masons. Dictionary. Great art of masonry]. Moscow, AST Publ., Olimp Publ., 2008. 634 p. (In Russ.)
8. Kasatkina T.A. "Zhivoi mertvets' Odoevskogo kak istochnik odnogo iz bazovykh polozhenii filosofii Dostoevskogo i riada strukturnykh printsipov ego tvorchestva [Odoevsky’s “Dead alive” as the source of one main concepts of Dostoevsky’s philosophy]. Literatura i filosofiia: ot romantizma k XX veku. K 150-letiiu so dnia smerti V.F. Odoevskogo [Literature and philosophy: from romanticism to the 20th century. To the 150th anniversary of V.F. Odoevsky’s death]. Moscow, Vodolei Publ., 2019 (in print). (In Russ.)
9. Kasatkina T.A. Fantaziia na temu biografii Dostoevskogo [Fantasy of Dostoevsky’s biography]. Dostoevskii i sovremennost'. Materialy X Mezhdunar. starorusskikh chtenii [Dostoevsky and the Modern Age. Materials of the 10th International Readings in Staraya Russa], Staraia Russa, s. l., 1996, pp. 57-65. (In Russ.)
10. Kuz'mishin E.L. Masonstvo [Freemasonry], prefaced by A.I. Serkov. Moscow, Ganga Publ., 2016. 496 p. (In Russ.)
11. Lermontov M.Iu. Sobr. soch.: v 4 t. Stikhotvoreniia [Collected works: in 4 vols. Poems], ed. by N.G. Okhotin. St. Petersburg, Izdatel'stvo Pushkinskogo Doma Publ., 2014. Vol. 1. 776 p. (In Russ.)
12. Odoevskii V.F. Zhivoi mertvets [Dead alive]. Russkaia fantasticheskaia povest' epokhi romantizma [Russian fantastic story of romanticism], ed. pref. and comm. by V.I. Korovin, Moscow, Sov. Rossiia Publ., 1987, pp. 191-214. (In Russ.)
13. Pleshcheev A.N. Polnoe sobranie stikhotvorenii [Complete poems], pref., ed. and comm. by M.Ia. Poliakov. Moscow – Leningrad, Sovetskii pisatel' Publ., 1964. 434 p. (In Russ.)
14. Podosokorskii N.N. "Chernaia kuritsa, ili Podzemnye zhiteli' Antoniia Pogorel'skogo kak povest' o masonskoi initsiatsii [A Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants by Antony Pogorelsky as a tale of mason initiation]. Voprosy literatury, 2012, No 5, pp. 124-144. (In Russ.)
15. Serkov A.I. Istoriia russkogo masonstva XIX veka [History of the Russian freemasonry of the 19th century]. St. Petersburg, Izd-vo im. N.I. Novikova Publ., 2000. 393 p. (In Russ.)
16. Skott V. Graf Robert Parizhskii. Stat'i i dnevniki [Collected works: in 20 vols. Count Robert of Paris. Articles and diaries]. Sobr. soch.: v 20 t. Moscow – Leningrad, Khudozhestvennaia literature Publ., 1965. Vol. 20. 838 p. (In Russ.)
17. Sokolovskaia T.O. Stat'i po istorii russkogo masonstva [Articles on the history of Russian freemasonry], pref. by D.D. Lotareva. Moscow, Gos. publ. ist. b-ka Rossii Publ., 2008. 337 p. (In Russ.)
18. Fotii (Spasskii), arkhimandrit. Bor'ba za veru. Protiv masonov [Struggle for the faith. Against the masons], ed., pref. and comm. by V. Ulybin, O.A. Platonov. Moscow, Institut russkoi tsivilizatsii Publ., 2010. 400 p. (In Russ.)
19. Shiller F. Dramy. Proza [Dramas. Prose]. Sobr. soch.: v 7 t. [Collected works: in 7 vols.]. Moscow, GIKhL Publ., 1956. Vol. 3. 699 p. (In Russ.)
20. Iung K.G. Anima i Animus [Anima and Animus]. Iung K.G. Psikhologiia bessoznatel'nogo [Psychology of subconscious], trans. from English, 2nd ed, Moscow, "Kogito-Tsentr' Publ., 2010, pp. 296-340. (In Russ.)