The article shows the traces of Pushkin’s «Prisoner», «Brothers-Thieves», «Captain’s Daughter», etc. in Dostoyevsky’s «Notes from
the Dead House» through the extrapolation of the writer’s «Pushkin Speech» to the formation of artistic meaning of the novel. Dostoyevsky’s idea of freedom / will exceeds its external forms. Dostoyevsky appreciates above all the «secret freedom» praised by Pushkin. Therefore, the idea of punishment is recognized by Dostoyevsky as beneficial, leading to the «insight» of «folk truth». The considered Pushkin’s allusions participate in the formation of the philosophical and symbolic level of the novel, which is not immediately revealed to the reader and is not connected with the factual plausibility.
Keywords
Pushkin; Dostoevsky; antinomy of freedom and imprisonment.