Dostoevsky’s Archaismus in Viacheslav Ivanov and his Followers

Vyacheslav Ivanov began to reveal the archaic depths in Dostoevsky's novels from his early youth. His interpretations were in the mainstream of Schelling's doctrine of archaic mythopoiesia as the creating of the people’s soul, that is, the theurgical one. In his early letters Dostoevsky turned to archaic models, formulating the tasks of creativity in a similar Schellingian way. Discovering Dostoevsky's archaic mythopoetic schemes, ancient motifs and forms, ancient elements, Ivanov acted as a secondary theurgist. That is means, he strove of interpretation to intensify Dostoevsky’s influence on the people’s destiny. M.M. Bakhtin and V. N. Toporov, following largely the Ivanov’s approach, discovered in Dostoevsky's work elements of the basic Myth, ancient Forms and the medieval element of Freedom. Probably, they were not strangers of the theurgical intention. The article also raises the question of the possible influence of Ivanov's work about Dostoevsky on Mandelstam's two poems.