Alexey Alexandrovich Shirinsky-Shikhmatov as the author of the book Testament to My Peasants or Moral Instruction to Them

The article is dedicated to the book Testament to My Peasants or Moral Instruction to Them (Moscow, 1838). The study aims to correct the authorship erroneously attributed to A.S. Shishkov in Dostoevsky’s complete works and in some modern publications, and to examine the book in a historical and literary context. Having noted that the existing editions of Shishkov’s writings do not contain the work, the author of the article presents a number of arguments that prove that the book was written by Prince Alexey Alexandrovich Shirinsky-Shikhmatov (?-1848). There exist other works by the prince that do not raise doubts about their authorship and are signed with the same initials - A. Sh. - as Testament. The author briefly describes the life and activities of Prince Shirinsky-Shikhmatov in comparison with the facts of Shishkov’s biography, and notes discrepancies in them. Further, the author considers the genre-thematic originality of the book in line with the problem of the relationship between the landowner and the peasants, which is fundamental for all domestic literature. The point of reference here is Karamzin’s “Letter of a Country Dweller”. The author also analyzes the work “A Villager” by Shirinsky-Shikhmatov’s brother Sergey Alexandrovich and articles on the peasant theme by Shishkov. Shishkov and Sergey Shirinsky-Shikhmatov were Karamzin’s literary opponents. However, they were his adherents in a negative attitude to the idea of the liberation of peasants. The protagonist and addressee in their works are the landowner. The author of the article notes that, in these works, similar in subject matter, but diverse in genre, the same plot scheme can be traced: having completed his studies, having graduated from service or returned from a journey, a landowner arrives at his estate and finds it in a state requiring immediate intervention. The owner of the estate proceeds to transform it and to educate the peasants for the purpose of the common good. He eradicates drunkenness, organizes a school, introduces faith and reading of the Holy Scripture, fights against theft and laziness, conducts educational conversations with peasants, gives moral lessons, etc. All this is also observed in the book by Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, but this writer is alien to material interests. He cares first of all about the spiritual rebirth, about the salvation of the villagers’ souls. A distinctive feature of his Testament is the addressing factor. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov appeals to the peasants themselves, having already granted most of them freedom. Shishkov, however, was inclined to idealize a landlord’s ownership of people. Thus, information from the bibliography and journalism of that time, the facts of the biography, and the ideological position of the writer of Testament prove that the attribution of the book’s authorship to Shishkov is erroneous. The book was not written by Shishkov. Its author is Prince Alexey Alexandrovich Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, who signed his works A.Sh.