Some Notes on the Reception of Dostoevsky in Italy at the Time of Mussolini

The article is a preliminary attempt to outline the contours of the complex reception of the creativity and ideological world of F. M. Dostoevsky in Italy during the twenty-year period of the fascist regime (1922-1943). The attempt is justified by the ackof such studies so far, in the presence of a number of interesting articles and monographs devoted to certain aspects of the perception of the Russian writer in Italy during this period. The question of whether Dostoevsky's name was used for the purposes of fascist propaganda, in other words, whether the Russian ruler of the doom was perceived as a precursor of the fascist right-wing conservative revolution, remains unresolved. The first, as yet pro-visionary observations lead to the opinion that Dostoevsky's "fascization" took place, but had an occasional character and had little influence on the reception of the writer in general in Italy, while the strongest and most lasting influence on the reception of the writer was exerted by non-fascist or even anti-fascist writers, who, consequently, interpreted his figure and creative heritage according to categories incompatible with the ideological space of fascism.