PUSKIN'S LEGACY IN ANNA KARENINA

In 1877, when the final part of the novel was issued, Dostoevskii declared unequivocally (though without drawing specific parallels) that "Anna Karenina is...not something new in terms of its idea, nor is it anything previously unheard of among us...we can, of course, point Europe directly to its source, that is, to Pushkin himself" (200).1 Subsequent criticism, by and large, has taken paths the suggested by these early reactions. [...]it happened that auntie fell asleep, and I, not having the energy to walk downstairs and return the book to the library, put it down on the window sill in the parlor. The next morning, while having his coffee, Lev picked up the book and started to reread it rapturously. The aim of the present study is to demonstrate that Tolstoy was in a sense ripe for Pushkin's influence in March 1873, that much in his life experience prepared him for an intense encounter with his predecessor.