Literay Fact Literay Fact 2541-8297 2542-2421 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2026-40-129-147 Research Article Articles The Reflection of the Realities of Russian Legal Proceedings in F.V. Bulgarin’s Novels Akimova Natalia N. editor@litfact.ru 2026 F.V. Bulgarin 19th-century Russian literature moral-satirical novel feuilleton novel legal proceedings trial Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 This article examines the literary refraction in F.V. Bulgarin’s novels of autobiographical realities related to his participation in a family court case. The experience accumulated over many years of litigation allowed Bulgarin to reveal the mechanism of legal proceedings in pre-reform Russia. In his first moral-satirical novel, “Ivan Vyzhigin,” he draws largely on the satirical traditions of Russian and European Enlightenment literature. Later, in the feuilleton novel, Bulgarin offers a more complex analysis of the Russian justice system, comparing it with the European system proving the necessity of advocacy as an essential element of adversarial legal proceedings. 1. Vidok Figliarin: Pis’ma i agenturnye zapiski F.V. Bulgarina v III Otdelenie [Vidok Figlyarin: Letters and Notes of F.V. Bulgarin to the 3rd Section], publ., comp., introd. and comm. by A.I. Reitblat. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 1998. 704 p. (In Russ.) 2. Gruzitskii, L. “Ipotechnyi kredit v Velikom Kniazhestve Litovskom” [“Mortgage Loan in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania”]. Belorusskii ekonomicheskii zhurnal, no. 3, 2009, pp. 103–111. (In Russ.) 3. Leblank, “‘Russkii Zhilblaz’ Faddeia Bulgarina. Literaturnaia preemstvennost’: ot Zhui k Lesazhu” [“‘Russian Gil Blas’ by Faddeus Bulgarin. Literary Continuity: From Jouy to Lesage”]. Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, no. 40, 1999, pp. 17–57. (In Russ.) 4. Lekke, “Puteshestvie Pana Podstoliia cherez Vilnu v Rossiiu. Faddei Bulgarin i pol’skii bytovoi roman” [“The Journey of Pan Podstoli through Vilna to Russia. Faddeus Bulgarin and the Polish Everyday Novel”]. F.V. Bulgarin — pisatel’, zhurnalist, teatral’nyy kritik [F.V. Bulgarin — Writer, Journalist, Theater Critic], ed. A.I. Reitblat. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2019, pp. 127–145. (In Russ.) 5. Lipatov, V. Vozniknovenie pol’skogo prosvetitel’skogo romana: Problemy natsional’nogo i obshcheevropeiskogo [The Emergence of the Polish Enlightenment Novel: Problems of National and Pan-European]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1974. 302 p. (In Russ.) 6. Poliaki v Peterburge v pervoi polovine XIX veka [Poles in Petersburg in the First Half of the 19th Century], comp., introd. and ref A.I. Feduta. Moscow, Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie Publ., 2010. 912 p. (In Russ.) 7. Pokrovskii, A. Problema vozniknoveniia russkogo “nravstvenno- satiricheskogo” romana: (O genezise “Ivana Vyzhigina”) [The Problem of the Emergence of the Russian “Moral-satirical” Novel: (On the Genesis of “Ivan Vyzhigin”)]. Leningrad, Academy of the Sciences of the Soviet Union Publ., 1933. 36 p. (In Russ.) 8. Tikhonravov, N.S. Sochineniia: v 3 t. [Works: in 3 vols.], vol. 1. Moscow, Izdatel’stvo M. i S. Sabashnikovykh, 1898. 596 p. (In Russ.) 9. Czernobajew, “Ignacy Krasicki w literaturze rosyjskiej.” Pamiętnik Literacki, 1936, no. 1, pp. 41–62. (In Polish)