On the Early 20th Century Plagiarism and A. A. Izmailov’s Parody Gordik and His Sons (Not from Mickiewicz)

The article offers extensive historical and literary commentary on the parody by a renowned critic A. A. Izmailov Gordik and His Sons (Not from Mickiewicz) (1905). The parody was a response to the «literary» activities of the «plagiarizer extraordinary», Ivan Kallistratovich Gordik. Archival data and press publications are used to offer a detailed reconstruction of the audacious literary purloining of the novels by I. I. Yasinsky, G. A. Khrushchov-Sokolnikov, as well as to consider the other proven and plausible cases of illegal appropriation of texts in the early 20 th century. The article gives a detailed account of the reception of the scandals and exposures linked to I. Gordik’s name. The data from the Literary Fund and evidence of the contemporaries helped to prove the existence of two brothers, full namesakes: one was a plagiarizer, shamelessly using the works of his brother, the other one was a diligent amateur writer whose literary activities were cut short after the 1903 scandal. The fact makes this disastrous story unique in the history of the Russian literature.

feuilleton, plagiarism, parody, criticism, reception, scandal, mystification, doubles