THE SYSTEM OF MINOR CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL “THE IDIOT” BY F.M. DOSTOYEVSKY

In this article we perform a minor character study. It includes Afanasy Ivanovich Totsky, two general’s families ? the Yepanchins and the Ivolgins ? and the group of “youthful positivists” consisting of Keller, “the boxer”, Doktorenko, Antip Burdovsky and Ippolit Terentyev. These characters carry the author’s ideas, and it is them in whose mouths the writer placed the message that he wanted to get over to his readers. Through these characters Dostoyevsky raised the most challenging topics and questions of the times he lived in. But just as many of them remain live issues today, so those characters retained their significance and attractiveness as a target of a multi-faceted research.