Chapter IX

. And finally, the following fact gives us the clearest evidence as to how Dostoevsky regarded the fragment in relation to the text of _The Possessed_: a considerable part of Stavrogin’s Confession was inserted by Dostoevsky almost without alteration in the confession of Versilov (_The Raw Youth_), in 1874.[98] The artist might have used for the new novel the material of the rough draft of the preceding novel, but could not possibly have used a fragment of the authentic text.

Footnote 98:

Compare the passage in Stavrogin’s Confession from “A year ago, in the spring, going through Germany, I absentmindedly left the station behind me,” to the words “A whole shaft of bright slanting rays from the setting sun rushed out and poured their light over me,” with the corresponding passage of Chapter VII ., Part III., of _The Raw Youth_, third edition, 1888, pp. 461-462.

Thus, both the completeness of Stavrogin’s character and the definitely expressed wish of the author compel us to conclude that