The present paragraph in the paper Gossip was under the heading, “The Karamazov Case at Skotoprigonyevsk.” (That, alas! was the name of our little town. I had hitherto kept it concealed.)
In case you were wondering, this is not a real town.
No, Skotoprigonyevsk is not a real town in Russia.
It is a completely fictional town created by Fyodor Dostoevsky for The Brothers Karamazov.
As we discussed, the name itself is highly symbolic and carries significant meaning within the novel. It's derived from Russian words like "skot" (cattle) and "prigon" (a driving place or pen), suggesting a place of base instincts, materialism, and a lack of spiritual elevation. Dostoevsky chose this name specifically to reflect his thematic concerns about the human condition when divorced from higher moral and spiritual values.
