Why do many scholars doubt that Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s father was murdered by his serfs?

The claim that Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s father was murdered by his own serfs is widely considered by scholars to be a myth.1

While the story of his father's death in 1839 circulated long after the author's own passing, it lacks historical verification and is now largely dismissed by researchers. The persistence of this narrative is often attributed to the tendency for dramatic, unverified anecdotes about the author's life to be treated as fact. This myth may have gained traction due to the thematic parallels found in Dostoyevsky’s final novel, The Brothers Karamazov, which centers on the murder of a profligate father and explores deep psychological themes of guilt and moral responsibility.12