another Dostoevskii mixup?

[Steven Hill]

I seek feedback from Dostoevskii specialists, who could perhaps  help to
clarify what lies behind a curious confusion in the enormous, very valuable,
but sometimes mixed-up, Internet Movie Data Base ("US.IMDB.COM").  After
I hear your thoughts I will submit a little correction to "IMDB."

In IMDB's detailed credits from the 1981 Soviet film, "26 Days in the Life of
Dostoevsky," the Polish actress Ewa Szykulska is correctly credited with the
film's 3d important role, Dostoevskii's "infernal" mistress. But Szykulska's
character's name is cited as "Avdotia Panaeva" [ sic ].  Yet 99.999% of
other sources credit  Szykulska with the role of "Polina Suslova."   I'm
assuming that Panaeva [1820-93] and Suslova [1840-1918] were two totally
separate & distinct persons.

Can any of you specialists hypothesize what might have happened?  Is
there any chance  that at some point in her later life "Suslova" might have
written under the pseudonym of "Panaeva"?  Or vice versa?  Or might
Szykulska have played the role of "Avdotia Panaeva" in a completely different
biographical film?

Gratefully,
Steven P Hill (Univ. of Illinois, USA).
"S-HILL4 at UIUC.EDU"

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