Oh, these storytellers! There is no way to write something useful, pleasant, delightful, otherwise all the ins and outs are ripped out of the ground! I should have forbidden them to write! Well, what is it like: you read... you involuntarily think, and then all sorts of rubbish comes to mind; I really should have forbidden them to write; I would simply ban it altogether.
V. F. Odoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) - the great Russian writer, philosopher, translator had the broadest influence on world literature and spiritual life of the 19th and 20th centuries. But to this day he continues to remain our contemporary, the flagship of realistic art, the master of the word, which he managed to deepen and enrich.
But Dostoevsky’s work in its significance goes far beyond literature. It belongs to the heights of the spiritual culture of mankind and ranks with the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Plato and Aristotle.
Brief biography of F. M. Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born on October 30, 1821 in Moscow. His father, Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky, was the son of a village priest. In his youth, he broke with family traditions, left his home and received a medical education in Moscow. During Napoleon's invasion in 1812 he served in a military hospital. Then he worked as a doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the poor.
In 1820 he married Maria Nechaeva, a merchant's daughter. In 1827 he received the rank of collegiate assessor, and with it acquired the right to hereditary nobility. In the period from 1831 to 1833, he bought two small villages near Moscow. And it was during this period that little Fedor became acquainted with rural Russia. He subsequently reflected his childhood impressions of rural nature and the peasantry in the story “The Peasant of Marey.”
In 1843, the future great writer graduated from the Main Engineering School in St. Petersburg, where he entered at the request of his father. He began serving in the engineering department, but his passion for literature forced the young man to leave the service within a year and devote himself to writing. His first creative experience was the translation of Balzac’s novel “Eugene Grande”. It appeared in print in 1844.
In May 1845, the first novel, Poor People, was completed. The work was highly appreciated by V. G. Belinsky, N. A. Nekrasov, D. V. Grigorovich. They introduced Dostoevsky into the circle of writers of the “natural school”, which was grouped around Belinsky. The novel appeared in print in 1846 simultaneously with the story “The Double.” These works immediately attracted the attention of both readers and critics.
While engaged in literary activities, the aspiring writer in 1847 began attending meetings of the Petrashevsky revolutionary society. In 1849 he became a member of two other socialist circles, organized by N. A. Speshnev and S. F. Durov. At one of the meetings, Fyodor Mikhailovich introduced his comrades to an illegal letter from Belinsky to Gogol that he had received from Moscow. Even earlier, this letter had been read to him in a narrower circle at Durov’s and was accepted with delight by the members of the circle.
Together with members of Speshnev’s circle, which aimed at a revolution in Russia, the young writer participated in an attempt to organize a secret printing house. It was planned to print anti-government literature and proclamations there.
This activity ended very sadly. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was arrested on April 23, 1849 in the Petrashevsky case. They placed him in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress and sentenced him to deprivation of all rights to his estate and execution. On December 22, 1849, along with other Petrashevites, the young writer was taken to the Semyonovsky parade ground in St. Petersburg and the death sentence was read out.
After this, the first group of convicts was blindfolded and placed in front of a line of soldiers with guns. The atmosphere became tense, but then the command came to remove the bandages. The prosecutor came forward and the Highest Command was read to the condemned. The Emperor showed mercy and replaced the death penalty with hard labor with further service in the army as a private.
In 1873, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky described those terrible 10 minutes of waiting for death, which passed from the announcement of the death sentence to the royal mercy: “In these last minutes, the matter for which we were condemned, those thoughts, those concepts that possessed our spirit, were imagined not only not requiring repentance, but even something purifying, martyrdom, for which much will be forgiven us!”
The young writer was sent into exile in the Omsk prison. There he spent 4 years at hard labor. In 1854, soldier service began in Semipalatinsk. After the death of Nicholas I, at the request of the hero of the Sevastopol defense E.I. Totleben, Dostoevsky was awarded the officer rank. The disgraced writer was pardoned, the rights of the nobility were restored and he was allowed to publish on April 17, 1857.
Dostoevsky's first wife Maria Dmitrievna
The years of exile and military service became turning points in the writer’s life. He became a religious man and believed in Jesus Christ. In February 1857, Fyodor Mikhailovich married Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva (nee Konstant, Isaeva was her surname in her first marriage). He was very infatuated with this woman, but the marriage lasted only 7 years. The wife died of tuberculosis on April 15, 1864.
As for creativity, in 1859 the writer returned to the European part of Russia. At first he settles with his wife in Tver, and at the end of the year he moves to St. Petersburg. From this time on, the second creative birth and formation of the great classic took place. In 1860-1862. he writes “Notes from the House of the Dead”, “Humiliated and Insulted” (1861), “Crime and Punishment” (1866), “The Gambler” (1866), “Idiot” (1867), “Demons” (1871-1872), “Teenager” (1875), “The Brothers Karamazov” (1879-1880), the story “Notes from the Underground” (1864), the story “The Meek” (1876), etc.
The journalistic and editorial activities of the classic also begin in St. Petersburg. In 1861, together with his older brother Mikhail (critic and fiction writer), he founded the magazine “Time”. In 1862 he travels abroad for the first time. He visits Paris, London (meeting with Herzen), Germany, Switzerland, northern Italy.
In the winter of 1862-1863, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky became passionately interested in the young writer A.P. Suslova. In the summer of 1863, together with this lady, he made a second trip abroad. The writer reflected the image of Suslova in the novel “The Player”.
In May 1863, the magazine "Time" was closed by the government. But in 1864, the Dostoevsky brothers were allowed to publish a new magazine, Epoch. However, this year turned out to be tragic for the writer. First, on April 15, his wife died, and on July 10, his elder brother Mikhail. After his death, the classic voluntarily assumed his debt obligations. And they weighed heavily on Fyodor Mikhailovich almost until the end of his life.
In 1865, publication of the magazine “Epoch” ceased, and the writer was left without funds for a long time, pursued by creditors. In October 1866, Dostoevsky, due to his impracticality and gullibility, found himself in a very difficult financial situation. He entered into an enslaving agreement with the publisher F. T. Stellovsky. This agreement stated that the classic writer must provide the publisher with a new novel by November 1, 1866. Otherwise, all ownership rights to the writer’s works were to be transferred to Stellovsky for a period of 9 years.
At that time, Fyodor Mikhailovich was working on Crime and Punishment. It was published chapter by chapter in the Russian Bulletin. The publisher needed a completely new work, not yet published anywhere. Therefore, it was necessary to create something light and short. And Dostoevsky wrote the novel “The Gambler” in 26 days. To speed up the process, the writer hired a stenographer to help him. Her name was Anna Grigorievna Snitkina. And this woman became a real find for the impractical classic.
Dostoevsky's second wife Anna Grigorievna
Already on November 8, 1866, after “The Player” was given to Stellovsky, Dostoevsky proposed marriage to Snitkina. The wedding took place on February 15 of the following year, and on April 14 the newlyweds went abroad. It was not a honeymoon, but an escape from creditors. Having received money for Crime and Punishment, the Dostoevsky couple left the Russian Empire for 4 years.
The young people lived in Dresden, Baden, Geneva, and Florence. At the same time, there was a catastrophic lack of money, and the family led a semi-beggarly existence. Anna Grigorievna’s mother helped out, sending the couple money from time to time. But everything would not be so bad if Fyodor Mikhailovich had not become addicted to playing roulette. The player Dostoevsky is also one of the facets of the character of the great classic.
The Dostoevskys returned to Russia in July 1871. Abroad, Anna Grigorievna gave birth to two daughters: Sonya, who died shortly after birth, and Lyuba, who later became a writer. Already in Russia, sons were born: Alexey, who died as a child, and Fedor.
The family lived in St. Petersburg. At the same time, Anna Grigorievna dealt with all financial issues, and her impractical husband devoted himself entirely to literature. In the summer, the Dostoevskys traveled to the Novgorod province, to Staraya Russa, and several times the writer went to Germany to the Ems resort for treatment. In Russia, Fyodor Mikhailovich finished the novel “Demons”, which he began abroad, and in 1873 began to engage in journalistic activities.
Posthumous portrait of F. M. Dostoevsky (artist I. N. Kramskoy)
He edited the bi-weekly newspaper-magazine "Citizen", which was published by the writer and publicist Prince V.P. Meshchersky. In “Citizen,” Dostoevsky regularly published “The Diary of a Writer” - a series of essays, feuilletons, polemical notes, and journalistic discussions on the “topic of the day.” But in 1874, disagreements began between the classic and the publisher. As a result of this, Fyodor Mikhailovich had to abandon editing “Citizen”.
He began publishing A Writer's Diary as an independent publication. He published it as monthly issues in 1876 and 1877. Between issues he maintained extensive correspondence with readers. Then the classic began writing the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”, and at the end of 1880, after writing the novel, he resumed publication of “The Diary of a Writer”. But only the first issue was published.
Dostoevsky's grave in St. Petersburg at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra
At the beginning of January 1881, the writer’s pulmonary disease worsened. And on January 28, at the age of 60, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky died of pulmonary tuberculosis. The great Russian writer was buried on February 1, 1881 at the Tikhvin cemetery in St. Petersburg. It should be noted that real worldwide fame came to the classic only after his death. But during his lifetime, although his name was famous, it did not stand out much from the general mass of writers of that time.
Fyodor Dostoevsky - biography
At the very first meeting with his future wife, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, Dostoevsky told her, a complete stranger and unfamiliar girl, the story of his life. “His story made a terrible impression on me: a chill went down my spine,” recalled Anna Grigorievna. “This seemingly secretive and stern man told me his entire past life in such detail, so sincerely and sincerely that I was involuntarily surprised. Only later did I understand that Fyodor Mikhailovich, completely alone and surrounded by people hostile to him, at that time felt a thirst to openly tell someone a biography about his life...”Childhood and youth
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in 1821 into the once noble noble family of the Dostoevskys, whose family came from the Russian-Lithuanian gentry. The chronicles mention the fact that back in 1506, Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Yaroslavich granted his voivode Danila Rtishchev the family coat of arms and the vast estate of Dostoevo near present-day Brest, and from that voivode the entire large Dostoevsky family came. However, by the beginning of the century before last, only one coat of arms remained from the family inheritance, and the father of the future writer, Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky, was forced to feed his family with his own labor - he worked as a staff doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital on Bozhedomka in Moscow. The family lived in a wing at the hospital, and all eight children of Mikhail Andreevich and his wife Maria Fedorovna were born there.Fyodor Dostoevsky received a decent education for noble children of that time - he knew Latin, French and German. The children were taught the basics of literacy by their mother, then Fyodor, together with his older brother Mikhail, entered the Moscow private boarding school of Leonty Chermak. “The humane attitude towards us, children, on the part of our parents was the reason that during their lifetime they did not dare to place us in a gymnasium, although it would have cost much less,” Fyodor Mikhailovich’s brother, Andrei Dostoevsky, later wrote in his memoirs about the biography.
Gymnasiums did not enjoy a good reputation at that time, and they had the usual and ordinary corporal punishment for any slightest offense. As a result, private boarding houses were preferred.” When Fedor turned 16, his father sent him and Mikhail to study at Kostomarov’s private boarding school in St. Petersburg. After completing their studies, the boys moved to the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School, which was then considered one of the privileged educational institutions for the “golden youth”. Fyodor also considered himself to be among the elite - primarily the intellectual one, since the money sent by his father was sometimes not enough even for the most necessary things.
Unlike Mikhail, who did not attach much importance to this, Fyodor was embarrassed by his old dress and the constant lack of cash. During the day, the brothers went to school, and in the evenings they often visited literary salons, where at that time the works of Schiller, Goethe, as well as Auguste Comte and Louis Blanc, French historians and sociologists fashionable in those years, were discussed.
The brothers' carefree youth ended in 1839, when news of their father's death arrived in St. Petersburg - according to the existing “family legend,” Mikhail Andreevich died on his Darovoye estate at the hands of his own serfs, whom he caught red-handed stealing timber. Perhaps it was the shock associated with the death of his father that forced Fyodor to move away from evenings in bohemian salons and join socialist circles, which were then active in large numbers among students.
The circle members talked about the ugliness of censorship and serfdom, the corruption of officials and the oppression of freedom-loving youth. “I can say that Dostoevsky never was and could not be a revolutionary,” his classmate Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky later recalled. The only thing is that he, as a noble man of feeling, could be carried away by feelings of indignation and even anger at the sight of injustices and violence committed against the humiliated and insulted, which was the reason for his visits to Petrashevsky’s circle.”
It was under the influence of Petrashevsky’s ideas that Fyodor Mikhailovich wrote his first novel, “Poor People,” which made him famous. Success changed the life of yesterday's student - the engineering service was over, now Dostoevsky could rightfully call himself a writer. The name of Dostoevsky in his biography became known not only in the circles of writers and poets, but also among the general reading public. Dostoevsky's debut turned out to be successful, and no one had any doubt that his path to the heights of literary fame would be direct and easy.
Hard labor and exile
But life decreed otherwise. In 1849, the “Petrashevsky case” broke out - the reason for the arrest was the public reading of Belinsky’s letter to Gogol, prohibited by censorship. All two dozen of those arrested, and Dostoevsky among them, repented of their passion for “harmful ideas.” Nevertheless, the gendarmes saw in their “disastrous conversations” signs of preparation for “unrest and riots that threaten the overthrow of all order, the violation of the most sacred rights of religion, law and property.”“Man is a mystery. It must be unraveled, and if you spend your whole life unraveling it, then don’t say that you wasted time; I am working on this mystery, because I want to be a man.”
The court sentenced them to death by shooting on the Semenovsky parade ground, and only at the last moment, when all the convicts were already standing on the scaffold in death row clothes, the emperor relented and announced a pardon, replacing the execution with hard labor. Mikhail Petrashevsky himself was sent to hard labor for life, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, like most “revolutionaries,” received only 4 years of hard labor followed by service as an ordinary soldier.
Fyodor Dostoevsky served his term in Omsk. At first he worked in a brick factory, firing alabaster, and later worked in an engineering workshop. “For all four years I lived hopelessly in the prison, behind the walls, and only went out to work,” the writer recalled. - The work was hard, and sometimes I was exhausted, in bad weather, in wetness, in slush, or in winter in unbearable cold... We lived in a heap, all together, in the same barracks. The floor is dirty to an inch, the ceiling is dripping - everything is dripping. We slept on bare bunks, only one pillow was allowed. They covered themselves with short sheepskin coats, and their legs were always bare all night. You'll tremble all night. I count those 4 years as the time during which he was buried alive and closed in a coffin...” During hard labor, Dostoevsky’s epilepsy worsened, attacks of which later tormented him all his life.
After his release, Dostoevsky was sent to serve in the seventh Siberian linear battalion at the Semipalatinsk fortress - then this town was known not as a nuclear testing site, but as a run-of-the-mill fortress that guarded the border from raids by Kazakh nomads. “It was a half-city, half-village with crooked wooden houses,” recalled Baron Alexander Wrangel, who served as the prosecutor of Semipalatinsk at that time, many years later. Dostoevsky was settled in an ancient hut, which stood in the most bleak place: a steep wasteland, shifting sand, not a bush, not a tree.
Fyodor Mikhailovich paid five rubles for his premises, laundry and food. But what was his food like! A soldier was then given four kopecks for welding. Of these four kopecks, the company commander and cook kept one and a half kopecks for their benefit. Of course, life was cheap then: one pound of meat cost a penny, a pound of buckwheat cost thirty kopecks. Fyodor Mikhailovich took home his daily portion of cabbage soup. porridge and black bread, and if he didn’t eat it himself, he gave it to his poor mistress...”
Personal life
It was there, in Semipalatinsk, that Dostoevsky first fell seriously in love. His chosen one was Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, the wife of a former gymnasium teacher, and now an official in the tavern department, exiled from the capital to the ends of the world for some sins. “Maria Dmitrievna was over thirty years old,” recalled Baron Wrangel. - Quite a beautiful blonde of medium height, very thin, passionate and exalted in nature. She caressed Fyodor Mikhailovich, but I don’t think she deeply appreciated him, she simply took pity on the unfortunate man beaten down by fate... I don’t think that Maria Dmitrievna was in any serious way in love.Fyodor Mikhailovich mistook the feeling of pity and compassion for mutual love and fell in love with her with all the fervor of his youth.” Painful and fragile. Maria reminded the writer of his mother, and in his attitude towards her there was more tenderness than passion. Dostoevsky was ashamed of his feelings for a married woman, worried and tormented by the hopelessness of the situation. But about a year after they met, in August 1855, Isaev died suddenly, and Fyodor Mikhailovich immediately proposed marriage to his beloved, which, however, the widow did not immediately accept.
They got married only at the beginning of 1857, when Dostoevsky received an officer rank and Maria Dmitrievna gained confidence that he could provide for her and her son Pavel. But, unfortunately, this marriage did not live up to Dostoevsky’s hopes. Later he wrote to Alexander Wrangel: “Oh, my friend, she loved me infinitely, I loved her also without measure, but we did not live happily with her... We were positively unhappy together (according to her strange, suspicious and painful- fantastic character) - we could not stop loving each other; even the more unhappy they were, the more attached they became to each other.”
In 1859, Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg with his wife and stepson. And he discovered that his name was not at all forgotten by the public; on the contrary, the fame of a writer and a “political prisoner” accompanied him everywhere. He began writing again - first the novel “Notes from the House of the Dead”, then “Humiliated and Insulted”, “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions”. Together with his older brother Mikhail, he opened the magazine “Time” - his brother, who bought his own tobacco factory with his father’s inheritance, subsidized the publication of the almanac.
Alas, several years later it turned out that Mikhail Mikhailovich was a very mediocre businessman, and after his sudden death, both the factory and the editorial office of the magazine were left with huge debts that Fyodor Mikhailovich had to take on. Later, his second wife, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, wrote: “To pay these debts, Fyodor Mikhailovich had to work beyond his strength... How would my husband’s works benefit artistically if he, without these debts incurred, could write novels without rushing through, scanning and finishing before sending them to press.
In literature and society, Dostoevsky’s works are often compared with the works of other talented writers and Dostoevsky is reproached for the excessive complexity, intricacy and congestion of his novels, while others’ works are well-finished, and Turgenev’s, for example, are almost jewel-sharpened. And rarely does it occur to anyone to remember and weigh the circumstances under which other writers lived and worked, and under which my husband lived and worked.”
But then, in the early 60s, it seemed that Dostoevsky had a second youth. He amazed those around him with his ability to work; he was often excited and cheerful. At this time, a new love came to him - it was a certain Apollinaria Suslova, a graduate of the boarding school for noble maidens, who later became the prototype for both Nastasya Filippovna in The Idiot and Polina in The Player. Apollinaria was the complete opposite of Maria Dmitrievna - a young, strong, independent girl.
And the feelings that the writer experienced for her were also completely different from his love for his wife: instead of tenderness and compassion - passion and desire to possess. In her memoirs about her father, Fyodor Mikhailovich’s daughter Lyubov Dostoevskaya wrote that Apollinaria sent him “a declaration of love” in the fall of 1861. The letter was found among my father's papers - it is written simply, naively and poetically. At first impression, we see a timid young girl, blinded by the genius of the great writer. Dostoevsky was touched by Polina's letter. This declaration of love came to him at the moment when he needed it most..."
Their relationship lasted three years. At first, Polina was flattered by the adoration of the great writer, but gradually her feelings for Dostoevsky cooled. According to Fyodor Mikhailovich’s biographers, Apollinaria was expecting some kind of romantic love, but met the real passion of a mature man. Dostoevsky himself assessed his passion this way: “Apollinaria is a great egoist. The selfishness and pride in her are colossal. She demands everything from people, all perfections, does not forgive a single imperfection in respect for other good traits, but she herself relieves herself of the slightest responsibilities towards people.” Leaving his wife in St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky traveled around Europe with Apollinaria, spent time in casinos - Fyodor Mikhailovich turned out to be a passionate but unlucky gambler - and lost a lot at roulette.
In 1864, Dostoevsky’s “second youth” unexpectedly ended. In April, his wife Maria Dmitrievna died. and literally three months later, brother Mikhail Mikhailovich died suddenly. Dostoevsky subsequently wrote to his old friend Wrangel: “... I was suddenly left alone, and I simply became scared. My whole life was turned in two at once. The one half I crossed had everything I lived for. and in the other, still unknown half, everything is alien, everything is new, and not a single heart that could replace both of them for me.”
In addition to mental suffering, the death of his brother also entailed serious financial consequences for Dostoevsky: he found himself without money and without a magazine, which was closed for debts. Fyodor Mikhailovich proposed to Apollinaria Suslova to marry him - this would also solve the issues with his debts, because Polina was from a fairly wealthy family. But the girl refused; by that time, not a trace remained of her enthusiastic attitude towards Dostoevsky. In December 1864, she wrote in her diary: “People are telling me about FM. I just hate him. He made me suffer so much when it was possible to do without suffering.”
Another failed bride of the writer was Anna Korvin-Krukovskaya, a representative of an ancient noble family, the sister of the famous Sofia Kovalevskaya. According to the writer’s biographers, at first things seemed to be heading towards a wedding, but then the engagement was terminated without explanation. However, Fyodor Mikhailovich himself always claimed that it was he who freed the bride from this promise: “This is a girl of high moral qualities: but her beliefs are diametrically opposed to mine, and she cannot give them up, she is too straightforward. It’s unlikely that our marriage could be happy.”
From life's hardships, Dostoevsky tried to hide abroad, but creditors pursued him there too, threatening deprivation of copyright, inventory of property and debtor's prison. His relatives also demanded money - the widow of his brother Mikhail believed that Fedor was obliged to provide her and her children with a decent existence. Desperately trying to get at least some money, he entered into enslaving contracts to write two novels at once - “The Gambler” and “Crime and Punishment”, but soon realized that he had neither the moral nor the physical strength to meet the deadlines set by the contracts. Dostoevsky tried to distract himself by playing, but luck, as usual, did not favor him, and, losing his last money, he became increasingly depressed and melancholy. In addition, due to his undermined mental balance, he was literally tormented by epileptic attacks.
It was in this state that 20-year-old Anna Grigorievna Snitkina found the writer. Anna first heard the name of Dostoevsky at the age of 16 - from her father Grigory Ivanovich, a poor nobleman and petty St. Petersburg official who was a passionate admirer of literature and was fond of theater. According to her own recollections, Anya secretly took the edition of “Notes from the House of the Dead” from her dad, read it at night and shed bitter tears on the pages. She was an ordinary St. Petersburg girl of the mid-19th century - from the age of nine she was sent to study at the School of St. Anna on Kirochnaya Street, then to the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium.
Anyuta was an excellent student, voraciously read women's novels and seriously dreamed of reorganizing this world - for example, becoming a doctor or teacher. Despite the fact that already during her studies at the gymnasium it became clear that literature for her was much closer and more interesting than the natural sciences. In the fall of 1864, graduate Snitkina entered the physics and mathematics department of Pedagogical Courses. But neither physics nor mathematics were good for her, and biology became a torment: when the teacher in the class began to dissect a dead cat, Anya fainted.
In addition, a year later her father became seriously ill, and Anna had to earn money herself to support the family. She decided to leave her teaching career and went to study stenography courses opened by the then famous Professor Olkhin. “At first I was completely unsuccessful at shorthand,” Anya later recalled, “and only after the 5th or 6th lecture did I begin to master this gibberish writing.” A year later, Anya Snitkina was considered Olkhin’s best student, and when Dostoevsky himself approached the professor, wanting to hire a stenographer, he didn’t even have a doubt about who to send to the famous writer.
Their acquaintance took place on October 4, 1866. “At twenty-five minutes past eleven I approached Alonkin’s house and asked the janitor standing at the gate where apartment No. 13 was,” Anna Grigorievna recalled. - The house was large, with many small apartments inhabited by merchants and artisans. It immediately reminded me of the house in the novel Crime and Punishment, in which the hero of the novel Raskolnikov lived. Dostoevsky's apartment was on the second floor. I rang the bell, and the door was immediately opened by an elderly maid who invited me into the dining room...
The maid asked me to sit down, saying that the master would come now. Indeed, about two minutes later Fyodor Mikhailovich appeared... At first glance, Dostoevsky seemed quite old to me. But as soon as he spoke, he immediately became younger, and I thought that he was unlikely to be more than thirty-five to seven years old. He was of average height and stood very erect. Light brown, even slightly reddish hair, was heavily pomaded and carefully smoothed. But what struck me were his eyes; they were different: one was brown, in the other the pupil was dilated over the entire eye and the iris was imperceptible. This duality of the eyes gave Dostoevsky’s gaze a kind of mysterious expression...”
However, at first their work did not go well: Dostoevsky was irritated by something and smoked a lot. He tried to dictate a new article for Russkiy Vestnik, but then, apologizing, he suggested that Anna come over in the evening, around eight o’clock. Arriving in the evening, Snitkina found Fyodor Mikhailovich in much better condition, he was talkative and hospitable. He admitted that he liked the way she behaved at the first meeting - seriously, almost sternly, she did not smoke and did not at all resemble modern girls with bobbed hair. Gradually they began to communicate freely, and unexpectedly for Anna, Fyodor Mikhailovich suddenly began to tell her the biography of his life.
This evening conversation became the first pleasant event for Fyodor Mikhailovich in such a difficult last year of his life. The very next morning after his “confession” he wrote in a letter to the poet Maikov: “Olkhin sent me his best student... Anna Grigorievna Snitkina is a young and rather pretty girl, 20 years old, of good family, who completed her gymnasium course excellently, with an extremely kind and clear character. Our work went great...
Thanks to the efforts of Anna Grigorievna, Dostoevsky managed to fulfill the incredible terms of the contract with the publisher Stellovsky and write the entire novel “The Player” in twenty-six days. “At the end of the novel, I noticed that my stenographer sincerely loved me,” Dostoevsky wrote in one of his letters. -Although she never said a word to me about it, I liked her more and more. Since my life has been terribly boring and hard for me since the death of my brother, I asked her to marry me... The difference in years is terrible (20 and 44), but I am more and more convinced that she will be happy. She has a heart, and she knows how to love.”
Their engagement took place literally a month after they met - November 8, 1866. As Anna Grigorievna herself recalled, when making the proposal, Dostoevsky was very worried and, afraid of receiving an outright refusal, first spoke about the fictional characters of the novel he supposedly conceived: they say, do you think that a young girl, let’s say her name is Anya, could fall in love with someone who loves her tenderly? , but an old and sick artist, also burdened with debts?
“Imagine that this artist is me, that I confessed my love to you and asked you to be my wife. Tell me, what would you answer me? - Fyodor Mikhailovich’s face expressed such embarrassment, such heartache that I finally realized that this was not just a literary conversation and that I would deal a terrible blow to his vanity and pride if I gave an evasive answer. I looked at the excited face of Fyodor Mikhailovich, so dear to me, and said: “I would answer you that I love you and will love you all my life!”
I will not pass on the tender, love-filled words that Fyodor Mikhailovich spoke to me in those unforgettable moments: they are sacred to me...”
Their wedding took place on February 15, 1867 at about 8 pm in the Izmailovsky Trinity Cathedral in St. Petersburg. It seemed that Anna Grigorievna’s joy would have no end, but literally a week later the harsh reality reminded itself of itself. Firstly, Dostoevsky’s stepson Pavel spoke out against Anna, who regarded the appearance of a new woman as a threat to his interests. “Pavel Alexandrovich formed a view of me as a usurper, as a woman who forcibly entered their family, where hitherto he was the complete master,” Dostoevskaya recalled.
Unable to interfere with our marriage, Pavel Alexandrovich decided to make it unbearable for me. It is very possible that with his constant troubles, quarrels and slander against me to Fyodor Mikhailovich, he hoped to quarrel us and force us to separate.” Secondly, the young wife was constantly slandered by other relatives of the writer, who feared that she would “cut” the amount of financial assistance that Dostoevsky distributed to them from his fees. It got to the point that after just a month of living together, constant scandals made the life of the newlyweds so difficult. that Anna Grigorievna was seriously afraid of a final break in relations.
The catastrophe, however, did not happen - and mainly thanks to the extraordinary intelligence, determination and energy of Anna Grigorievna herself. She pawned all her valuables in the pawnshop and persuaded Fyodor Mikhailovich to go abroad, to Germany, secretly from his relatives, in order to change the situation and live together at least for a short time. Dostoevsky agreed to escape, explaining his decision in a letter to the poet Maikov: “There are two main reasons. 1) Save not only mental health, but even life in certain circumstances. .. 2) Creditors.”
It was planned that the trip abroad would take only three months, but thanks to Anna Grigorievna’s prudence, she managed to snatch her loved one out of her usual environment for four whole years, which prevented her from becoming a full-fledged wife. “Finally, a period of serene happiness came for me: there were no financial worries, there were no persons standing between me and my husband, there was a complete opportunity to enjoy his company.”
Anna Grigorievna also weaned her husband from his addiction to roulette, somehow managing to evoke shame in his soul for the lost money. Dostoevsky wrote in one of his letters to his wife: “A great thing has happened to me, the vile fantasy that tormented me for almost ten years has disappeared (or, better, since the death of my brother, when I was suddenly depressed by debts): I dreamed of winning everything; dreamed seriously, passionately... Now it's all over! I will remember this all my life and bless you, my angel, every time. No, now it’s yours, yours inseparably, all yours. Until now, half of this damned fantasy belonged to me.”
In February 1868, in Geneva, the Dostoevskys finally gave birth to their first child - daughter Sophia. “But we were not given long to enjoy our cloudless happiness. - wrote Anna Figorievna. - In the first days of May, the weather was wonderful, and we, on the urgent advice of the doctor, took our dear baby to the park every day, where she slept in her stroller for two or three hours. One unfortunate day during such a walk the weather suddenly changed, and apparently the girl caught a cold, because that same night she developed a fever and a cough.” Already on May 12, she died, and the Dostoevskys’ grief seemed to know no bounds.
“Life seemed to have stopped for us; all our thoughts, all our conversations were focused on memories of Sonya and that happy time when she illuminated our lives with her presence... But the merciful God took pity on our suffering: we soon became convinced that God had blessed our marriage and we could hope again have a child. Our joy was immeasurable, and my dear husband began to take care of me just as carefully. just like during my first pregnancy.”
Later, Anna Grigorievna gave birth to her husband two more sons - the eldest Fedor (1871) and the youngest Alexei (1875). True, the Dostoevsky couple once again had the bitter fate of surviving the death of their child: in May 1878, three-year-old Alyosha died from an attack of epilepsy.
Anna Grigorievna supported her husband in difficult times, was both a loving wife and a spiritual friend for him. But besides this, she became for Dostoevsky, in modern terms, his literary agent and manager. It was thanks to his wife’s practicality and initiative that he was able to finally pay off all the debts that had poisoned his life for years. Anna Grigorievna started with that. What. Having studied the intricacies of publishing, she decided to print and sell Dostoevsky’s new book herself - the novel “Demons”.
She did not rent a room for this, but simply indicated her home address in newspaper advertisements and paid the buyers herself. Much to her husband’s surprise, literally within a month the entire circulation of the book had already been sold out, and Anna Grigorievna officially established a new enterprise: “F.M. Book Trade Store.” Dostoevsky (exclusively for nonresidents).”
Finally, it was Anna Grigorievna who insisted that the family leave noisy St. Petersburg forever - away from obsessive and greedy relatives. The Dostoevskys chose to live in the town of Staraya Russa in the Novgorod province, where they bought a two-story wooden mansion.
Anna Grigorievna wrote in her memoirs: “The time spent in Russa is one of my most beautiful memories. The children were quite healthy, and throughout the entire winter they never had to call a doctor to see them. which did not happen when we lived in the capital. Fyodor Mikhailovich also felt good: thanks to a calm, measured life and the absence of all unpleasant surprises (so frequent in St. Petersburg), the husband’s nerves became stronger, and epileptic seizures occurred less frequently and were less severe.
And as a result of this, Fyodor Mikhailovich rarely got angry and irritated, and was always almost good-natured, talkative and cheerful... Our daily life in Staraya Russa was all distributed by hour, and this was strictly observed. Working at night, my husband got up no earlier than eleven o'clock. When he went out to drink coffee, he called the children, and they happily ran to him and told him all the incidents that happened that morning, and about everything they saw on their walk. And Fyodor Mikhailovich, looking at them, rejoiced and maintained the liveliest conversation with them.
Neither before nor since have I seen a person who could do it as well as my husband. enter into the worldview of children and thus interest them in your conversation. In the afternoon, Fyodor Mikhailovich called me into his office to dictate what he had managed to write during the night... In the evening, Fyodor Mikhailovich was playing with the children, to the sounds of an organ (Fyodor Mikhailovich himself bought it for the children, and now they are also having fun with it his grandchildren) danced with me the quadrille, waltz and mazurka. My husband especially loved the mazurka and, to be fair, he danced it wildly and enthusiastically...”
Death and funeral
In the fall of 1880, the Dostoevsky family returned to St. Petersburg. They decided to spend this winter in the capital - Fyodor Mikhailovich complained of poor health, and Anna Grigorievna was afraid to entrust his health to provincial doctors. On the night of January 25-26, 1881, he was working as usual when his fountain pen fell behind a bookcase. Fyodor Mikhailovich tried to move the bookcase, but his throat began to bleed from the intense exertion - in recent years the writer suffered from emphysema. For the next two days, Fyodor Mikhailovich remained in serious condition, and on the evening of January 28 he died.
Dostoevsky's funeral became a historical event: almost thirty thousand people accompanied his coffin to the Alecheandro-Nevsky Lavra. Every Russian experienced the death of the great writer as national mourning and personal grief.
For a long time Anna Grigorievna could not come to terms with the death of Dostoevsky. On the day of her husband’s funeral, she made a vow to devote the rest of her life to serving his name. Anna Grigorievna continued to live in the past. As her daughter Lyubov Fedorovna wrote, “Mom did not live in the twentieth century, but remained in the 70s of the nineteenth. Her people are the friends of Fyodor Mikhailovich, her society is a circle of departed people close to Dostoevsky. She lived with them. Everyone who works on the study of the life or works of Dostoevsky seemed like a close person to her.”
Anna Grigorievna died in June 1918 in Yalta and was buried in a local cemetery - far from St. Petersburg, from her relatives, from Dostoevsky’s grave, dear to her. In her will, she asked that she be buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, next to her husband, and that a separate monument not be erected, but just a few lines cut out. In 1968, her last wish was fulfilled.
Three years after the death of Anna Grigorievna, the famous literary critic L.P. Grossman wrote about her: “She managed to melt Dostoevsky’s tragic personal life into the calm and complete happiness of his last time. She undoubtedly extended Dostoevsky's life. With the deep wisdom of a loving heart, Anna Grigorievna managed to solve the most difficult task - to be the life companion of a nervous person, a former convict, an epileptic and the greatest creative genius.”
Some call him a prophet, a gloomy philosopher, others - an evil genius. He himself called himself “a child of the century, a child of unbelief, doubt.” Much has been said about Dostoevsky as a writer, but his personality is surrounded by an aura of mystery. The multifaceted nature of the classic allowed him to leave his mark on the pages of history and inspire millions of people around the world. His ability to expose vices without turning away from them made the heroes so alive, and his works so full of mental suffering. Immersion in the world of Dostoevsky can be painful and difficult, but it gives birth to something new in people; this is precisely the literature that educates. Dostoevsky is a phenomenon that needs to be studied long and thoughtfully. A short biography of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, some interesting facts from his life, and creativity will be presented to your attention in the article.
Brief biography in dates
The main task of life, as Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote, is “not to become discouraged, not to fall,” despite all the trials sent from above. And he had a lot of them.
November 11, 1821 - birth. Where was Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky born? He was born in our glorious capital - Moscow. Father - staff doctor Mikhail Andreevich, the family is a believer, pious. They named it after their grandfather.
The boy began studying at a young age under the guidance of his parents; by the age of 10 he knew the history of Russia quite well; his mother taught him to read. Attention was also paid to religious education: daily prayer before bed was a family tradition.
In 1837, Fyodor Mikhailovich’s mother Maria died, and in 1839, father Mikhail.
1838 - Dostoevsky enters the Main Engineering School of St. Petersburg.
1841 - becomes an officer.
1843 - enrolled in the engineering corps. Studying was not fun, there was a strong craving for literature, the writer made his first creative experiments even then.
1847 - visit to Petrashevsky Fridays.
April 23, 1849 - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
From January 1850 to February 1854 - Omsk fortress, hard labor. This period had a strong influence on the writer’s creativity and worldview.
1854-1859 - period of military service, city of Semipalatinsk.
1857 - wedding with Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva.
June 7, 1862 - the first trip abroad, where Dostoevsky stayed until October. I became interested in gambling for a long time.
1863 - love, relationship with A. Suslova.
1864 - the writer’s wife Maria and older brother Mikhail die.
1867 - marries stenographer A. Snitkina.
Until 1871 they traveled a lot outside of Russia.
1877 - spends a lot of time with Nekrasov, then makes a speech at his funeral.
1881 - Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich dies, he was 59 years old.
Biography in detail
The childhood of the writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky can be called prosperous: born into a noble family in 1821, he received an excellent home education and upbringing. My parents managed to instill a love of languages (Latin, French, German) and history. After reaching the age of 16, Fedor was sent to a private boarding school. Then training continued at the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School. Dostoevsky showed interest in literature even then, visited literary salons with his brother, and tried to write himself.
As the biography of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky testifies, 1839 claims the life of his father. Internal protest is looking for a way out, Dostoevsky begins to get acquainted with the socialists, and visits Petrashevsky’s circle. The novel "Poor People" was written under the influence of the ideas of that period. This work allowed the writer to finally finish his hated engineering service and engage in literature. From an unknown student, Dostoevsky became a successful writer until censorship intervened.
In 1849, the ideas of the Petrashevites were recognized as harmful, members of the circle were arrested and sent to hard labor. It is noteworthy that the sentence was originally death, but the last 10 minutes changed it. The Petrashevites who were already on the scaffold were pardoned, limiting their punishment to four years of hard labor. Mikhail Petrashevsky was sentenced to life hard labor. Dostoevsky was sent to Omsk.
The biography of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky says that serving his sentence was difficult for the writer. He compares that time to being buried alive. Hard, monotonous work like firing bricks, disgusting conditions, and cold undermined Fyodor Mikhailovich’s health, but also gave him food for thought, new ideas, and themes for creativity.
After serving his sentence, Dostoevsky served in Semipalatinsk, where his only joy was his first love - Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva. This relationship was tender, somewhat reminiscent of the relationship between a mother and her son. The only thing that stopped the writer from proposing to a woman was the fact that she had a husband. A little later he died. In 1857, Dostoevsky finally wooed Maria Isaeva, and they got married. After marriage, the relationship changed somewhat; the writer himself speaks of them as “unhappy.”
1859 - return to St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky writes again, opens the magazine “Time” with his brother. Brother Mikhail runs his business ineptly, gets into debt, and dies. Fyodor Mikhailovich has to deal with debts. He has to write quickly in order to be able to pay off all the accumulated debts. But even in such a hurry, the most complex works of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky were created.
In 1860, Dostoevsky falls in love with the young Apollinaria Suslova, who is completely different from his wife Maria. The relationship was also different - passionate, vibrant, lasted three years. At the same time, Fyodor Mikhailovich became interested in playing roulette and lost a lot. This period of life is reflected in the novel “The Player”.
1864 claimed the lives of his brother and wife. It was as if something had broken in the writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Relations with Suslova are fading, the writer feels lost, alone in the world. He tries to escape from himself abroad, to distract himself, but the melancholy does not leave him. Epileptic seizures become more frequent. This is how Anna Snitkina, a young stenographer, recognized and fell in love with Dostoevsky. The man shared his life story with the girl; he needed to talk it out. Gradually they became close, although the age difference was 24 years. Anna accepted Dostoevsky’s offer to marry him sincerely, because Fyodor Mikhailovich aroused the brightest, most enthusiastic feelings in her. The marriage was perceived negatively by society, Dostoevsky's adopted son Pavel. The newlyweds are leaving for Germany.
The relationship with Snitkina had a beneficial effect on the writer: he got rid of his addiction to roulette and became calmer. In 1868, Sophia is born, but dies three months later. After a difficult period of common experiences, Anna and Fyodor Mikhailovich continue to try to conceive a child. They succeed: Lyubov (1869), Fedor (1871) and Alexey (1875) are born. Alexey inherited the disease from his father and died at the age of three. His wife became for Fyodor Mikhailovich support and support, a spiritual outlet. In addition, it helped improve my financial situation. The family moves to Staraya Russa to escape the nervous life in St. Petersburg. Thanks to Anna, a girl wise beyond her years, Fyodor Mikhailovich becomes happy, at least for a short time. Here they spend their time happily and serenely, until Dostoevsky’s health forces them to return to the capital.
In 1881 the writer dies.
Carrot or stick: how Fyodor Mikhailovich raised children
The indisputability of his father's authority was the basis of Dostoevsky's upbringing, which passed into his own family. Decency, responsibility - the writer managed to invest these qualities in his children. Even if they did not grow up to be the same geniuses as their father, some craving for literature existed in each of them.
The writer considered the main mistakes of education:
- ignoring the child’s inner world;
- intrusive attention;
- bias.
He called the suppression of individuality, cruelty, and making life easier as a crime against a child. Dostoevsky considered the main tool of education not corporal punishment, but parental love. He himself incredibly loved his children and was very worried about their illnesses and losses.
An important place in a child’s life, as Fyodor Mikhailovich believed, should be given to spiritual light and religion. The writer rightly believed that a child always follows the example of the family where he was born. Dostoevsky's educational measures were based on intuition.
Literary evenings were a good tradition in the family of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. These evening readings of literary masterpieces were traditional in the author’s childhood. Often, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s children fell asleep and did not understand anything they read, but he continued to cultivate literary taste. Often the writer read with such feeling that he began to cry in the process. I loved to hear what impression this or that novel made on children.
Another educational element is visiting the theater. Opera was preferred.
Lyubov Dostoevskaya
Attempts to become a writer were not crowned with success by Lyubov Fedorovna. Maybe the reason was that her work was always inevitably compared with her father’s brilliant novels, maybe she was writing about the wrong thing. As a result, the main work of her life was a description of her father’s biography.
The girl who lost him at the age of 11 was very afraid that in the next world Fyodor Mikhailovich’s sins would not be forgiven. She believed that life continues after death, but here on earth one must seek happiness. For Dostoevsky’s daughter, it consisted primarily in a clear conscience.
Lyubov Fedorovna lived to be 56 years old and spent the last few years in sunny Italy. She was probably happier there than at home.
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fedor Fedorovich became a horse breeder. The boy began to show interest in horses as a child. I tried to create literary works, but it didn’t work out. He was vain and strived to achieve success in life; he inherited these qualities from his grandfather. If Fedor Fedorovich was not sure that he could be the first in something, he preferred not to do it, his pride was so pronounced. He was nervous and withdrawn, wasteful, prone to excitement, like his father.
Fedor lost his father at the age of 9, but he managed to invest the best qualities in him. His father's upbringing helped him greatly in life; he received a good education. He achieved great success in his business, perhaps because he loved what he did.
Creative path in dates
The beginning of Dostoevsky's creative career was bright; he wrote in many genres.
Genres of the early period of creativity of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky:
- humorous story;
- physiological essay;
- tragicomic story;
- Christmas story;
- story;
- novel.
In 1840-1841 - the creation of historical dramas “Mary Stuart”, “Boris Godunov”.
1844 - translation of Balzac's "Eugenie Grande" is published.
1845 - the story “Poor People” was completed, met Belinsky and Nekrasov.
1846 - “The Petersburg Collection” was published, “Poor People” were published.
“The Double” was published in February, and “Mr. Prokharchin” was published in October.
In 1847, Dostoevsky wrote “The Mistress” and published it in the “St. Petersburg Gazette”.
“White Nights” was written in December 1848, and “Netochka Nezvanova” in 1849.
1854-1859 - service in Semipalatinsk, “Uncle’s Dream”, “The Village of Stepanchikovo and its Inhabitants”.
In 1860, a fragment of “Notes of the Dead House” was published in Russkiy Mir. The first collected works were published.
1861 - the beginning of the publication of the magazine “Time”, the printing of part of the novel “Humiliated and Insulted”, “Notes from the House of the Dead”.
In 1863, “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions” were created.
May of the same year - the magazine “Time” was closed.
1864 - the beginning of publication of the magazine "Epoch". "Notes from the Underground."
1865 - “An Unusual Event, or Passage in Passage” is published in Krokodil.
1866 - written by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”, “The Gambler”. Traveling abroad with family. "Idiot".
In 1870, Dostoevsky wrote the story “The Eternal Husband.”
1871-1872 - “Demons.”
1875 - “Teenager” was published in “Notes of the Fatherland”.
1876 - resumption of activity of the “Diary of a Writer”.
From 1879 to 1880, The Brothers Karamazov was written.
Places in St. Petersburg
The city preserves the spirit of the writer; many of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s books were written here.
- Dostoevsky studied at the Engineering Mikhailovsky Castle.
- The Serapinskaya Hotel on Moskovsky Prospekt became the writer’s place of residence in 1837; he lived here, seeing St. Petersburg for the first time in his life.
- “Poor People” was written in the house of the postal director Pryanichnikov.
- “Mr. Prokharchin” was created in Kochenderfer’s house on Kazanskaya Street.
- Fyodor Mikhailovich lived in Soloshich’s apartment building on Vasilyevsky Island in the 1840s.
- The Kotomina apartment building introduced Dostoevsky to Petrashevsky.
- The writer lived on Voznesensky Prospekt during his arrest and wrote “White Nights”, “Honest Thief” and other stories.
- “Notes from the House of the Dead”, “Humiliated and Insulted” were written on 3rd Krasnoarmeyskaya Street.
- The writer lived in the house of A. Astafieva in 1861-1863.
- In the Strubinsky house on Grechesky Avenue - from 1875 to 1878.
Symbolism of Dostoevsky
You can analyze the books of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky endlessly, finding new and new symbols. Dostoevsky mastered the art of penetrating into the essence of things, their soul. It is precisely the ability to unravel these symbols one by one that makes traveling through the pages of novels so exciting.
- Axe.
This symbol carries a deadly meaning, being a kind of emblem of Dostoevsky’s work. The ax symbolizes murder, crime, a decisive, desperate step, a turning point. If a person says the word “axe,” most likely the first thing that comes to mind is “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.
- Clean linen.
His appearance in novels occurs at certain similar moments, which allows us to talk about symbolism. For example, Raskolnikov was prevented from committing a murder by a maid hanging out clean laundry. Ivan Karamazov had a similar situation. It is not so much the linen itself that is symbolic, but its color - white, denoting purity, correctness, purity.
- Smells.
It is enough to glance over any of Dostoevsky’s novels to understand how important smells are to him. One of them, which occurs more often than others, is the smell of a corruptive spirit.
- Silver pledge.
One of the most important symbols. The silver cigarette case was not made of silver at all. A motive of falsity, counterfeitness, and suspicion appears. Raskolnikov, having made a cigarette case out of wood, similar to a silver one, as if he had already committed a deception, a crime.
- The sound of a brass bell.
The symbol plays a warning role. A small detail makes the reader feel the mood of the hero and imagine events more vividly. Small objects are endowed with strange, unusual features, emphasizing the exceptionality of the circumstances.
- Wood and iron.
There are many things from these materials in the novels, each of them carries a certain meaning. If wood symbolizes a person, a victim, bodily torment, then iron symbolizes crime, murder, evil.
Finally, I would like to note some interesting facts from the life of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.
- Dostoevsky wrote most of all in the last 10 years of his life.
- Dostoevsky loved sex, used the services of prostitutes, even while married.
- Nietzsche called Dostoevsky the best psychologist.
- He smoked a lot and loved strong tea.
- He was jealous of his women at every post, and forbade them even to smile in public.
- He worked more often at night.
- The hero of the novel “The Idiot” is a self-portrait of the writer.
- There are many film adaptations of Dostoevsky’s works, as well as those dedicated to him.
- Fyodor Mikhailovich had his first child at the age of 46.
- Leonardo DiCaprio also celebrates his birthday on November 11th.
- More than 30,000 people came to the writer's funeral.
- Sigmund Freud considered Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov to be the greatest novel ever written.
We also present to your attention famous quotes from Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky:
- We must love life more than the meaning of life.
- Freedom is not about not being restrained, but about being in control.
- In everything there is a line beyond which it is dangerous to cross; for once you have stepped over, it is impossible to go back.
- Happiness is not in happiness, but only in its achievement.
- No one will make the first move, because everyone thinks that it is not mutual.
- The Russian people seem to enjoy their suffering.
- Life is suffocating without purpose.
- To stop reading books means to stop thinking.
- There is no happiness in comfort; happiness is bought through suffering.
- In a truly loving heart, either jealousy kills love, or love kills jealousy.
Conclusion
The outcome of every person's life is his actions. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (lived 1821-1881) left behind brilliant novels, having lived a relatively short life. Who knows if these novels would have been born if the author’s life had been easy, without obstacles and hardships? Dostoevsky, whom they know and love, is impossible without suffering, mental tossing, and internal overcoming. They are what make the works so real.
Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich (1821-1881)
Great Russian writer. Born in Moscow. Father, Mikhail Andreevich - staff doctor at the Moscow Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor; in 1828 he received the title of hereditary nobleman. Mother - Maria Fedorovna (nee Nechaeva). There were six more children in the Dostoevsky family.
In May 1837, the future writer traveled with his brother Mikhail to St. Petersburg and entered the preparatory boarding school of K. F. Kostomarov. A literary circle is formed around Dostoevsky at the school. After graduating from college (end of 1843), he was enlisted as a field engineer-second lieutenant in the St. Petersburg engineering team, but already in the early summer of 1844, having decided to devote himself entirely to literature, he resigned and retired with the rank of lieutenant. I finished translating the story “Eugene Grande” by Balzac. The translation became Dostoevsky's first published literary work. In May 1845, after numerous alterations, he finished the novel “Poor People,” which was an exceptional success.
From March-April 1847, Dostoevsky became a visitor to M.V.’s “Fridays”. Butashevich-Petrashevsky. He also participates in the organization of a secret printing house for printing appeals to peasants and soldiers. Dostoevsky's arrest occurred on April 23, 1849; his archive was taken away during his arrest and probably destroyed in the III department. Dostoevsky spent eight months in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress under investigation, during which he showed courage, hiding many facts and trying, if possible, to mitigate the guilt of his comrades. On December 22, 1849, Dostoevsky, along with others, awaited the execution of the death sentence at the Semenovsky parade ground. According to the resolution of Nicholas I, his execution was replaced by 4 years of hard labor with deprivation of “all rights of state” and subsequent surrender to the army.
From January 1850 to 1854 Dostoevsky was serving hard labor, but was able to resume correspondence with his brother Mikhail and friend A. Maikov. In November 1855, Dostoevsky was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and then to ensign; in the spring of 1857 the writer was returned to hereditary nobility and the right to publish. Police supervision over him remained until 1875.
In 1857, Dostoevsky married the widowed M.D. Isaeva. The marriage was not happy: Isaeva agreed after much hesitation that tormented Dostoevsky. Creates two “provincial” comic stories - “Uncle’s Dream” and “The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants.” In December 1859 he came to live in St. Petersburg.
Dostoevsky's intensive activity combined editorial work on “other people's” manuscripts with the publication of his own articles. The novel “Humiliated and Insulted” was published, “Notes from the House of the Dead” was a huge success.
In June 1862, Dostoevsky traveled abroad for the first time; visited Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, England. In August 1863, the writer went abroad for the second time. In Paris he met with A.P. Suslova, whose dramatic relationship was reflected in the novels “The Player”, “The Idiot” and other works.
In October 1863 he returned to Russia. 1864 brought heavy losses to Dostoevsky. On April 15, his wife died of consumption. The personality of Maria Dmitrievna, as well as the circumstances of their “unhappy” love, were reflected in many of Dostoevsky’s works (in the images of Katerina Ivanovna - “Crime and Punishment” and Nastasya Filippovna - “Idiot”) On June 10, M. M. Dostoevsky died.
In 1866, an expiring contract with a publisher forced Dostoevsky to simultaneously work on two novels - Crime and Punishment and The Gambler. In October 1866, the stenographer A.G. Snitkina came to him, who in the winter of 1867 became Dostoevsky’s wife. The new marriage was more successful. Until July 1871, Dostoevsky and his wife lived abroad (Berlin; Dresden; Baden-Baden, Geneva, Milan, Florence).
In 1867-1868 Dostoevsky worked on the novel "The Idiot".
At Nekrasov’s suggestion, the writer publishes his new novel “Teenager” in Otechestvennye zapiski.
In the last years of his life, Dostoevsky's popularity increased. In 1877 he was elected corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences. In 1878, after the death of his beloved son Alyosha, he made a trip to Optina Pustyn, where he talked with Elder Ambrose. He writes “The Brothers Karamazov” - the final work of the writer, in which many ideas of his work received artistic embodiment. On the night of January 25-26, 1881, Dostoevsky’s throat began to bleed. On the afternoon of January 28, the writer said goodbye to the children; in the evening he died.
On January 31, 1881, the writer’s funeral took place in front of a huge crowd of people. He is buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is a famous Russian writer and thinker. His works are known and loved all over the world. Probably Dostoevsky's most famous work is Crime and Punishment.
In this article we will touch on the most significant dates in the writer’s biography. We will provide a chronology of the most significant events, and also talk about the character of the thinker. In this article we will only touch upon main dates in the author's life history.
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Early years - briefly about the author, how the story began
Fedor Mikhailovich was born November 11, 1821 in a noble family. My father worked in a hospital for the poor. There were many children in the family.
Dostoevsky was the second of seven children. At the age of 16, Dostoevsky loses his mother. It was in this year that the father decided to send his eldest sons to the K.F. boarding school. Kostomarova. Starting this year, the Dostoevsky brothers Mikhail and Fyodor settled in St. Petersburg.
Life, creativity - chronological table of Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich
1837
It was at this time that the author moved to the cultural capital of our Motherland along with his older brother Mikhail. This happens after the death of their mother. They enter the military engineering school. Two years later, the writer's father dies. IN 1843 Fyodor Mikhailovich translates Balzac’s work “Eugenie Grande”.
While studying at the school, the future writer was interested in the works of foreign writers. Among them:
- Homer.
- Balzac.
- Hugo.
- Goethe.
- Hoffman.
- Shakespeare, etc.
He was also interested in the works of Russian authors:
- Derzhavina.
- Pushkin - he was the most beloved of all Russian writers by Dostoevsky.
1844
We can say that it was from this moment that the stage of Fyodor Mikhailovich’s creativity began. This year the first work of the writer comes out - "Poor People". This novel immediately brought fame to the author. The work was highly appreciated by Belinsky and Nekrasov. This work was positively received by the public. The same cannot be said about the author’s other work, “The Double.” The story was published in 1845–1846. The work remained unclear. In addition, there was a lot of criticism.
1849
December 22, 1849. A date that could have interrupted the life and work of the writer. At this time, the author is sentenced to execution “in the Petrashevsky case.” Many things appear before the writer in a new light.
But the author was not destined to die that year. His death sentence at the last moment is changed to a “softer” one - hard labor. He tried to convey all the sensations that the author experienced at that moment in the monologue of Prince Myshkin from the novel "Idiot".
1850-1854
During this period the author does not write anything. This is a stagnant period. The fact is that the author is in exile in Omsk. After the author served his time in hard labor, he was sent to serve. Fyodor Mikhailovich went to the Siberian battalion number seven, where he served as a simple soldier.
Here the writer meets the traveler and ethnographer from Kazakhstan, Chokan Valikhanov. During these years, Dostoevsky also met Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva. She was married to an official on special assignments. Who has been retired for a long time. Dostoevsky and Isaeva begin an affair.
1857
After Isaeva's husband dies, Dostoevsky marries her. But their marriage could not be called happy.
As for creativity, after hard labor, the writer changes his worldview. If in the early work the writer had no ideals, then during this period an ideal appears - Christ.
IN 1859 — The writer's family, consisting of his wife and adopted son Pavel, moves to St. Petersburg from Semipalatinsk. But he is being unofficially monitored.
1860–1866
At this time, Dostoevsky, together with his brother Mikhail, worked in various magazines:
- Time.
- Epoch.
Also, over the years, the author’s iconic works were written.
IN 1864 year the writer's brother and wife die. This undermined the writer and he begins to play roulette, losing all his money. The author gets into debt. The money quickly ran out and the writer is going through hard times.
At this time he wrote the novel “Crime and Punishment”. The work was written one chapter at a time and sent to the magazine. This was the only way he could avoid losing authorship of this work. For the same purposes, the author begins to write the novel “The Player”. But he lacked the physical strength to write two works at the same time. That is why the writer decides to hire stenographer Anna Grigorievna Snitkina.
Novel "Player" was written in just 21 days.
In 1867, Snitkina became the writer's second wife. She accompanies him abroad and takes care of all financial matters. They go abroad with the money they received for the novel “Crime and Punishment.” Snitkina compiles a diary about a joint trip with her husband.
Author's last years
The last years of his life passed fruitfully in Dostoevsky’s work. In recent years, the author and his wife lived in the city of Staraya Russa, which is located in the Nizhny Novgorod region. At this time, the novel “Demons” was published. A year later, “A Writer’s Diary” appears. In 1875 he published the novel "Teenager". And a year later the story comes out "Meek".
In 1878, the writer was invited to the palace of Alexander II. The Emperor introduces the writer to his family.
Over the last two years of his life, Dostoevsky created one of his main and best works - the novel The Brothers Karamazov.
On February 9, 1881, the writer dies. His long-standing illness of emphysema worsened. This happened due to severe stress. Dostoevsky had a fight with his sister, who asked the writer to renounce his inheritance. The inheritance included the estate of Kumanina’s aunt.
It is worth recognizing that fame came to the author during his lifetime, but some works became popular only after his death. As a result, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was recognized as one of the greatest writers of Russia, who touched upon pressing issues of everyday life in his works.
Dostoevsky's biography was full of various events. Let us present you with a few facts from the life of the writer:
- At that time, Dostoevsky’s name was worth millions, but now it’s worth nothing. But it is worth noting an interesting fact: despite the fact that the novel “Crime and Punishment” sold large copies, Dostoevsky was not a rich man. For his labors he received about 150 rubles for each sheet. If we compare with Turgenev, who received 500 rubles for one sheet of his work, then these are mere pennies.
- Dostoevsky was married twice. The first time he married the widow Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva. It is worth noting that their romance began during the life of Isaeva’s husband. But their marriage with Dostoevsky was not happy. Isaeva suffered from consumption. This affected her character and behavior. She constantly suspected Dostoevsky and took it out on him. The author found peace only in literature.
- In 1861, Dostoevsky's brother began publishing a new magazine, Vremya. Dostoevsky moves to St. Petersburg after his service and exile. He works at a magazine. It was in this magazine that the writer published his work “Humiliated and Insulted.”
- 1864 was a very difficult year for the writer. This year, two of the writer’s relatives are dying – his wife and brother. The writer found it difficult to bear the loss. This led him into debt. He entered into an agreement with the publication, where he undertook to provide a new work by November 1, 1866.
- If you look at the biography of Dostoevsky, he always lived on the edge, but in the last moments fate itself tries to help him. At this point, help came in the form of stenographer Anna Snitkina. She helped the author publish the novel “The Player”. After that they got married.
- Fedor was very jealous. That's why he made a list of rules that his wife had to follow. It was thanks to his second wife that Dostoevsky found happiness and paid off all his debts.
So, we provided a chronological table of Dostoevsky, and also gave a description of Dostoevsky. Who is Fyodor Dostoevsky, who was he? Fyodor Mikhailovich was a great Russian writer. His life is full of trials, which are reflected in his works. We tried to briefly tell the story about the life and work of the author, touching on the main dates in his life.