Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky born on October 30 (November 11, n.s.) 1821 in Moscow in the family of the headquarters doctor of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. Father, Mikhail Andreevich, nobleman; mother, Maria Fedorovna, from an old Moscow merchant family. He received an excellent education at the private boarding school of L. Chermak - one of the best in Moscow. The family loved to read, they subscribed to the magazine “Library for Reading”, which made it possible to get acquainted with the latest foreign literature. Of the Russian authors, they loved Karamzin, Zhukovsky, and Pushkin. The mother, a religious nature, introduced the children to the Gospel from a young age and took them on pilgrimages to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.
Having had a hard time surviving the death of his mother (1837), Dostoevsky, by decision of his father, entered the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School - one of the best educational institutions of that time. New life was given to him with great effort, nerves, and ambition. But there was another life - internal, hidden, unknown to others.
In 1839, his father unexpectedly died. This news shocked Dostoevsky and provoked a severe nervous attack - a harbinger of future epilepsy, to which he had a hereditary predisposition.
He graduated from college in 1843 and was enlisted in the drafting department of the engineering department. A year later he retired, convinced that his calling was literature.
Dostoevsky's first novel "Poor People" was written in 1845, published by Nekrasov in the “Petersburg Collection” (1846). Belinsky proclaimed “the appearance... extraordinary talent...". Stories "Double"(1846) and "Mistress"(1847) Belinsky rated it lower, noting the lengthiness of the narrative, but Dostoevsky continued to write in his own way, disagreeing with the critic’s assessment. Left later "White Nights"(1848) and "Netochka Nezvanova"(1849), in which the features of Dostoevsky’s realism were revealed, distinguishing him from among writers “ natural school": in-depth psychologism, exclusivity of characters and situations.
Successfully started literary activity ends tragically. Dostoevsky was one of the members of the Petrashevsky circle, which united adherents of the French utopian socialism(Fourier, Saint-Simon). In 1849, for participating in this circle, the writer was arrested and sentenced to death penalty, which was then replaced by four years of hard labor and settlement in Siberia.
After the death of Nicholas I and the beginning of the liberal reign of Alexander II, the fate of Dostoevsky, like many political criminals, was softened. His noble rights were returned to him, and he retired in 1859 with the rank of second lieutenant (in 1849, standing at the scaffold, he heard a rescript: “... a retired lieutenant... to hard labor in fortresses for... 4 years, and then private").
In 1859 Dostoevsky received permission to live in Tver, then in St. Petersburg. At this time he published stories "Uncle's Dream", "The village of Stepanchikovo and its inhabitants"(1859), novel "Humiliated and Offended"(1861). Almost ten years of physical and moral torment sharpened Dostoevsky's sensitivity to human suffering, intensifying his intense search for social justice. These years became for him years of spiritual turning point, the collapse of socialist illusions, and growing contradictions in his worldview. He actively participated in public life Russia, opposed the revolutionary democratic program of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov, rejecting the theory of “art for art’s sake,” arguing social value art.
After hard labor they were written "Notes from House of the Dead» . The writer spent the summer months of 1862 and 1863 abroad, visiting Germany, England, France, Italy and other countries. He believed that historical path which Europe passed after french revolution 1789 would have been disastrous for Russia, as would have been the introduction of new bourgeois relations, negative traits which shocked him during his trips to Western Europe. Russia’s special, original path to “earthly paradise” was Dostoevsky’s socio-political program in the early 1860s. In 1864 they were written "Notes from the Underground", an important work for understanding the writer’s changed worldview. In 1865, while abroad, in the resort of Wiesbaden, to improve his health, the writer began work on the novel "Crime and Punishment"(1866), which reflected the entire complex path of his internal quest.
In 1867, Dostoevsky married Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, his stenographer, who became a close and devoted friend to him. Soon they went abroad: they lived in Germany, Switzerland, Italy (1867 - 71). During these years the writer worked on novels "Idiot"(1868) and "Demons"(1870 - 71), who graduated already in Russia. In May 1872, the Dostoevskys left St. Petersburg for the summer for Staraya Rusa, where they subsequently bought a modest dacha and lived here with their two children even in winter. Almost entire novels were written in Staraya Russa "Teenager"(1874 - 75) and "The Brothers Karamazov" (1880).
Since 1873, the writer became the executive editor of the magazine "Citizen", on the pages of which he began to publish "A Writer's Diary", who at that time was a teacher of life for thousands of Russian people.
At the end of May 1880, Dostoevsky came to Moscow for the opening of the monument to A. Pushkin (June 6, on the birthday of the great poet), where all of Moscow gathered. Turgenev, Maikov, Grigorovich and other Russian writers were here. Dostoevsky's speech was called by Aksakov "a brilliant, historical event."
The writer's health deteriorated, and on January 28 (February 9, n.s.) 1881, Dostoevsky died in St. Petersburg. He was buried at the Tikhvin Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Fantastic in creativity
In the works of F.M. Dostoevsky quite often encounters fantastic motifs, first of all, the mystical component in his works.
Dostoevsky twice gave the subtitle “fantastic story” to his works. In "The Meek" the fantastic technique is that the narration is told from the perspective of the suicide until the last moment of her life. True, in our time the fantastic nature of this technique is no longer felt, but at one time, it was on the example of “The Meek One” that Dostoevsky discussed the features of his method as “realism in the highest sense,” “realism reaching the fantastic.”
Another "fantastic story", "The Dream funny man", describes a fragile alien utopia and its destruction under the corrupting influence of an earthling who got there.
Based on a fantastic assumption - the sudden appearance of the main character's complete double, who gradually takes his place in life - the story "The Double" is built. In “The Mistress,” the then fashionable ideas of mesmerism and animal magnetism were used to motivate the plot.
The story “Bobok”, dedicated to the negotiations of the dead in a cemetery, is also fantastic in nature. Also, a fantastic assumption underlies one of the author’s most famous humorous stories - “Crocodile” (an ordinary person swallowed by a crocodile feels very good).
Semi-fantastic, mystical motifs are also found in Dostoevsky’s serious works, such as the novels “The Brothers Karamazov” (in particular, the chapter “The Grand Inquisitor”) and “Demons”. Dostoevsky also uses science fiction imagery, for example, describing Raskolnikov’s dream about intelligent microbes that enslaved humanity, an artificial Earth satellite in Ivan Karamazov’s conversation with the devil.
In general, most researchers recognize in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky, the presence of a fantastic element, both underlying the plot and used to describe the locations of the action (“Dostoevsky’s Petersburg” is sometimes recognized as a kind of fantastic city, a “ghost city”, not repeating the real historical Petersburg in everything).
In addition, Dostoevsky was one of the first to introduce Edgar Poe to the Russian public, noting his art of detail, thanks to which even a trip to the moon looks believable, and because of this in Poe “if there is fantasticality, then it is some kind of material.”
The definition of fiction given by F.M. Dostoevsky in a private letter published in 1906 (“The fantastic in art has limits and rules. The fantastic must be so in touch with the real that you must almost believe it”), subsequently became extremely popular and is often cited.
His name is known all over the world. His novels are classics, but they are still unsolved classics, about which literary scholars and readers argue, which are filmed and staged. theater stage the most famous and talented directors.
The first novel by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. The book is simple - and painful in its simplicity. The work from which, along with " eternal theme» all Russian literature- topic " little man", crushed by the ruthless force of existence.
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A novel about a crime. A double murder committed by a poor student for money. It is difficult to find a simpler plot, but the intellectual and spiritual shock that the novel produces is indelible. What's the mystery here? In addition to the simple and obvious answer - “in the genius of Dostoevsky” - perhaps there is at least one more: “damned” questions do not have simple and positive answers. Poverty, one’s own suffering and the suffering of loved ones have always presented and will confront a person with a choice: do I have the right to break any moral law in order to then become a savior of the humiliated and a comforter of the weak; Should I first love myself, and only then, having become strong, love my neighbor? These are eternal questions.
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The novel, in which Dostoevsky for the first time with genuine passion, vividly and fully embodied the image positive hero how he imagined it. Prince Myshkin combines the features of the image of Christ and at the same time a child, peace bordering on carelessness, and the inability to pass by the misfortune of his neighbor. In a society of “normal” people obsessed with self-interest and destructive passions, Prince Myshkin is an idiot. In a world where beauty is clouded by the unclean thoughts of people, such a hero is helpless, although beautiful. But “beauty will save the world!”, says Dostoevsky through the mouth of Prince Myshkin, and the world becomes brighter.
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A novel-warning and a novel-prophecy, in which great writer and the thinker points to future social catastrophes. History has proven Dostoevsky right, more than once. The bloody Russian revolution, the despotic regimes of Hitler and Stalin are terrible and accurate confirmations of the idea of what awaits a society in which party morality replaces human morality. But, taking the gospel text as the epigraph to the novel, the writer also offers a metaphysical interpretation of the events described. The book is not only and not so much about the “wrong” social order - the human soul is in danger of decay and death, souls must first of all be healed. For any theories about the reorganization of the world can lead to spiritual blindness and madness if the ability to distinguish between good and evil is lost.
"The Brothers Karamazov"
The final novel of Fyodor Dostoevsky, it concentrated all the artistic power of the writer and the depth of the insights of the religious thinker. “The Brothers Karamazov” is a work in which sizzling passion, the struggle for inheritance, and the search for God lead to global questions about the very essence of man, about his nature. Each character, no matter how complex it may be, in Dostoevsky appears as a certain part of one, almost limitless picture - this is a picture of a multifaceted human soul, and in this soul there is an endless battle between good and evil.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky opened to the world new facets of knowledge of worldly vanity and spiritual nobility. All his works are close to the people, each hero plays the role of himself, and sometimes it seems that it is I who live on the pages famous novels writer.
His great “Pentateuch” is known to everyone from his student days, because such large-scale works are forever etched into the reader’s subconscious.
We will forever remember the plots of the works "Crimes and Punishments"(1866), where the main character tries to get out of everyday poverty and commits a terrible murder. Self-affirmation of the individual, the desire for power, the right to selfishness - such were the mindsets of that period, this book tells the story of the fall and resurrection of the human soul, the history of liberation from the circles of hell and the triumph of goodness, truth and love.
"The Brothers Karamazov" is the writer’s last novel, which was completed in November 1880. Four months after the publication of this work, Dostoevsky died.
Critics consider this painting to be the most authentic and majestic. The whole of Mother Russia is represented in the person of the main characters, the three brothers.
Mitya is a broad soul, capable of high and low actions, the complete opposite is Ivan, a cold mind and reason, every action is balanced and calculated. What can we say about Alyosha? A pure, pious, kind and merciful young man. The novel is highly artistic and based on real events.
Novel "Idiot"(1868) is still positioned incorrectly by many readers; you can often find on the shelves of bookstores an announcement of the work with the following content: “A vivid and almost painful story of the unfortunate Prince Myshkin, the frantic Parfen Rogozhin and the desperate Nastasya Filippovna.” But this is not all, just the tip of the iceberg, but inside there are global thoughts about divine powers, the purpose of man on this earth, the life story of the great messiah Jesus Christ. How society influences a healthy person, turning him into a sick person. Idiot.
"Humiliated and Offended"(1861) - all the established morals and character traits of the writer are clearly visible here. Severe psychological and emotional stress, pain and acute perception of reality, permanent hysteria and a gripping plot that makes it impossible to stop reading and horrifies with its long-lasting pathos. A deep and painful novel that lifts the curtain on the soul of a thinker and a mournful writer.
"Player"(1866) is a large-scale work that was not included by critics in The Pentateuch. The topic of excitement of the Russian public is insignificant and anecdotal. Yes, the book was written in a hurry in order to quickly complete the order for receipt large sum, which Dostoevsky lost at cards. But readers were still able to discern the psychology of a gambler who has the literary gift and insight of the great writer of Rus'.
Tale "White Nights"(1848) revealed to readers the heartbreaking nature of Dostoevsky. Poetic image the dreamer evokes sympathy and compassion at the end of the book.
The atmosphere of the white nights of St. Petersburg is so alluring and captivating that many filmmakers took up the film adaptation of this story. The sharp stoicism and exciting beauty of Mother Earth still surprises the modern reader, but Fyodor Mikhailovich himself experienced this drama!
Tale « Notes of the Dead Houses"(1860) - is an intriguing real document that reveals to the reader the life and customs of criminals who were sent to cold and distant Siberia. The characters of the people and the actions of the main characters spoke about the elusive reality and truthfulness of the essay written by the creator.
It is impossible to erase from the writer’s biography the moment when he for many years spent in exile, in prison, so why should he remain silent and not pour out his soul on paper. This is how Dostoevsky’s exciting and raging work “Notes of a Dead House” came about.
(1864) - is one of the writer’s works that must be read after reading the great Pentateuch. The problem described in the novel is close and familiar to many contemporaries. The “underground” where the St. Petersburg official drives himself makes you think about your life and actions as a person of rank, representing the features of society. Complete inaction, despair, reflexive panic, cruelty and moral deformity of the main character represents the top of the proletariat, topical and uncontrollable.
Two years later, Dostoevsky will write “Crime and Punishment,” where he will reveal the essence of the moral Raskolnikov and his views on reality. It is here that the nature of the writer and the characteristic personality traits of Fyodor Mikhailovich can be traced.
Vaudeville "Someone else's wife and husband under the bed", written in 1860, surprised audiences with Dostoevsky's humorous nature and sarcastic writing style. Let's say, he did not often resort to this type of composition, which adds even more gloss and respect to his work.
The work did not go unnoticed by film directors and already in 1984 a film adaptation of this vaudeville with Oleg Tabakov in leading role. This once again emphasizes the deep power of thought and high writing talent of the author.
An unusual story by Dostoevsky from 1865. This nasty joke amazes with its wisdom and courage; the main character, an official, swallowed whole by a crocodile, remained alive after the attack and did not change his social and political views. Even being in this cavernous, cold and wretched place, he absurdly talks about the new prospects and opportunities that have opened up for him.
It is in this work that Fyodor Mikhailovich does not skimp on expressions; with a caustic grin he attacks his political opponents from the liberal camp. This is where the minds and leaders of socialism are born.
Anyone who has read Gogol’s nose or is familiar with the work of the surrealist Kafka should understand where the legs of their works “grow from.” The topic of bureaucracy, unjust and insignificant, has always been and will be the first on the pages of describing the political history of the public. Dostoevsky's thoughts still excite the minds of modern readers.
What genres represent the list of the writer’s works?
The list of Dostoevsky's works is long and extensive. Here you can find prose and poetry, journalism and novels, short stories and vaudeville, it is simply impossible to list everything.
Hidden images
According to leading critics of our time, in the works of Fyodor Mikhailovich one can find encrypted pages of the sacred Gospel when reading the novel “Poor People”. The theme of egoism and the second “I” is carried out in the story “Double” and can be traced in many images of the writer’s heroes.
Criminal storyline clearly represented in Dostoevsky’s novels “The Adolescent,” “Crime and Punishment,” and “The Brothers Karamazov.” The image of Supremacy and terrifying realism demonstrates the essence of the developing Russian social democracy, the complete cynicism of populist ideology.
When mentioning crime themes, it would be wrong to omit the novel “Demons,” written in 1872. Unfortunately, it is practically unknown to the modern reader, due to the strictest ban. But today each of us can discover the soul of the writer and look into the vastness of the cynical ideology that led to Bolshevism.
List of works by F. M. Dostoevsky
Eight novels:
- (1846)
- (1861)
- Player (1866)
- Crime and Punishment (1866)
- (1869-69)
- (1871-72)
- (1875)
- (1879-80)
Novels and stories:
- Double (1846)
- A Novel in Nine Letters (1847)
- Sliders (1848)
- Uncle's Dream (1859)
- Another Man's Wife and Husband Under the Bed (1860)
- A Bad Joke (1862)
- Notes from Underground (1864)
- Crocodile (1865)
When asked what Dostoevsky wrote, almost every schoolchild will name the novel “Crime and Punishment.” High school students will probably remember the books “The Brothers Karamazov” and “The Idiot”.
Unfortunately, not many people today know that Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote not only the “Great Pentateuch”. But in the bibliography of the great Russian writer there are many wonderful stories and stories. Even if they do not have such deep philosophical meaning like the famous novel.
The most famous works
What did Dostoevsky write? Most famous book his novel is Crime and Punishment. The “Great Pentateuch” also includes “The Idiot.” This novel was written two years after the publication of the book about the ill-fated murderer Raskolnikov. It took the writer only a year to create “Demons.” Four years later, “Teenager” was released. And finally, in 1880, the book “The Brothers Karamazov” was published.
Before creating his great novels, what he wrote, which is presented below, suggests that the work of one of best authors Not much is known to modern readers of the nineteenth century. Few of them had heard of these stories. And even fewer have read them. But we’ll talk about works of short prose later. First, it’s worth saying a few words about the novels included in the so-called “Great Pentateuch.”
"Crime and Punishment"
The novel was written in 1966. By that time, Dostoevsky had managed to visit hard labor and hear the death sentence read out, but a few minutes later overturned. In conclusion, the writer met a type of people whose existence he had previously only guessed at. Everything I experienced affected my creativity. Raskolnikov is the prototype of the political prisoners he met in hard labor.
Dostoevsky began to write a story. But the novel came out. As expected to a brilliant writer, Fyodor Mikhailovich burned several options that he did not like. But unlike his colleague Gogol, he was able to finish what he started. In the first version, the narration was told in the first person. There was no Marmeladov in it, and the main character had a different name.
In 1966 editor-in-chief Russkiy Vestnik finally learned about what Dostoevsky wrote. The works created by the writer before were significantly different from the book about a student who hacked to death an old woman. The novel was published in a literary magazine that same year.
"Idiot"
For many years, Fyodor Dostoevsky was haunted by an idea. It was bright, but difficult to implement. The writer dreamed of creating a book about a truly beautiful man. About someone who is so bright in soul that others sometimes mistake him for an idiot. The idea was difficult to implement. But Dostoevsky succeeded. While abroad, he wrote perhaps his most profound and complex book. By the way, he was the writer’s favorite character.
Then the novels “Demons” and “Teenager” were written. The writer's dying fame reached its apogee after the publication of the book The Brothers Karamazov.
Other novels
So, what did Dostoevsky write besides the above books? Twenty years before the publication of Crime and Punishment, a novel was published that many had heard of. Even those who are not fans This book is called "Poor People". The work is a correspondence between the main characters - Makar Devushkin and Varvara Novoselova. The idea of the novel is the complexity of the existence of people with low social and financial status. However, this topic is touched upon in most of the writer’s novels. For example, in his subsequent book, “The Humiliated and Insulted.”
Dostoevsky dedicated his novel “The Gambler” to psychological dependence on gambling, from which he himself suffered.
Other books
Another work dedicated to the theme of “the humiliated and insulted” is the story “Netochka Nezvanova”. The book deals with the fate of a girl from a poor family. At the beginning of the story, Netochka is just a child. At the end - an adult girl. An important role in the plot of this work is played by her stepfather - an unhappy and extremely selfish man.
It is also worth mentioning the autobiographical story “Notes from a Dead House.” This work is based on the impressions of being in hard labor. The author talks in it primarily not about political prisoners, but about criminals. What kind of person becomes when his freedom and will are limited? Is he able to maintain his individuality in prison? The author seeks to answer these questions in “Notes from the House of the Dead,” a book published in 1960.
What did Dostoevsky write? If a general answer should be given to this question, that is, not to list the writer’s works, but to characterize his work as a whole, then perhaps we can say that the complex, philosophical prose. But not all of Dostoevsky’s creations are like this. There are also lungs in his bibliography, humorous stories. For example, “Crocodile”, “Bad joke”. The latter is about an important official, embraced by humanistic ideas.
The hero of the story “A Bad Joke” once decided that attending the wedding of one of his poor subordinates would be a noble and beautiful act. But in reality it turned out differently. The common people did not understand the lofty ideas about equality. They just laughed at the official.
Other works by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
- "Double".
- "Mr. Prokharchin."
- "Crawlers".
- "Mistress."
- "Weak Heart"
- "White Nights".
- "Honest Thief"
- "Uncle's Dream"
- « Little hero».
- "Eternal Husband"
- "The boy at Christ's Christmas tree."
- "Someone else's wife and husband under the bed."
The life and work of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
Born in Moscow. Father, Mikhail Andreevich (1789-1839), was a doctor (head doctor) at the Moscow Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, and in 1828 received the title of hereditary nobleman. In 1831 he acquired the village of Darovoye, Kashira district, Tula province, in 1833 neighboring village Chermoshnya. In raising his children, the father was an independent, educated, caring family man, but had a quick-tempered and suspicious character. After the death of his wife in 1837, he retired and settled in Darovo. According to documents, he died of apoplexy; according to the memories of relatives and oral traditions, was killed by his peasants. Mother, Maria Fedorovna (née Nechaeva; 1800-1837). There were six more children in the Dostoevsky family: Mikhail, Varvara (1822-1893), Andrei, Vera (1829-1896), Nikolai (1831-1883), Alexandra (1835-1889).
In 1833, Dostoevsky was sent to half board by N.I. Drashusov; he and his brother Mikhail went there “daily in the morning and returned by lunchtime.” From the autumn of 1834 to the spring of 1837, Dostoevsky attended the private boarding school of L. I. Chermak, where astronomer D. M. Perevoshchikov and paleologist A. M. Kubarev taught. Russian language teacher N.I. Bilevich played a certain role in spiritual development Dostoevsky. Memories of the boarding school served as material for many of the writer’s works.
Having had a hard time surviving the death of her mother, which coincided with the news of the death of A.S. Pushkin (which he perceived as a personal loss), Dostoevsky in May 1837 traveled with his brother Mikhail to St. Petersburg and entered the preparatory boarding school of K. F. Kostomarov. At the same time, he met I. N. Shidlovsky, whose religious and romantic mood captivated Dostoevsky. From January 1838, Dostoevsky studied at the Main Engineering School, where he described a typical day as follows: “... from early morning until evening, we in the classrooms barely have time to follow the lectures. ... We are sent to military training, we are given fencing and dancing lessons , singing...they are put on guard, and all the time passes in this way...". The difficult impression of the “hard labor years” of the training was partially brightened by friendly relations with V. Grigorovich, doctor A. E. Riesenkampf, duty officer A. I. Savelyev, and artist K. A. Trutovsky.
Even on the way to St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky mentally “composed a novel from Venetian life,” and in 1838 Riesenkampf told “about his own literary experiments". Around Dostoevsky in the school a literary circle. On February 16, 1841, at an evening given by brother Mikhail on the occasion of his departure to Revel, Dostoevsky read excerpts from two of his dramatic works - “Mary Stuart” and “Boris Godunov”.
Dostoevsky informed his brother about his work on the drama “The Jew Yankel” in January 1844. The manuscripts of the dramas have not survived, but the literary hobbies of the aspiring writer emerge from their titles: Schiller, Pushkin, Gogol. After the death of his father, the relatives of the writer's mother took care of Dostoevsky's younger brothers and sisters, and Fyodor and Mikhail received a small inheritance. After graduating from college (end of 1843), he was enrolled 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.
In January 1844, Dostoevsky completed the translation of Balzac's story "Eugene Grande", which he was especially keen on at that time. The translation became Dostoevsky's first published literary work. In 1844 he began and in May 1845, after numerous alterations, he completed the novel “Poor People.”
The novel "Poor People", whose connection with " Stationmaster" Pushkin and Gogol's "Overcoat" were emphasized by Dostoevsky himself, which was an exceptional success. Based on the traditions of the physiological essay, Dostoevsky creates a realistic picture of the life of the "downtrodden" inhabitants of the "St. Petersburg corners", a gallery of social types from the street beggar to "his excellency."
Dostoevsky spent the summer of 1845 (as well as the next) in Reval with his brother Mikhail. In the fall of 1845, upon returning to St. Petersburg, he often met with Belinsky. In October, the writer, together with Nekrasov and Grigorovich, compiled an anonymous program announcement for the almanac “Zuboskal” (03, 1845, No. 11), and in early December, at an evening with Belinsky, he read the chapters of “The Double” (03, 1846, No. 2), in which gives for the first time psychological analysis split consciousness, "dualism".
The story "Mr. Prokharchin" (1846) and the story "The Mistress" (1847), in which many of the motives, ideas and characters of Dostoevsky's works of the 1860-1870s were outlined, were not understood modern criticism. Belinsky also radically changed his attitude towards Dostoevsky, condemning the “fantastic” element, “pretentiousness”, “manneredness” of these works. In other works of the young Dostoevsky - in the stories “Weak Heart”, “White Nights”, the cycle of sharp socio-psychological feuilletons “The Petersburg Chronicle” and the unfinished novel “Netochka Nezvanova” - the problems of the writer’s work are expanded, psychologism is intensified with a characteristic emphasis on the analysis of the most complex, elusive internal phenomena.
At the end of 1846, there was a cooling in the relations between Dostoevsky and Belinsky. Later, he had a conflict with the editors of Sovremennik: Dostoevsky’s suspicious, proud character played a big role here. The ridicule of the writer by recent friends (especially Turgenev, Nekrasov), the harsh tone of Belinsky’s critical reviews of his works were acutely felt by the writer. Around this time, according to the testimony of Dr. S.D. Yanovsky, Dostoevsky showed the first symptoms of epilepsy. The writer is burdened by exhausting work for "Notes of the Fatherland". Poverty forced him to take on any job literary work(in particular, he edited articles for the "Reference encyclopedic dictionary"A.V. Starchevsky).
In 1846, Dostoevsky became close to the Maykov family, regularly visited the literary and philosophical circle of the Beketov brothers, in which V. Maykov was the leader, and A.N. was the regular participants. Maikov and A.N. Pleshcheev are friends of Dostoevsky. From March-April 1847 Dostoevsky became a visitor to the “Fridays” of M.V. 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 8 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. He was recognized by the investigation as “one of the most important” among the Petrashevites, guilty of “intent to overthrow existing domestic laws and public order". The initial verdict of the military judicial commission read: "... retired engineer-lieutenant Dostoevsky, for failure to report the dissemination of a criminal letter about religion and government by the writer Belinsky and the malicious writing of lieutenant Grigoriev, to be deprived of his ranks, all rights of state and subjected to the death penalty by shooting." On December 22, 1849, Dostoevsky, along with others, was awaiting the execution of his death sentence on the Semyonovsky parade ground. By resolution of Nicholas I, his execution was replaced by 4 years of hard labor with the deprivation of “all rights of state” and subsequent surrender as a soldier.
On the night of December 24, Dostoevsky was sent from St. Petersburg in chains. On January 10, 1850 he arrived in Tobolsk, where in the caretaker’s apartment the writer met with the wives of the Decembrists - P.E. Annenkova, A.G. Muravyova and N.D. Fonvizina; they gave him the Gospel, which he kept all his life. From January 1850 to 1854, Dostoevsky, together with Durov, served hard labor as a “laborer” in the Omsk fortress. In January 1854, he was enlisted as a private in the 7th Line Battalion (Semipalatinsk) and was able to resume correspondence with his brother Mikhail and A. Maikov. In November 1855, Dostoevsky was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and after much trouble from prosecutor Wrangel and other Siberian and St. Petersburg acquaintances (including E.I. Totleben) to warrant officer; in the spring of 1857, the writer was returned to hereditary nobility and the right to publish, but police surveillance over him remained until 1875.
In 1857 Dostoevsky married the widowed M.D. Isaeva, who, in his words, was “a woman of the most sublime and enthusiastic soul... An idealist in the full sense of the word... she was pure and naive, and she was just like a child.” The marriage was not happy: Isaeva agreed after much hesitation that tormented Dostoevsky. In Siberia, the writer began work on his memoirs about hard labor (the “Siberian” notebook, containing folklore, ethnographic and diary entries, served as a source for “Notes from the House of the Dead” and many other books by Dostoevsky). In 1857, his brother published the story "The Little Hero", written by Dostoevsky in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Having created two “provincial” comic stories - “Uncle’s Dream” and “The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants”, Dostoevsky entered into negotiations with M.N. through his brother Mikhail. Katkov, Nekrasov, A.A. Kraevsky. However, modern criticism did not appreciate and passed over these first works of the “new” Dostoevsky in almost complete silence.
On March 18, 1859, Dostoevsky, at the request, was dismissed “due to illness” with the rank of second lieutenant and received permission to live in Tver (with a ban on entry into the St. Petersburg and Moscow provinces). On July 2, 1859, he left Semipalatinsk with his wife and stepson. From 1859 - in Tver, where he renewed his previous literary acquaintances and made new ones. Later, the chief of gendarmes notified the Tver governor about permission for Dostoevsky to live in St. Petersburg, where he arrived in December 1859.
Dostoevsky’s intensive activity combined editorial work on “other people’s” manuscripts with the publication of his own articles, polemical notes, notes, and most importantly works of art. The novel “The Humiliated and Insulted” is a transitional work, a kind of return at a new stage of development to the motives of creativity of the 1840s, enriched by the experience of what was experienced and felt in the 1850s; it has very strong autobiographical motives. At the same time, the novel contained the features of the plots, style and characters of the works of the late Dostoevsky. "Notes from the House of the Dead" was a huge success.
In Siberia, according to Dostoevsky, his “convictions” changed “gradually and after a very, very long time.” The essence of these changes, Dostoevsky in the very general form formulated as “a return to the folk root, to the recognition of the Russian soul, to the recognition of the folk spirit.” In the magazines "Time" and "Epoch" the Dostoevsky brothers acted as ideologists of "pochvennichestvo" - a specific modification of the ideas of Slavophilism. “Pochvennichestvo” was rather an attempt to outline the contours of a “general idea”, to find a platform that would reconcile Westerners and Slavophiles, “civilization” and the people’s principles. Skeptical about the revolutionary ways of transforming Russia and Europe, Dostoevsky expressed these doubts in works of art, articles and announcements of Vremya, in sharp polemics with the publications of Sovremennik. The essence of Dostoevsky's objections is the possibility, after the reform, of a rapprochement between the government and the intelligentsia and the people, their peaceful cooperation. Dostoevsky continues this polemic in the story “Notes from the Underground” (“Epoch”, 1864) - a philosophical and artistic prelude to the writer’s “ideological” novels.
Dostoevsky wrote: “I am proud that for the first time I brought out the real man of the Russian majority and for the first time exposed his ugly and tragic side. Tragedy consists in the consciousness of ugliness. Only I brought out the tragedy of the underground, which consists in suffering, in self-punishment, in the consciousness of the best and in the inability to achieve him and, most importantly, in the vivid conviction of these unfortunates that everyone is like that, and therefore, there is no need to improve!”
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 (1861-1866) was reflected in the novel “The Player”, “The Idiot” and other works. In Baden-Baden, carried away by the gambling nature of his nature, playing roulette, he loses “all, completely to the ground”; this long-term hobby of Dostoevsky is one of his qualities passionate nature. In October 1863 he returned to Russia. Until mid-November he lived with his sick wife in Vladimir, and at the end of 1863-April 1864 in Moscow, traveling to St. Petersburg on business.
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 particular, in the images of Katerina Ivanovna - “Crime and Punishment” and Nastasya Filippovna - “The Idiot”). On June 10, M.M. died. Dostoevsky. On September 26, Dostoevsky attends Grigoriev’s funeral. After the death of his brother, Dostoevsky took over the publication of the magazine “Epoch”, which was burdened with a large debt and lagged behind by 3 months; The magazine began to appear more regularly, but a sharp drop in subscriptions in 1865 forced the writer to stop publishing. He owed creditors about 15 thousand rubles, which he was able to pay only towards the end of his life. In an effort to provide working conditions, Dostoevsky entered into a contract with F.T. Stellovsky for the publication of collected works and undertook to write for him new novel by November 1, 1866.
In the spring of 1865 Dostoevsky - frequent guest the family of General V.V. Korvin-Krukovsky, whose eldest daughter A.V. Korvin-Krukovskaya he was very infatuated with. In July he went to Wiesbaden, from where in the fall of 1865 he offered Katkov a story for the Russian Messenger, which later developed into a novel. In the summer of 1866, Dostoevsky was in Moscow and at a dacha in the village of Lyublino, near the family of his sister Vera Mikhailovna, where he spent his nights writing the novel Crime and Punishment.
“The psychological report of one crime” became the plot outline of the novel, the main idea of which Dostoevsky outlined as follows: “Unsolvable questions arise before the murderer, unsuspected and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God’s truth, earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up forced I am forced to denounce myself, so that, although I may die in hard labor, I will join the people again..." The novel accurately and multifacetedly depicts Petersburg and “current reality,” a wealth of social characters, “a whole world of class and professional types,” but this reality is transformed and discovered by the artist, whose gaze penetrates to the very essence of things. Intense philosophical debates, prophetic dreams, confessions and nightmares, grotesque caricature scenes that naturally turn into tragic, symbolic meetings of heroes, an apocalyptic image of a ghostly city are organically linked in Dostoevsky’s novel. The novel, according to the author himself, was “extremely successful” and raised his “reputation as a writer.”
In 1866, an expiring contract with a publisher forced Dostoevsky to simultaneously work on two novels - Crime and Punishment and The Gambler. Dostoevsky resorts to in an unusual way works: October 4, 1866 stenographer A.G. comes to him. Snitkina; he began dictating to her the novel “The Player,” which reflected the writer’s impressions of meeting Western Europe. At the center of the novel is the clash of a “multi-developed, but unfinished in everything, distrustful and not daring not to believe, rebelling against authority and fearing them” “foreign Russian” with “complete” European types. Main character- “a poet in his own way, but the fact is that he himself is ashamed of this poetry, for he deeply feels its baseness, although the need for risk ennobles him in his own eyes.”
In the winter of 1867, Snitkina became Dostoevsky's wife. New marriage was more successful. From April 1867 to July 1871, Dostoevsky and his wife lived abroad (Berlin, Dresden, Baden-Baden, Geneva, Milan, Florence). There, on February 22, 1868, a daughter, Sophia, was born, whose sudden death (May of the same year) Dostoevsky took seriously. On September 14, 1869, daughter Lyubov was born; later in Russia July 16, 1871 - son Fedor; Aug 12 1875 - son Alexey, who died at the age of three from an epileptic fit.
In 1867-1868 Dostoevsky worked on the novel "The Idiot". “The idea of the novel,” the author pointed out, “is my old and favorite one, but it is so difficult that I did not dare take on it for a long time. The main idea of the novel is to portray positively wonderful person. There is nothing more difficult in the world than this, and especially now..."
Dostoevsky began the novel "Demons" by interrupting work on the widely conceived epics "Atheism" and "The Life of a Great Sinner" and hastily composing the "story" "The Eternal Husband." The immediate impetus for the creation of the novel was the “Nechaev case.” The activities of the secret society "People's Retribution", the murder by five members of the organization of a student of the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy I.I. Ivanov - these are the events that formed the basis of “Demons” and received a philosophical and psychological interpretation in the novel. The writer's attention was drawn to the circumstances of the murder, the ideological and organizational principles of the terrorists ("Catechism of a Revolutionary"), the figures of the accomplices in the crime, the personality of the head of the society S.G. Nechaeva. In the process of working on the novel, the concept was modified many times. Initially, it is a direct response to events. The scope of the pamphlet subsequently expanded significantly, not only Nechaevites, but also figures of the 1860s, liberals of the 1840s, T.N. Granovsky, Petrashevites, Belinsky, V.S. Pecherin, A.I. Herzen, even the Decembrists and P.Ya. The Chaadaevs find themselves in the grotesque-tragic space of the novel.
Gradually, the novel develops into a critical depiction of the common “disease” experienced by Russia and Europe, a clear symptom of which is the “demonism” of Nechaev and the Nechaevites. At the center of the novel, its philosophical and ideological focus is not the sinister “swindler” Pyotr Verkhovensky (Nechaev), but the mysterious and demonic figure of Nikolai Stavrogin, who “allowed everything.”
In July 1871, Dostoevsky with his wife and daughter returned to St. Petersburg. The writer and his family spent the summer of 1872 in Staraya Russa; this city became the family's permanent summer residence. In 1876 Dostoevsky purchased a house here.
In 1872, the writer visited the “Wednesdays” of Prince V.P. Meshchersky, a supporter of counter-reforms and publisher of the newspaper-magazine “Citizen”. At the request of the publisher, supported by A. Maikov and Tyutchev, Dostoevsky in December 1872 agreed to take over the editorship of "Citizen", stipulating in advance that he would assume these responsibilities temporarily. In "The Citizen" (1873), Dostoevsky realized the long-conceived idea of "A Writer's Diary" (a cycle of essays of a political, literary and memoir nature, united by the idea of direct, personal communication with the reader), published a number of articles and notes (including political reviews " Foreign events"). Dostoevsky soon began to be burdened by editorial work; his clashes with Meshchersky also became more and more violent; the impossibility of turning the weekly into a “organ of people with independent convictions” became more obvious. In the spring of 1874, the writer refused editorship, although he occasionally collaborated in “Citizen” and later, due to deteriorating health (increased emphysema), in June 1847 he left for treatment in Ems and repeated trips there in 1875, 1876 and 1879.
In the mid-1870s. Dostoevsky's relationship with Saltykov-Shchedrin, interrupted at the height of the controversy between "Epoch" and "Sovremennik", and with Nekrasov, was renewed, at whose suggestion (1874) the writer published his new novel "Teenager" - "a novel of education" in "Otechestvennye zapiski" a kind of "Fathers and Sons" by Dostoevsky.
The hero’s personality and worldview are formed in an environment of “general decay” and the collapse of the foundations of society, in the fight against the temptations of the age. The confession of a teenager analyzes the complex, contradictory, chaotic process of personality formation in an “ugly” world that has lost its “moral center,” the slow maturation of a new “idea” under the powerful influence of the “great thought” of the wanderer Versilov and the philosophy of life of the “good-looking” wanderer Makar Dolgoruky.
In con. 1875 Dostoevsky again returned to his journalistic work - the “mono-journal” “A Writer’s Diary” (1876 and 1877), which had great success and allowed the writer to enter into a direct dialogue with corresponding readers. The author defined the nature of the publication in this way: “A Writer’s Diary will be similar to a feuilleton, but with the difference that a month’s feuilleton naturally cannot be similar to a week’s feuilleton. I am not a chronicler: this, on the contrary, is a perfect diary in the full sense of the word, that is, a report on what interested me most personally." "Diary" 1876-1877 - a fusion of journalistic articles, essays, feuilletons, "anti-criticism", memoirs and fiction works. The "Diary" reflected Dostoevsky's immediate impressions and opinions about the most important phenomena European and Russian socio-political and cultural life, which worried Dostoevsky about legal, social, ethical-pedagogical, aesthetic and political problems. Great place in the "Diary" the writer's attempts to see in the modern chaos the contours of a "new creation", the foundations of an "emerging" life, to predict the appearance of the "coming" future Russia honest people who want only one truth."
Criticism of bourgeois Europe and a deep analysis of the state of post-reform Russia are paradoxically combined in the Diary with polemics against various trends of social thought of the 1870s, from conservative utopias to populist and socialist ideas.
IN recent years life, Dostoevsky's popularity increases. In 1877 he was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In May 1879, the writer was invited to the International Literary Congress in London, at the session of which he was elected a member of the honorary committee of the international literary association. Dostoevsky actively participates in the activities of the St. Petersburg Frebel Society. He often performs at literary and musical evenings and matinees, reading excerpts from his works and poems by Pushkin. In January 1877 Dostoevsky was impressed by " Latest songs"Nekrasova visits the dying poet, often sees him in November; on December 30 she makes a speech at Nekrasov's funeral.
Dostoevsky's activities required direct acquaintance with "living life." He visits (with the assistance of A.F. Koni) colonies for juvenile delinquents (1875) and the Orphanage (1876). In 1878, after the death of his beloved son Alyosha, he made a trip to Optina Pustyn, where he talked with Elder Ambrose. The writer is especially concerned about events in Russia. In March 1878, Dostoevsky was at the trial of Vera Zasulich in the St. Petersburg District Court, and in April he responded to a letter from students asking to speak out about the beating of student demonstration participants by shopkeepers; In February 1880, he was present at the execution of I. O. Mlodetsky, who shot M. T. Loris-Melikov. Intensive, varied contacts with surrounding reality, active journalistic and social activities served as multifaceted preparation for a new stage in the writer’s work. In the "Diary of a Writer" ideas and the plot of it matured and were tested. last novel. At the end of 1877, Dostoevsky announced the termination of the Diary in connection with his intention to engage in “one artistic work that took shape... during these two years of publication of the Diary, inconspicuously and involuntarily.”
"The Brothers Karamazov" is the final work of the writer, in which artistic embodiment received many ideas from his work. The history of the Karamazovs, as the author wrote, is not just a family chronicle, but a typified and generalized “image of our modern reality, our modern intelligentsia Russia.” The philosophy and psychology of “crime and punishment”, the dilemma of “socialism and Christianity”, the eternal struggle between “God” and “the devil” in the souls of people, the traditional theme of “fathers and sons” in classical Russian literature - these are the problems of the novel.
In The Brothers Karamazov, a criminal offense is connected with great world “questions” and eternal artistic and philosophical themes.
In January 1881, Dostoevsky speaks at a meeting of the council of the Slavic Charitable Society, works on the first issue of the renewed “Diary of a Writer,” learns the role of a schema-monk in “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” by A. K. Tolstoy for a home performance in S. A. Tolstoy’s salon, and makes a decision “ definitely take part in the Pushkin evening" on January 29. He was going to “publish “A Writer’s Diary” ... for two years, and then dreamed of writing the second part of “The Brothers Karamazov”, in which almost all the previous heroes would appear...” On the night of January 25-26, Dostoevsky’s throat began to bleed. On the afternoon of January 28, Dostoevsky said goodbye to the children at 8:38 a.m. 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.