Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 February 1881), sometimes transliterated as Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. Dostoevsky's literary works explore the
human condition
The human condition is all of the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed fr ...
in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of
19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed novels include ''
Crime and Punishment
''Crime and Punishment'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Преступление и наказание, Prestupléniye i nakazániye, prʲɪstʊˈplʲenʲɪje ɪ nəkɐˈzanʲɪje) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...
'' (1866), ''
The Idiot
''The Idiot'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Идиот, Idiót) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal ''The Russian Messenger'' in 1868–69.
The title is an ...
'' (1869),
''Demons'' (1872), and ''
The Brothers Karamazov
''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...
'' (1880). His 1864
novella
A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
, ''
Notes from Underground
''Notes from Underground'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform Russian: ; also translated as ''Notes from the Underground'' or ''Letters from the Underworld'') is a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in the journal ''Epoch'' in 1864. ...
'', is considered to be one of the first works of
existentialist
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and value ...
literature. Numerous literary critics regard him as one of the greatest novelists in all of
world literature
World literature is used to refer to the total of the world's national literature and the circulation of works into the wider world beyond their country of origin. In the past, it primarily referred to the masterpieces of Western European lit ...
, as many of his works are considered highly influential masterpieces.
Born in Moscow in 1821, Dostoevsky was introduced to literature at an early age through
fairy tales
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cult ...
and
legend
A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...
s, and through books by Russian and foreign authors. His mother died in 1837 when he was 15, and around the same time, he left school to enter the
Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute. After graduating, he worked as an engineer and briefly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, translating books to earn extra money. In the mid-1840s he wrote his first novel, ''
Poor Folk
''Poor Folk'' (russian: Бедные люди, ''Bednye lyudi''), sometimes translated as ''Poor People'', is the first novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, written over the span of nine months between 1844 and 1845. Dostoevsky was in financial difficult ...
'', which gained him entry into
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
's literary circles. However, he was arrested in 1849 for belonging to a literary group, the
Petrashevsky Circle
The Petrashevsky Circle was a Russian literary discussion group of progressive-minded intellectuals in St. Petersburg in the 1840s. It was organized by Mikhail Petrashevsky, a follower of the French utopian socialist Charles Fourier. Among the memb ...
, that discussed banned books critical of
Tsarist Russia Tsarist Russia may refer to:
* Grand Duchy of Moscow (1480–1547)
*Tsardom of Russia (1547–1721)
*Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of ...
. Dostoevsky was sentenced to death but the sentence was
commuted at the last moment. He spent four years in a
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
n prison camp, followed by six years of compulsory military service in exile. In the following years, Dostoevsky worked as a journalist, publishing and editing several magazines of his own and later ''
A Writer's Diary
''A Writer's Diary'' (russian: Дневник писателя; ''Dnevnik pisatelya'') is a collection of non-fiction and fictional writings by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Д ...
'', a collection of his writings. He began to travel around western Europe and developed a
gambling addiction
Problem gambling or ludomania is repetitive gambling behavior despite harm and negative consequences. Problem gambling may be diagnosed as a mental disorder according to ''DSM-5'' if certain diagnostic criteria are met. Pathological gambling is ...
, which led to financial hardship. For a time, he had to beg for money, but he eventually became one of the most widely read and highly regarded Russian writers.
Dostoevsky's
body of work
The complete works of an artist, writer, musician, group, etc., is a collection of all of their cultural works. For example, '' Complete Works of Shakespeare'' is an edition containing all the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. A ''Complete ...
consists of thirteen novels, three novellas, seventeen short stories, and numerous other works. His writings were widely read both within and beyond his native Russia and influenced an equally great number of later writers including Russians such as
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...
and
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...
, philosophers
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
and
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology), a French playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and litera ...
, and the emergence of
Existentialism
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
and
Freudianism
PsychoanalysisFrom Greek: + . is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a body of knowledge. In what might be ...
. His books have been translated into more than 170 languages, and served as the inspiration for many films.
Ancestry
Dostoevsky's paternal ancestors were part of a noble family of
Russian Orthodox
Russian Orthodoxy (russian: Русское православие) is the body of several churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Church Slavonic language. Most ...
Christians. The family traced its roots back to
Danilo Irtishch, who was granted lands in the
Pinsk
Pinsk ( be, Пі́нск; russian: Пи́нск ; Polish: Pińsk; ) is a city located in the Brest Region of Belarus, in the Polesia region, at the confluence of the Pina River and the Pripyat River. The region was known as the Marsh of Pinsk a ...
region (for centuries part of the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...
, now in modern-day
Belarus
Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...
) in 1509 for his services under a local prince, his progeny then taking the name "Dostoevsky" based on a village there called Dostoïevo (derived from
Old Polish
The Old Polish language ( pl, język staropolski, staropolszczyzna) was a period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries. It was followed by the Middle Polish language.
The sources for the study of the Old ...
''dostojnik'' – dignitary).
Dostoevsky's immediate ancestors on his mother's side were merchants; the male line on his father's side were priests.
In 1809, the 20-year-old Mikhail Dostoevsky enrolled in Moscow's Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy. From there he was assigned to a Moscow hospital, where he served as military doctor, and in 1818 he was appointed a senior physician. In 1819 he married Maria Nechayeva. The following year, he took up a post at the Mariinsky Hospital for the poor. In 1828, when his two sons,
Mikhail and Fyodor, were eight and seven respectively, he was promoted to collegiate assessor, a position which raised his legal status to that of the nobility and enabled him to acquire a small estate in Darovoye, a town about 150 km (100 miles) from Moscow, where the family usually spent the summers. Dostoevsky's parents subsequently had six more children: Varvara (1822–1892), Andrei (1825–1897), Lyubov (born and died 1829), Vera (1829–1896), Nikolai (1831–1883) and Aleksandra (1835–1889).
Childhood (1821–1836)
Fyodor Dostoevsky, born on in Moscow, was the second child of Dr. Mikhail Dostoevsky and Maria Dostoevskaya (born Nechayeva). He was raised in the family home in the grounds of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, which was in a lower class district on the edges of Moscow. Dostoevsky encountered the patients, who were at the lower end of the Russian social scale, when playing in the hospital gardens.
Dostoevsky was introduced to literature at an early age. From the age of three, he was read heroic sagas, fairy tales and legends by his nanny, Alena Frolovna, an especially influential figure in his upbringing and his love for fictional stories. When he was four his mother used the Bible to teach him to read and write. His parents introduced him to a wide range of literature, including Russian writers
Karamzin Karamzin (russian: Карамзин) is a Russian masculine surname, its feminine counterpart is Karamzina. It originates from the Tatar surname Kara-Murza, meaning ''black lord'', and may refer to
*Aurora Karamzin (1808–1902), Finnish-Swede phil ...
,
Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
and
Derzhavin;
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...
such as the works from writer
Ann Radcliffe
Ann Radcliffe (née Ward; 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English novelist and a pioneer of Gothic fiction. Her technique of explaining apparently supernatural elements in her novels has been credited with gaining respectability for G ...
; romantic works by
Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...
and
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
; heroic tales by
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-emin ...
and
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...
; and
Homer
Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
's
epics
The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a set of software tools and applications used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large sci ...
. Dostoevsky was greatly influenced by the work of
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
. Although his father's approach to education has been described as strict and harsh, Dostoevsky himself reported that his imagination was brought alive by nightly readings by his parents.
Some of his childhood experiences found their way into his writings. When a nine-year-old girl had been raped by a drunk, he was asked to fetch his father to attend to her. The incident haunted him, and the theme of the desire of a mature man for a young girl appears in ''The Devils'', ''The Brothers Karamazov'', ''Crime and Punishment'', and other writings. An incident involving a family servant, or
serf
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...
, in the estate in Darovoye, is described in "
The Peasant Marey
The Peasant Marey (russian: Мужик Марей ''Muzhik Marey''), written in 1876, is both the "best-known autobiographical account" from the '' Writer's Diary'' of Fyodor Dostoevsky, and a frequently anthologized work of fiction. This "double ...
": when the young Dostoevsky imagines hearing a wolf in the forest, Marey, who is working nearby, comforts him.
Although Dostoevsky had a delicate physical constitution, his parents described him as hot-headed, stubborn, and cheeky. In 1833, Dostoevsky's father, who was profoundly religious, sent him to a French boarding school and then to the Chermak boarding school. He was described as a pale, introverted dreamer and an over-excitable romantic. To pay the school fees, his father borrowed money and extended his private medical practice. Dostoevsky felt out of place among his aristocratic classmates at the Moscow school, and the experience was later reflected in some of his works, notably ''
The Adolescent
''The Adolescent'' (russian: Подросток, Podrostok), also translated as ''A Raw Youth'' or ''An Accidental Family'', is a novel by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in monthly installments in 1875 in the Russian literary ...
''.
Youth (1836–1843)
![Image dost 01](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Image_dost_01.jpg)
On 27 September 1837 Dostoevsky's mother died of
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
. The previous May, his parents had sent Dostoevsky and his brother Mikhail to Saint Petersburg to attend the free
Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute, forcing the brothers to abandon their academic studies for military careers. Dostoevsky entered the academy in January 1838, but only with the help of family members. Mikhail was refused admission on health grounds and was sent to an academy in
Reval
Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ''m ...
(now Tallinn, Estonia).
Dostoevsky disliked the academy, primarily because of his lack of interest in science, mathematics, and military engineering and his preference for drawing and architecture. As his friend
Konstantin Trutovsky once said, "There was no student in the entire institution with less of a military bearing than F.M. Dostoevsky. He moved clumsily and jerkily; his uniform hung awkwardly on him; and his knapsack, shako and rifle all looked like some sort of fetter he had been forced to wear for a time and which lay heavily on him." Dostoevsky's character and interests made him an outsider among his 120 classmates: he showed bravery and a strong sense of justice, protected newcomers, aligned himself with teachers, criticised corruption among officers, and helped poor farmers. Although he was solitary and inhabited his own literary world, he was respected by his classmates. His reclusiveness and interest in religion earned him the nickname "Monk
Photius
Photios I ( el, Φώτιος, ''Phōtios''; c. 810/820 – 6 February 893), also spelled PhotiusFr. Justin Taylor, essay "Canon Law in the Age of the Fathers" (published in Jordan Hite, T.O.R., & Daniel J. Ward, O.S.B., "Readings, Cases, Materia ...
".
Signs of Dostoevsky's epilepsy may have first appeared on learning of the death of his father on 16 June 1839, although the reports of a
seizure
An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with los ...
originated from accounts written by his daughter (later expanded by
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
) which are now considered to be unreliable. His father's official cause of death was an
apoplectic
Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleed ...
stroke, but a neighbour, Pavel Khotiaintsev, accused the father's serfs of murder. Had the serfs been found guilty and sent to
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
, Khotiaintsev would have been in a position to buy the vacated land. The serfs were acquitted in a trial in
Tula
Tula may refer to:
Geography
Antarctica
*Tula Mountains
*Tula Point
India
*Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar
Iran
* Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province
Italy
* Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...
, but Dostoevsky's brother Andrei perpetuated the story. After his father's death, Dostoevsky continued his studies, passed his exams and obtained the rank of engineer cadet, entitling him to live away from the academy. He visited Mikhail in Reval (Tallinn) and frequently attended concerts, operas, plays and ballets. During this time, two of his friends introduced him to gambling.
On 12 August 1843 Dostoevsky took a job as a lieutenant engineer and lived with Adolph Totleben in an apartment owned by Dr. Rizenkampf, a friend of Mikhail. Rizenkampf characterised him as "no less good-natured and no less courteous than his brother, but when not in a good mood he often looked at everything through dark glasses, became vexed, forgot good manners, and sometimes was carried away to the point of abusiveness and loss of self-awareness". Dostoevsky's first completed literary work, a translation of
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...
's novel ''
Eugénie Grandet
''Eugénie Grandet'' is a novel first published in 1833 by French author Honoré de Balzac. While he was writing it he conceived his ambitious project, ''La Comédie humaine'', and almost immediately prepared a second edition, revising the names ...
'', was published in June and July 1843 in the 6th and 7th volumes of the journal ''Repertoire and Pantheon'', followed by several other translations. None were successful, and his financial difficulties led him to write a novel.
Career
Early career (1844–1849)
![Trutovsky 004](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Trutovsky_004.jpg)
Dostoevsky completed his first novel, ''
Poor Folk
''Poor Folk'' (russian: Бедные люди, ''Bednye lyudi''), sometimes translated as ''Poor People'', is the first novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, written over the span of nine months between 1844 and 1845. Dostoevsky was in financial difficult ...
'', in May 1845. His friend
Dmitry Grigorovich
Dmitry Vasilyevich Grigorovich (russian: Дми́трий Васи́льевич Григоро́вич) ( – ) was a Russian writer, best known for his first two novels, '' The Village'' and '' Anton Goremyka'', and lauded as the first author ...
, with whom he was sharing an apartment at the time, took the manuscript to the poet
Nikolay Nekrasov
Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov ( rus, Никола́й Алексе́евич Некра́сов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪkˈsʲejɪvʲɪtɕ nʲɪˈkrasəf, a=Ru-Nikolay_Alexeyevich_Nekrasov.ogg, – ) was a Russian poet, writer, critic and publi ...
, who in turn showed it to the renowned and influential literary critic
Vissarion Belinsky
Vissarion Grigoryevich Belinsky ( rus, Виссарион Григорьевич БелинскийIn Belinsky's day, his name was written ., Vissarión Grigórʹjevič Belínskij, vʲɪsərʲɪˈon ɡrʲɪˈɡorʲjɪvʲɪdʑ bʲɪˈlʲinskʲ ...
. Belinsky described it as Russia's first "
social novel
The social novel, also known as the social problem (or social protest) novel, is a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". More ...
". ''Poor Folk'' was released on 15 January 1846 in the ''St Petersburg Collection''
almanac
An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and other ...
and became a commercial success.
Dostoevsky felt that his military career would endanger his now flourishing literary career, so he wrote a letter asking to resign his post. Shortly thereafter, he wrote his second novel, ''
The Double'', which appeared in the journal ''
Notes of the Fatherland
''Otechestvennye Zapiski'' ( rus, Отечественные записки, p=ɐˈtʲetɕɪstvʲɪnːɨjɪ zɐˈpʲiskʲɪ, variously translated as "Annals of the Fatherland", "Patriotic Notes", "Notes of the Fatherland", etc.) was a Russian lite ...
'' on 30 January 1846, before being published in February. Around the same time, Dostoevsky discovered socialism through the writings of French thinkers
Fourier,
Cabet,
Proudhon
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (, , ; 15 January 1809, Besançon – 19 January 1865, Paris) was a French socialist,Landauer, Carl; Landauer, Hilde Stein; Valkenier, Elizabeth Kridl (1979) 959 "The Three Anticapitalistic Movements". ''European Social ...
and
Saint-Simon. Through his relationship with Belinsky he expanded his knowledge of the philosophy of socialism. He was attracted to its logic, its sense of justice and its preoccupation with the destitute and the disadvantaged. However, his Russian Orthodox faith and religious sensibilities could not accord with Belinsky's admixture of
atheism
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
,
utilitarianism
In ethical philosophy, utilitarianism is a family of normative ethical theories that prescribe actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all affected individuals.
Although different varieties of utilitarianism admit different charact ...
and
scientific materialism
Metaphysical naturalism (also called ontological naturalism, philosophical naturalism and antisupernaturalism) is a philosophical worldview which holds that there is nothing but natural elements, principles, and relations of the kind studied by ...
, leading to increasing friction between them. Dostoevsky eventually parted with him and his associates.
After ''The Double'' received negative reviews (including a particularly scathing one from Belinsky) Dostoevsky's health declined and his seizures became more frequent, but he continued writing. From 1846 to 1848 he published several short stories in the magazine ''Notes of the Fatherland'', including "
Mr. Prokharchin
"Mr. Prokharchin" (russian: Господин Прохарчин, ''Gospodin Prokharchin''), also translated as "Mr. Prohartchin", is a short story written in 1846 by Fyodor Dostoevsky and first published in the '' Annals of the Fatherland''. Inspir ...
", "
The Landlady", "A Weak Heart", and "
White Nights
White night, White Night, or White Nights may refer to:
* White night (astronomy), a night in which it never gets completely dark, at high latitudes outside the Arctic and Antarctic Circles
* White Night festivals, all-night arts festivals held in ...
". The negative reception of these stories, combined with his health problems and Belinsky's attacks, caused him distress and financial difficulty, but this was greatly alleviated when he joined the
utopian socialist
Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...
Beketov circle, a tightly knit community which helped him to survive. When the circle dissolved, Dostoevsky befriended
Apollon Maykov
Apollon Nikolayevich Maykov (russian: Аполло́н Никола́евич Ма́йков, , Moscow – , Saint Petersburg) was a Russian poet, best known for his lyric verse showcasing images of Russian villages, nature, and history. His love ...
and his brother
Valerian. In 1846, on the recommendation of the poet
Aleksey Pleshcheyev
Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Никола́евич Плеще́ев; 8 October 1893) was a radical Russian poet of the 19th century, once a member of the Petrashevsky Circle.
Pleshcheyev's first book of p ...
, he joined the
Petrashevsky Circle
The Petrashevsky Circle was a Russian literary discussion group of progressive-minded intellectuals in St. Petersburg in the 1840s. It was organized by Mikhail Petrashevsky, a follower of the French utopian socialist Charles Fourier. Among the memb ...
, founded by
Mikhail Petrashevsky
Mikhail Vasilyevich Butashevich-Petrashevsky (; – ), commonly known as Mikhail Petrashevsky, was a Russian revolutionary and Utopian theorist.Figes, p. 128
Biography Early life
Mikhail Petrashevsky graduated from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum (18 ...
, who had proposed social reforms in Russia.
Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin (; 1814–1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, socialist and founder of collectivist anarchism. He is considered among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major founder of the revolutionary ...
once wrote to
Alexander Herzen
Alexander Ivanovich Herzen (russian: Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Ге́рцен, translit=Alexándr Ivánovich Gértsen; ) was a Russian writer and thinker known as the "father of Russian socialism" and one of the main fathers of agra ...
that the group was "the most innocent and harmless company" and its members were "systematic opponents of all revolutionary goals and means". Dostoevsky used the circle's library on Saturdays and Sundays and occasionally participated in their discussions on freedom from censorship and the abolition of
serfdom
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...
. Bakunin's description, however, was not true of the aristocrat
Nikolay Speshnev
Nikolay Alexandrovich Speshnev (Russian: Николай Александрович Спе́шнев; 1821, Kursk - 1882, St. Petersburg) was a 19th-century Russian aristocrat and political activist, best known for his involvement with the pro-socia ...
, who joined the circle in 1848 and set about creating a secret revolutionary society from amongst its members. Dostoevsky himself became a member of this society, was aware of its conspiratorial aims, and actively participated, although he harboured significant doubts about their actions and intentions.
In 1849, the first parts of ''
Netochka Nezvanova'', a novel Dostoevsky had been planning since 1846, were published in ''Notes of the Fatherland'', but his banishment ended the project. Dostoevsky never attempted to complete it.
Siberian exile (1849–1854)
![B pokrovsky kazn 1849](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/B_pokrovsky_kazn_1849.jpg)
The members of the Petrashevsky Circle were denounced to
Liprandi, an official at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Dostoevsky was accused of reading works by Belinsky, including the banned ''Letter to Gogol'',
[Belinsky, Vissarion (1847)]
Letter to Gogol
''Documents in Russian History'', Seton Hall University. Retrieved 27 December 2017. and of circulating copies of these and other works. Antonelli, the government agent who had reported the group, wrote in his statement that at least one of the papers criticised Russian politics and religion. Dostoevsky responded to these charges by declaring that he had read the essays only "as a literary monument, neither more nor less"; he spoke of "personality and human egoism" rather than of politics. Even so, he and his fellow "conspirators" were arrested on 23 April 1849 at the request of Count
A. Orlov and Tsar
Nicholas I, who feared a revolution like the
Decembrist revolt
The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Al ...
of 1825 in Russia and the
Revolutions of 1848
The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...
in Europe. The members were held in the well-defended
Peter and Paul Fortress
The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706 to 1740 as a star fortress. Between the first half of the 1700s and early 1920s i ...
, which housed the most dangerous convicts.
The case was discussed for four months by an investigative commission headed by the Tsar, with Adjutant General
Ivan Nabokov
Ivan Aleksandrovich Nabokov (russian: Иван Александрович Набоков) (11 March 1787 – 21 April 1852) was a Russian Adjutant general and general of infantry prominent during the Napoleonic wars.
Biography
Nabokov came fr ...
, senator Prince
Pavel Gagarin
Prince Pavel Pavlovich Gagarin (russian: Павел Павлович Гагарин; 4 (15) March 1789 in Moscow – 21 February (4 March) 1872 in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian statesman from the Rurikid Gagarin family.
He was the posthumous chi ...
, Prince
Vasili Dolgorukov, General
Yakov Rostovtsev
Iakov Ivanovich Rostovtsev ( – ) was a leading figure in the formulation of statutes which effectively emancipated the Russian serfs.
Biography
Born in St Petersburg, Russia, Rostovtsev became a career soldier, and was a young officer at th ...
and General Leonty Dubelt, head of the secret police. They sentenced the members of the circle to death by firing squad, and the prisoners were taken to Semyonov Place in Saintt Petersburg on 23 December 1849. They were split into three-man groups and the first group was taken in front of the firing squad. Dostoevsky was the third in the second row; next to him stood
Pleshcheyev
Aleksey Nikolayevich Pleshcheyev (russian: link=no, Алексе́й Никола́евич Плеще́ев; 8 October 1893) was a radical Russian poet of the 19th century, once a member of the Petrashevsky Circle.
Pleshcheyev's first book of ...
and
Durov. The execution was stayed when a cart delivered a letter from the Tsar commuting the sentence. Dostoevsky later described the experience of what he believed to be the last moments of his life in his novel ''
The Idiot
''The Idiot'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Идиот, Idiót) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal ''The Russian Messenger'' in 1868–69.
The title is an ...
''. The story of a young man sentenced to death by firing squad but reprieved at the last moment is recounted by the main character, Prince Myshkin, who describes the experience from the point of view of the victim, and considers the philosophical and spiritual implications.
Dostoevsky served four years of exile with hard labour at a
katorga
Katorga ( rus, ка́торга, p=ˈkatərɡə; from medieval and modern Greek: ''katergon, κάτεργον'', "galley") was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisoner ...
prison camp in
Omsk
Omsk (; rus, Омск, p=omsk) is the administrative center and largest city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia, and has a population of over 1.1 million. Omsk is the third largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk ...
, Siberia, followed by a term of compulsory military service. After a fourteen-day sleigh ride, the prisoners reached
Tobolsk
Tobolsk (russian: Тобо́льск) is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh rivers. Founded in 1590, Tobolsk is the second-oldest Russian settlement east of the Ural Mountains in Asian Russia, and i ...
, a prisoner way station. Despite the circumstances, Dostoevsky consoled the other prisoners, such as the Petrashevist Ivan Yastrzhembsky, who was surprised by Dostoevsky's kindness and eventually abandoned his decision to kill himself. In Tobolsk, the members received food and clothes from the
Decembrist
The Decembrist Revolt ( ru , Восстание декабристов, translit = Vosstaniye dekabristov , translation = Uprising of the Decembrists) took place in Russia on , during the interregnum following the sudden death of Emperor Ale ...
women, as well as several copies of the New Testament with a ten-ruble banknote inside each copy. Eleven days later, Dostoevsky reached Omsk together with just one other member of the Petrashevsky Circle, the writer Sergei Durov. Dostoevsky described his barracks:
Classified as "one of the most dangerous convicts", Dostoevsky had his hands and feet shackled until his release. He was only permitted to read his New Testament Bible. In addition to his seizures, he had
haemorrhoid
Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''hemo ...
s, lost weight and was "burned by some fever, trembling and feeling too hot or too cold every night". The smell of the privy pervaded the entire building, and the small bathroom had to suffice for more than 200 people. Dostoevsky was occasionally sent to the military hospital, where he read newspapers and Dickens novels. He was respected by most of the other prisoners, but despised by some Polish political prisoners because of his Russian nationalism and anti-Polish sentiments.
Release from prison and first marriage (1854–1866)
After his release on 14 February 1854, Dostoevsky asked Mikhail to help him financially and to send him books by
Vico,
Guizot,
Ranke,
Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
and
Kant
Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemolo ...
. ''
The House of the Dead
''The House of the Dead'' is a horror-themed light gun shooter video game franchise created by Sega in 1996. Originally released in arcades, it utilizes a light gun on the platform, but can be played with standard controllers on consoles and a ...
'', based on his experience in prison, was published in 1861 in the journal ''
Vremya
''Vremya'' (russian: Вре́мя, lit. "Time") is the main evening newscast in Russia, airing on Channel One Russia (Russian: , Pervy kanal) and previously on Programme One of the Central Television of the USSR (CT USSR, Russian: ). The program ...
'' ("Time") – it was the first published novel about Russian prisons. Before moving in mid-March to
Semipalatinsk
Semey ( kk, Семей, Semei, سەمەي; cyrl, Семей ), until 2007 known as Semipalatinsk (russian: Семипала́тинск) and in 1917–1920 as Alash-kala ( kk, Алаш-қала, ''Alaş-qala''), is a city in eastern Kazakhst ...
, where he was forced to serve in the Siberian Army Corps of the Seventh Line Battalion, Dostoevsky met geographer
Pyotr Semyonov
Pyotr Petrovich Semyonov or Semenov (russian: Пётр Петрович Семёнов; 2 January ''(New style: 14 January)'', 1827 – 26 February ''(New style: 11 March)'', 1914) was a Russian geographer and statistician who managed the Russia ...
and ethnographer
Shokan Walikhanuli
Shokan Shyngysuly Valikhanov ( kk, Шоқан Шыңғысұлы Уәлихан, russian: Чокан Чингисович Валиханов), given name Mukhammed Kanafiya ( kk, Мұхаммед Қанафия)Shoqan, his pen-name, later becam ...
. Around November 1854, he met Baron Alexander Egorovich Wrangel, an admirer of his books, who had attended the aborted execution. They both rented houses in the Cossack Garden outside Semipalatinsk. Wrangel remarked that Dostoevsky "looked morose. His sickly, pale face was covered with freckles, and his blond hair was cut short. He was a little over average height and looked at me intensely with his sharp, grey-blue eyes. It was as if he were trying to look into my soul and discover what kind of man I was."
In Semipalatinsk, Dostoevsky tutored several schoolchildren and came into contact with upper-class families, including that of Lieutenant-Colonel Belikhov, who used to invite him to read passages from newspapers and magazines. During a visit to Belikhov, Dostoevsky met the family of Alexander Ivanovich Isaev and Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva and fell in love with the latter. Alexander Isaev took a new post in
Kuznetsk
Kuznetsk (russian: Кузне́цк) is a town in Penza Oblast, Russia, located in the foothills of the Volga Upland, mainly on the left bank of the Truyov River. Population:
Administrative and municipal status
Within Russia's framework of a ...
, where he died in August 1855. Maria and her son then moved with Dostoevsky to
Barnaul
Barnaul ( rus, Барнау́л, p=bərnɐˈul) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative centre of Altai Krai, Russia, located at the confluence of the Barnaulka and Ob Rivers in the West Siberian Plain. As ...
. In 1856, Dostoevsky sent a letter through Wrangel to General Eduard Totleben, apologising for his activity in several utopian circles. As a result, he obtained the right to publish books and to marry, although he remained under police surveillance for the rest of his life. Maria married Dostoevsky in Semipalatinsk on 7 February 1857, even though she had initially refused his marriage proposal, stating that they were not meant for each other and that his poor financial situation precluded marriage. Their family life was unhappy and she found it difficult to cope with his seizures. Describing their relationship, he wrote: "Because of her strange, suspicious and fantastic character, we were definitely not happy together, but we could not stop loving each other; and the more unhappy we were, the more attached to each other we became". They mostly lived apart. In 1859 he was released from military service because of deteriorating health and was granted permission to return to European Russia, first to
Tver
Tver ( rus, Тверь, p=tvʲerʲ) is a city and the administrative centre of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is northwest of Moscow. Population:
Tver was formerly the capital of a powerful medieval state and a model provincial town in the Russian ...
, where he met his brother for the first time in ten years, and then to St Petersburg.
![Dostoevskij 1863](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Dostoevskij_1863.jpg)
The short story "A Little Hero" (Dostoevsky's only work completed in prison) appeared in a journal, but "Uncle's Dream" and "The Village of Stepanchikovo" were not published until 1860. ''
Notes from the House of the Dead
''The House of the Dead'' (russian: Записки из Мёртвого дома, ''Zapiski iz Myortvovo doma'') is a semi-autobiographical novel published in 1860–2 in the journal '' Vremya'' by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It has also b ...
'' was released in ''Russky Mir'' (Russian World) in September 1860. ''
Humiliated and Insulted
''Humiliated and Insulted'' (russian: Униженные и оскорблённые, ''Unizhennye i oskorblyonnye'') — also known in English as ''The Insulted and Humiliated'', ''The Insulted and the Injured'' or ''Injury and Insult'' — is ...
'' was published in the new ''Vremya'' magazine, which had been created with the help of funds from his brother's cigarette factory.
Dostoevsky travelled to western Europe for the first time on 7 June 1862, visiting Cologne, Berlin, Dresden, Wiesbaden, Belgium, and Paris. In London, he met
Herzen Herzen is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Alexander Herzen (1812–1870), writer
* Édouard Herzen (1877–1936), chemist
* Jana Herzen, singer
See also
* 3052 Herzen, asteroid
* ''Flammende Herzen'', 1977 album
* Herzen Univ ...
and visited the
Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace may refer to:
Places Canada
* Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick
* Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario
* Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building
* ...
. He travelled with
Nikolay Strakhov
Nikolay Nikolayevich Strakhov, also transliterated as ''Nikolai Strahov'' (; October 16, 1828 – January 24, 1896), was a Russian philosopher, publicist, journalist and literary critic. He shared the ideals of Pochvennichestvo and was a longtim ...
through Switzerland and several North Italian cities, including Turin, Livorno, and Florence. He recorded his impressions of those trips in the essay "
Winter Notes on Summer Impressions "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions" (russian: Зимние заметки о летних впечатлениях ''Zimniye zametki o letnikh vpechatleniyakh'') is an essay by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in ''Vrem ...
", in which he also criticised capitalism,
social modernisation,
materialism
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...
, Catholicism and Protestantism.
From August to October 1863, Dostoevsky made another trip to western Europe. He met his second love,
Polina Suslova, in Paris and lost nearly all his money gambling in Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden. In 1864 his wife Maria and his brother Mikhail died, and Dostoevsky became the lone parent of his stepson Pasha and the sole supporter of his brother's family. The failure of ''
Epoch
In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured.
The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...
'', the magazine he had founded with Mikhail after the suppression of ''Vremya'', worsened his financial situation, although the continued help of his relatives and friends averted bankruptcy.
Second marriage and honeymoon (1866–1871)
The first two parts of ''
Crime and Punishment
''Crime and Punishment'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Преступление и наказание, Prestupléniye i nakazániye, prʲɪstʊˈplʲenʲɪje ɪ nəkɐˈzanʲɪje) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...
'' were published in January and February 1866 in the periodical ''
The Russian Messenger
The ''Russian Messenger'' or ''Russian Herald'' (russian: Ру́сский ве́стник ''Russkiy Vestnik'', Pre-reform Russian: Русскій Вѣстникъ ''Russkiy Vestnik'') has been the title of three notable magazines published in ...
'', attracting at least 500 new subscribers to the magazine.
Dostoevsky returned to Saint Petersburg in mid-September and promised his editor,
Fyodor Stellovsky
Fyodor Timofeyevich Stellovsky (russian: Фёдор Тимофеевич Стелловский, 1826 — 27 April 1875) was a prominent Russian publisher and editor.
Stellovsky was born in Moscow, Imperial Russia. Among the composers whose musi ...
, that he would complete ''
The Gambler'', a short novel focused on gambling addiction, by November, although he had not yet begun writing it. One of Dostoevsky's friends, Milyukov, advised him to hire a secretary. Dostoevsky contacted stenographer Pavel Olkhin from Saint Petersburg, who recommended his pupil, the twenty-year-old
Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina
Anna Grigoryevna Dostoevskaya (née Snitkina) (russian: link=no, Анна Григорьевна Достоевская; 12 September 1846 – 9 June 1918) was a Russian memoirist, stenographer, assistant, and the second wife of Fyodor Dostoev ...
. Her shorthand helped Dostoevsky to complete ''The Gambler'' on 30 October, after 26 days' work. She remarked that Dostoevsky was of average height but always tried to carry himself erect. "He had light brown, slightly reddish hair, he used some hair conditioner, and he combed his hair in a diligent way ... his eyes, they were different: one was dark brown; in the other, the pupil was so big that you could not see its color,
his was caused by an injury The strangeness of his eyes gave Dostoyevsky some mysterious appearance. His face was pale, and it looked unhealthy."
![Baden-Baden 10-2015 img19 Dostoevsky plaque](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Baden-Baden_10-2015_img19_Dostoevsky_plaque.jpg)
On 15 February 1867 Dostoevsky married Snitkina in
Trinity Cathedral, Saint Petersburg
The Trinity Cathedral (russian: Троицкий собор, ''Troitsky sobor''; russian: Троице-Измайловский собор''Troitse-Izmailovsky sobor''), sometimes called the Troitsky Cathedral, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is a fo ...
. The 7,000 rubles he had earned from ''Crime and Punishment'' did not cover their debts, forcing Anna to sell her valuables. On 14 April 1867, they began a delayed honeymoon in Germany with the money gained from the sale. They stayed in Berlin and visited the
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (, ''Old Masters Gallery'') in Dresden, Germany, displays around 750 paintings from the 15th to the 18th centuries. It includes major Italian Renaissance works as well as Dutch and Flemish paintings. Outstandin ...
in
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
, where he sought inspiration for his writing. They continued their trip through Germany, visiting
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
,
Darmstadt
Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...
,
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...
and
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
. They spent five weeks in
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
, where Dostoevsky had a quarrel with
Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 ( Old Style da ...
and again lost much money at the roulette table. At one point, his wife was reportedly forced to pawn her underwear. The couple travelled on to
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
.
In September 1867, Dostoevsky began work on ''
The Idiot
''The Idiot'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Идиот, Idiót) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal ''The Russian Messenger'' in 1868–69.
The title is an ...
'', and after a prolonged planning process that bore little resemblance to the published novel, he eventually managed to write the first 100 pages in only 23 days; the serialisation began in ''The Russian Messenger ''in January 1868.
![Plaque-SophieDostoievsky-CimetiereDesRois RomanDeckert01032022](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Plaque-SophieDostoievsky-CimetiereDesRois_RomanDeckert01032022.jpg)
Their first child, Sofya, had been conceived in
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
, and was born in Geneva on 5 March 1868. The baby died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
three months later, and Anna recalled how Dostoevsky "wept and sobbed like a woman in despair". Sofya was buried at the
Cimetière des Rois
The Cimetière des Rois (French: ''Cemetery of Kings'') (officially Cimetière de Plainpalais), is a cemetery in Geneva, Switzerland. The cemetery is commonly named after la ''rue des Rois'' (French: ''Kings' Street'') near which it is situated. ...
(''Cemetery of Kings''), which is considered the Genevan
Panthéon
The Panthéon (, from the Classical Greek word , , ' empleto all the gods') is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was b ...
. The grave was later dissolved but in 1986 the International Dostoevsky Society donated a commemorative plaque.
The couple moved from Geneva to
Vevey
Vevey (; frp, Vevê; german: label=former German, Vivis) is a town in Switzerland in the canton of Vaud, on the north shore of Lake Geneva, near Lausanne. The German name Vivis is no longer commonly used.
It was the seat of the district of ...
and then to Milan before continuing to Florence. ''The Idiot'' was completed there in January 1869, the final part appearing in ''The Russian Messenger ''in February 1869. Anna gave birth to their second daughter,
Lyubov, on 26 September 1869 in Dresden. In April 1871, Dostoevsky made a final visit to a gambling hall in Wiesbaden. Anna claimed that he stopped gambling after the birth of their second daughter, but this is a subject of debate.
After hearing news that the socialist revolutionary group "People's Vengeance" had murdered one of its own members, Ivan Ivanov, on 21 November 1869, Dostoevsky began writing ''
Demons
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, anime, ...
''. In 1871, Dostoevsky and Anna travelled by train to Berlin. During the trip, he burnt several manuscripts, including those of ''The Idiot'', because he was concerned about potential problems with customs. The family arrived in Saint Petersburg on 8 July, marking the end of a honeymoon (originally planned for three months) that had lasted over four years.
Back in Russia (1871–1875)
![Dostoyevsky in prison](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Dostoyevsky_in_prison.jpg)
Back in Russia in July 1871, the family was again in financial trouble and had to sell their remaining possessions. Their son Fyodor was born on 16 July, and they moved to an apartment near the
Institute of Technology
An institute of technology (also referred to as: technological university, technical university, university of technology, technological educational institute, technical college, polytechnic university or just polytechnic) is an institution of te ...
soon after. They hoped to cancel their large debts by selling their rental house in Peski, but difficulties with the tenant resulted in a relatively low selling price, and disputes with their creditors continued. Anna proposed that they raise money on her husband's copyrights and negotiate with the creditors to pay off their debts in installments.
Dostoevsky revived his friendships with Maykov and Strakhov and made new acquaintances, including church politician Terty Filipov and the brothers
Vsevolod Vsevolod or Wsewolod (russian: Все́волод ; uk, Все́волод ) is a Slavic male first name. Its etymology is from Slavic roots 'vse' (all) and 'volodeti' (to rule) and means 'lord-of-everything/everybody', (similar to another princ ...
and
Vladimir Solovyov.
Konstantin Pobedonostsev
Konstantin Petrovich Pobedonostsev ( rus, Константи́н Петро́вич Победоно́сцев, p=kənstɐnʲˈtʲin pʲɪˈtrovʲɪtɕ pəbʲɪdɐˈnostsɨf; 30 November 1827 – 23 March 1907) was a Russian jurist, statesman, ...
, future Imperial High Commissioner of the
Most Holy Synod
The Most Holy Governing Synod (russian: Святѣйшій Правительствующій Сѵнодъ, Святейший Правительствующий Синод) was the highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church betwee ...
, influenced Dostoevsky's political progression to conservatism. Around early 1872 the family spent several months in
Staraya Russa
Staraya Russa ( rus, Старая Русса, p=ˈstarəjə ˈrusːə) is a town in Novgorod Oblast, Russia, located on the Polist River, south of Veliky Novgorod, the administrative center of the oblast. Its population has steadily decreased ov ...
, a town known for its
mineral spa
Mineral spas are destination spa, spa resorts developed around naturally occurring mineral springs. Like seaside resorts, they are mainly used recreationally although they also figured prominently in traditional medicine, prescientific medicine. ...
. Dostoevsky's work was delayed when Anna's sister Maria Svatkovskaya died on 1 May 1872, from either
typhus
Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure.
...
or
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
, and Anna developed an abscess on her throat.
The family returned to St Petersburg in September. ''Demons'' was finished on 26 November and released in January 1873 by the "Dostoevsky Publishing Company", which was founded by Dostoevsky and his wife. Although they accepted only cash payments and the bookshop was in their own apartment, the business was successful, and they sold around 3,000 copies of ''Demons''. Anna managed the finances. Dostoevsky proposed that they establish a new periodical, which would be called ''A Writer's Diary'' and would include a collection of essays, but funds were lacking, and the ''Diary'' was published in
Vladimir Meshchersky
Prince Vladimir Petrovich Meshchersky (11 January 1839 – 23 July 1914) was a Russian journalist and novelist who, throughout his career, wielded significant political clout.
He was the grandson of historian Nikolay Karamzin.
A strong support ...
's ''The Citizen'', beginning on 1 January, in return for a salary of 3,000 rubles per year. In the summer of 1873, Anna returned to Staraya Russa with the children, while Dostoevsky stayed in St Petersburg to continue with his ''Diary''.
In March 1874, Dostoevsky left ''The Citizen'' because of the stressful work and interference from the Russian bureaucracy. In his fifteen months with ''The Citizen'', he had been taken to court twice: on 11 June 1873 for citing the words of Prince Meshchersky without permission, and again on 23 March 1874. Dostoevsky offered to sell a new novel he had not yet begun to write to ''The Russian Messenger'', but the magazine refused. Nikolay Nekrasov suggested that he publish ''A Writer's Diary'' in ''Notes of the Fatherland''; he would receive 250 rubles for each printer's sheet – 100 more than the text's publication in ''The Russian Messenger'' would have earned. Dostoevsky accepted. As his health began to decline, he consulted several doctors in St Petersburg and was advised to take a cure outside Russia. Around July, he reached Ems and consulted a physician, who diagnosed him with acute
catarrh
Catarrh is an exudate of inflamed mucous membranes in one of the airways or cavities of the body, usually with reference to the throat and paranasal sinuses. It can result in a thick exudate of mucus and white blood cells caused by the swelling o ...
. During his stay he began ''The Adolescent''. He returned to Saint Petersburg in late July.
Anna proposed that they spend the winter in Staraya Russa to allow Dostoevsky to rest, although doctors had suggested a second visit to Ems because his health had previously improved there. On 10 August 1875 his son Alexey was born in Staraya Russa, and in mid-September the family returned to Saint Petersburg. Dostoevsky finished ''The Adolescent'' at the end of 1875, although passages of it had been serialised in ''Notes of the Fatherland'' since January. ''The Adolescent'' chronicles the life of Arkady Dolgoruky, the illegitimate child of the landowner Versilov and a peasant mother. It deals primarily with the relationship between father and son, which became a frequent theme in Dostoevsky's subsequent works.
Last years (1876–1881)
![Dostoevsky](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8f/Dostoevsky.jpg)
In early 1876, Dostoevsky continued work on his ''Diary''. The book includes numerous essays and a few short stories about society, religion, politics and ethics. The collection sold more than twice as many copies as his previous books. Dostoevsky received more letters from readers than ever before, and people of all ages and occupations visited him. With assistance from Anna's brother, the family bought a
dacha
A dacha ( rus, дача, p=ˈdatɕə, a=ru-dacha.ogg) is a seasonal or year-round second home, often located in the exurbs of post-Soviet countries, including Russia. A cottage (, ') or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbu ...
in Staraya Russa. In the summer of 1876, Dostoevsky began experiencing shortness of breath again. He visited Ems for the third time and was told that he might live for another 15 years if he moved to a healthier climate. When he returned to Russia, Tsar
Alexander II ordered Dostoevsky to visit his palace to present the ''Diary'' to him, and he asked him to educate his sons, Sergey and Paul. This visit further increased Dosteyevsky's circle of acquaintances. He was a frequent guest in several salons in Saint Petersburg and met many famous people, including Countess
Sophia Tolstaya
Countess Sophia Andreyevna Tolstaya (née Behrs; russian: Со́фья Андре́евна Толста́я, sometimes anglicised as ''Sophia Tolstoy''; 22 August 1844 – 4 November 1919), was a Russian diarist, and the wife of Russian writer ...
,
Yakov Polonsky
Yakov Petrovich Polonsky (russian: Яков Петрович Полонский; ) was a leading Pushkinist poet who tried to uphold the waning traditions of Russian Romantic poetry during the heyday of realistic prose.
Of noble birth, Polonsky ...
,
Sergei Witte
Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte (; ), also known as Sergius Witte, was a Russian statesman who served as the first prime minister of the Russian Empire, replacing the tsar as head of the government. Neither a liberal nor a conservative, he attract ...
,
Alexey Suvorin
Aleksei Sergeyevich Suvorin (Russian: Алексей Сергеевич Суворин, 11 September 1834, Korshevo, Voronezh Governorate – 11 August 1912, Tsarskoye Selo) was a Russian newspaper and book publisher and journalist whose publ ...
,
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sai ...
and
Ilya Repin
Ilya Yefimovich Repin (russian: Илья Ефимович Репин, translit=Il'ya Yefimovich Repin, p=ˈrʲepʲɪn); fi, Ilja Jefimovitš Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is now Ukraine. He became one of the ...
.
Dostoevsky's health declined further, and in March 1877 he had four epileptic seizures. Rather than returning to Ems, he visited Maly Prikol, a manor near
Kursk
Kursk ( rus, Курск, p=ˈkursk) is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym rivers. The area around Kursk was the site of a turning point in the Soviet–German stru ...
. While returning to St Petersburg to finalise his ''Diary'', he visited Darovoye, where he had spent much of his childhood. In December he attended Nekrasov's funeral and gave a speech. He was appointed an honorary member of the
Russian Academy of Sciences
The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...
, from which he received an honorary certificate in February 1879. He declined an invitation to an international congress on copyright in Paris after his son Alyosha had a severe epileptic seizure and died on 16 May. The family later moved to the apartment where Dostoevsky had written his first works. Around this time, he was elected to the board of directors of the Slavic Benevolent Society in Saint Petersburg. That summer, he was elected to the honorary committee of the
Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale The Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI) was founded in 1878 in Paris. Victor Hugo was the honorary president and founder of the association. The group gave itself the objective of creating an international convention for the ...
, whose members included
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
,
Ivan Turgenev
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (; rus, links=no, Ива́н Серге́евич Турге́невIn Turgenev's day, his name was written ., p=ɪˈvan sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ tʊrˈɡʲenʲɪf; 9 November 1818 – 3 September 1883 (Old Style dat ...
,
Paul Heyse
Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse (; 15 March 1830 – 2 April 1914) was a distinguished German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the ''Tunnel über der Spree'' in Berlin and ''Die Krokodile'' in Munich, he wrote no ...
,
Alfred Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...
,
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...
,
Henry Longfellow
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...
,
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
and
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
. Dostoevsky made his fourth and final visit to Ems in early August 1879. He was diagnosed with early-stage
pulmonary emphysema
Emphysema, or pulmonary emphysema, is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by air-filled spaces ( pneumatoses) in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alve ...
, which his doctor believed could be successfully managed, but not cured.
![Dostoyevsky's funeral](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Dostoyevsky%27s_funeral.jpg)
On 3 February 1880 Dostoevsky was elected vice-president of the Slavic Benevolent Society, and he was invited to speak at the unveiling of the Pushkin memorial in Moscow. On 8 June he delivered
his speech, giving an impressive performance that had a significant emotional impact on his audience. His speech was met with thunderous applause, and even his long-time rival Turgenev embraced him.
Konstantin Staniukovich
Konstantin Mikhaylovich Staniukovich or Stanyukovich (russian: Константин Михайлович Станюкович; March 30, 1843 – May 20, 1903) National Library of Australia"Library items by K. M. Staniukovich" was a Russian writer, ...
praised the speech in his essay "The Pushkin Anniversary and Dostoevsky's Speech" in ''
The Business'', writing that "the language of Dostoevsky's
ushkin Speechreally looks like a sermon. He speaks with the tone of a prophet. He makes a sermon like a pastor; it is very deep, sincere, and we understand that he wants to impress the emotions of his listeners." The speech was criticised later by liberal political scientist Alexander Gradovsky, who thought that Dostoevsky idolised "the people", and by conservative thinker
Konstantin Leontiev
Konstantin Nikolayevich Leontiev, monastic name: Clement (russian: Константи́н Никола́евич Лео́нтьев; January 25, 1831 in Kudinovo, Kaluga Governorate – November 24, 1891 in Sergiyev Posad) was a conservative tsar ...
, who, in his essay "On Universal Love", compared the speech to French utopian socialism. The attacks led to a further deterioration in his health.
Death
![Dostoyevsky on his Bier, Kramskoy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Dostoyevsky_on_his_Bier%2C_Kramskoy.jpg)
On , while searching for members of the terrorist organisation
Narodnaya Volya
Narodnaya Volya ( rus, Наро́дная во́ля, p=nɐˈrodnəjə ˈvolʲə, t=People's Will) was a late 19th-century revolutionary political organization in the Russian Empire which conducted assassinations of government officials in an att ...
("The People's Will") who would soon assassinate Tsar Alexander II, the Tsar's secret police executed a search warrant in the apartment of one of Dostoevsky's neighbours. On the following day, Dostoevsky suffered a
pulmonary haemorrhage
Pulmonary hemorrhage (or pulmonary haemorrhage) is an acute bleeding from the lung, from the upper respiratory tract and the trachea, and the pulmonary alveoli. When evident clinically, the condition is usually massive.[parable of the Prodigal Son
The Parable of the Prodigal Son (also known as the parable of the Two Brothers, Lost Son, Loving Father, or of the Forgiving Father) is one of the parables of Jesus Christ in the Bible, appearing in Luke 15:11–32. Jesus shares the parable with ...]
be read to his children. The profound meaning of this request is pointed out by Frank:
Among Dostoevsky's last words was his quotation of : "But John forbad him, saying, I have a need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness", and he finished with "Hear now—permit it. Do not restrain me!". His last words to his wife Anna were: "Remember, Anya, I have always loved you passionately and have never been unfaithful to you ever, even in my thoughts!" When he died, his body was placed on a table, following Russian custom. He was interred in the
Tikhvin Cemetery
Tikhvin Cemetery (russian: Тихвинское кладбище) is a historic cemetery in the centre of Saint Petersburg. It is part of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and is one of four cemeteries in the complex. Since 1932 it has been part of the ...
at the
Alexander Nevsky Convent, near his favourite poets,
Nikolay Karamzin
Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin (russian: Николай Михайлович Карамзин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ kərɐmˈzʲin; ) was a Russian Imperial historian, romantic writer, poet and critic. He is best remembered for ...
and
Vasily Zhukovsky
Vasily Andreyevich Zhukovsky (russian: Василий Андреевич Жуковский, Vasiliy Andreyevich Zhukovskiy; – ) was the foremost Russian poet of the 1810s and a leading figure in Russian literature in the first half of the 19 ...
. It is unclear how many attended his funeral. According to one reporter, more than 100,000 mourners were present, while others describe attendance between 40,000 and 50,000. His tombstone is inscribed with lines from the New Testament:
Personal life
Extramarital affairs
Dostoevsky had his first known affair with Avdotya Yakovlevna, whom he met in the Panayev circle in the early 1840s. He described her as educated, interested in literature, and a
femme fatale
A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype of ...
. He admitted later that he was uncertain about their relationship. According to Anna Dostoevskaya's memoirs, Dostoevsky once asked his sister's sister-in-law, Yelena Ivanova, whether she would marry him, hoping to replace her mortally ill husband after he died, but she rejected his proposal.
Dostoevsky and Apollonia (Polina) Suslova had a short but intimate affair, which peaked in the winter of 1862–1863. Suslova's dalliance with a Spaniard in late spring and Dostoevsky's gambling addiction and age ended their relationship. He later described her in a letter to Nadezhda Suslova as a "great egoist. Her egoism and her vanity are colossal. She demands ''everything'' of other people, all the perfections, and does not pardon the slightest imperfection in the light of other qualities that one may possess", and later stated "I still love her, but I do not want to love her any more. She doesn't deserve this love ..." In 1858 Dostoevsky had a romance with comic actress Aleksandra Ivanovna Schubert. Although she divorced Dostoevsky's friend
Stepan Yanovsky Stepan Dmitrievich Yanovsky ( Russian: Степа́н Дми́триевич Яно́вский; 1815 – 13 July 1897, Switzerland) was a family doctor of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He watched after the writer's health from 1846 to 1849. He was also an a ...
, she would not live with him. Dostoevsky did not love her either, but they were probably good friends. She wrote that he "became very attracted to me".
Through a worker in ''Epoch'', Dostoevsky learned of the Russian-born Martha Brown (née Elizaveta Andreyevna Chlebnikova), who had had affairs with several westerners. Her relationship with Dostoevsky is known only through letters written between November 1864 and January 1865. In 1865, Dostoevsky met
Anna Korvin-Krukovskaya. Their relationship is not verified; Anna Dostoevskaya spoke of a good affair, but Korvin-Krukovskaya's sister, the mathematician
Sofia Kovalevskaya
Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (russian: link=no, Софья Васильевна Ковалевская), born Korvin-Krukovskaya ( – 10 February 1891), was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differen ...
, thought that Korvin-Krukovskaya had rejected him.
Political beliefs
In his youth, Dostoevsky enjoyed reading
Nikolai Karamzin
Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin (russian: Николай Михайлович Карамзин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ kərɐmˈzʲin; ) was a Russian Imperial historian, romantic writer, poet and critic. He is best remembered for ...
's ''History of the Russian State'', which praised conservatism and Russian independence, ideas that Dostoevsky would embrace later in life. Before his arrest for participating in the Petrashevsky Circle in 1849, Dostoevsky remarked, "As far as I am concerned, nothing was ever more ridiculous than the idea of a
republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
government in Russia." In an 1881 edition of his ''Diaries'', Dostoevsky stated that the Tsar and the people should form a unity: "For the people, the tsar is not an external power, not the power of some conqueror ... but a power of all the people, an all-unifying power the people themselves desired."
While critical of serfdom, Dostoevsky was skeptical about the creation of a
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
, a concept he viewed as unrelated to Russia's history. He described it as a mere "gentleman's rule" and believed that "a constitution would simply enslave the people". He advocated social change instead, for example removal of the feudal system and a weakening of the divisions between the peasantry and the affluent classes. His ideal was a
utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', describing a fictional ...
n, Christianized Russia where "if everyone were actively Christian, not a single social question would come up ... If they were Christians they would settle everything". He thought democracy and
oligarchy
Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, r ...
were poor systems; of France he wrote, "the oligarchs are only concerned with the interest of the wealthy; the democrats, only with the interest of the poor; but the interests of society, the interest of all and the future of France as a whole—no one there bothers about these things." He maintained that political parties ultimately led to social discord. In the 1860s, he discovered ''
Pochvennichestvo
''Pochvennichestvo'' (; rus, Почвенничество, p=ˈpot͡ɕvʲɪnnʲɪt͡ɕɪstvə, roughly "return to the native soil", from почва "soil") was a late 19th-century movement in Russia that tied in closely with its contemporary i ...
'', a movement similar to
Slavophilism
Slavophilia (russian: Славянофильство) was an intellectual movement originating from the 19th century that wanted the Russian Empire to be developed on the basis of values and institutions derived from Russia's early history. Slavoph ...
in that it
rejected Europe's culture and contemporary philosophical movements, such as nihilism and materialism. ''Pochvennichestvo'' differed from Slavophilism in aiming to establish, not an isolated Russia, but a more open state modelled on the Russia of
Peter the Great
Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
.
In his incomplete article "Socialism and Christianity", Dostoevsky claimed that civilisation ("the second stage in human history") had become degraded, and that it was moving towards liberalism and losing its faith in God. He asserted that the traditional concept of Christianity should be recovered. He thought that contemporary western Europe had "rejected the single formula for their salvation that came from God and was proclaimed through revelation, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself', and replaced it with practical conclusions such as, ''Chacun pour soi et Dieu pour tous''
very man for himself and God for all or "scientific" slogans like '
the struggle for survival. He considered this crisis to be the consequence of the collision between communal and individual interests, brought about by a decline in religious and moral principles.
Dostoevsky distinguished three "enormous world ideas" prevalent in his time: Roman Catholicism,
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
and
(Russian) Orthodoxy. He claimed that Catholicism had continued the tradition of
Imperial Rome
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
and had thus become anti-Christian and proto-socialist, inasmuch as the Church's interest in political and mundane affairs led it to abandon the idea of Christ. For Dostoevsky, socialism was "the latest incarnation of the Catholic idea" and its "natural ally". He found
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
self-contradictory and claimed that it would ultimately lose power and spirituality. He deemed (Russian) Orthodoxy to be the ideal form of Christianity.
For all that, to place Dostoevsky politically is not that simple, but: as a Christian, he rejected atheistic socialism; as a traditionalist, he rejected the destruction of the institutions; and, as a pacifist, he rejected any violent method or upheaval led by either progressives or reactionaries. He supported private property and business rights, and did not agree with many criticisms of the free market from the socialist utopians of his time.
During the
Russo-Turkish War
The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman–Russian wars) were a series of twelve wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European histor ...
, Dostoevsky asserted that war might be necessary if salvation were to be granted. He wanted the Muslim
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
eliminated and the Christian
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
restored, and he hoped for the liberation of
Balkan
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
Slavs and their unification with the Russian Empire.
Ethnic beliefs
Many characters in Dostoevsky's works, including Jews, have been described as displaying negative stereotypes. In a letter to Arkady Kovner from 1877, a Jew who had accused Dostoevsky of antisemitism, he replied with the following:
"I am not an enemy of the Jews at all and never have been. But as you say, its 40-century existence proves that this tribe has exceptional vitality, which would not help, during the course of its history, taking the form of various Status in Statu ... how can they fail to find themselves, even if only partially, at variance with the indigenous population – the Russian tribe?"
Dostoevsky held to a Pan Slavic ideology that was conditioned by the Ottoman occupations of Eastern Europe. In 1876, the Slavic populations of Serbia and Bulgaria rose up against their Ottoman overlords, but the rebellion was put down. In the process, an estimated 12,000 people were killed. In his diaries, he scorned Westerners and those who were against the Pan Slavic movement. This ideology was motivated in part by the desire to promote a common Orthodox Christian heritage, which he saw as both unifying as well as a force for liberation.
Religious beliefs
![Dostoyevsky New Testament](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Dostoyevsky_New_Testament.PNG)
Dostoevsky was an
Orthodox Christian
Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion.
Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churche ...
who was raised in a religious family and knew the
Gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...
from a very young age. He was influenced by the Russian translation of Johannes Hübner's ''One Hundred and Four Sacred Stories from the Old and New Testaments Selected for Children'' (partly a German bible for children and partly a
catechism
A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...
). He attended Sunday liturgies from an early age and took part in annual pilgrimages to the
St. Sergius Trinity Monastery. A deacon at the hospital gave him religious instruction. Among his most cherished childhood memories were reciting prayers in front of guests and reading passages from the
Book of Job
The Book of Job (; hbo, אִיּוֹב, ʾIyyōḇ), or simply Job, is a book found in the Ketuvim ("Writings") section of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and is the first of the Poetic Books in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Scholars ar ...
that impressed him while "still almost a child."
According to an officer at the military academy, Dostoevsky was profoundly religious, followed Orthodox practice, and regularly read the Gospels and
Heinrich Zschokke
Johann Heinrich Daniel Zschokke (22 March 177127 June 1848) was a German, later Swiss, author and reformer. Most of his life was spent, and most of his reputation earned, in Switzerland. He had an extensive civil service career, and wrote hist ...
's ''Die Stunden der Andacht'' ("Hours of Devotion"), which "preached a sentimental version of Christianity entirely free from
dogma
Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...
tic content and with a strong emphasis on giving Christian love a social application." This book may have prompted his later interest in
Christian socialism
Christian socialism is a religious and political philosophy that blends Christianity and socialism, endorsing left-wing politics and socialist economics on the basis of the Bible and the teachings of Jesus. Many Christian socialists believe capi ...
. Through the literature of Hoffmann, Balzac,
Eugène Sue
Marie-Joseph "Eugène" Sue (; 26 January 18043 August 1857) was a French novelist. He was one of several authors who popularized the genre of the serial novel in France with his very popular and widely imitated ''The Mysteries of Paris'', which ...
, and Goethe, Dostoevsky created his own belief system, similar to
Russian sectarianism and the
Old Belief. After his arrest, aborted execution, and subsequent imprisonment, he focused intensely on the figure of Christ and on the New Testament: the only book allowed in prison. In a January 1854 letter to the woman who had sent him the New Testament, Dostoevsky wrote that he was a "child of unbelief and doubt up to this moment, and I am certain that I shall remain so to the grave." He also wrote that "even if someone were to prove to me that the truth lay outside Christ, I should choose to remain with Christ rather than with the truth."
In
Semipalatinsk
Semey ( kk, Семей, Semei, سەمەي; cyrl, Семей ), until 2007 known as Semipalatinsk (russian: Семипала́тинск) and in 1917–1920 as Alash-kala ( kk, Алаш-қала, ''Alaş-qala''), is a city in eastern Kazakhst ...
, Dostoevsky revived his faith by looking frequently at the stars. Wrangel said that he was "rather pious, but did not often go to church, and disliked priests, especially the Siberian ones. But he spoke about Christ ecstatically." Two pilgrimages and two works by
Dmitri Rostovsky, an archbishop who influenced Ukrainian and Russian literature by composing groundbreaking religious plays, strengthened his beliefs. Through his visits to western Europe and discussions with Herzen,
Grigoriev, and
Strakhov, Dostoevsky discovered the ''
Pochvennichestvo
''Pochvennichestvo'' (; rus, Почвенничество, p=ˈpot͡ɕvʲɪnnʲɪt͡ɕɪstvə, roughly "return to the native soil", from почва "soil") was a late 19th-century movement in Russia that tied in closely with its contemporary i ...
'' movement and the theory that the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
had adopted the principles of
rationalism
In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...
,
legalism,
materialism
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materiali ...
, and
individualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and to value independence and self-reli ...
from
ancient Rome
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...
and had passed on its philosophy to
Protestantism
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
and consequently to
atheistic
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
socialism.
Themes and style
![Dostoyevsky The Demons Manuscript](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Dostoyevsky_The_Demons_Manuscript.jpg)
Dostoevsky's canon includes novels, novellas,
novelettes
Novelette may also refer to:
* ''Novelette'' (ballet), a solo modern dance work choreographed by Martha Graham
* Novelette (music), a short piece of lyrical music
* Novelette (literature), a work of narrative prose fiction that is longer than ...
, short stories, essays,
pamphlet
A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...
s,
limericks
A limerick ( ) is a form of verse, usually humorous and frequently rude, in five-line, predominantly trimeter with a strict rhyme scheme of AABBA, in which the first, second and fifth line rhyme, while the third and fourth lines are shorter and ...
,
epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, and sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word is derived from the Greek "inscription" from "to write on, to inscribe", and the literary device has been employed for over two mille ...
s and poems. He wrote more than 700 letters, a dozen of which are lost.
Dostoevsky expressed religious, psychological, and philosophical ideas in his writings. His works explore such themes as suicide, poverty, human manipulation, and morality. Psychological themes include dreaming, first seen in "White Nights", and the father-son relationship, beginning in ''The Adolescent''. Most of his works demonstrate a vision of the chaotic sociopolitical structure of contemporary Russia. His early works viewed society (for example, the differences between poor and rich) through the lens of
literary realism
Literary realism is a literary genre, part of the broader realism in arts, that attempts to represent subject-matter truthfully, avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements. It originated with the realist art movement that began with ...
and
naturalism. The influences of other writers, particularly evident in his early works, led to accusations of
plagiarism
Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 '' Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close imitation of the language and thought ...
, but his style gradually became more individual. After his release from prison, Dostoevsky incorporated religious themes, especially those of Russian Orthodoxy, into his writing. Elements of
gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes called Gothic horror in the 20th century, is a loose literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name is a reference to Gothic architecture of the European Middle Ages, which was characteristic of the settings of ea ...
,
romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
, and satire are observable in some of his books. He frequently used autobiographical or semi-autobiographical details.
An important stylistic element in Dostoevsky's writing is
polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
, the simultaneous presence of multiple narrative voices and perspectives.
[Bakhtin, M.M. (1984) ''Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics''. Edited and translated by Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.] Kornelije Kvas wrote that Bakhtin's theory of "the polyphonic novel and Dostoevsky’s dialogicness of narration postulates the non-existence of the 'final' word, which is why the thoughts, emotions and experiences of the world of the narrator and his/her characters are reflected through the words of another, with which they can never fully blend."
Legacy
Reception and influence
![Dresden Dostojewski-Denkmal](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Dresden_Dostojewski-Denkmal.JPG)
Dostoevsky is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential novelists of the
Golden Age of Russian literature.
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...
admired some of Dostoevsky's works, particularly ''
The House of the Dead
''The House of the Dead'' is a horror-themed light gun shooter video game franchise created by Sega in 1996. Originally released in arcades, it utilizes a light gun on the platform, but can be played with standard controllers on consoles and a ...
'', which he saw as exalted religious art, inspired by deep faith and love of humanity.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein ( ; ; 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory ...
called Dostoevsky a "great religious writer" who explores "the mystery of spiritual existence".
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
ranked Dostoevsky second only to
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
as a creative writer, and called ''The Brothers Karamazov'' "the most magnificent novel ever written".
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
called Dostoevsky "the only psychologist from whom I had something to learn" and described him as being "among the most beautiful strokes of fortune in my life." The Russian literary theorist
Mikhail Bakhtin
Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin ( ; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian philosopher, literary critic and scholar who worked on literary theor ...
's analysis of Dostoevsky came to be at the foundation of his theory of the novel. Bakhtin argued that Dostoevsky's use of
Polyphony
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
was a major advancement in the development of the novel as a genre.
In his posthumous collection of sketches ''
A Moveable Feast
''A Moveable Feast'' is a 1964 memoir '' belles-lettres'' by American author Ernest Hemingway about his years as a struggling expat journalist and writer in Paris during the 1920s. It was published posthumously. The book details Hemingway's firs ...
'',
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
stated that in Dostoevsky "there were things believable and not to be believed, but some so true that they changed you as you read them; frailty and madness, wickedness and saintliness, and the insanity of gambling were there to know".
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
praised Dostoevsky's prose: "... he is the man more than any other who has created modern prose, and intensified it to its present-day pitch. It was his explosive power which shattered the Victorian novel with its simpering maidens and ordered commonplaces; books which were without imagination or violence." In her essay ''The Russian Point of View'',
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
said, "Out of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
there is no more exciting reading".
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
called Dostoevsky his "blood-relative" and was heavily influenced by his works, particularly ''The Brothers Karamazov'' and ''Crime and Punishment'', both of which profoundly influenced ''
The Trial
''The Trial'' (german: Der Process, link=no, previously , and ) is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and pr ...
''.
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include ''Demian'', ''Steppenwolf (novel), Steppenwolf'', ''Siddhartha (novel), Siddhartha'', and ''The Glass Bead Game'', ...
enjoyed Dostoevsky's work and said that to read him is like a "glimpse into the havoc". The Norwegian novelist
Knut Hamsun
Knut Hamsun (4 August 1859 – 19 February 1952) was a Norwegian writer who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. Hamsun's work spans more than 70 years and shows variation with regard to consciousness, subject, perspective a ...
wrote that "no one has analyzed the complicated human structure as Dostoyevsky. His psychologic sense is overwhelming and visionary." In her essay ''What Is Romanticism?,'' Russian-American author
Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...
wrote that Dostoevsky was one of the two greatest novelists (the other being Victor Hugo). Writers associated with cultural movements such as
surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
,
existentialism
Existentialism ( ) is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the problem of human existence and centers on human thinking, feeling, and acting. Existentialist thinkers frequently explore issues related to the meaning, purpose, and valu ...
and the
Beats cite Dostoevsky as an influence, and he is regarded as a forerunner to
Russian symbolism
Russian symbolism was an intellectual and artistic movement predominant at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It arose separately from European symbolism, emphasizing mysticism and ostranenie.
Literature
Influences
Primary ...
,
expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
and psychoanalysis.
J.M. Coetzee
John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and de ...
featured Dostoevsky as the protagonist in his 1997 novel ''
The Master of Petersburg
''The Master of Petersburg'' is a 1994 novel by South African writer J. M. Coetzee. The novel is a work of fiction but features the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky as its protagonist. It is a deep, complex work that draws on the life of Dostoy ...
''. The famous
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
novel ''
Oru Sankeerthanam Pole
''Oru Sankeerthanam Pole'' () is a 1993 Malayalam novel written by Indian novelist and writer Perumbadavam Sreedharan. Set in the city of Saint Petersburg, it deals with the life of the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky and his love affair with ...
'' by
Perumbadavam Sreedharan
Perumbadavam Sreedharan ( ml, പെരുമ്പടവം ശ്രീധരന്) (born 12 February 1938) is a Malayalam author from Kerala, India. He is former Chairman of Kerala Sahitya Akademi. He has written several novels and short s ...
deals with the life of Dostoevsky and his love affair with
Anna
Anna may refer to:
People Surname and given name
* Anna (name)
Mononym
* Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke
* Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773)
* Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century)
* Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 1221)
...
.
Honours
![The Soviet Union 1971 CPA 4027 stamp (Fyodor Dostoyevsky (after Vasily Perov))](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/The_Soviet_Union_1971_CPA_4027_stamp_%28Fyodor_Dostoyevsky_%28after_Vasily_Perov%29%29.jpg)
In 1956 an olive-green postage stamp dedicated to Dostoevsky was released in the Soviet Union, with a
print run
Print circulation is the average number of copies of a publication. The number of copies of a non-periodical publication (such as a book) are usually called print run. Circulation is not always the same as copies sold, often called paid circulat ...
of 1,000 copies. A
Dostoevsky Museum
The F. M. Dostoyevsky Literary Memorial Museum (Государственный Литературно-мемориальный музей Ф. М. Достоевского), located on Kuznechny Lane 5/2 in Saint Petersburg, was opened on Novemb ...
was opened on 12 November 1971 in the apartment where he wrote his first and final novels.
A crater on Mercury was named after him in 1979, and a
minor planet
According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''minor ...
discovered in 1981 by
Lyudmila Karachkina
Lyudmila Georgievna Karachkina (russian: Людмила Георгиевна Карачкина, born 3 September 1948, Rostov-on-Don) is an astronomer and discoverer of minor planets.
In 1978 she began as a staff astronomer of the Institute for ...
was named
3453 Dostoevsky. Music critic and broadcaster
Artemy Troitsky
Artemy Kivovich Troitsky (; , born 16 June 1955 in Yaroslavl) is a Russian journalist, music critic, concert promoter, radio host, and academic who has lectured on music journalism at Moscow State University.
"He is an anarchist, pacifist and one ...
has hosted the radio show "FM Достоевский" (FM Dostoevsky) since 1997. Viewers of the TV show ''
Name of Russia'' voted him the ninth greatest Russian of all time, just after
Dmitry Mendeleev
Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (sometimes transliterated as Mendeleyev or Mendeleef) ( ; russian: links=no, Дмитрий Иванович Менделеев, tr. , ; 8 February Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O.S._27_January.html" ;"title="O ...
, and just ahead of ruler
Ivan IV
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584.
Ivan ...
. An
Eagle Award-winning TV series directed by
Vladimir Khotinenko
Vladimir Ivanovich Khotinenko (russian: Владимир Иванович Хотиненко; born 20 January 1952 in Slavgorod, Altai Krai, Soviet Union) is a Russian actor, film director and designer.
Biography
Born in the Altai Krai, Russian S ...
about Dostoevsky's life was screened in 2011.
Numerous memorials were inaugurated in cities and regions such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg,
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk (, also ; rus, Новосиби́рск, p=nəvəsʲɪˈbʲirsk, a=ru-Новосибирск.ogg) is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the Russian Census ...
, Omsk, Semipalatinsk, Kusnetsk, Darovoye, Staraya Russa,
Lyublino,
Tallinn
Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju ' ...
,
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
, Baden-Baden and
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
. The
Dostoyevskaya metro station in Saint Petersburg was opened on 30 December 1991, and the
station of the same name in Moscow was opened on 19 June 2010, the 75th anniversary of the
Moscow Metro
The Moscow Metro) is a metro system serving the Russian capital of Moscow as well as the neighbouring cities of Krasnogorsk, Reutov, Lyubertsy and Kotelniki in Moscow Oblast. Opened in 1935 with one line and 13 stations, it was the first unde ...
. The Moscow station is decorated with murals by artist
Ivan Nikolaev
Ivan Sergeevich Nikolaev (19011979) was a Soviet architect and educator, notable for his late 1920s constructivist architecture and later work in industrial architecture.
Life and career
Born at Voronezh, Nikolaev trained at the Moscow State Tech ...
depicting scenes from Dostoevsky's works, such as controversial suicides.
In 2021,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
celebrated the 200th anniversary of Dostoyevsky's birth.
Criticism
Dostoevsky's work did not always gain a positive reception. Some critics, such as
Nikolay Dobrolyubov
Nikolay Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov ( rus, Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Добролю́бов, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ dəbrɐˈlʲubəf, a=Nikolay Alyeksandrovich Dobrolyubov.ru.vorb.oga; 5 February Old_Style_a ...
,
Ivan Bunin
Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin ( or ; rus, Ива́н Алексе́евич Бу́нин, p=ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ˈbunʲɪn, a=Ivan Alyeksyeyevich Bunin.ru.vorb.oga; – 8 November 1953) was the first Russian writer awarded the ...
and
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...
, viewed his writing as excessively psychological and philosophical rather than artistic. Others found fault with chaotic and disorganised plots, and others, like Turgenev, objected to "excessive psychologising" and too-detailed naturalism. His style was deemed "prolix, repetitious and lacking in polish, balance, restraint and good taste".
Saltykov-Shchedrin
Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin ( rus, Михаи́л Евгра́фович Салтыко́в-Щедри́н, p=mʲɪxɐˈil jɪvˈɡrafəvʲɪtɕ səltɨˈkof ɕːɪˈdrʲin; – ), born Mikhail Yevgrafovich Saltykov and known during ...
,
Nikolay Mikhaylovsky
Nikolay Konstantinovich Mikhaylovsky () (, Meshchovsk–, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian literary critic, sociologist, writer on public affairs, and one of the theoreticians of the Narodniki movement.
Biography
The school of thinkers he belo ...
and others criticised his puppet-like characters, most prominently in ''The Idiot'', ''
Demons
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, anime, ...
'' (''The Possessed'', ''The Devils'')
[The 1872 novel ″Demons″, russian: link=no, Бесы, ''Bésy'', by Fyodor Dostoevsky is sometimes also titled ''The Possessed'' or ''The Devils''] and ''The Brothers Karamazov''. These characters were compared to those of Hoffmann, an author whom Dostoevsky admired.
Basing his estimation on stated criteria of enduring art and individual genius, Nabokov judges Dostoevsky "not a great writer, but rather a mediocre one—with flashes of excellent humour but, alas, with wastelands of literary platitudes in between". Nabokov complains that the novels are peopled by "neurotics and lunatics" and states that Dostoevsky's characters do not develop: "We get them all complete at the beginning of the tale and so they remain." He finds the novels full of contrived "surprises and complications of plot", which are effective when first read, but on second reading, without the shock and benefit of these surprises, appear loaded with "glorified cliché".
The Scottish poet and critic Edwin Muir, however, addressed this criticism, noting that "regarding the 'oddness' of Dostoevsky's characters, it has been pointed out that they perhaps only seem 'pathological', whereas in reality they are 'only visualized more clearly than any figures in imaginative literature'.
Reputation
Dostoevsky's books have been translated into more than 170 languages. The German translator Wilhelm Wolfsohn published one of the first translations, parts of ''Poor Folk'', in an 1846–1847 magazine, and a French translation followed. French, German and Italian translations usually came directly from the original, while English translations were second-hand and of poor quality. The first English translations were by Marie von Thilo in 1881, but the first highly regarded ones were produced between 1912 and 1920 by
Constance Garnett
Constance Clara Garnett (; 19 December 1861 – 17 December 1946) was an English translator of nineteenth-century Russian literature. She was the first English translator to render numerous volumes of Anton Chekhov's work into English and the ...
. Her flowing and easy translations helped popularise Dostoevsky's novels in anglophone countries, and Bakthin's ''Problems of Dostoevsky's Creative Art'' (1929) (republished and revised as ''
Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics
''Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics'' (Russian: Проблемы поэтики Достоевского, ''problemy poetiki Dostoevskogo'') is a book by the 20th century Russian philosopher and literary theorist Mikhail Bakhtin. It was originally p ...
'' in 1963) provided further understanding of his style.
Dostoevsky's works were interpreted in film and on stage in many different countries. Princess Varvara Dmitrevna Obolenskaya was among the first to propose staging ''Crime and Punishment''. Dostoevsky did not refuse permission, but he advised against it, as he believed that "each art corresponds to a series of poetic thoughts, so that one idea cannot be expressed in another non-corresponding form". His extensive explanations in opposition to the transposition of his works into other media were groundbreaking in fidelity criticism. He thought that just one episode should be dramatised, or an idea should be taken and incorporated into a separate plot. According to critic Alexander Burry, some of the most effective adaptions are
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
's opera ''
The Gambler'',
Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...
's opera ''
From the House of the Dead
''From the House of the Dead'' () is an opera in three acts by Leoš Janáček. The libretto was translated and adapted by the composer from the 1862 novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was the composer's last opera, premiered on 12 April 1930 at ...
'',
Akira Kurosawa
was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...
's film ''
The Idiot
''The Idiot'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Идиот, Idiót) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal ''The Russian Messenger'' in 1868–69.
The title is an ...
'' and
Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the ...
's film ''
The Possessed''.
After the
1917 Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution was a period of political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and adopt a socialist form of government ...
, passages of Dostoevsky books were sometimes shortened, although only two books were censored: ''Demons'' and ''Diary of a Writer''. His philosophy, particularly in ''Demons'', was deemed anti-capitalist but also anti-Communist and reactionary. According to historian Boris Ilizarov, Stalin read Dostoevsky's ''The Brothers Karamazov'' several times.
Works
Dostoevsky's works of fiction include 16 novels and novellas, 17 short stories, and 5 translations. Many of his longer novels were first published in
serialised form in literary magazines and journals. The years given below indicate the year in which the novel's final part or first complete book edition was published. In English many of his novels and stories are known by different titles.
Major works
''Poor Folk''
''Poor Folk'' is an
epistolary novel
An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of letters. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse documents of other kinds with the letters, most commonly diary entries and newspaper clippings, and sometimes considered ...
that depicts the relationship between the small, elderly official Makar Devushkin and the young seamstress Varvara Dobroselova, remote relatives who write letters to each other. Makar's tender, sentimental adoration for Varvara and her confident, warm friendship for him explain their evident preference for a simple life, although it keeps them in humiliating poverty. An unscrupulous merchant finds the inexperienced girl and hires her as his housewife and guarantor. He sends her to a manor somewhere on a steppe, while Makar alleviates his misery and pain with alcohol.
The story focuses on poor people who struggle with their lack of self-esteem. Their misery leads to the loss of their inner freedom, to dependence on the social authorities, and to the extinction of their individuality. Dostoevsky shows how poverty and dependence are indissolubly aligned with deflection and deformation of self-esteem, combining inward and outward suffering.
''Notes from Underground''
''Notes from Underground'' is split into two stylistically different parts, the first essay-like, the second in narrative style. The protagonist and
first-person narrator
A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...
is an unnamed 40-year-old civil servant known as The Underground Man. The only known facts about his situation are that he has quit the service, lives in a basement flat on the outskirts of Saint Petersburg and finances his livelihood from a modest inheritance.
The first part is a record of his thoughts about society and his character. He describes himself as vicious, squalid and ugly; the chief focuses of his
polemic
Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...
are the "modern human" and his vision of the world, which he attacks severely and cynically, and towards which he develops aggression and vengefulness. He considers his own decline natural and necessary. Although he emphasises that he does not intend to publish his notes for the public, the narrator appeals repeatedly to an ill-described audience, whose questions he tries to address.
In the second part he describes scenes from his life that are responsible for his failure in personal and professional life and in his love life. He tells of meeting old school friends, who are in secure positions and treat him with condescension. His aggression turns inward on to himself and he tries to humiliate himself further. He presents himself as a possible saviour to the poor prostitute Lisa, advising her to reject self-reproach when she looks to him for hope. Dostoevsky added a short commentary saying that although the storyline and characters are fictional, such things were inevitable in contemporary society.
The Underground Man was very influential on philosophers. His alienated existence from the mainstream influenced
modernist literature
Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented ...
.
''Crime and Punishment''
The novel ''Crime and Punishment'' has received both critical and popular acclaim. It remains one of the most influential and widely read novels in
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia and its émigrés and to Russian language, Russian-language literature. The roots of Russian literature can be traced to the Middle Ages, when epics and chronicles in Old East Slavic were c ...
, and has been sometimes described as Dostoevsky's magnum opus.
''Crime and Punishment'' follows the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of
Rodion Raskolnikov
Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Родион Романович Раскольников, Rodión Románovich Raskólʹnikov, rədʲɪˈon rɐˈmanəvʲɪtɕ rɐˈskolʲnʲɪkəf) is the fictional protag ...
, an impoverished ex-student in
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
who plans to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker, an old woman who stores money and valuable objects in her flat. He theorises that with the money he could liberate himself from poverty and go on to perform great deeds, and seeks to convince himself that certain crimes are justifiable if they are committed in order to remove obstacles to the higher goals of 'extraordinary' men. Once the deed is done, however, he finds himself racked with confusion, paranoia, and disgust. His theoretical justifications lose all their power as he struggles with guilt and horror and confronts both the internal and external consequences of his deed.
Strakhov remarked that "Only ''Crime and Punishment'' was read in 1866" and that Dostoevsky had managed to portray a Russian person aptly and realistically. In contrast,
Grigory Eliseev
Grigory Zakharovich Eliseev (russian: Григо́рий Заха́рович Елисе́ев, 6 February (25 January) 1821, village Spasskoe, Kainsk district, Tomsk Governorate, Russian Empire – 30 (18) January 1891, Saint Petersburg, Russian ...
of the radical magazine ''
The Contemporary'' called the novel a "fantasy according to which the entire student body is accused without exception of attempting murder and robbery". The
Encyclopaedia Britannica
An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...
describes ''Crime and Punishment'' as "a masterpiece" and "one of the finest studies of the psychopathology of guilt written in any language."
''The Idiot''
The title is an ironic reference to the central character of the novel,
Prince
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...
Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness, open-hearted simplicity and guilelessness lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence and insight. In the character of Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky set himself the task of depicting "the positively good and beautiful man." The novel examines the consequences of placing such a singular individual at the centre of the conflicts, desires, passions and egoism of worldly society, both for the man himself and for those with whom he becomes involved.
Joseph Frank describes ''The Idiot'' as "the most personal of all Dostoevsky's major works, the book in which he embodies his most intimate, cherished, and sacred convictions." It includes descriptions of some of his most intense personal ordeals, such as
epilepsy
Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...
and
mock execution
A mock execution is a stratagem in which a victim is deliberately but falsely made to feel that their execution or that of another person is imminent or is taking place. The subject is made to believe that they are being led to their own executio ...
, and explores moral, spiritual and philosophical themes consequent upon them. His primary motivation in writing the novel was to subject his own highest ideal, that of true Christian love, to the crucible of contemporary Russian society.
''Demons''
''Demons'' is a social and political satire, a psychological drama, and large-scale tragedy.
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and non-fiction. Her novels '' Bla ...
has described it as "Dostoevsky's most confused and violent novel, and his most satisfactorily 'tragic' work." According to Ronald Hingley, it is Dostoevsky's "greatest onslaught on Nihilism", and "one of humanity's most impressive achievements—perhaps even its supreme achievement—in the art of prose fiction."
''Demons'' is an allegory of the potentially catastrophic consequences of the Nihilism#Political, political and Nihilism#Moral, moral nihilism that were becoming prevalent in Russia in the 1860s. A fictional town descends into chaos as it becomes the focal point of an attempted revolution, orchestrated by master conspirator Pyotr Verkhovensky. The mysterious aristocratic figure of Nikolai Stavrogin—Verkhovensky's counterpart in the moral sphere—dominates the book, exercising an extraordinary influence over the hearts and minds of almost all the other characters. The idealistic, Western-influenced generation of the 1840s, epitomized in the character of Stepan Verkhovensky (who is both Pyotr Verkhovensky's father and Nikolai Stavrogin's childhood teacher), are presented as the unconscious progenitors and helpless accomplices of the "demonic" forces that take possession of the town.
''The Brothers Karamazov''
At nearly 800 pages, ''The Brothers Karamazov'' is Dostoevsky's largest work. It received both critical and popular acclaim and is often cited as his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. Composed of 12 "books", the novel tells the story of the novice Alyosha Karamazov, the non-believer Ivan Karamazov, and the soldier Dmitri Karamazov. The first books introduce the Karamazovs. The main plot is the death of their father Fyodor, while other parts are philosophical and religious arguments by Father Zosima to Alyosha.
The most famous chapter is "The Grand Inquisitor", a parable told by Ivan to Alyosha about Christ's Second Coming in Seville, Spain, in which Christ is imprisoned by a ninety-year-old Catholic Grand Inquisitor. Instead of answering him, Christ gives him a kiss, and the Inquisitor subsequently releases him, telling him not to return. The tale was misunderstood as a defence of the Inquisitor, but some, such as Romano Guardini, have argued that the Christ of the parable was Ivan's own interpretation of Christ, "the idealistic product of the unbelief". Ivan, however, has stated that he is against Christ. Most contemporary critics and scholars agree that Dostoevsky is attacking Roman Catholicism and socialist atheism, both represented by the Inquisitor. He warns the readers against a terrible revelation in the future, referring to the Donation of Pepin around 750 and the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century, which in his view corrupted true Christianity.
Bibliography
Novels and novellas
* (1846) ''
Poor Folk
''Poor Folk'' (russian: Бедные люди, ''Bednye lyudi''), sometimes translated as ''Poor People'', is the first novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, written over the span of nine months between 1844 and 1845. Dostoevsky was in financial difficult ...
''
* (1846) ''The Double (Dostoevsky novel), The Double''
* (1847) ''
The Landlady'' (novella)
* (1849) ''
Netochka Nezvanova'' (unfinished)
* (1859) ''Uncle's Dream'' (novella)
* (1859) ''The Village of Stepanchikovo''
* (1861) ''
Humiliated and Insulted
''Humiliated and Insulted'' (russian: Униженные и оскорблённые, ''Unizhennye i oskorblyonnye'') — also known in English as ''The Insulted and Humiliated'', ''The Insulted and the Injured'' or ''Injury and Insult'' — is ...
''
* (1862) ''
The House of the Dead
''The House of the Dead'' is a horror-themed light gun shooter video game franchise created by Sega in 1996. Originally released in arcades, it utilizes a light gun on the platform, but can be played with standard controllers on consoles and a ...
''
* (1864) ''
Notes from Underground
''Notes from Underground'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform Russian: ; also translated as ''Notes from the Underground'' or ''Letters from the Underworld'') is a novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in the journal ''Epoch'' in 1864. ...
'' (novella)
* (1866) ''
Crime and Punishment
''Crime and Punishment'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Преступление и наказание, Prestupléniye i nakazániye, prʲɪstʊˈplʲenʲɪje ɪ nəkɐˈzanʲɪje) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. ...
''
* (1867) ''
The Gambler''
* (1869) ''
The Idiot
''The Idiot'' ( pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform rus, Идиот, Idiót) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal ''The Russian Messenger'' in 1868–69.
The title is an ...
''
* (1870) ''The Eternal Husband''
* (1872) ''
Demons
A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in religion, occultism, literature, fiction, mythology, and folklore; as well as in media such as comics, video games, movies, anime, ...
'' (also titled: ''The Possessed'', ''The Devils'')
* (1875) ''The Adolescent''
* (1880) ''
The Brothers Karamazov
''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing '' ...
''
Short stories
* (1846) "
Mr. Prokharchin
"Mr. Prokharchin" (russian: Господин Прохарчин, ''Gospodin Prokharchin''), also translated as "Mr. Prohartchin", is a short story written in 1846 by Fyodor Dostoevsky and first published in the '' Annals of the Fatherland''. Inspir ...
"
* (1847) "Novel in Nine Letters"
* (1848) "Another Man's Wife and a Husband Under the Bed" (merger of "Another Man's Wife" and "A Jealous Husband")
* (1848) "A Weak Heart"
* (1848) "Polzunkov"
* (1848) "An Honest Thief"
* (1848) "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding"
* (1848) "
White Nights
White night, White Night, or White Nights may refer to:
* White night (astronomy), a night in which it never gets completely dark, at high latitudes outside the Arctic and Antarctic Circles
* White Night festivals, all-night arts festivals held in ...
"
* (1849) "A Little Hero"
* (1862) "A Nasty Story"
* (1865) "The Crocodile"
* (1873) "Bobok"
* (1876) "The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree, The Heavenly Christmas Tree" (also titled: "The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree")
[Dostoyefsky, F.M. "A Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree" in ''Little Russian Masterpieces''. Zénaïde A. Ragozin (Ed., Trans.). New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1920. p. 172.]
* (1876) "A Gentle Creature" (also titled: "The Meek One")
* (1876) "
The Peasant Marey
The Peasant Marey (russian: Мужик Марей ''Muzhik Marey''), written in 1876, is both the "best-known autobiographical account" from the '' Writer's Diary'' of Fyodor Dostoevsky, and a frequently anthologized work of fiction. This "double ...
"
* (1877) "The Dream of a Ridiculous Man"
Essay collections
* ''
Winter Notes on Summer Impressions "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions" (russian: Зимние заметки о летних впечатлениях ''Zimniye zametki o letnikh vpechatleniyakh'') is an essay by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published in ''Vrem ...
'' (1863)
* ''
A Writer's Diary
''A Writer's Diary'' (russian: Дневник писателя; ''Dnevnik pisatelya'') is a collection of non-fiction and fictional writings by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Д ...
'' (1873–1881)
Translations
* (1843) ''
Eugénie Grandet
''Eugénie Grandet'' is a novel first published in 1833 by French author Honoré de Balzac. While he was writing it he conceived his ambitious project, ''La Comédie humaine'', and almost immediately prepared a second edition, revising the names ...
'' (
Honoré de Balzac
Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...
)
* (1843) ''La dernière Aldini'' (George Sand)
* (1843) ''Mary Stuart (play), Mary Stuart'' (Friedrich Schiller)
Personal letters
* (1912) ''Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoevsky to His Family and Friends'' by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (Author), translator Ethel Colburn Mayne Kessinger Publishing, LLC (26 May 2006)
Posthumously published notebooks
* (1922) ''Stavrogin's Confession & the Plan of the Life of a Great Sinner'' – English translation by
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer, considered one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of stream of consciousness as a narrative device.
Woolf was born i ...
and S.S. Koteliansky
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
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;Biographies
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Further reading
* Allen, James Sloan (2008), "Condemned to Be Free," ''Worldly Wisdom: Great Books and the Meanings of Life,'' Savannah: Frederic C. Beil.
*Birmingham, Kevin. 2021. ''The sinner and the saint: Dostoevsky and the gentleman murderer who inspired a masterpiece.'' New York: Penguin.
* Nikolai Berdyaev, Berdyaev, Nicolas (1948)
''The Russian Idea'' The Macmillan Company.
* Otto Julius Bierbaum, Bierbaum, Otto Julius (1910–1911)
"Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche,"''The Hibbert Journal'', Vol. IX.
* Hubben, William. (1997). ''Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Kafka: Four Prophets of Our Destiny,'' Simon & Schuster. Originally published in 1952.
* Lavrin, Janko (1918)
"Dostoyevsky and Certain of his Problems,"Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII
Part IX
Part X
''The New Age'', Vol. XXII, Nos. 12–21.
* Lavrin, Janko (1918)
"The Dostoyevsky Problem,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XXII, No. 24, pp. 465–66.
* Maeztu, Ramiro de (1918)
"Dostoyevsky the Manichean,"
''The New Age'', Vol. XXII, No. 23, 1918, pp. 449–51.
* Manning, Clarence Augustus (1922)
"Dostoyevsky and Modern Russian Literature,"
''The Sewanee Review'', Vol. 30, No. 3.
*
* Simmons, Ernest J. (1940)
''Dostoevsky: The Making Of A Novelist''
Vintage Books.
* Westbrook, Perry D. (1961)
''The Greatness of Man: An Essay on Dostoyevsky and Whitman''
New York: Thomas Yoseloff.
External links
Digital collections
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*
*
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Fyodor Dostoyevsky collectionat One More Library
The complete works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky – the Electronic publishing, online published bibliography in its original language
Scholarly works
International Dostoevsky Societynbsp;– a network of scholars dedicated to studying the life and works of Fyodor Dostoevsky
FyodorDostoevsky.comnbsp;– discussion forums, essays, quotes, photos, biography of the author
Archives of Dostoevsky Studies, a journal published from 1980 to 1988
Other links
Dostoevsky's family tree*
* Also available in th
original Russian.
*
*
Places of Fyodor Dostoevsky in Saint Petersburg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dostoevsky, Fyodor
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