Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Portrait of Dostoyevsky in 1872 painted by Vasily Perov
Notable work(s)	Notes from Underground Crime and Punishment The Idiot Demons The Brothers Karamazov
Spouse(s)	Maria Dmitriyevna Isayeva (1857–1864) [her death] Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina (1867–1881) [his death]
Children	Sonya (1868), Lyubov (1869–1926), Fyodor (1871–1922), Alexey (1875–1878)
Influences Balzac · Bible · Dickens · Gogol · Hegel · Hugo · Kant · Plato · Pushkin · Realism · Schiller · Socialism (until release) · Shakespeare
Influenced Virtually every Russian writer; Bulgakov · Camus · Chekhov · Dick · Faulkner · Freud · Hamsun · Hemingway · Hesse · Joyce · Kafka · Kerouac · Mann · Márquez · Nabokov · Nietzsche · Proust · Sabato · Sartre · Shestov · Solzhenitsyn · Tolstoy · Woolf · Zola
Signature

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky^[1] (Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский; IPA: [ˈfʲodər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj] ( listen); 11 November 1821 – 9 February 1881^[2]) sometimes translated as Dostoevsky, was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. Dostoyevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social and spiritual context of 19th-century Russian society. A Slavophile, nationalist and monarchist, he criticised the bourgeois, pre-materialist West and nihilism in many of his works. Although Dostoyevsky wrote books in the mid-1850s which were influenced by realist and romanticist writers, most notably by Dickens, Gogol and Balzac, his best remembered work was done in his last years, including such masterpieces as Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoyevsky overall wrote 11 complete novels, 3 novellas, 17 short novels and 3 essays. He is often acknowledged by critics as one of the greatest and most prominent psychologists in world literature.^[3]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born and raised within the grounds of the Mariinsky hospital. At an early age he was introduced to English, French, German and Russian literature, as well as to fairytales and legends. His mother's sudden death was devastating for Dostoyevsky, and he had to leave private school for a much-hated military school. After his graduation he worked as an engineer and briefly enjoyed a primarily liberal lifestyle. He soon began translating books to make up for money problems. Around the mid-1840s he wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, which brought him into the mainstream.

In 1849 he was arrested for his involvement with the Petrashevsky Circle, a progressive discussion group. He and other members were condemned to death for their participation in the group, but the mock execution was overturned at the last moment, and Dostoyevsky's sentence was commuted to four years of imprisonment in Siberia, followed by compulsory military service. After his release from prison he lived as a soldier and had his first affair, later returning to St. Petersburg to continue writing. In 1861 he published his novel The House of the Dead, describing in fictional form many of his own experiences living in the military prison in Omsk, Siberia.

In the following years Dostoyevsky began working as a journalist, first for the conservatives and Slavophiles but later switching between left and right-wing periodicals. He also published and edited several magazines of his own, in which many of his fictional works first appeared, and later his serial A Writer's Diary. Beginning with his travels to Europe he struggled with money issues caused by his gambling addiction, and the resulting humiliation of being forced to beg for money. He also suffered from epilepsy throughout his adult life.

Through his considerable productivity he eventually became one of the most widely read and renowned Russian writers. His books have been translated into more than 170 languages and have sold around 15 million copies.^[4] Dostoyevsky left a lasting influence on other writers, ranging from Ernest Hemingway to Joseph Conrad, and had an influence on philosophers and psychologists like Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud.

Early life[link]

Childhood[link]

Mariinsky Hospital in Moscow, Dostoyevsky's birthplace

Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born on 30 October 1821 (11 November 1821, according to the Gregorian Calendar), the second child of Mikhail Dostoyevsky and Maria Nechayeva. Dostoyevsky's paternal lineage was descended from the multi-ethnical and denominational Lithuanian nobility from the Pinsk region, however the family had fallen on hard times and had been reduced to the class of non-monastic clergy. Dostoyevsky's paternal great-grandfather and grandfather practised as priests in the Ukrainian town of Bratslava, where his father was born. As was the custom, Mikhail was destined to follow his father into the clergy, but instead of joining a seminary he escaped from home at age fifteen. This break with his family was permanent.^[5][6]

In 1809, at the age of 20, he gained entry to Moscow's Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy. He was assigned to a Moscow hospital where he served as a military doctor and was appointed senior physician in 1818. In 1819 he married the eleven-years younger Maria. One year later he resigned from military service to accept a post at the Mariinsky Hospital for the poor. After the birth of two sons, Mikhail and Fyodor, he was promoted to the post of collegiate assessor, a position that entitled him to the legal status of nobility and enabled him to acquire a small estate 150 versts from Moscow called Darovoye. Maria Nechayeva was descended from a family of Russian merchants. Both parents may have had Tatar ancestry as well.^[7] Maria and Mikhail went on to have 5 more children after Fydor and his elder brother.^[5][6]

Dostoyevsky was raised in the family home within the grounds of the Mariinsky hospital. It was neither a wealthy nor a poor home. In his childhood, Fyodor often went with his family on summer visits to the estate in Darovoye. At the age of three he discovered heroic sagas, fairy tales, legends and began developing a deeply ingrained piety under the influence of nannies. He was soon obsessed with tales. The nanny Alina Frolovna, who helped the family when their manor burnt down, and the serf and farmer Marei from Darovoye, who helped him to fight his early hallucinations, possibly caused by the terrible tales and gothic literature, were influential in his childhood. Fyodor also discovered the miserable hospital garden, which was separated by a large fence from their protected private garden. His parents forbade him to have contact with those on the other side, intending to shield their children from uncontrollable influences. Fyodor, however, ignored their warnings and often talked with convalescent patients. He also encountered a crime upon a nine-year-old girl there, who was found raped in the garden. He never forgot this traumatic experience.^[5][6]

Fyodor's parents placed a high value on giving him a thorough upbringing. At the age of four he learned reading and writing with his mother from the Bible. One of the day's highlights were the evening readings by his father and mother. His parents introduced him to Russian literature at an early stage, including Karamzin's Russian Tales, Pushkin, Derzhavin, as well as the works of the English novelist Ann Radcliffe and the works of the German Friedrich Schiller. Fyodor was impressed by the latter's play "The Robbers", which he saw at the age of 10. Fyodor and his brother Mikhail both enjoyed Pushkin's poems, which they learned for the most part by heart; Pushkin's death was a shock for the whole family. Fyodor's father also placed much value on a good education. He sent Fyodor first to a French boarding school and then to the best private high school in Moscow, the "College for Noble Male Children". As the school was too expensive, he had to get loans, take advances and extend his private practice. When the thirteen-year-old Fyodor arrived at this famous college, he experienced an inferiority complex towards his more aristocratic classmates. This feeling was often documented in his works, especially The Adolescent.^[5][6]

Youth[link]

Dostoyevsky as an engineer

On 27 September 1837 his mother died of tuberculosis. Fyodor contracted a serious throat disease soon after. Shortly before the death of his mother it was decided that Fyodor and his brother Mikhail should be sent around May to St Petersburg to attend the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute. Fyodor and Mikhail had to abandon their academic education at the Moscow college, as his parents were not able to pay for the schoolfee. Fyodor's career, however, seems to have been decided, as his father expected a space at the academy for his sons, and the political propensity under Nicholas I allowed them the opportunity of a good professional military career. On the way to St. Petersburg, Fyodor witnessed a violent situation in a posting house; a member of the military police beat a carter, and the carter subsequently passed his pain to his horse through a whip; Fyodor referred to this situation in his serial A Writer's Diary. At the academy he was separated from his brother, who was later sent to Reval, Estonia due to his poor health and the better studying conditions available there. Fyodor passed the entrance exam and entered the academy on 16 January the next year, but only with the help of his godmothers, who paid the schoolfee for the unaware Fyodor.^[8][9]

Fyodor did not enjoy the academy, primarily because of his lack of interest in science, mathematics and military application, as he rather preferred drawing and architecture, and the general atmosphere. The academy was a former castle built for Tsar Paul I, who was murdered shortly after his accession to the throne. Among his 120 classmates, mainly of Polish or Baltic-German descent, Dostoyevsky's character made him an outsider; Fyodor was brave and had a strong sense of justice as opposed to his clownish and brutal class fellows. He protected newcomers, aligned himself with teachers, criticised corruption among officers and helped poor farmers. Although he was a loner and lived in his own literary world, his classmates showed respect for him. Fyodor was called "Monk Photius" because of his reclusive way of life and his interest in religion.^[8][9]

Dostoyevsky might had his first strong attack of epilepsy after receiving a message telling him of the death of his father. Mikhail was murdered in 1839 by one of his peasants; the cause was one of Mikhail's irascibility attacks. Fyodor continued with his disliked studies. When he passed the exams and obtained the rank of engineer cadet, he was given the right to live off-site. After a short visit to his brother Mikhail in Reval, Fyodor often went to concerts, operas, theatres and ballets, and was introduced to gambling by two of his friends. His independence led to financial troubles. In August 1843 he took employment as a draftsman. In the meantime, Fyodor lived in an apartment owned by the German-Baltic Dr. A. Riesenkampf, a friend of his brother Mikhail. As in his childhood at the hospital, he showed an interest in sick people from the lower class. He began to work on translations, including George Sand's La dernière Albini and Balzac's Eugénie Grandet as well as Schiller's Mary Stuart, Pushkin's Boris Godunov and Goethe's Reineke Fuchs,^[10] and upon advice, Schiller's The Robbers, and Don Carlos among others. With the help of his translations, he could obtain badly needed money. His job became more and more humiliating. After quitting a duty travel, he was released on 19 October 1844 as a lieutenant. Fyodor was in financial trouble, so he decided to write his own novel.^[8][9]

Career[link]

Early publications and circles[link]

Dostoyevsky, 1847

In the autumn of 1844, Fyodor shared an apartment with his friend from the academy, Dmitry Grigorovich. Fyodor worked continuously on his first novel; he hoped to obtain a wide readership in order to ameliorate his financial condition. He risked everything for his book to obtain some money. In a letter to Mikhail he wrote, "What matters is that my novel should cover everything. If it does not work, I will hang myself." In May 1845 Fyodor worked on the script for the last time and asked Grigorovich to read the novel aloud. Grigorovich was impressed by the novel and brought it the same night to Nikolay Nekrasov, a friend of his. Both were so impressed that after finishing the book at four o'clock in the morning they rang at Fyodor's apartment. On the same day, Nekrasov brought the manuscript by the "New Gogol" to the most famous and influential literary critic of that time, Vissarion Belinsky. Initially sceptical, the critic was later similarly astonished. Poor Folk was released in 15 January 1846 in the almanac St. Petersburg Collection and was commercially enormously successful.^[11][12]

Shortly after the publication of Poor Folk, Dostoyevsky wrote his second novel, The Double, during his visit in Reval. Although the book was released in February 1846, it had already been included in the journal Annals of the Fatherland on 30 January. The Double centers on the shy protagonist Yakov Golyadkin discovering his doppelgänger, who ruins his life piece by piece. The doppelgänger has the success in his career that has been prohibited to the original Golyadkin. The novel was panned by critics and readers; Belinsky commented that the work had "no sense, no content and no thoughts", and that the novel appears overall to be boring due to the protagonist's garrulity.^[13] The idea for The Double is principally brilliant, but its external form is miscarried and full of multi-clause sentences.^{[14][15][11][12]}

In the 1840s, the interests of the population began to turn more toward social questions, as opposed to romanticism and idealism. Dostoyevsky discovered socialism around 1846. His first influences were particularly the French socialists Fourier, Cabet, Proudhon and Saint Simon. Dostoyevsky initially had a good relationship with Belinsky. Through him he extended his knowledge of the philosophy of socialism; its intellectual world, sense of justice and interest in the poor and disadvantaged attracted him. His relationship with Belinsky became, however, more and more negative later on, as Belinsky's atheism and his dislike of church and religion clashed with Dostoyevsky's Orthodox beliefs and Christ's teachings, and Dostoyevsky thus decided to quit the Belinsky circle. Dostoyevsky took up the issues of the existence of God and nihilism in his later books, as well as the order of human coexistence, the requirements of fraternity, and the coherence of freedom and fortune.^[16][12]

As Dostoyevsky suffered assaults by the press on his second novel, his health declined and more epileptic seizures occurred. He, however, worked frantically and from 1846 to 1848 released a number of short stories in the magazine Annals of the Fatherland including "Mr. Prokharchin", "The Landlady", "A Weak Heart" and "White Nights". These were not successful, and from the release of the first short story on, he was again in financial trouble. He therefore decided to join the utopian socialist Betekov circle, where the members created a living community, and this became helpful for him. After the circle's break-up, Dostoyevsky befriended Apollon Maykov and his brother Valerian, and after the latter's death, Apollon became an important component in his life. In spring 1846 he joined the Petrashevsky Circle by the recommendation of the poet Aleksey Pleshcheyev. As contrasted with the former circles, the Petrashevsky Circle was socio-Christian.^[17] Mikhail Petrashevsky discussed in a harmless manner the possibilities of social reforms in Russia. Dostoyevsky used its library and sometimes participated on this circle, discussing other such themes as freedom from censorship and the abolition of serfdom.^[18][12]

Exile in Siberia[link]

Before the mock execution, the members were split into three-man groups. Dostoyevsky was the third of the second row, next to him stood Pleshcheyev and Durov

Dostoyevsky and other members of the Petrashevsky Circle were discovered by the agent Antonelli, who submitted reports to the official Librandi of the Ministry of International Affairs. Dostoyevsky was accused of having read several works by Belinsky, including Correspondence with Gogol, Criminal Letters and The Soldier's Speech, being present or passing transcriptions. Antonelli wrote in his report, "[Correspondence with Gogol] summoned a considerable amount of enthusiastic approval from the society, in particular on the part of Belasoglo and Yastrzhembsky, especially at the point where Belinsky says that religion has no basis among the Russian people. It was proposed that this letter be distributed in several copies." Dostoyevsky responded that he did not like those essays but only read it "as a literary monument, neither more nor less" and argued about "personality and human egoism" instead of politics. Dostoyevsky and several members of the circle were nonetheless arrested on 22 April 1849 upon the request of Count A. Orlov and Emperor Nicolas I. The latter feared a revolution or revolt similar to the Decembrist revolt of 1825 in Russia and the Revolutions of 1848 in Europe, calling the Petrashevtsy "conspirators".^[19][20][21]

On 23 December Dostoyevsky and the rest of the circle were brought to Semyonov Place in St. Petersburg. The mock execution was then cancelled by the Tsar and Dostoyevsky's sentence was commuted to four years of exile with hard labour at a katorga prison camp in Omsk, Siberia, followed by a term of compulsory military service. The people were divided into groups of three, consisting of one prisoner, one gendarme and one military policeman. After the fourteen-day drive on a sleigh they finally reached Tobolsk, a meeting place for prisoners, on 11 January 1850. Twelve days later Durov and Dostoyevsky reached Omsk.^[20][21] He described the barracks as follows:

Release from prison, first marriage, return to St. Petersburg[link]

Dostoyevsky (right) and the Kazakh scholar Shokan Walikhanuli in 1859

After his release on 14 February 1854, Dostoyevsky asked his brother Mikhail for help and to send him books by authors such as Vico, Guizot, Ranke, Hegel or Kant.^[22] He also began to work on The House of the Dead, thematising his experience in prison. The first parts of his third book, the novel Netochka Nezvanova, were released in 1849, but the work remained unfinished. Dostoyevsky moved in mid-March to Semipalatinsk to serve in the Siberian Army Corps of the Seventh Line Battalion. Around this time, Dostoyevsky met Baron Alexander Egorovich Wrangel, his admirer who had attended the mock execution. They both rented houses outside of Semipalatinsk, in the "Cossack Garden".^[23][24]

During a visit with Lieutenant-Colonel Belikhov, Dostoyevsky made an acquaintance with the family of Alexander Ivanovich Isaev and Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva. Dostoyevsky soon fell in love with Maria, but she never returned the feeling. After Dostoyevsky sent a letter through Wrangel to General E. I. Totleben, apologising for his activity in several utopian circles, he obtained in the fall of 1856 the right to publish books and to marry. After her husband's departure to Kuznetsk in August 1855 and his death the same year, Maria moved with Dostoyevsky to Barnaul, but later refused his marriage proposal and stated that they were not meant for each other, and that his poor financial situation was another reason for her refusal. Dostoyevsky later went to Kuznetsk and discovered that she had had an affair with the 24 year old schoolmaster Nikolay Vergunov. Despite this, Maria married Dostoyevsky in Semipalatinsk on 7 February 1857. Their family life was unhappy, however, and his fits shocked her. They mostly lived apart.^[25][24]

Dostoyevsky in Paris (1863)

In 1859 he was released from military service due to a medical certificate; his health had worsened since the marriage. In the same year he was granted permission to return to Russia, first to Tver, where he met his brother for the first time in ten years, and then back to St. Petersburg on 16 September 1859, although he remained under police surveillance until his death. Shortly after his arrival in St. Petersburg, he joined the Society for the Aid of Needy Writers and Scholars, known as the Literary Fund. Their goal was to help scholars and writers in need, such as those arrested on political grounds. Dostoyevsky's only work completed in prison, "A Little Hero", was issued in a journal, while "Uncle's Dream" and "The Village of Stepanchikovo" were not published until 1860. Notes from the House of the Dead was released in Russky Mir (Russian World) on September 1860, and "The Insulted and the Injured" was released in the newly established Time magazine, which was created with the help of funds from his brother's cigarette factory.^[26][24]

Dostoyevsky began his trip to Europe on 7 June 1862. His first stops were in the German cities Cologne, Berlin, Dresden and Wiesbaden (where he went for gambling), followed by Belgium and finally Paris in mid-June. In London he met Herzen and visited the Crystal Palace; he travelled with Strakhov through Switzerland in July and then through northern Italian cities, including Turin, Geneva, Livorno and Florence. Dostoyevsky wrote of his mainly negative impression of European countries in his Winter Notes on Summer Impressions. In this book he criticised such themes as capitalism, modernisation, materialism, catholicism and protestantism.^[27][28]

Time was a very popular periodical with more than 4000 subscribers, before its closure on 24 May 1863 by the Tsarist Regime because of a misunderstanding resulting from the publication of an essay by Nikolay Strakhov about the Polish revolt in Russia. Time and its 1864 successor Epokha followed the philosophy of the conservative and Slavophile movement Pochvennichestvo, which was favoured by Dostoyevsky during his term of imprisonment and in the post-prison years.^[25] From August to October 1863 Dostoyevsky made a second trip to Europe. In Paris he met his second love, Polina Suslova, and lost all of his money gambling in Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden. In Wiesbaden he wrote a letter to Wrangel, asking for a 100 thalers loan and first mentioning his next novel. Suslova's infidelity to him with a Spaniard and Dostoyevsky's gambling addiction resulted in their eventual separation. Dostoyevsky subsequently asked his brother and, after his death in July 1864, Baron Wrangel for money. Two months before Mikhail's death, his wife Maria died of tuberculosis, and Dostoyevsky subsequently became the lone parent of his stepson Pasha and Mikhail's family. Added to this were the fees for the financing of Epokha, and without the help of his relatives and friends he would have gone bankrupt.^[29][30][28]

Crime and Punishment[link]

Anna Snitkina

The first two parts of his sixth novel, Crime and Punishment, were published in January and February 1866 in the periodical The Russian Messenger. The novel became a success, prompting the critic Strakhov to remark afterwards, "Only Crime and Punishment was read during 1866". The magazine was also doing well, bringing around 500 new subscribers. In summer 1866, Dostoyevsky moved to a country house in Lyublino with his brother-in-law Alexander Ivanov – married to his sister Vera – to escape the heat of Moscow. He returned to St. Petersburg in late September and promised editor F. T. Stellovsky to complete the novel The Gambler by November, not having written a single line. Milyukov, one of Dostoyevsky's friends, advised him to hire a secretary. Dostoyevsky contacted Pavel Olkhin, one of the best stenographers in St. Petersburg, who recommended his most talented pupil, Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina. Dostoyevsky was the favourite author of Snitkina and her recently deceased father. On 4 October 1866 she made a visit to Dostoyevsky. He began to dictate to her, while she wrote shorthand. Snitkina brought the last transcription of The Gambler to Dostoyevsky on 30 October (his birthday). Thanks to her skills the novel was completed in just 26 days, and Dostoyevsky soon after extended a contract with her. The Gambler treated a subject Fyodor Dostoyevsky himself was familiar with – gambling.^[31][31][28]

Crime and Punishment initially received a mixed reception from critics. Most of the negative responses came from nihilists. Grigory Eliseev 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". Strakhov was overall satisfied with the novel, stating that Dostoyevsky successfully portrayed a Russian person aptly and realistically. The main protagonist, Raskolnikov was inspired by a 12 January 1866 crime committed by A. M. Danilov, and has been compared with Ivan Turgenev's Yevgeny Bazarov from Fathers and Sons.^[31]

Gambling "hell" in Bad Homburg

On 15 February 1867 Dostoyevsky married Anna Snitkina in the Trinity Cathedral in St. Petersburg. His strong double-fit caused by heavy consumption of champagne during the marriage plunged her into despair. Also problematic was her bad relationship with his relatives and their neighbours. The 7000 rubles paid for Crime and Punishment were not enough to cover all the debts. To avoid a compulsory auction, Snitkina (now Dostoyevskaya) sold furniture, her piano and jewellery. With this money, the family finally began their delayed wedding journey abroad on 14 April 1867. In Berlin they had a rest in the Hotel Union, and in Dresden Dostoyevsky visited the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, where he sought inspiration for his future novels. He was deeply impressed by the paintings, especially Raphael's Sistine Madonna.^[32][33]

Three weeks later he moved to Homburg for gambling, where he lost all of his wife's money. She and Dostoyevsky continued their trip in early July through Germany, visiting Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe. In Baden-Baden he entered casinos despite having lost his money before. It was predictable that Dostoyevsky again gambled away his money, and subsequently Dostoyevskaya had no other choice but to go to different pawn brokerages to pawn such items as wedding rings, wedding presents, earrings and clothes. In the meantime, Dostoyevskaya was pregnant. On 23 August they left Baden-Baden and arrived in Basel to visit a museum, in which they viewed Holbein's The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, an influential painting for his next novel. Dostoyevsky was so captivated by the picture that his wife had to drag him away from the panel lest its grip on him induce an epileptic fit.^[32][33]

In Geneva they were low on funds and had to pawn more of their possessions. Finally they found a lodging with the Raymond sisters. Geneva was optimal for the birth of their first child, as the city had a good reputation for doctors. Dostoyevsky occasionally played in Saxon-les-Bains to find money, but as usual he was unsuccessful. In December they rented a larger apartment on Rue du Mont-Blanc street next to an English church. Anna gave birth to their daughter Sonya, named after his beloved niece and the heroine in Crime and Punishment, on 5 March, but the child, however, died three months later due to pneumonia. She was buried in a children's cemetery in Plainpalais. Again in financial troubles due to his addiction, he returned to Geneva to work on his next novel.^[32][33]

The Idiot[link]

Dostoyevsky's study in Saint Petersburg.

When Dostoyevsky returned to Geneva in September, he began working on The Idiot, managing to complete 100 pages in just 23 days. The death of Sonya was devastating for the parents, and Anna's health was affected because of frequent trips to Sonya's grave. Dostoyevsky felt himself cornered between the mountains and the Geneva lake. Subsequently they left Geneva and moved to Vevey in early June 1868, hoping for a better atmosphere for Dostoyevsky to complete The Idiot. Three months later they left for Milano through the shortest route above the two-thousand metre high Simiplon. While in Milano, Anna began to learn Italian and sometimes served as an interpreter. After enduring three rainy autumn months in Milano, they travelled southwards to Florence. The Idiot was completed there in January 1868 and shortly thereafter it was serialised in The Russian Messenger.^[34][35]

In May, Anna's mother visited the family to help them. They moved to an apartment on the Piazza del Mercato Nuovo due to lack of room. Its turbulent location near a market place and the summer heat caused the Dostoyevskys a great deal of trouble. Three months later they decided to leave the city for Prague. On the way there, their first stay was in Bologna and their second in Vienna, reached via the Venice–Triest railway line. Three days after their arrival in Prague they had to leave the city because of an unsuccessful search for a ready-furnished apartment, as furnishings and tableware were too expensive. They decided to return to Dresden in August. There they rented a house in the English quarter.^[36][35]

Shortly after their arrival, Anna's mother came to assist her daughter for the upcoming birth on 26 September of her second child Lyubov, meaning "Love" in Russian. Lyubov later called herself Aimée (French for "beloved"). In April 1871 Dostoyevsky made a final visit to a gambling hall in Wiesbaden. According to Anna, Dostoyevsky was cured from his addiction after the birth of Lyubov, but whether this is true is dubious. Another reason for his abstinence might be the closure of several casinos in Germany in the period 1872/1873; it was not until Hitler's coup d'état that these were re-opened. In July they took the train to Berlin. For fear of customs calamities Dostoyevsky burnt numerous manuscripts, including those for The Idiot. The family finally arrived in St. Petersburg on 8 July, marking the end of their four years and three months long "wedding trip", originally planned as a three months journey.^[36][35]

Return to Russia[link]

Manuscript to The Demons

Anna's younger brother, Ivan Snitkin, visited the family in autumn 1869. A pupil at the Moscow Agriculture School, Snitkin told about the unrest among the students. One of his fellow students, Ivanov, was, however, a symphatic young man who helped him for the travel preparation. Dostoyevksy later discovered that the same Ivanov was murdered in 21 November by a five-man group in a park near the university. Behind the murder was the nihilist Nechayev. Influenced by Bakunin's Alliance révolutionnaire européenne, Nechayev formed a terror organisation comprising several of these five-man groups. Subsequently, Dostoyevsky planned to write a novel about nihilism.^[37][38]

Back in Russia, the family was again in financial troubles and therefore had to sell their from plunder survived possession. Moreover, Anna reached the final period of pregnancy. Dostoyevsky thought the child would be born in 15 July, and thus should be named Vladimir based on the calendar of saints, but Fyodor, or Fedya, was born one day later. Soon after the birth, they moved to a different apartment on the Serpukhovskaya Street, near an institute for technology. The family hoped to clear the 25,000 debts by selling their house in Peski, but as the tenant refrained from paying the fees and duties the building was sold in an auction for a relatively low price. Disputes between creditors still continued. Anna proposed to delegate her husband's copyrights and came to negotiation with the creditors by paying off debts in justifiable instalments.^[39][40]

Nonetheless, Dostoyevsky was able to revive his friendships with Maykov and Strakhov and to find new acquaintances, including Vsevolod Solovyov and his brother Vladimir, church politician Terty Filipov, and future imperial high commissioner of the Holy Synod, Konstantin Pobedonostsev, who influenced Dostoyevsky's political progression to Conservatism. In early 1872, art collector Pavel Tretyakov asked Dostoyevsky to pose for Vasily Perov. The resulting painting, according to Danish critic Georg Brandes a depiction of a "partly Russian peasant face, partly the likeness of a criminal", is possibly the most popular image of Dostoyevsky. Around this time, the Dostoyevskys planned to aestivate in Staraya Russa, a spa known for its pleasant salt baths. On the way to it, they took the train to Sosnika and then to Novgorod. However, the family postponed their trip because of Lyuba's wrist injury, received few weeks before their departure. A doctor meant she had a sprain, but it ultimately turned out to be a fracture. Anna subsequently moved to St. Petersburg, while Fyodor waited with his son in Staraya Russa for their return. Around the time of their return, Anna's sister died from typhus, and Anna had developed an abscess on her throat. The work on his next novel was delayed due to these casualties.^[39][40]

Dostoyevsky, 1876

The family moved back to St. Petersburg in September 1872.^[38] The Demons was finished in 26 November 1872, and released in January in the "Dostoyevsky Press", founded by Dostoyevsky and his wife. Although the books were available against cash only and their apartment served as a bookshop, the business was stable and about three-thousand copies of Demons were sold. Anna was responsible for the financing. Dostoyevsky proposed to establish a new periodical, A Writer's Diary, including a collection of essays of the same name, but due to lack of money he first published it on Meshchersky's The Citizen, heading the publishing from 1 January against a payment of 3000 rubles per year. In summer of 1873, Anna again travelled with her children to Staraya Russa, while Dostoyevsky stayed in St. Petersburg to write on his Diary.^[39][41]

In March, Dostoyevsky left the The Citizen because of the stressful work and Russia's bureaucracy. During his 15 months activity as a journalist in The Citizen he was brought two times to court, in 11 June 1873, because of citing Prince Meshchersky's words without permission, and in 23 March 1874, for two days. Dostoyevsky offered The Russian Messenger a new novel he had not yet began to work on, but the magazine refused to give him the fee (the actual reason, which they kept secret from him, was that the periodical closed a deal to release Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina). Nikolay Nekrasov visited him and proposed to publish A Writer's Diary in The National Annals; he would receive 250 ruble for the print sheet, 100 more than for The Russian Messenger.^[39][42]

Dostoyevsky's health declined and he suffered from cough and breathlessness, first symptoms of a lung disease. Subsequently, Dostoyevsky was examined in St. Petersburg and he was advised by several doctors to take a cure outside of Russia. One doctor advised him Bad Ems, another Bad Soden. Dostoeyvsky left Russia and in June visited a known pulmonologist in Berlin, who referred him to a doctor in Bad Ems. Around July, Dostoyevsky reached Ems but went to a different physician. He was diagnosed with an acute catarrh, and to alleviate symptoms the doctor prescribed him a type of soda from a well. His health, however, was not improved until the physician prescribed him a different prescription. During his stay at the health spa he began to work on The Adolescent, also known as The Raw Youth. In late July he returned to St. Petersburg.^[39][43]

His wife proposed to spend the winter in Staraya Russa to provide him rest from work. The doctors suggested Dostoyevsky to make a second visit in Ems, as his health has improved since his last visit. In late July he returned to Staraya Russa, and in 10 August Alexey was born. In mid-September the family left the town for St. Petersburg. Dostoyevsky finalised the novel in the end of 1875, while parts of it were already serialised between January and December 1875 in the Annals. The Adolescent chronicles the life of 19-year-old intellectual, Arkady Dolgoruky, illegitimate child of the controversial and womanising landowner Versilov. A focus of the novel is the recurring conflict between father and son, particularly in ideology, which represents the battles between the conventional "old" way of thinking in the 1840s and the new nihilistic point of view of the youth of 1860s Russia.^[39][43]

Last years[link]

The unveiling of the Pushkin monument in Moscow

In the early 1876 he continued to work on his Diaries. The book's main theme is, like in The Adolescent, child abuse through adults, reflecting his study of living conditions of children during his spa visit. The essay collection sold more than twice as much as his prior books. Dostoyevsky received more letters from readers than anytime before. People of different age and occupation visited him, be it a theology student who has religious doubts, or an agnostic teacher. Thanks to Anna's brother, the family finally brought the dacha in Staraya Russa. The house, now a museum, has several similarities with the one in his next novel.^[44][45]

In the summer of 1876, Dostoyevsky again suffered from breathlessness. He visited Ems the third time and was examined by Dr. Orth, who prescribed him a similar recipe as before. The doctor said that Dostoyevsky might live 15 years more providing that he would live in a healthy climate. When Dostoyevsky returned to Russia, Tsar Alexander II ordered him to visit his palace and to present him his Diaries. He also asked him to educate his sons, Sergey and Paul. This visit led to the increase of his circle of acquaintances. He was a common guest in several salons in St. Petersburg. He met with many famous people, including Princess Sofya Tolstaya, poet friend Jakow Polonski, politician Graf Witte, journalist Alexey Suvorin, musician Anton Rubinstein and artist Ilya Repin.^[44][45]

Dostoyevsky's health began to deteriorate; in March 1877 alone he had four epileptic fits. Instead of going to Ems he decided to visit Maly Prikol, a manor near Kursk. On the way back to St. Petersburg to finalise his Diaries, Dostoyevsky visited Darovoye. At the same time Anna and her children made a pilgrimage to Kiev. In December he attended Nikolay Nekrasov's funeral and gave a speech. Around that time he was appointed an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.^[44][45]

In the early 1878 he listened to a speech about the "Man of God" delivered by Vladimir Solovyov, which became influential for his next novel. In February the next year he received an honorary certificate by the academy, and in spring he was invited to participate in an international congress about copyright in Paris, headed by Victor Hugo, but declined it after his son Alyosha's death in 16 May, who did not survive the two-hours long death struggle caused by epilepsy. The family later moved to a different apartment on the Yamskaya Street, where he wrote his first works. Around this time he was elected the board director of the Slavic Benevolent Society in St. Petersburg, and in summer he was elected in the honorary committee of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale, which included Victor Hugo, Ivan Turgenev, Paul Heyse, Alfred Tennyson, Anthony Trollope, Henry Longfellow, Ralph Emerson and Leo Tolstoy.^[44][45]

Funeral of Dostoyevsky

Dostoyevsky made his fourth and final visit to Ems in early August 1879. He was diagnosed as having a pulmonary emphysema in an initial stage. The doctor believed that it is not possible to cure the decease, but said that it could be combatted with a high and likely success. First parts of his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov, were serialised in The Russian Messenger in 1 February and the last parts were published in November 1880.^[44][46]

"He seems as if still alive, with a face of total quietude, as in the best moments of his life"

With nearly 800 pages, The Brothers Karamazov is undoubtedly Dostoyevsky's biggest literary contribution. It is often cited as his life work, his magnum opus. Apart from being critically successful, the book was also doing well on the market. In 3 February 1880 he was chosen as the vice president of the Slavic Benevolent Society. He was invited to an unveiling of a Pushkin memorial in Moscow. Initially scheduled for 26 May, the date of the unveiling was rescheduled to 6 June because of the death of Empress Maria Alexandrovna. Dostoyevsky delivered his memorised speech two days later inside a big room. During his impressive and hypnotising speech many people cried or were hysterical, while other fainted or left the room. His speech has been met with a large applause, and even his long-time rival Ivan Turgenev enfolded him. Dostoyevsky's delivery was later, however, attacked by several people, among them the liberal political scientist Alexander Gradovsky and conservative thinker Konstantin Leontiev, and fits occurred.^[47][48]

In 25 January, Tsar's secret police executed a search warrant in a neighbour's apartment. They searched after the terror organisation "People's Will" who assassinated Tsar Alexander II. This investigation might be jointly responsible for his pulmonary haemorrhage in 26 January 1881. However, Anna declined this claim, stating that the haematorrhoea occurred after Dostoyevsky had searched for his dropped pen holder, but an even stronger haematorrhoea appeared after he asked for his residual fee for the novel. Anna searched shortly afterwards for the doctor von Bretzel and other, but they stated that Dostoyevsky would most likely die some time in the next days. When his health became to steady, Dostoyevsky had a second rush of blood. Among Dostoyevsky's last words were his delivery of Matthew 3:14 from the New Testament: "But John tried to stop him, saying, 'I need to be baptised by you, and are you coming to me?'". Dostoyevsky died on that day, eight minutes before half nine. According to a Russian custom his body was embedded on a table. Initially Dostoyevsky wanted to be buried in the Novodevichy Convent cemetery near novelist Nekrasov, but due to money issues he was instead interred in the Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Convent, near his favourite poets Karamsin and Zhukovsky. It is not exactly known how many visitors attended his funeral. According to a reporter, more than 100,000 mourners attended it, while others state a number between 40,000 and 50,000. His burial attracted many prominent people. Nestor, archbishop of Vyborg, delivered the liturgy, while Ioann Yanyshev performed the consecration. His tombstone is inscribed with the words of Christ,^[49][50]

Personality and physical appearance[link]

Dostoyevsky is known for his remarkable and powerful personality, but is known to have a fragile physical constitution. In his childhood he was described by the parents as a hothead, stubborn and having a cheeky mouth.^[51] Around the time when he was in the college, several people depicted him as a pale, introverted dreamer, and a peaking, overexcited romantic.^[52] The most descriptive account during the time was made by Dr. Alexander Riesenkampf, "Feodor Mikhailovich was 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-awereness", but "[i]n the circle of his friends he always seemed lively, untroubled, self-content".^[53]

The precise cause of Dostoyevsky's epilepsy is unknown. Some think it was a "generalised epilepsy", others state he suffered from "temporal lobe epilepsy", while some believed it was a combination of these two. Théophile Alajouanine meant he had "partial and secondarily generalised seizures with ecstatic aura", while Henri Gastaut believed that his seizures were "idiopathic generalised". P.H.A. Voskuil had similar views as Alajouanine and Gastaut, "complex partial seizures with secondarily generalised nocturnal seizures and ecstatic auras". According to Rosetti and Bogousslavsky, Dostoyevsky suffered from "temporal lobe epilepsy, most likely left mesiotemporal, with complex partial and secondarily generalised seizures, with a relatively benign course".^[54] Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, who believed that epilepsy is "always straight cases of hysteria", said the illness was caused by his father's death and he ultimately saw an Oedipus complex in him:

However, according to several letters, Dostoyevsky did not hate his father, who dealed with his peasants very poorly. Freud's theory is generally considered by scholars and scientists to be incorrect, as it is dubious whether his father was really killed by his peasants. It is not explicitly known when his first epileptic fits occurred. Some proposed the date of the first occurrence of eplipsy was at the age of 9, while others argued it was in his teens or early adulthood. Dostoyevsky, however, wrote that the first seizure appeared after the "psychological torture", the mock execution. In his notebook he recorded a total of 102 fits in 20 years.^[55]

In a meeting with Baron Wrangel, "when [Dostoyevsky] came in", he was "extremely reserved [...] morose, his face pale and sickly and covered with freckles. [Dostoyevsky's] light coloured hair was cut short, and he was of more than medium height. Intently looking at me with his sharp, grey-blue eyes, it seemed that he was trying to peer into [Wrangel's] very soul—now what sort of man is he? ... ".^[56] Herzen characterised Dostoyevsky as "a naive, not entirely lucid, but very nice person".^[57]

Religious beliefs[link]

Dostoyevsky was raised in a "pious Russian family" and knowing "the Gospel almost from the cradle".^[58] Early on he attended masses in churches every sunday,^[59] took part in annual pilgrimages at the St. Sergius Trinity Monastery and was introduced by his family to Christianity with 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 child bible, partly a catechism.^[60][58][61] Apart from religious literature Dostoyevsky was educated by a deacon near the hospital.^[61] One of his most remembered account of his childhood memory were the prayers in front of guests, "Mother of God, keep me and preserve me under Thy wing!", and the reading from the Book of Job, which "made an impression on [Dostoyevsky]" when "still almost a child".^[62]

According to an officer of the military academy, Dostoyevsky was deeply religious and orthodox and often read the Gospels and Heinrich Zschokke's Die Stunden der Andacht (Hours of Devotion). The latter book "preached a sentimental version of Christianity entirely free from dogmatic content and with a strong emphasis on giving Christian love a social application", which is perhaps his first introduction to Christian socialism.^[63] Through the literature of Hoffmann, Balzac, Sue and Goethe, Dostoyevsky created his own imaginary belief similar to Russian sectarianism and Old Belief.^[63] After his arrest, the subsequent mock execution and the imprisonment in Siberia, his religious views have significantly changed and revived through the New Testament, the only allowed book in prison.^[64] In January 1854, however, Dostoyevsy wrote the following letter to a woman from whom he received the Testament, which suggests that Dostoyevsky was a non-believer:

In a meeting with Baron Wrangel, Dostoyevsky revived his belief in an omniscient, omnipotent Creator by viewing the spangled sky. 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". Both planned to translate Hegel's works and Carus' Psyche, and Dostoyevsky explored Islam when he asked his brother to send him a copy of the Quran. Two pilgrimages and two works by the influential archbishop, Dmitri Rostovsky, strengthened his beliefs. Roskovsky has influenced both the Ukrainian and Russian literature and also composed groundbreaking religious playwrights.^[65] Through his visits to Europe and discussions between Herzen, Grigoriev and Strakhov, Dostoyevsky discovered Pochvennichestvo. Just as the movement, he believed that the Catholic Church adopted the principles of rationalism, legalism, materialism and individualism from the ancient Rome and passed on its philosophy to Protestantism and finally to socialism, which then leads to atheism.^[66]

As Dostoyevsky never explicitly stated his faith, it is dubious what he really believed in. One exception might be his April 1876 statement to a question about a suicide in Diary of a Writer, remarking that he was a "philosophical deist", originally a quote from The Adolescent, though he did not mention that it was. However, Dostoyevsky said two months later in his Diaries that her heroine George Sand "died a deiste, firmly believing in God and in the immortality of the Soul", but deists at that time held different beliefs about immortality of the soul. Furthermore his belief in doctrines such as the Trinity, clearly discussed especially in The Brothers Karamazov,^[67] suggests that he did not quite understood the meaning of this term.^[68][69] Overall, many critics pointed out that Dostoyevsky's religion is unusual and partially ambiguous with the Christian core beliefs. Malcolm V. Jones found elements of Islam and Buddhism in his religious belief.^[70] Beat generation writer Allan Ginsberg labelled his works as "Buddha bibles".^[71]

Stance on Jews in Russia[link]

Several writers and critics (including Joseph Frank, Maxim D. Shrayer,^[72] Stephen Cassedy, David I. Goldstein, Gary Saul Morson, and Felix Dreizin) have offered insights and suppositions regarding Dostoyevsky’s views on Jews and organised Jewry in Russia. One view is that Dostoyevsky perceived Jewish ethnocentrism and influence to be threatening the Russian peasantry in border regions. In A Writer's Diary, Dostoyevsky wrote:

Thus, Jewry is thriving precisely there where the people are still ignorant, or not free, or economically backward. It is there that Jewry has a champ libre. And instead of raising, by its influence, the level of education, instead of increasing knowledge, generating economic fitness in the native population—instead of this the Jew, wherever he has settled, has still more humiliated and debauched the people; there humaneness was still more debased and the educational level fell still lower; there inescapable, inhuman misery, and with it despair, spread still more disgustingly. Ask the native population in our border regions: What is propelling the Jew—and has been propelling him for centuries? You will receive a unanimous answer: mercilessness. He has been prompted so many centuries only by pitilessness to us, only by the thirst for our sweat and blood.

And, in truth, the whole activity of the Jews in these border regions of ours consisted of rendering the native population as much as possible inescapably dependent on them, taking advantage of the local laws. They have always managed to be on friendly terms with those upon whom the people were dependent. Point to any other tribe from among Russian aliens which could rival the Jew by his dreadful influence in this connection! You will find no such tribe. In this respect the Jew preserves all his originality as compared with other Russian aliens, and of course, the reason therefore is that status of status of his, that spirit of which specifically breathes pitilessness for everything that is not Jew, with disrespect for any people and tribe, for every human creature who is not a Jew...^[73]

Dostoyevsky has been noted as both having expressed antisemitic sentiments as well as standing up for the rights of the Jewish people. In a review of Joseph Frank's book, The Mantle of the Prophet, Orlando Figes notes that A Writer's Diary is "filled with politics, literary criticism, and pan-Slav diatribes about the virtues of the Russian Empire, [and] represents a major challenge to the Dostoyevsky fan, not least on account of its frequent expressions of anti-semitism."^[74] Frank, in his foreword for David I. Goldstein's book Dostoevsky and the Jews, attempts to place Dostoyevsky as a product of his time. Frank notes that Dostoyevsky made antisemitic remarks, but that Dostoyevsky's writing and stance, by and large, was one where Dostoyevsky held a great deal of guilt for his comments and positions that were antisemitic.^[75]

Steven Cassedy alleges in his book, Dostoevsky's Religion, that much of the depiction of Dostoyevsky's views as antisemitic omits that Dostoyevsky expressed support for the equal rights of the Russian Jewish population, an unpopular position in Russia at the time. Cassedy also notes that this criticism of Dostoyevsky also appears to deny his sincerity when he said that he was for equal rights for the Russian Jewish populace and the serfs of his own country (since neither group at that point in history had equal rights). Cassedy again notes when Dostoyevsky stated that he did not hate Jewish people and was not antisemitic. Even though Dostoyevsky spoke of the potential negative influence of Jewish people, Dostoyevsky advised emperor Alexander II of Russia to give them rights to positions of influence in Russian society, such as allowing them access to Professorships at Universities. According to Cassedy, labelling Dostoyevsky anti-Semitic does not take into consideration Dostoyevsky's expressed desire to reconcile Jews and Christians peacefully in a single universal brotherhood of mankind.^[76]

Themes[link]

Dostoyevsky, 1929 woodcut

Dostoyevsky investigated in his novels religious concerns, particularly those of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.^[3] "Dostoyevsky and the Religion of Suffering," the essay devoted to Dostoyevsky in Eugène-Melchior de Vogüé's Le roman russe (1886), was an influential early analysis of the novelist's work, introducing Dostoyevsky and other Russian novelists to the West.

Dostoyevsky displayed a nuanced understanding of human psychology in his major works. He created an opus of vitality and almost hypnotic power, characterised by feverishly dramatised scenes where his characters are frequently in scandalous and explosive atmospheres, engaged in passionate dialogue. The quest for God, the problem of evil and the suffering of the innocent are the themes which haunt the majority of his novels.

His characters fall into a few distinct categories: humble and self-effacing Christians (Prince Myshkin, Sonya Marmeladova, Alyosha Karamazov, Saint Ambrose of Optina), self-destructive nihilists (Svidrigailov, Smerdyakov, Stavrogin, the underground man)^{[citation needed]}, cynical debauchees (Fyodor Karamazov, Dmitri Karamazov), and rebellious intellectuals (Raskolnikov, Ivan Karamazov, Ippolit); also, his characters are driven by ideas rather than by biological or social imperatives. In comparison with the realistic characters of Tolstoy those of Dostoyevsky are more symbolic of the ideas they represent.

Style[link]

Dostoyevsky's novels are compressed in time (many cover only a few days); and this enables him to get rid of one of the dominant presentations of realist prose, that of the corrosion of human life in the process of the time flux; his characters embody spiritual values that are timeless. Other themes include suicide, wounded pride, collapsed family values, spiritual regeneration through suffering, rejection of the West and affirmation of the Russian Orthodox Church and of tsarism. Literary scholars such as Mikhail Bakhtin have characterised his work as "polyphonic": Dostoyevsky does not appear to aim for a "single vision", and beyond simply describing situations from various angles, Dostoyevsky engendered fully dramatic novels of ideas, where conflicting views and characters are left to develop unevenly into unbearable crescendo.

Legacy[link]

Together with Leo Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky is often regarded one of the greatest novelists in the Golden Age of Russian literature,^[77] and only few people of the 19th century were as influential as Dostoyevsky. The publication of his debut novel, Poor Folk, pushed him into the literary mainstream; critics saw in him the rising star of the Russian literature. He was known for his gifted narrative, and through his sharp and at the same time deep, sophisticated statements in intellectual and political discussions he was described as a spiritual guide, a teacher and even a prophet.^[78]

Dostoyevsky's works also attracted readers outside of Russia. The German translator Wilhelm Wolfsohn published one of the earliest known translation, parts of Poor Folk, in a 1846/1847 magazine,^[79] and a similar pattern followed France, while the first English translations were provided by Marie von Thilo in 1881, and the first adequate translations were done between 1912 and 1920 by Constance Garnett.^[80]

Since then, many non-Russians were introduced to Dostoyevsky's works. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche called Dostoyevsky in Twilight of the Idols "the only psychologist, incidentally, from whom I had something to learn; he ranks among the most beautiful strokes of fortune in my life…"^[78] Thomas Mann adviced to read his novels in masses, while Hermann Hesse primarly enjoyed his novels, he also stated that to read him is like a "glimpse into the havoc".^[81] Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun meant that "no one has analysed the complicated human structure as Dostoyevsy. His psychologic sense is overwhelming and visionary. We have no yardstick by which to assess his greatness".^[82] André Gide said that Dostoyevsky "should be put beside Ibsen and Nietzsche; he is equal in size as the three, and maybe the most important".^[83]

According to an excerpt of a letter written by Edmund Gosse to Gide, "[Dostoyevsky] is the cocaine and morphia of modern literature".^[84] Left-wing groups such as the surrealists, the existentialists and the Beats named Dostoyevsky as their influence.^[85] Dostoyevsky is cited as the forerunner of Russian symbolism,^[86] existentialism,^[87] expressionism^[88] and psychoanalysis.^[89]

After the 1917 Russian Revolution, Dostoyevsky's books were now and then censored or banned. His philosophy, especially in The Demons, was deemed as capitalistic and anti-communist, leading to the nickname of "our evil genius" by Maxim Gorky. Reading Dostoyevsky was forbidden and those who did not observe the law were imprisoned. During the Second World War, however, his works were propagated by both the Soviets and the Nazis, and after the war the prohibtion law was overturned. His 125th anniversary in 1947 was celebrated throughout Russia, but despite this his novels were agained banned the next year until Nikita Khrushchev's accession to power ten years later and the following de-Stalinization, which softened the laws.^[90]

Dostoyevsky monument in Dresden

After the Second World War, his works topped the best-seller lists worldwide. Philosopher, psychologists, theologian, social scientists, politician, literary scientists, physicians, lawer, pupils and students have acknowledged his works. Many of his novels and stories were filmed and dramatised in the Soviet Union and the West.^[81] Dostoyevsy's fictional characters and his work overall were popularised in graffitis, presidential speeches, vaudevilles, films and playwrights.^[91]

A 1956 green-olive stamp dedicated to Dostoyevsky was released in the Soviet Union with a print run of 1,000 copies.^[92] The Dostoevsky Museum was opened in 12 November 1971 in the apartment where he wrote the first and the last novels.^[93] The minor planet 3453 Dostoevsky was discovered in 1981 by Lyudmila Karachkina and named for him. Viewers of the TV show Name of Russia voted him the ninth greatest Russian of all time, behind chemist Dmitry Mendeleev and ahead ruler Ivan IV.^[94] The Moscow Metro station Dostoyevskaya in the Lyublinsko-Dmitrovskaya Line was scheduled to open for the public on 15 May, the 75th anniversary of Moscow Metro. The illustrations on the décor made by artist Ivan Nikolaev were criticised because of their depiction of suicides. The station was netherless opened on 19 June 2010.^[95][96]

Works[link]

Dostoyevsky's works of fiction include 5 translations, 15 novels and novellas, and 17 short stories. Many of his longer novels were first published in serialised form in literary magazines and journals (see the individual articles). 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 several titles.

Major works[link]

Poor Folk

Poor Folk describes in the form of an epistolary novel the relationship between the somewhat elder, small official Makar Devushkin and the young seamstress Varvara Dobroselova, a remote relative. Both write letters to each other and through the tender, sentimental adoration for his relative and her confident, warm friendship with him, they seem to prefer a life in a higher society, although this pushed them into a humiliating poverty. Their idyll would be destroyed by money and might.

An unscrupulous merchant finds an inexperienced girl and hires her as his housewife and guarantor. He sends her to a manor, somewhere on a steppe, while Devushkin alleviates his misery and pain with alcohol. The story focuses on poor people who fight against their lack of self esteem. Their threats and destruction leads to the loss of their inner freedom, to the entire dependence of the social authorities and to the extinction of the individual. Dostoyevsky shows how poverty and dependence are indissolubly aligned with profound inner damage, i.e. deflection and deformation of the self esteem, which combine for inner and outer loss.^[12]

Notes from Underground

This novel is split into two stylistically very different parts: the first is essay-like, while the second narrative and similar to a novella. The protagonist and first-person narrator is an unnamed, 40 years old official. About his living situation it is only known that he quits the service, lives in a basement flat on the outskirts of St. Petersburg and finances his livelihood owing to a modest heritage. The first part is a record of his thought to the society as well as to his own character. He describes himself as vicious, squalid and ugly; the chief aim of his polemic and incisive analysis is the "modern human" and the self-created society, which he comments severely and zynically and towards which he builds aggression and revengefulness. He considers his own decline naturally and necessary. Although he emphasizes that he does not intend to publish the notes for the public, the narrator appeals repeatedly to the ill-described audience, whose questions he tries to take a stand on.

In the second part he tells different, old scenes from his life, which are responsible for his fail in the professional life as well as in the interpersonal area and in his love life. For example, he tells about the meeting with old schoolfriends, who unlike him are situated in sophisticated and secure position and meet him with condescension. His aggression now turns towards him and he tries to humiliate himself further. At the same time he takes it out on lower-classed people: he presents himself as a possible saviour towards the poor prostitute Lisa to reject all self-reproaches in the moment when she hopes to obtain hope through him. Dostoyevsky added a short commentary to the Notes, which points to the fact that although all characters plus the storyline are fictional, a similar action may occur not only in contemporary society, but which is also inevitable.

Crime and Punishment

The main protagonist, Raskolnikov, is a fromer student who lives in poor circumstances. Inspired by the 12 January 1866 crime committed by A. M. Danilov and Ivan Turgenev's Yevgeny Bazarov from Fathers and Sons, Raskolnikov is a caricature portrayal of a typical nihilist; radical, anarchistic and careless, but compared with Bazarov more radical. After murdering a pawnbroker for her cash, Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless parasite. He also commits this murder to test his own hypothesis that some people are naturally capable of such things, and even have the right to do them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by connecting himself mentally with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose. The religious prostitute Sonya, daughter of one of Raskolnikov's friends, eventually brings about a rebound in his life and motivated the murderer to listen to his conscience.^[31]

The Idiot

The novel's protagonist, the twenty-six-year-old Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, returns to Russia after spending several years at a Swiss sanatorium. Scorned by the society of St. Petersburg for his trusting nature and naivete, he finds himself at the center of a struggle between a beautiful kept woman (Nastasya) and a virtuous and pretty young girl (Aglaja), both of whom win his affection. Unfortunately, Myshkin's very goodness precipitates disaster, leaving the impression that, in a world obsessed with money, power, and sexual conquest, a sanatorium may be the only place for a saint. Myshkin is the personification of a "relatively beautiful man", namely Christ. Coming "from above", the Swiss mountains to Russia, he physically bears a resemblance to Christ: a little bit above medium sized; very blond, thick hair; sunken cheeks and a thin, almost entirely white goatee. Just like Christ, Myshkin is a teacher, confessor and mysterious outsider. Passions such as greed or jealousy are for him alien. In contrast to his environment he puts no value to vindicate his right to money and might. He feels compassion without hate, love or ferocity. His relationship with the sinful Mary is obviously inspired by Christ's relationship with Mary Magdalene. Therefore he is called "Idiot" because of such differences.^[34][35]

The Demons

The story of Demons, depending on the translation also known under different titles, is largely based on the murder of Ivanov and was influenced by the Book of Revelation. The second characters, Stepan and Pyotr Verkhovensky, are the embodiments of Nechayev and Timofey Granovsky, respectively.^[38] The novel takes place in a provincial Russian setting, primarily on the estates of Stepan Trofimovich Verkhovensky and Varvara Stavrogina. Stepan Trofimovich's son, Pyotr Verkhovensky, is an aspiring revolutionary conspirator who attempts to organize a knot of revolutionaries in the area. He considers Varvara Stavrogina's son, Nikolai, central to his plot because he thinks Nikolai Stavrogin has no sympathy for mankind whatsoever. Verkhovensky gathers conspirators like the philosophizing Shigalyov, suicidal Kirillov, and the former military man Virginsky, and he schemes to solidify their loyalty to him and each other by murdering Ivan Shatov, a fellow conspirator. Verkhovensky plans to have Kirillov, who was committed to killing himself, take credit for the murder in his suicide note. Kirillov complies and Verkhovensky murders Shatov, but his scheme falls apart. He escapes, but the remainder of his aspiring revolutionary crew is arrested. In the denouement of the novel, Nikolai Stavrogin kills himself, tortured by his own misdeeds.

The Brothers Karamazov

Composed of 12 books, The Brothers Karamazov tells the story of the protagonist Alyosha Karamazov. Alyosha, a novice, is the brother of the atheist Ivan Karamazov and soldier Dmitry. First parts of the books introduces the Karamazovs. The main plot is the death of their father Fyodor, while other parts are philosophical and religious argumentations to Alyosha by Father Zosima. The Brothers Karamazov was intended to be the first part of The Life of a Great Sinner, which has never been completed.^[44][46]

The most renowned chapter is "The Grand Inquisitor", a parable told by Ivan to Alyosha about Christ's Second Coming in Seville, Spain, where Christ was imprisoned by the ninety-years old, pseudo-religious, Catholic Grand Inquisitor. Instead of answering him, Christ gives him a kiss and the Inquisitor subsequently releases him but tells him not to return. The tale was misunderstood for being a defence to the actions by the Inquisitor, while others, such as Romano Guardini, argued that the book's Christ was Ivan's own interpretation of his Christ, "the idealistic product of the unbelief". Ivan, however, obviously stated that he is against Christ. Most contemporary critics and scholars agree that Dostoyevsky is particularly attacking Roman Catholicism and socialist atheism, which both represent the Inquisitor. With this novel he warns the readers against a terrible revelation in the future which already occurred in the past. For Dostoyevsky, the Donation of Pepin around 750 and the Spanish Inquisition in the 16th century corrupted the true Christianity.^[97][44][46]

Bibliography[link]

Plays

• (~1844) The Jew Yankel (unknown whether finshed or not; title based on Gogol's character from Taras Bulba)

Essays

• A Writer's Diary, collected essays
• Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1863)
• A Writer's Diary (Дневник писателя [Dnevnik pisatelya], 1873–1881)
• Letters (collected in English translations in five volumes of Complete Letters)

Translations

• (1843) Eugénie Grandet, (Honore de Balzac)
• (1843) La dernière Aldini (George Sand)
• (1843) Mary Stuart (Friedrich Schiller)
• (1843) Boris Godunov (Alexander Pushkin)
• (1843) Reineke Fuchs (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

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References[link]

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