Dostoevsky initials. Biography of the writer

Biography

Origin

The heyday of creativity

Family and environment

Poetics of Dostoevsky

Political Views

Bibliography

Artworks

Novels and stories

Writer's Diary

Poems

Domestic research

Foreign research

English language

German

monuments

memorial plaques

In philately

Dostoevsky in culture

Films about Dostoevsky

Current events

Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky(doref. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky; October 30, 1821, Moscow, Russian Empire - January 28, 1881, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire) - one of the most significant and famous Russian writers and thinkers in the world.

Biography

Origin

On the father's side, the Dostoevskys are one of the branches of the Rtishchev family, which originates from Aslan-Chelebi-Murza, baptized by Moscow Prince Dmitry Donskoy. The Rtishchevs were part of the inner circle of Prince Ivan Vasilyevich of Serpukhov and Borovsky, who in 1456, having quarreled with Vasily the Dark, left for Pinsk, which at that time was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. There Ivan Vasilyevich became Prince of Pinsky. He granted Stepan Rtishchev the villages of Kalechino and Lepovitsa. In 1506, the son of Ivan Vasilyevich, Fyodor, granted Danila Rtishchev a part of the village of Dostoeva in the Pinsk region. Hence the "Dostoevsky". Since 1577, the writer's paternal ancestors received the right to use the Radvan - the Polish noble coat of arms, the main element of which was the Golden Horde tamga (brand, seal). Dostoevsky's father drank heavily and was extremely cruel. “My grandfather Mikhail,” says Lyubov Dostoevskaya, “always treated his serfs very strictly. The more he drank, the more ferocious he became, until they eventually killed him."

Mother, Maria Fedorovna Nechaeva (1800-1837), daughter of the merchant of the III guild Fyodor Timofeevich Nechaev (1769-1832), who came from the old townspeople of the city of Borovsk, Kaluga province, was born in a Moscow raznochin family, where there were merchants, inmates in shops, doctors, university students , professors, artists, spiritual persons. Her maternal grandfather, Mikhail Fedorovich Kotelnitsky (1721-1798), was born into the family of the priest Fyodor Andreev, graduated from the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy and took his place after the death of his father, becoming a priest of the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kotelniki.

Writer's youth

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born on October 30 (November 11), 1821 in Moscow. He was the second of 7 children left alive.

When Dostoevsky was 16 years old, his mother died of consumption, and his father sent his eldest sons, Fyodor and Mikhail (later also a writer), to K. F. Kostomarov's boarding house in St. Petersburg.

1837 was an important date for Dostoevsky. This is the year of his mother's death, the year of the death of Pushkin, whose works he (like his brother) read from childhood, the year of moving to St. Petersburg and entering the Main Engineering School. In 1839 his father was killed, possibly by his serfs. Dostoevsky participated in the work of Belinsky's circle. A year before his dismissal from military service, Dostoevsky first translated and published Balzac's Eugene Grande (1843). A year later, his first work, Poor People, was published, and he immediately became famous: V. G. Belinsky highly appreciated this work. But the next book, The Double, ran into a misunderstanding.

Shortly after the publication of White Nights, the writer was arrested (1849) in connection with the Petrashevsky case. Although Dostoevsky denied the charges against him, the court recognized him as "one of the most important criminals."

Hard labor and exile

The trial and the harsh sentence of death (December 22, 1849) on the Semyonovsky parade ground was staged as a mock execution. At the last moment, the convicts were pardoned, having been sentenced to hard labor. One of those sentenced to death, Nikolai Grigoriev, went mad. The feelings that he could experience before the execution, Dostoevsky conveyed the words of Prince Myshkin in one of the monologues in the novel The Idiot.

During a short stay in Tobolsk on the way to the place of hard labor (January 11-20, 1850), the writer met with the wives of the exiled Decembrists: Zh. A. Muravyova, P. E. Annenkova and N. D. Fonvizina. Women gave him the Gospel, which the writer kept all his life.

Dostoevsky spent the next four years in hard labor in Omsk. The memoirs of one of the eyewitnesses of the hard labor life of the writer have been preserved. Impressions from the stay in prison were later reflected in the story "Notes from the House of the Dead". In 1854, Dostoevsky was released and sent as a private to the seventh line Siberian battalion. While serving in Semipalatinsk, he became friends with Chokan Valikhanov, a future famous Kazakh traveler and ethnographer. Here he began an affair with Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, who was married to a gymnasium teacher Alexander Isaev, a bitter drunkard. After some time, Isaev was transferred to the place of an assessor in Kuznetsk. On August 14, 1855, Fyodor Mikhailovich received a letter from Kuznetsk: the husband of M. D. Isaeva died after a long illness.

On February 18, 1855, Emperor Nicholas I died. Dostoevsky wrote a loyal poem dedicated to his widow, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, and as a result became a non-commissioned officer. October 20, 1856 Dostoevsky was promoted to ensign.

On February 6, 1857, Dostoevsky married Maria Isaeva in the Russian Orthodox Church in Kuznetsk. Immediately after the wedding, they went to Semipalatinsk, but on the way Dostoevsky had an epileptic seizure, and they stayed in Barnaul for four days. On February 20, 1857, Dostoevsky and his wife returned to Semipalatinsk.

The period of imprisonment and military service was a turning point in Dostoevsky's life: from a "seeker of truth in man" who had not yet decided in life, he turned into a deeply religious person, whose only ideal for the rest of his life was Christ.

In 1859, Dostoevsky published his novels The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants and Uncle's Dream in Otechestvennye Zapiski in 1859.

After the link

On June 30, 1859, Dostoevsky was given a temporary ticket number 2030, allowing him to travel to Tver, and on July 2, the writer left Semipalatinsk. In 1860, Dostoevsky, with his wife and adopted son Pavel, returned to St. Petersburg, but secret surveillance of him did not stop until the mid-1870s. From the beginning of 1861, Fyodor Mikhailovich helped his brother Mikhail publish his own magazine, Vremya, after which the brothers began publishing the Epoch magazine in 1863. On the pages of these magazines appeared such works by Dostoevsky as "Humiliated and Insulted", "Notes from the Dead House", "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions" and "Notes from the Underground".

Dostoevsky undertook a trip abroad with the young emancipated special Apollinaria Suslova, in Baden-Baden he became interested in a ruinous game of roulette, he was in constant need of money, and at the same time (1864) he lost his wife and brother. The unusual way of European life completed the destruction of the socialist illusions of youth, formed a critical perception of bourgeois values ​​and rejection of the West.

Six months after the death of his brother, the publication of The Epoch ceased (February 1865). In a hopeless financial situation, Dostoevsky wrote the chapters of Crime and Punishment, sending them to M. N. Katkov directly into the magazine set of the conservative Russky Vestnik, where they were printed from issue to issue. At the same time, under the threat of losing the rights to his publications for 9 years in favor of the publisher F. T. Stellovsky, he undertook to write him a novel, for which he would not have had the physical strength. On the advice of friends, Dostoevsky hired a young stenographer, Anna Snitkina, who helped him with this task. In October 1866, the novel The Gambler was written in twenty-six days and completed on the 25th.

The novel "Crime and Punishment" was paid by Katkov very well, but in order to prevent creditors from taking this money, the writer went abroad with his new wife Anna Snitkina. The trip is reflected in the diary, which Snitkina-Dostoevskaya began to keep in 1867. On the way to Germany, the couple stopped for a few days in Vilna.

The heyday of creativity

Snitkina arranged the life of the writer, took over all the economic issues of his activities, and since 1871 Dostoevsky gave up roulette forever.

From 1872 to 1878 the writer lived in the city of Staraya Russa, Novgorod province. These years of life were very fruitful: 1872 - "Demons", 1873 - the beginning of the "Diary of a Writer" (a series of feuilletons, essays, polemical notes and passionate journalistic notes on the topic of the day), 1875 - "Teenager", 1876 - "Meek".

In October 1878, Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg, where he settled in an apartment in a house on Kuznechny Lane, 5/2, in which he lived until the day of his death on January 28 (February 9), 1881. Here, in 1880, he finished writing his last novel, The Brothers Karamazov. At present, the Literary and Memorial Museum of F. M. Dostoevsky is located in the apartment.

In the last few years of his life, 2 events became especially significant for Dostoevsky. In 1878, Emperor Alexander II invited the writer to his place to introduce him to his family, and in 1880, just a year before his death, Dostoevsky delivered his famous speech at the opening of the Pushkin monument in Moscow. In the same years, the writer became close to conservative journalists, publicists and thinkers, corresponded with the prominent statesman K. P. Pobedonostsev.

Despite the fame that Dostoevsky gained at the end of his life, truly enduring, worldwide fame came to him after his death. In particular, Friedrich Nietzsche admitted that Dostoevsky was the only psychologist from whom he could learn something (Twilight of the Idols).

On January 26 (February 7), 1881, Dostoevsky's sister Vera Mikhailovna came to the Dostoevsky's house to ask her brother to give up his share of the Ryazan estate, inherited from his aunt A. F. Kumanina, in favor of the sisters. According to the story of Lyubov Fyodorovna Dostoevsky, there was a stormy scene with explanations and tears, after which Dostoevsky bled in his throat. Perhaps this unpleasant conversation was the impetus for the exacerbation of his illness (emphysema) - two days later the writer died.

He was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.

Family and environment

The writer's grandfather Andrei Grigorievich Dostoevsky (1756 - around 1819) served as a Greek Catholic, later - an Orthodox priest in the village of Voytovtsy near Nemyriv (now the Vinnitsa region of Ukraine) (according to his pedigree - the archpriest of the city of Bratslav, Podolsk province).

Father, Mikhail Andreevich (1787-1839), from October 14, 1809 he studied at the Moscow Department of the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy, on August 15, 1812 he was sent to the Moscow Golovinsky Hospital for the use of the sick and wounded, on August 5, 1813 he was transferred to the headquarters of the healers of the Borodino Infantry Regiment, On April 29, 1819, he was transferred as an intern to the Moscow military hospital; on May 7, he was transferred to the salary of a senior physician. In 1828 he received the noble title of Nobleman of the Russian Empire, was included in the 3rd part of the Genealogical Book of the Moscow Nobility with the right to use the old Polish coat of arms "Radvan", which belonged to Dostoevsky since 1577. He was a doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital of the Moscow Orphanage (that is, in a hospital for the poor, also known as Bozhedomki). In 1831 he acquired the small village of Darovoye in the Kashirsky district of the Tula province, and in 1833 he also acquired the neighboring village of Cheremoshnya (Chermashnya), where in 1839 he was killed by his own serfs:

Dostoevsky's mother, Maria Fedorovna (1800-1837), was the daughter of a wealthy Moscow merchant of the 3rd guild, Fyodor Timofeevich Nechaev (born c. 1769) and Varvara Mikhailovna Kotelnitskaya (c. 1779 - died between 1811 and 1815), 7 th revision (1811), the Nechaev family lived in Moscow, on Syromyatnaya Sloboda, in the Basmannaya part, the parish of Peter and Paul, in their house; after the war of 1812, the family lost most of its fortune. At 19, she married Mikhail Dostoyevsky. She was, according to the recollections of the children, a kind mother and gave birth to four sons and four daughters in marriage (son Fedor was the second child). M. F. Dostoevskaya died of consumption. According to researchers of the great writer's work, certain features of Maria Feodorovna are reflected in the images of Sophia Andreevna Dolgoruky ("The Teenager") and Sophia Ivanovna Karamazov ("The Brothers Karamazov")

Dostoevsky's elder brother Mikhail also became a writer, his work was marked by the influence of his brother, and the work on the Vremya magazine was carried out by the brothers to a large extent jointly. The younger brother Andrei became an architect; Dostoevsky saw in his family a worthy example of family life. A. M. Dostoevsky left valuable memories of his brother.

Of the Dostoevsky sisters, the writer had the closest relationship with Varvara Mikhailovna (1822-1893), about whom he wrote to his brother Andrei: "I love her; she is a nice sister and a wonderful person…”(November 28, 1880).

Of the numerous nephews and nieces, Dostoevsky loved and singled out Maria Mikhailovna (1844-1888), who, according to the memoirs of L. F. Dostoevsky, “loved her like his own daughter, caressed and entertained her when she was still small, later proud of her musical talent and her success with young people” However, after the death of Mikhail Dostoevsky, this closeness came to naught.

The second wife, Anna Snitkina, from a wealthy family, became the wife of the writer at the age of 20. At this time (the end of 1866) Dostoevsky experienced serious financial difficulties and signed a contract with a publisher on onerous terms. The novel "The Gambler" was composed by Dostoevsky and dictated by Snitkina, who worked as a stenographer, in 26 days and was submitted on time. Anna Dostoevskaya took all the financial affairs of the family into her own hands.

The descendants of Fyodor Mikhailovich continue to live in St. Petersburg.

Poetics of Dostoevsky

As O. M. Nogovitsyn showed in his work, Dostoevsky is the most prominent representative of “ontological”, “reflexive” poetics, which, unlike traditional, descriptive poetics, leaves the character in a sense free in its relationship with the text that describes him ( that is, the world for him), which is manifested in the fact that he is aware of his relationship with him and acts on the basis of it. Hence all the paradox, inconsistency and inconsistency of Dostoevsky's characters. If in traditional poetics the character always remains in the power of the author, always captured by the events happening to him (captured by the text), that is, he remains wholly descriptive, wholly included in the text, wholly understandable, subordinate to causes and effects, the movement of the narrative, then in ontological poetics we are for the first time we come across a character who tries to resist the textual elements, his subordination to the text, trying to “rewrite” it. With this approach, writing is not a description of a character in diverse situations and positions in the world, but empathy with his tragedy - his willful unwillingness to accept a text (world) that is inescapably redundant in relation to him, potentially infinite. For the first time, M. M. Bakhtin drew attention to such a special attitude of Dostoevsky towards his characters.

Political Views

During the life of Dostoevsky, at least two political currents fought in the cultural strata of society - Slavophilism and Westernism, the essence of which is approximately as follows: adherents of the first argued that the future of Russia in nationality, Orthodoxy and autocracy, adherents of the second believed that Russians should take an example from Europeans. Both those and others reflected on the historical fate of Russia. Dostoevsky, on the other hand, had his own idea - “soilism”. He was and remained a Russian man, inextricably linked with the people, but at the same time he did not deny the achievements of the culture and civilization of the West. Over time, Dostoevsky's views developed: a former member of the circle of Christian utopian socialists, he turned into a religious conservative, and during his third stay abroad, he finally became a convinced monarchist.

Dostoevsky and the "Jewish question"

Dostoevsky's views on the role of Jews in the life of Russia are reflected in the writer's journalism. For example, discussing the further fate of the peasants liberated from serfdom, he writes in the Writer's Diary for 1873:

The Electronic Jewish Encyclopedia claims that anti-Semitism was an integral part of Dostoevsky's worldview and found expression both in novels and short stories, and in the writer's journalism. A clear confirmation of this, according to the compilers of the encyclopedia, is Dostoevsky's work "The Jewish Question". However, Dostoevsky himself in the "Jewish Question" stated: "... this hatred has never been in my heart ...".

On February 26, 1878, in a letter to Nikolai Epifanovich Grishchenko, a teacher at the Kozeletsky parish school in the Chernihiv province, who complained to the writer “that the Russian peasants are completely enslaved by the Jews, robbed by them, and the Russian press stands up for the Jews; Jews ... for the Chernigov province ... worse than the Turks for the Bulgarians ... ”, Dostoevsky answered:

Dostoevsky's attitude to the "Jewish question" is analyzed by literary critic Leonid Grossman in the book "Confession of a Jew", dedicated to the correspondence between the writer and the Jewish journalist Arkady Kovner. The message sent by Kovner from the Butyrka prison made an impression on Dostoevsky. He ends his letter in response with the words: “Believe with complete sincerity with which I shake your hand extended to me,” and in the chapter on the Jewish question of the Writer’s Diary, he quotes Kovner extensively.

According to critic Maya Turovskaya, the mutual interest of Dostoevsky and Jews is caused by the embodiment in Jews (and in Kovner, in particular) of the search for Dostoevsky's characters. According to Nikolai Nasedkin, a contradictory attitude towards Jews is generally characteristic of Dostoevsky: he very clearly distinguished between the concepts of "Jew" and "Jew". In addition, Nasedkin notes that the word "Jew" and its derivatives were for Dostoevsky and his contemporaries an ordinary tool word among others, was used widely and everywhere, was natural for all Russian literature of the 19th century, unlike our time.

Evaluations of creativity and personality of Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky's work had a great influence on Russian and world culture. The literary heritage of the writer is differently evaluated both at home and abroad.

In Russian criticism, the most positive assessment of Dostoevsky was given by religious philosophers.

Dostoevsky's personality is ambiguously assessed by some liberal and democratic figures, in particular the leader of the liberal populists N. K. Mikhailovsky, Maxim Gorky.

At the same time, in the West, where Dostoevsky's novels have been popular since the beginning of the 20th century, his work has had a significant impact on such generally liberal movements as existentialism, expressionism and surrealism. Many literary critics see him as the forerunner of existentialism. However, abroad, Dostoevsky is usually regarded, first of all, as an outstanding writer and psychologist, while his ideology is ignored or almost completely rejected.

Bibliography

Artworks

Novels

• 1846 - Poor people
• 1861 - Humiliated and insulted
• 1866 - Crime and Punishment
• 1866 - Gambler
• 1868-1869 - Idiot
• 1871-1872 - Demons
• 1875 - Teenager
• 1879-1880 - Brothers Karamazov

Novels and stories

Publicism and criticism, essays

• 1847 - Petersburg chronicle
• 1861 - Stories of N.V. Uspensky
• 1862 - Winter notes on summer impressions
• 1880 - Judgment
• 1880 - Pushkin

Writer's Diary

• 1873 - Writer's diary. 1873
• 1876 ​​- Writer's diary. 1876
• 1877 - Writer's diary. January-August 1877.
• 1877 - Writer's diary. September-December 1877.
• 1880 - Writer's diary. 1880
• 1881 - Writer's diary. 1881

Poems

• 1854 - On European events in 1854
• 1855 - On the first of July 1855
• 1856 - For the coronation and conclusion of peace
• 1864 - Epigram for a Bavarian colonel
• 1864-1873 - Struggle of nihilism with honesty (officer and nihilist)
• 1873-1874 - Describe everything entirely of some priests
• 1876-1877 - The collapse of Baimakov's office
• 1876 ​​- Children are expensive
• 1879 - Do not rob, Fedul

The collection of folklore material “My hard labor notebook”, also known as the “Siberian notebook”, written by Dostoevsky during his penal servitude, stands apart.

The main literature on Dostoevsky

Domestic research

• Barsht K.A. Drawings in the manuscripts of F.M. Dostoevsky. SPb., 1996. 319 p.
• Bogdanov N., Rogovoy A. Genealogy of Dostoevsky: in search of lost links. M., 2010.
• Belinsky V. G.

Introductory article // Petersburg collection published by N. Nekrasov. SPb., 1846.

• Dobrolyubov N. A. Downtrodden people // Sovremennik. 1861. No. 9. otdel. II.
• Pisarev D.I. Struggle for existence // Delo. 1868. No. 8.
• Leontiev K. N. About universal love: Regarding the speech of F. M. Dostoevsky at the Pushkin holiday // Warsaw diary. 1880. July 29 (No. 162). pp. 3-4; August 7 (No. 169). pp. 3-4; August 12 (No. 173). pp. 3-4.
• Mikhailovsky N.K. Cruel talent // Otechestvennye zapiski. 1882. No. 9, 10.
• Solovyov V. S. Three speeches in memory of Dostoevsky: (1881-1883). M., 1884. 55 p.
• Rozanov V.V. The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor F. M. Dostoevsky: An Experience of Critical Commentary // Russian Bulletin. 1891. Vol. 212, January. pp. 233-274; February. pp. 226-274; T. 213, March. pp. 215-253; April. pp. 251-274. Ed.: St. Petersburg: Nikolaev, 1894. 244 p.
• Merezhkovsky D.S. L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky: Christ and Antichrist in Russian Literature. T. 1. Life and work. St. Petersburg: World of Art, 1901. 366 p. T. 2. Religion of L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. St. Petersburg: World of Art, 1902. LV, 530 p.
• Shestov L. Dostoevsky and Nietzsche. SPb., 1906.
• Ivanov Vyach. AND. Dostoevsky and the tragedy novel // Russian Thought. 1911. Prince. 5. S. 46-61; Book. 6. S. 1-17.
• Pereverzev VF Creativity of Dostoevsky. M., 1912. (Reprinted in the book: Gogol, Dostoevsky. Research. M., 1982)
• Tynyanov Yu. N. Dostoevsky and Gogol: (On the theory of parody). Pg.: OPOYAZ, 1921.
• Berdyaev N. A. Dostoevsky's world outlook. Prague, 1923. 238 p.
• Volotskoy M. V. Chronicle of the Dostoevsky family 1506-1933. M., 1933.
• Engelhardt B. M. The ideological novel of Dostoevsky // F. M. Dostoevsky: Articles and materials / Ed. A. S. Dolinina. L.; M.: Thought, 1924. Sat. 2. S. 71-109.
• Dostoevskaya A. G. Memories . M.: Fiction, 1981.
• Freud Z. Dostoevsky and parricide // Classical psychoanalysis and fiction / Comp. and general ed. V. M. Leybin. St. Petersburg: Piter, 2002. S. 70-88.
• Mochulsky K.V. Dostoevsky: Life and work. Paris: YMCA-Press, 1947. 564 p.
• Lossky N. O. Dostoevsky and his Christian worldview. New York: Chekhov Publishing House, 1953. 406 p.
• Dostoevsky in Russian criticism. Collection of articles. M., 1956. (introductory article and note by A. A. Belkin)
• Leskov N. S. About the kufelny peasant, etc. - Collected. soch., vol. 11, Moscow, 1958, pp. 146-156;
• Grossman L.P. Dostoevsky. M.: Young Guard, 1962. 543 p. (The life of remarkable people. A series of biographies; Issue 24 (357)).
• Bakhtin M. M. Problems of Dostoevsky's creativity. Leningrad: Surf, 1929. 244 p. 2nd ed., revised. and additional: Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. M.: Soviet writer, 1963. 363 p.
• Dostoevsky in the memoirs of his contemporaries: In 2 vols. M., 1964. T. 1. T. 2.
• Fridlender G. M. Dostoevsky realism. M.; L.: Nauka, 1964. 404 p.
• Meyer G. A. Light in the night: (About "Crime and Punishment"): The experience of slow reading. Frankfurt/Main: Posev, 1967. 515 p.
• F. M. Dostoevsky: Bibliography of the works of F. M. Dostoevsky and literature about him: 1917-1965. Moscow: Book, 1968. 407 p.
• Kirpotin V. Ya. Disappointment and collapse of Rodion Raskolnikov: (A book about Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment"). M.: Soviet writer, 1970. 448 p.
• Zakharov VN Problems of studying Dostoevsky: Textbook. - Petrozavodsk. 1978.
• Zakharov VN Dostoevsky's System of Genres: Typology and Poetics. - L., 1985.
• Toporov V. N. On the Structure of Dostoevsky's Novel in Connection with Archaic Schemes of Mythological Thinking ("Crime and Punishment") // Toporov V. N. Myth. Ritual. Symbol. Image: Studies in the field of mythopoetic. M., 1995. S. 193-258.
• Dostoevsky: Materials and Research / USSR Academy of Sciences. IRLI. L.: Nauka, 1974-2007. Issue. 1-18 (ongoing edition).
• Odinokov V. G. Typology of images in the artistic system of F. M. Dostoevsky. Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1981. 144 p.
• Seleznev Yu. I. Dostoevsky. M .: Young Guard, 1981. 543 p., ill. (Life of remarkable people. A series of biographies; Issue 16 (621)).
• Volgin I. L. Dostoevsky's Last Year: Historical Notes. Moscow: Soviet writer, 1986.
• Saraskina L. I."Demons": a novel-warning. M.: Soviet writer, 1990. 488 p.
• Allen L. Dostoevsky and God / Per. from fr. E. Vorobieva. St. Petersburg: Branch of the magazine "Youth"; Dusseldorf: Blue Rider, 1993. 160 p.
• Guardini R. Man and faith / Per. with him. Brussels: Life with God, 1994. 332 p.
• Kasatkina T. A. Characterology of Dostoevsky: Typology of emotional and value orientations. M.: Nasledie, 1996. 335 p.
• Laut R. Philosophy of Dostoevsky in a systematic presentation / Per. with him. I. S. Andreeva; Ed. A. V. Gulygi. M.: Respublika, 1996. 448 p.
• Belnep R. L. The Structure of The Brothers Karamazov / Per. from English. St. Petersburg: Academic project, 1997.
• Dunaev M. M. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) // Dunaev M. M. Orthodoxy and Russian literature: [at 6 hours]. M.: Christian literature, 1997. S. 284-560.
• Nakamura K. Dostoevsky's sense of life and death / Authoriz. per. from Japanese. St. Petersburg: Dmitry Bulanin, 1997. 332 p.
• Meletinsky E. M. Notes on the work of Dostoevsky. M.: RGGU, 2001. 190 p.
• The novel by F. M. Dostoevsky "The Idiot": The current state of the study. M.: Nasledie, 2001. 560 p.
• Kasatkina T. A. On the creative nature of the word: The ontology of the word in the work of F. M. Dostoevsky as the basis of "realism in the highest sense." M.: IMLI RAN, 2004. 480 p.
• Tikhomirov B. N."Lazarus! come out": F. M. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" in a modern reading: Book-commentary. St. Petersburg: Silver Age, 2005. 472 p.
• Yakovlev L. Dostoevsky: ghosts, phobias, chimeras (reader's notes). - Kharkov: Karavella, 2006. - 244 p. ISBN 966-586-142-5
• Vetlovskaya V. E. The novel by F. M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov". St. Petersburg: Pushkinsky Dom Publishing House, 2007. 640 p.
• The novel by F. M. Dostoevsky "The Brothers Karamazov": the current state of the study. M.: Nauka, 2007. 835 p.
• Bogdanov N., Rogovoy A. Genealogy of Dostoevsky. In search of lost links., M., 2008.
• John Maxwell Coetzee. “Autumn in Petersburg” (this is the name of this work in Russian translation, in the original the novel is entitled “The Master from Petersburg”). Moscow: Eksmo, 2010.
• Openness to the abyss. Meetings with DostoevskyLiterary, philosophical and historiographic work of the culturologist Grigory Pomerants.
• Shulyatikov V. M. F. M. Dostoevsky (On the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of his death) "Courier", 1901, No No 22, 36.
• Shulyatikov V. M. Back to Dostoevsky "Courier", 1903, No 287.

Foreign research

English language

• Jones M.V. Dostoevsky. The novel of discord. L., 1976.
• Holquist M. Dostoievvsky and the novel. Princeton (N. Jersey), 1977.
• Hingley R. Dostoyevsky. His life and work. L., 1978.
• Kabat G.C. Ideology and imagination. The image of society in Dostoevsky. N.Y., 1978.
• Jackson R.L. The art of Dostoevsky. Princeton (N. Jersey), 1981.
• Dostoevsky Studies. Journal of the International Dostoievsky Society. v. 1-, Klagenfurt-kuoxville, 1980-.

German

• Zweig S. Drei Meister: Balzac, Dickens, Dostojewskij. Lpz., 1921.
• Natorp P.G: F. Dosktojewskis Bedeutung fur die gegenwärtige Kulturkrisis. Jena, 1923.
• Kaus O. Dostojewski und sein Schicksal. B., 1923.
• Notzel K. Das Leben Dostojewskis, Lpz., 1925
• Meier-Cräfe J. Dostojewski als Dichter. B., 1926.
• Schultze B. Der Dialog in F.M. Dostoevskijs "Idiot". Munich, 1974.

Memory

monuments

There is a memorial plaque to the writer on the house and in Florence (Italy), where he finished the novel The Idiot in 1868.

"Dostoevsky's zone" - this is the informal name of the area near Sennaya Square in St. Petersburg, which is closely associated with the work of F. M. Dostoevsky. He lived here: Treasury Street, houses No. 1 and No. 7 (a commemorative plaque was installed), No. 9. Here, on the streets, lanes, avenues, on the square itself, on the Catherine Canal, the action of a number of the writer’s works (“Idiot”, “Crime and punishment" and others). In the houses of these streets, Dostoevsky settled his literary characters - Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, Sonya Marmeladova, Svidrigailov, General Yepanchin, Rogozhin and others. On Grazhdanskaya Street (formerly Meshchanskaya) in house No. 19/5 (corner of Stolyarny Lane), according to the searches of local historians, Rodion Raskolnikov “lived”. The building is listed in many guidebooks around St. Petersburg as "Raskolnikov's House" and is marked with a memorial sign to the literary hero. The "Dostoevsky Zone" was created in the 1980-1990s at the request of the public, which forced the city authorities to put in order the memorable places located here, which are associated with the name of the writer.

In philately

Dostoevsky in culture

• The name of F. M. Dostoevsky is associated with the concept dostoevism, which has two meanings: a) psychological analysis in the manner of Dostoevsky, b) "mental imbalance, acute and contradictory emotional experiences" inherent in the heroes of the writer's works.
• One of the 16 personality types in socionics is named after Dostoevsky - an original psychological and social typology that has been developing in the USSR and Russia since the 1980s. The name of the classic of literature was given to the sociotype "ethical-intuitive introvert" (abbreviated as EII; another name is "Humanist"). Socionics expert E. S. Filatova proposed a generalized graphic portrait of the EII, in which, among others, the features of Fyodor Dostoevsky are guessed.

Films about Dostoevsky

• Dead House (1932) Nikolai Khmelev as Dostoevsky
• "Dostoevsky". Documentary. TSSDF (RTSSDF). 27 minutes. - a documentary film by Samuil Bubrik and Ilya Kopalin (Russia, 1956) about the life and work of Dostoevsky on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of his death.
• The Writer and His City: Dostoevsky and Petersburg - a film by Heinrich Böll (Germany, 1969)
• Twenty-six Days in the Life of Dostoevsky is a feature film by Alexander Zarkhi (USSR, 1980). Starring Anatoly Solonitsyn
• Dostoevsky and Peter Ustinov - from the documentary "Russia" (Canada, 1986)
• Return of the Prophet - documentary by V. E. Ryzhko (Russia, 1994)
• The Life and Death of Dostoevsky - a documentary (12 episodes) by Alexander Klyushkin (Russia, 2004).
• Demons of St. Petersburg - a feature film by Giuliano Montaldo (Italy, 2008). In the role - Miki Manoilovich.
• Three Women of Dostoevsky - a film by Evgeny Tashkov (Russia, 2010). In the role of Andrey Tashkov
• Dostoevsky - series by Vladimir Khotinenko (Russia, 2011). Starring Yevgeny Mironov.

The image of Dostoevsky is also used in the biographical films Sofia Kovalevskaya (Alexander Filippenko), Chokan Valikhanov (Yuri Orlov), 1985, and the TV series Gentlemen of the Jury (Oleg Vlasov), 2005.

Other

• In Omsk, a street, a library, the Omsk State Literary Museum, Omsk State University were named after Dostoevsky, 2 monuments were erected, etc.
• A street in Tomsk is named after Dostoevsky.
• Street and metro station in St. Petersburg.
• Street, lane and metro station in Moscow.
• In Staraya Russa, Novgorod region - Dostoevsky embankment on the river Porusya
• Novgorod Academic Drama Theater named after F. M. Dostoevsky (Veliky Novgorod).
• Aeroflot's Boeing 767 VP-BAX is named after Fyodor Dostoevsky.
• An impact crater on Mercury is named after Dostoevsky.
• In honor of F. M. Dostoevsky, an employee of the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory L. G. Karachkina named the minor planet 3453 Dostoevsky, discovered on September 27, 1981.

Current events

• On October 10, 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Federal Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel unveiled a monument to Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky in Dresden by People's Artist of Russia Alexander Rukavishnikov.
• A crater on Mercury is named after Dostoevsky.
• November 12, 2001 in Omsk, on the day of the 180th anniversary of the birth of the writer, a monument to F. M. Dostoevsky was opened.
• Since 1997, music critic and radio host Artemy Troitsky has been conducting his own radio program called FM Dostoevsky.
• The writer Boris Akunin wrote the work “F. M., dedicated to Dostoevsky.
• Nobel Prize winner in literature John Maxwell Coetzee wrote in 1994 a novel about Dostoevsky "Autumn in St. Petersburg" (Eng. The Master of Petersburg; 1994, Russian translation 1999)
• In 2010, director Vladimir Khotinenko began filming a serial film about Dostoevsky, which was released in 2011 on the occasion of the 190th anniversary of Dostoevsky's birth.
• On June 19, 2010, the 181st station of the Moscow metro "Dostoevskaya" was opened. Access to the city is carried out on Suvorovskaya Square, Seleznevskaya Street and Durova Street. The design of the station: on the walls of the station there are scenes illustrating four novels by F. M. Dostoevsky (“Crime and Punishment”, “The Idiot”, “Demons”, “The Brothers Karamazov”).
• On October 29, 2010, a monument to Dostoevsky was unveiled in Tobolsk.
• In October 2011, the days dedicated to the 190th anniversary of the birth of F. M. Dostoevsky were held at the University of Malaya (Kuala Lumpur).

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Russian writer, was born in 1821 in

Moscow. His father was a nobleman, a landowner and a doctor of medicine.

He was brought up until the age of 16 in Moscow. In the seventeenth year he passed the exam in St. Petersburg at the Main Engineering School. In 1842 he graduated from the military engineering course and left the school as an engineer-lieutenant. He was left in the service in St. Petersburg, but other goals and aspirations attracted him irresistibly. He especially became interested in literature, philosophy and history.

In 1844 he retired and at the same time wrote his first rather long story, Poor People. This story immediately created a position for him in literature, was met with criticism and the best Russian society extremely favorably. It was a rare success in the full sense of the word. But the constant ill-health that followed for several years in a row harmed his literary pursuits.

In the spring of 1849, he was arrested along with many others for participating in a political conspiracy against the government, which had a socialist connotation. He was brought to the investigation and the highest appointed military court. After an eight-month detention in the Peter and Paul Fortress, he was sentenced to death by firing squad. But the sentence was not carried out: a mitigation of the sentence was read and Dostoevsky, after being deprived of the rights of his estate, ranks and nobility, was exiled to Siberia to hard labor for four years, with enlistment at the end of the term of hard labor in ordinary soldiers. This sentence against Dostoevsky was, in its form, the first case in Russia, for anyone sentenced to penal servitude in Russia loses his civil rights forever, even if he has completed his term of penal servitude. Dostoevsky was appointed, after serving the term of hard labor, to enter the soldiers - that is, the rights of a citizen were returned again. Subsequently, such pardons happened more than once, but then it was the first case and occurred at the behest of the late Emperor Nicholas I, who took pity on Dostoevsky for his youth and talent.

In Siberia, Dostoevsky served his four-year term of hard labor, in the fortress of Omsk; and then in 1854 he was sent from hard labor as an ordinary soldier to the Siberian line battalion No. 7 in the city of Semipalatinsk, where a year later he was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and in 1856, with the accession to the throne of the current emperor Alexander II, to officers. In 1859, being in an epileptic illness, acquired while still in hard labor, he was dismissed and returned to Russia, first to the city of Tver, and then to St. Petersburg. Here Dostoevsky began again to engage in literature.

In 1861, his elder brother, Mikhail Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, began publishing a large monthly literary magazine ("Revue") - "Time". F. M. Dostoevsky also took part in the publication of the magazine, publishing his novel “The Humiliated and Insulted” in it, which was sympathetically accepted by the public. But in the next two years he began and finished Notes from the House of the Dead, in which, under false names, he recounted his life in penal servitude and described his former fellow convicts. This book was read by all of Russia and is still highly valued, although the practices and customs described in Notes from the House of the Dead have long since changed in Russia.

In 1866, after the death of his brother and the termination of the Epoch magazine published by him, Dostoevsky wrote the novel Crime and Punishment, then in 1868 the novel The Idiot and in 1870 the novel Demons. These three novels were highly acclaimed by the public, although Dostoevsky may have been too cruel in them to contemporary Russian society.

In 1876, Dostoevsky began to publish a monthly journal in the original form of his Diary, written by him alone without collaborators. This edition appeared in 1876 and 1877. in the amount of 8000 copies. It was a success. In general, Dostoevsky is loved by the Russian public. He deserved even from his literary opponents the opinion of a highly honest and sincere writer. According to his convictions, he is an open Slavophile; his former socialist convictions have changed quite a lot.

Brief biography of F.M. Dostoevsky - option 2

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky - Russian writer, was born in the family of a nobleman in 1821 in Moscow. His father was a medical doctor. He spent his childhood in the capital. At the age of seventeen, he entered the Main Engineering School, from which he graduated in 1842. He was left to serve in St. Petersburg, but the desire to engage in literature, what Fyodor was most interested in, became stronger.

Already in 1844, his first fairly large story, Poor People, was published. Thanks to the story, Dostoevsky receives a special position in literature. It was an absolute success, which not all writers achieve and not so quickly. However, the constant illness of the writer gave a negative result to literary work.

In the spring of 1849, he and many participants in a political conspiracy against the government were arrested. As a result, Dostoevsky was sentenced to death by firing squad. However, for some reason the sentence was reduced, and Dostoevsky was exiled to Siberia for a period of 4 years.

In 1861, his brother, Mikhail Dostoyevsky, began publishing the magazine Vremya every month. Here the novel "The Humiliated and Insulted" first appeared. The audience reacted quite sensitively to this release. The next year - "Notes from the House of the Dead", which outlines all the events and facts of hard labor. The main characters are former fellow convicts. All he changed was their names. Everything else is pure reality.

After the death of his brother, in 1866, Dostoevsky worked on the novel "", in 1868 - "The Idiot" and in 1870 - "Demons". Basically, Fedor Mikhailovich is considered the favorite of the Russian public. Even those who always contradicted him spoke of him as an honest and sincere Russian writer.

In 1881, Fyodor's sister, Vera Mikhailova, came to her parents' house to beg her brother to give up his share of the Ryazan estate. As a result of the stormy price, with tears and explanations, Fedor bled through his throat. This was the impetus for the exacerbation of emphysema, from which Dostoevsky died two days later.

Biography of F.M. Dostoevsky |

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is probably the most famous writer in Russia, his works are rightfully considered the best examples of world literature. The first novel of the writer "Poor people" (1846) gave rise to classify him in the so-called Gogol direction of Russian literature - the natural school. But in subsequent creations, such as "Double" (1846), "White Nights" (1848), "Netochka Nezvanova" (1849), the degree of Dostoevsky's realism, the in-depth psychologism of the writer-thinker, the exclusivity of situations and characters became apparent. worldviews were influenced by the democratic, socialist ideas of V. G. Belinsky, the views of the French utopian socialists.The young writer visited the Petrashevsky society, actively participated in the ideological activities of the revolutionary circles of S.F. Durov and N.A. Speshnev. from the House of the Dead” (1861-62) deeply reflected the suffering of ordinary people, A.I. Herzen compared it with the “Last Judgment” by Michelangelo, and with “Hell” by Dante.

Dostoevsky was more than an active participant in the social life of the country, put forward social and political theories, promoted the theory of soil movement, wrote a lot about possible ways of social transformation, attitudes towards the people, problems of ethics, and the essence and role of art. The author created his most outstanding works: "Crime and Punishment", "Idiot", "Demons", "Teenager", "The Brothers Karamazov" in the 60-70s. These works deeply reflect the moral, philosophical and social views of the great writer and thinker. His work deeply reflects the contradictions of gray reality and public views in an era of breaking social relations. The basis of the realistic work of the greatest Russian writer is human suffering, the tragedy of a humiliated, infringed person. He ingeniously displayed the dual feeling of a person in a situation where, on the one hand, feeling his insignificance, on the other, he longs for protest. He defended the right of individual freedom, but believed that unlimited willfulness gives rise to anti-humanistic actions, he considered crime as a typical manifestation of the so-called law of individualistic self-affirmation. In his works, he contrasted heroes with an analytical all-destroying mind, heroes with subtle spiritual intuition. The genius combined the intellectual depth of a thinker, the strength of an unsurpassed psychologist, and the passion of a publicist. He founded an ideological novel in Russian literature, the plot of which develops mainly around the struggle of ideas, the clash of worldviews, the bearers of which are the heroes of works of art.

In October 1821, a second child was born in the family of the nobleman Mikhail Dostoevsky, who worked in a hospital for the poor. The boy was named Fedor. So the future great writer was born, the author of the immortal works The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment.

They say that the father of Fyodor Dostoevsky was very hot-tempered, which to some extent was transmitted to the future writer. The emotional nature was skillfully "extinguished" by the children's nanny, Alena Frolovna. Otherwise, the children were forced to grow up in an atmosphere of total fear and obedience, which, however, also had some influence on the future of the writer.

Studying in St. Petersburg and the beginning of a creative path

1837 turned out to be a difficult year for the Dostoevsky family. Mom passes away. The father, who has seven children left in his care, decides to send his eldest sons to a boarding school in St. Petersburg. So Fedor, along with his older brother, ends up in the northern capital. Here he goes to study at a military engineering school. A year before his graduation, he begins to translate. And in 1843 he published his own translation of Balzac's work "Eugene Grande".

The writer's own creative path begins with the story "Poor People". The described tragedy of the little man found worthy praise from the critic Belinsky and the poet Nekrasov, already popular at that time. Dostoevsky enters the circle of writers, meets Turgenev.

In the next three years, Fyodor Dostoevsky published the works "Double", "Mistress", "White Nights", "Netochka Nezvanova". In all of them, he made an attempt to penetrate the human soul, describing in detail the subtleties of the character of the characters. But these works were received by critics very cool. Innovation was not accepted by Nekrasov and Turgenev, revered by Dostoevsky. This forced the writer to move away from friends.

in exile

In 1849, the writer was sentenced to death. This was connected with the "Petrashevsky case", for which a sufficient evidence base was collected. The writer was preparing for the worst, but just before the execution, his sentence was changed. At the last moment, the condemned are read the decree, according to which they must go to hard labor. All the time that Dostoevsky spent in anticipation of execution, all his emotions and experiences, he tried to display in the image of the hero of the novel "The Idiot" Prince Myshkin.

The writer spent four years in hard labor. Then he was pardoned for good behavior and sent to serve in the military battalion of Semipalatinsk. Immediately he found his destiny: in 1857 he married the widow of an official Isaev. It should be noted that in the same period, Fyodor Dostoevsky turned to religion, deeply idealizing the image of Christ.

In 1859, the writer moved to Tver, and then to St. Petersburg. Ten years of wandering in hard labor and military service made him very sensitive to human suffering. The writer had a real revolution of outlook.

European period

The beginning of the 60s was marked by turbulent events in the writer's personal life: he fell in love with Appolinaria Suslova, who fled abroad with another. Fyodor Dostoevsky followed his beloved to Europe and traveled with her to different countries for two months. At the same time, he became addicted to playing roulette.

The year 1865 was marked by the writing of Crime and Punishment. After its publication, fame came to the writer. At the same time, a new love appears in his life. She became a young stenographer Anna Snitkina, who became his faithful friend until her death. With her, he fled from Russia, hiding from large debts. Already in Europe he wrote the novel The Idiot.

Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born October 30 (November 11), 1821. The writer's father came from the ancient Rtishchev family, descendants of the defender of the Orthodox faith in Southwestern Rus', Daniil Ivanovich Rtishchev. For special successes, he was given the village of Dostoevo (Podolsk province), from where the name of Dostoevsky originates.

By the beginning of the 19th century, the Dostoevsky family had become impoverished. The writer's grandfather, Andrei Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, served as an archpriest in the town of Bratslav, Podolsk province. The writer's father, Mikhail Andreevich, graduated from the Medico-Surgical Academy. In 1812, during the Patriotic War, he fought against the French, and in 1819 he married the daughter of a Moscow merchant, Maria Fedorovna Nechaeva. After retiring, Mikhail Andreevich decided to take the position of a doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, which was nicknamed Bozhedomka in Moscow.

The apartment of the Dostoevsky family was located in the wing of the hospital. In the right wing of Bozhedomka, allotted to the doctor for a government apartment, Fyodor Mikhailovich was born. The writer's mother came from a merchant family. Pictures of disorder, illness, poverty, premature deaths are the first impressions of a child, under the influence of which an unusual view of the future writer on the world was formed.

The Dostoevsky family, which eventually grew to nine people, huddled in two rooms from the front. The writer's father, Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky, was a quick-tempered and suspicious person. Mother, Maria Fedorovna, was a completely different stock: kind, cheerful, economic. Relations between the parents were built on complete submission to the will and whims of Father Mikhail Fedorovich. The writer's mother and nanny sacredly honored religious traditions, raising their children in deep respect for the Orthodox faith. Fyodor Mikhailovich's mother died early, at the age of 36. She was buried at the Lazarevsky cemetery.

The Dostoevsky family attached great importance to science and education. Fedor Mikhailovich at an early age found joy in learning and reading books. First, these were the folk tales of the nanny Arina Arkhipovna, then Zhukovsky and Pushkin, his mother's favorite writers. At an early age, Fedor Mikhailovich met with the classics of world literature: Homer, Cervantes and Hugo. In the evenings, my father arranged a family reading of the “History of the Russian State” by N.M. Karamzin.

In 1827, the writer's father, Mikhail Andreevich, was awarded the Order of St. Anna of the 3rd degree for excellent and diligent service, and a year later he was awarded the rank of collegiate assessor, which gave the right to hereditary nobility. He knew well the price of higher education, so he tried to seriously prepare his children for entering higher educational institutions.

In childhood, the future writer experienced a tragedy that left an indelible mark on his soul for life. With a sincere childish feeling, he fell in love with a nine-year-old girl, the daughter of a cook. One summer day there was a cry in the garden. Fedya ran out into the street and saw that this girl was lying on the ground in a torn white dress, and some women were bending over her. From their conversation, he realized that the drunken tramp was the cause of the tragedy. They sent for her father, but his help was not needed: the girl died.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky received his initial education in a private Moscow boarding school. In 1838 he entered the Main Engineering School in St. Petersburg, from which he graduated in 1843 with the title of military engineer.

The Engineering School in those years was considered one of the best educational institutions in Russia. It is no coincidence that many wonderful people came out of there. Among Dostoevsky's classmates there were many talented people who later became outstanding personalities: the famous writer Dmitry Grigorovich, the artist Konstantin Trutovsky, the physiologist Ilya Sechenov, the organizer of the Sevastopol defense Eduard Totleben, the hero of Shipka Fyodor Radetsky. The school taught both special and humanitarian disciplines: Russian literature, national and world history, civil architecture and drawing.

Dostoevsky preferred solitude to a noisy student society. Reading was his favorite pastime. Dostoevsky's erudition amazed his comrades. He read the works of Homer, Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, Hoffmann, Balzac. However, the desire for solitude and loneliness was not an innate trait of his character. As an ardent, enthusiastic nature, he was in a constant search for new experiences. But at the school, he experienced the tragedy of the soul of the "little man" from his own experience. Most of the students in this educational institution were children of the highest military and bureaucratic bureaucracy. Wealthy parents spared no expense for their children and generously endowed teachers. Dostoevsky in this environment looked like a "black sheep", often subjected to ridicule and insults. For several years, a feeling of wounded pride flared up in his soul, which was later reflected in his work.

However, despite the ridicule and humiliation, Dostoevsky managed to gain the respect of both teachers and schoolmates. All of them eventually became convinced that he was a man of outstanding abilities and an extraordinary mind.

During his studies, Dostoevsky was influenced by Ivan Nikolaevich Shidlovsky, a graduate of Kharkov University, who served in the Ministry of Finance. Shidlovsky wrote poetry and dreamed of literary fame. He believed in the enormous world-changing power of the poetic word and argued that all great poets were "builders" and "world-creators". In 1839, Shidlovsky unexpectedly left St. Petersburg and left in an unknown direction. Later, Dostoevsky learned that he had gone to the Valuysky monastery, but then, on the advice of one of the wise elders, he decided to accomplish a "Christian feat" in the world, among his peasants. He began to preach the gospel and achieved great success in this field. Shidlovsky - a religious romantic thinker - became the prototype of Prince Myshkin, Alyosha Karamazov - heroes who have taken a special place in world literature.

On July 8, 1839, the writer's father suddenly died of apoplexy. There were rumors that he did not die a natural death, but was killed by peasants for his tough temper. This news greatly shocked Dostoevsky, and he suffered the first seizure - a harbinger of epilepsy - a serious illness from which the writer suffered for the rest of his life.

On August 12, 1843, Dostoevsky graduated from the full course of sciences in the upper officer class and was enlisted in the engineering corps at the St. Petersburg engineering team, but he did not serve there for long. On October 19, 1844, he decided to retire and devote himself to literary creativity. Dostoevsky had a passion for literature for a long time. After graduating, he began translating the works of foreign classics, in particular Balzac. Page after page, he deeply got used to the train of thought, to the movement of the images of the great French writer. He liked to imagine himself some famous romantic hero, most often Schiller's... But in January 1845, Dostoevsky experienced an important event, which he himself later called "a vision on the Neva". Returning home from Vyborgskaya one winter evening, he "cast a piercing glance along the river" into the "frosty and muddy distance." And then it seemed to him that “this whole world, with all its inhabitants, strong and weak, with all their dwellings, shelters for the poor or gilded chambers, in this twilight hour is like a fantastic dream, a dream, which, in turn, immediately vanishes, fizzes with steam towards the dark blue sky. And at that very moment, a “completely new world” opened up before him, some strange figures “quite prosaic”. “Not at all Don Carlos and Poses,” but “quite titular advisers.” And “another story appeared, in some dark corners, some kind of titular heart, honest and pure ... and with it some girl, offended and sad.” And he was “deeply heartbroken by their whole story.”

A sudden upheaval took place in Dostoevsky's soul. The heroes, so dearly loved by him recently, who lived in the world of romantic dreams, were forgotten. The writer looked at the world with a different look, through the eyes of "little people" - a poor official, Makar Alekseevich Devushkin and his beloved girl, Varenka Dobroselova. This is how the idea of ​​the novel in the letters "Poor People", the first work of art by Dostoevsky, arose. This was followed by the novels and stories “Double”, “Mr. Prokharchin”, “Mistress”, “White Nights”, “Netochka Nezvanova”.

In 1847, Dostoevsky became close friends with Mikhail Vasilyevich Butashevich-Petrashevsky, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a passionate admirer and propagandist of Fourier, and began to visit his famous "Fridays". Here he met poets Alexei Pleshcheev, Apollon Maykov, Sergei Durov, Alexander Palm, prose writer Mikhail Saltykov, young scientists Nikolai Mordvinov and Vladimir Milyutin. At meetings of the Petrashevsky circle, the latest socialist teachings and programs for revolutionary upheavals were discussed. Dostoevsky was among the supporters of the immediate abolition of serfdom in Russia. But the government became aware of the existence of the circle, and on April 23, 1849, thirty-seven of its members, including Dostoevsky, were arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. They were tried by military law and sentenced to death, but by order of the emperor, the sentence was reduced, and Dostoevsky was exiled to Siberia for hard labor.

On December 25, 1849, the writer was shackled, put in an open sleigh and sent on a long journey ... Sixteen days they traveled to Tobolsk in forty-degree frosts. Recalling his journey to Siberia, Dostoevsky wrote: "I was freezing to the core."

In Tobolsk, the wives of the Decembrists, Natalia Dmitrievna Fonvizina and Praskovya Egorovna Annenkova, visited the Petrashevists, Russian women whose spiritual feat was admired by all of Russia. They gave each condemned a gospel, in the binding of which money was hidden. Prisoners were forbidden to have their own money, and the ingenuity of friends to some extent for the first time made it easier for them to endure the harsh situation in the Siberian prison. This eternal book, the only one allowed in prison, Dostoevsky kept all his life as a shrine.

In hard labor Dostoevsky realized how far the speculative, rationalistic ideas of the “new Christianity” were from that “heartfelt” feeling of Christ, the true bearer of which is the people. From here Dostoevsky brought out a new "creed", which was based on the people's feeling of Christ, the people's type of Christian worldview. “This creed is very simple,” he said, “believing that there is nothing more beautiful, deeper, more sympathetic, more reasonable, more courageous and more perfect than Christ, and not only not, but with jealous love I say to myself that it cannot be ... »

The four-year penal servitude for the writer was replaced by military service: Dostoevsky was escorted from Omsk under escort to Semipalatinsk. Here he served as a private, then received an officer's rank. He returned to Petersburg only at the end of 1859. A spiritual search for new ways of Russia's social development began, culminating in the 1960s with the formation of Dostoevsky's so-called soil convictions. Since 1861, the writer, together with his brother Mikhail, began publishing the Vremya magazine, and after its prohibition, the Epoch magazine. Working on magazines and new books, Dostoevsky developed his own view of the tasks of the Russian writer and public figure - a kind of Russian version of Christian socialism.

In 1861, Dostoevsky's first novel, written by him after hard labor, "Humiliated and Insulted", was published, in which the author's sympathy was expressed for "little people" who are subjected to incessant insults by the powerful of this world. Notes from the Dead House (1861-1863), conceived and begun by Dostoevsky while still in hard labor, acquired enormous social significance. In 1863, Vremya magazine published Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, in which the writer criticized Western European political belief systems. In 1864, Notes from the Underground were published - a kind of confession by Dostoevsky, in which he renounced his former ideals, love for a person, faith in the truth of love.

In 1866, the novel "Crime and Punishment" was published - one of the most significant novels of the writer, and in 1868 - the novel "The Idiot", in which Dostoevsky tried to create the image of a positive hero opposing the cruel world of predators. Dostoevsky's novels The Possessed (1871) and The Teenager (1879) were widely known. The last work summing up the creative activity of the writer was the novel The Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880). The protagonist of this work - Alyosha Karamazov - helping people in their troubles and alleviating their suffering, is convinced that the most important thing in life is a feeling of love and forgiveness. On January 28 (February 9), 1881, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky died in St. Petersburg.