Dostoevsky's life was not full of stormy romances or petty intrigues. He was embarrassed and shy when it came to women. He could dream for hours about love and beautiful strangers leaning on his chest, but when he had to meet unimaginable, but living women, he became ridiculous, and his attempts at intimacy invariably ended in a real catastrophe.
All novels are played out only in his imagination, in life he is shy and lonely: “For sure, I am shy with women, I have completely lost the habit of women, that is, I never got used to them, I’m alone ... I don’t even know how to talk to them. In all their major works Dostoevsky depicted the failures of love associated with sacrifice and suffering: he was unable to describe triumphant, joyful and masculinely confident love.
One should not draw the erroneous conclusion that Dostoevsky was a virgin at the age of twenty-five. Rizenkampf, who lived with him in the same apartment, recalls Dostoevsky's great curiosity about the love affairs of his comrades. This sexuality was probably ambivalent.
Like most epileptics, he seemed to have a heightened sexual excitability - and along with it was in him the dreaminess of an idealist.
Everything was tried by Dostoevsky in these hard years-walking around taverns and dens, playing and women - and tried with shame, with remorse for intemperance, with self-flagellation for depravity. Many years later
Dostoevsky in Notes from the Underground describes his youth as follows:
“I was only twenty-four at the time. Even then my life was gloomy, disorderly, and wildly lonely. I did not hang out with anyone and even avoided talking, and more and more huddled in my corner
... Still, I wanted to move, and I suddenly plunged into a dark, underground, nasty not depravity, but debauchery. The passions in me were sharp, burning from my constant painful irritability... The outbursts were hysterical, with tears and convulsions... Anguish boiled over that; there was a hysterical thirst for contradictions, contrasts, and so I set about debauchery. I debauched alone, at night, secretly, timidly, with shame that did not leave me in the most disgusting moments and even reached damnation at such moments ... I was terribly afraid that somehow they would not see me, would not meet me, would not recognize me. .. I went to different very dark places. It was very boring, sitting idly by, so he indulged in tricks ... "
When Dostoevsky arrived in Semipalatinsk in 1854, he was a mature, 33-year-old man. From sorority he managed to wean himself so much that he dreamed of it as of the highest bliss.
A few months after his arrival in Semipalatinsk, Dostoevsky met with Alexander Ivanovich at the apartment of Lieutenant Colonel Belikov
Isaev and his wife Marya Dmitrievna.
Marya Dmitrievna was quite beautiful blonde of medium height, very thin, passionate and exalted in nature, she was well-read, quite educated, inquisitive, and unusually lively and impressionable.
Her appearance was generally fragile and sickly, and by this she sometimes resembled
Dostoevsky is his mother.
The tenderness of her face, physical weakness and some kind of spiritual defenselessness aroused in him a desire to help her, to protect her like a child.
That combination of childish and feminine, which always sharply hit Dostoevsky's sensuality, even now aroused in him complex experiences that he could not, and did not want to understand. In addition, he admired her subtle and unusual, as it seemed to him, nature.
Marya Dmitrievna was nervous, almost hysterical, but Dostoevsky, especially at the beginning of their relationship, saw in the variability of her moods, breakdowns in her voice and light tears a sign of deep and sublime feelings. When
Dostoevsky began to visit the Isaevs, Marya Dmitrievna took pity on her strange guest, although she was hardly aware of his exclusivity. She herself at that moment needed support: her life was dreary and lonely, she could not maintain acquaintances because of her husband's drunkenness and antics, and there was no money for this. And although she proudly and meekly carried her cross, she often wanted to complain and pour out her sore heart. And Dostoevsky was an excellent listener. He was always at hand, he perfectly understood her grievances, he helped her endure all her misfortunes with dignity - and he entertained her in this swamp of provincial boredom. Not infrequently Marya Dmitrievna found herself alone with
Dostoevsky, who soon stopped hiding his adoration. Never, in all his life, had he experienced such intimacy with a woman - and with a woman from society, educated, with whom he could talk about everything that interested him.
It is quite possible that Marya Dmitrievna became attached to Dostoevsky, but she was not in the least in love with him, at least at the beginning, although she leaned on his shoulder and returned his kisses. He fell in love with her without memory, and took her compassion, disposition, participation and easy game out of boredom and hopelessness for a mutual feeling. He was in his 34th year - and he had never had a lover or girlfriend yet. He was looking for love, he needed love, and in Marya Dmitrievna his feelings found an excellent object. She was the first interesting young woman he met after four years of hard labor, and he covered her with all the charms of unsatisfied desires, erotic fantasies and romantic illusions. All the joy of life was embodied for him in this thin blonde. Sensitivity to someone else's grief strangely increased his erotic excitability. Sadistic and masochistic inclinations were intertwined in Dostoevsky in the most bizarre way: to love meant sacrificing oneself and responding with one's whole soul, with one's whole body to someone else's suffering, even at the cost of one's own torment. But sometimes to love meant to torment oneself, to cause suffering, to hurt a beloved being painfully. This time supreme pleasure it was in sacrifice, in alleviating the suffering of the one for whom he was ready to do everything.
She understood very well that Dostoevsky had kindled a real, deep passion for her - women usually easily recognize this - and she accepted his "courtesy", as she called them, willingly, without, however, attaching too much importance to them.
Afterwards, Dostoevsky understood quite well the special circumstances under which his feeling for Marya Dmitrievna arose:
"the mere fact that a woman held out her hand to me was already whole era in my life," he wrote truthfully afterwards.
At the beginning of 1885, Marya Dmitrievna finally responded to love
Dostoevsky. Whether it was just a moment of casual intimacy or whether their relationship turned into a real connection is hard to say. In any case, there has been a convergence. But just in those days, Isaev was appointed as an assessor in Kuznetsk. It meant separation - perhaps forever. In summer
1885, when the Isaevs set off, they stopped to say goodbye at the dacha of a friend Dostoevsky. Champagne was served, and it was not difficult for Wrangel to get Isaev drunk and arrange him for a peaceful sleep in the carriage. Meanwhile Marya Dmitrievna and Dostoevsky went into the garden. According to Wrangel, by the time of departure, the young woman herself was already captured by her feelings for Dostoevsky. The lovers "hugged and cooed", held each other's hands, sitting on a bench under shady trees.
After Marya Dmitrievna's departure, he was very sad, looked like a boy at the bench on which he said goodbye to her, and muttered something under his breath: he had a habit of talking aloud to himself.
Several people from his acquaintances had already heard about his love, and they decided to assist him and arrange a secret meeting with Marya.
Dmitrievna. At the meeting place, instead of Marya Dmitrievna, he found her letter with a notice that, due to changed circumstances, she could not leave Kuznetsk. These "circumstances" were the death of Isaev.
Dostoevsky no longer had to hide his love. He immediately asked Marya to marry him. In response to the passionate letters of her lover, who insisted on a final and immediate decision, she wrote that she was sad, despairing and did not know what to do.
Dostoevsky understood that the main obstacle was his personal disorder.
And Marya Dmitrievna decides to "test" his love. At the very end of 1885, Dostoevsky received a strange letter from her. She asks his impartial friendly advice: "If there was an elderly man, and wealthy, and kind, and made me an offer" ... After reading these lines,
Dostoevsky staggered and fainted. When he woke up, he told himself in despair that Marya Dmitrievna was going to marry someone else.
After spending the whole night in sobs and anguish, he wrote to her in the morning that he would die if she left him. He loved with all the force of a belated first love, with all the ardor of novelty, with all the passion and excitement of a gambler who put his fortune on one card. At night, he was tormented by nightmares and crowded with tears.
His suffering continued for a long time. Exhausted by all this correspondence, with its alternation of cold and heat, Dostoevsky decides to take an extreme step: a personal meeting with Marya Dmitrievna is necessary. After much trouble and all sorts of tricks, they meet. But instead of a joyful meeting in Kuznetsk, a terrible blow awaited him. He entered the room to Marya Dmitrievna, and she did not throw herself on his neck: with tears, kissing his hands, she shouted that everything was lost, that there could be no marriage - she must confess everything: she fell in love with another.
Dostoevsky was overcome by an irresistible desire to give everything to Marya.
Dmitrievna, sacrifice her love for the sake of his new feeling, leave, and not interfere with her to arrange life as she wants. When she saw that
Dostoevsky does not reproach her, but only cares about her future, she was shocked.
After spending two days with her, he left with full hope for the best. But no sooner had Dostoevsky returned to Semipalatinsk and come to his senses than he received a letter from Marya Dmitrievna: she again yearned, wept, again said that she loved another more than Dostoevsky.
He was awaited by a reception that was very different from what had been given to him before. Marya Dmitrievna declared that she had lost faith in her new attachment and did not really love anyone except Dostoevsky. Before leaving, he received formal consent to marry him in the very near future.
Like a runner in a difficult competition, Dostoevsky found himself at the goal, so exhausted by the effort that he accepted the victory almost with indifference.
At the beginning of 1857, everything was agreed, he borrowed the necessary amount of money, rented a room, received permission from his superiors and leave for marriage.
On February 6, Marya Dmitrievna and Fyodor Mikhailovich were married.
In Barnaul, Dostoevsky had a seizure. With a dead face and a wild groan, he suddenly fell to the floor in terrible convulsions and lost consciousness. Dostoevsky's seizure made a tremendous impression on Marya Dmitrievna.
What he did not write about was much more important. Fit in
Barnaul probably happened at the very moment when the newlyweds were left alone. He, of course, caused a number of upheavals and even a number of traumatic consequences in the purely sexual area. Perhaps this is where we should look for clues why Dostoevsky's marriage to Marya Dmitrievna turned out to be unsuccessful, primarily from the physical side.
In Semipalatinsk, they tried to establish a married life. Their moods and desires almost never coincided. In that tense, nervous atmosphere that Marya Dmitrievna created, Dostoevsky had a feeling of guilt, which gave way to outbursts of passion, stormy, convulsive and unhealthy, to which Marya Dmitrievna responded either with fright or coldness. They both annoyed, tortured and wore each other down in a constant struggle. Instead of honeymoon disappointment, pain and tedious attempts to achieve an elusive sexual harmony fell to their lot.
For Dostoevsky, she was the first woman with whom he was close not by a short embrace of a chance meeting, but by constant marital cohabitation. He soon became convinced that she could not become his friend in a purely sexual sense, that she did not share either his voluptuousness or his sensuality.
After a while they move to Tver. And that's where the marriage
Dostoevsky suffered a final collapse - they were unhappy together. At
Dostoevsky was his own life, to which Marya Dmitrievna had nothing to do. She withered and died. He traveled, wrote, published magazines, he visited many cities. One day, on his return, he found her in bed, and whole year he has to take care of her. Marya Dmitrievna had consumption. She was dying painfully and hard, already in February it became clear that Marya Dmitrievna would not survive the spring. On April 14, Marya Dmitrievna had a seizure, blood rushed into her throat and began to fill her chest. And on April 15, 1864, by the evening she died - she died quietly, with full memory, and blessed everyone.
Dostoevsky loved her for all the feelings that she aroused in him, for everything that he put into her, for everything that was connected with her - and for the suffering that she caused him. As he himself said later: "she was the most honest, most noble and generous woman of all whom I knew in my whole life."
Some time later, Dostoevsky again longed for "female society", and his heart was again free.
When Dostoevsky settled in St. Petersburg, his public readings at student evenings were a great success. In this atmosphere of upsurge, noisy applause and applause, Dostoevsky met the one who was destined to play a different role in his fate. After one of the performances, a slender young girl with large gray-blue eyes, with regular features, approached him. smart face, with a proudly thrown head, framed by magnificent reddish braids. Her name was Apollinaria Prokofievna Suslova, she was 22 years old, she listened to lectures at the university.
There is nothing surprising or improbable in the fact that Apollinaria was the first to offer her heart to Dostoevsky: in all countries, at all times, young girls "adore" famous writers and artists and make confessions to them - in writing and orally. True, both in age and in character
Apollinaria seemed unable to belong to a sect of enthusiastic admirers.
Dostoevsky answered her, and they began to see each other - first in the editorial office of the magazine, then in the house of brother Mikhail, and finally, alone.
Of course, Dostoevsky first of all had to feel the charm of her beauty and youth. He was 20 years older than her and was always attracted to very young women. Dostoevsky always transferred his sexual fantasies, "objectified", to young girls. No matter how true the assumption that he himself knew such temptations, he perfectly understood and described the physical passion of a mature man for teenagers and twelve-year-old girls.
Judging by various indications in her diary and letters, she "waited" until the age of 23. In other words, Dostoevsky was her first man. He was also her first strong attachment. The final rapprochement between her and
Dostoevsky happened after his return from abroad. At the beginning of 1863, they were already lovers, while Marya Dmitrievna was still alive.
Too much upset and humiliated the young girl in her first man: he subordinated their meetings to writing, business, family, all sorts of circumstances of his difficult existence. She was jealous of Marya Dmitrievna with dull and passionate jealousy - and did not want to accept Dostoevsky's explanations that he could not divorce his sick, dying wife. She could not agree to inequality in position: she gave everything for this love, he - nothing.
Taking care of his wife in every possible way, he did not sacrifice anything for Apollinaria. Of course, for Dostoevsky it was very tempting to subjugate just such a woman as Apollinaria, it was more interesting than owning a dumb slave, and the rebuff only increased the pleasure. The adventure has grown into a real passion. In the spring of 1863, he was already so carried away by Apollinaria that he could not spend a day without her. She was everything that colored his life outside the home. He now lived a double existence, in two unlike worlds.
Later, they decide to go abroad in the summer together. Apollinaria left alone, he was supposed to follow her, but he could not get out until August.
Separation from Apollinaria only kindled his passion. But upon arrival, she said that she loved another. Only then did he realize what had happened.
So that's why he rushed to Paris! The next day Apollinaria came to him and they talked a lot. She said that her lover avoids her and does not love her. From that moment on, she consults Dostoevsky about everything, of course, without thinking what it was like for him! She asks how to get revenge
Salvador (her beloved), reads a draft letter that should hurt him, discusses, curses ... In these ridiculous days, when she cried on her chest
Dostoevsky about outraged love for another, and he gave her friendly instructions on how to extinguish the insult, and it was decided that both would nevertheless go on the very journey that they had dreamed of, hoping to live together, in the wild.
Although Dostoevsky resigned himself to the fact that he had to arrange the affairs of the heart of the very woman who had cheated on him and whom he continued to love and desire, he undoubtedly hoped that during the trip he would be able to return her to him, especially since sexual intercourse With
Apollinaria was quite strong: he had been her lover for several months now - and her first man. Promising her to be "like a brother" in order to get her consent to the trip, he, of course, hid his true intentions. She seemed to understand this well, but she had no intention of satisfying his desires. She had a mixed feeling for Dostoevsky. In Petersburg, he was the master of the situation, and ruled, and tormented her, and, perhaps, he loved less than she. And now his love not only did not suffer, but even, on the contrary, intensified from her betrayal. In the wrong game of love and torment, the places of the victim and the executioner changed: the defeated became the winner. Dostoevsky was to experience this very soon. But when he realized this report to himself, it turned out to be too late for resistance, and besides, the whole complexity of relations with Apollinaria became for him a source of secret sweetness. His love for the young girl entered a new burning circle: suffering because of her became a pleasure.
Daily communication with Apollinaria physically inflamed him, and he really burned on the slow fire of his unsatisfied passion. And the behavior of Apollinaria was embarrassing and worrying, because it did not help him in the least to overcome bad instincts and curb impulses. On the contrary, she called them out, teased him and denied him physical intimacy with caustic pleasure.
Sometimes, though very rarely, she really felt pity for her tormented companion, and she stopped tormenting him.
Later they went to Rome and from there he writes to a friend, asking for the deportation of money, but he does not write anything about relations with Apollinaria.
Suddenly they decided to part when Dostoevsky needed to return to Russia. Dostoevsky ended up in Hamburg, where he again plunged into gambling and lost the last money. He sends a letter
Apollinaria with a plea for help. But she has no desire.
After the death of Marya Dimitrievna, Dostoevsky wrote to Apollinaria for her to come. But she doesn't want to see him. He constantly doubted her feelings and moods and could not clearly read in the heart of his own beloved. Was she really going to leave him? Was it the end, or was it a break, after which she would be wholly his? Everything was unsteady and incomprehensible in Apollinaria, as if he wandered through the swamp, risking every minute to fall into a fatal quagmire.
When they finally met, Dostoevsky immediately saw how she had changed. She became colder and more distant. She mockingly said that his high impulses were banal sensitivity, and answered with contempt for his passionate kisses. If there were moments of physical rapprochement, she gave them to him like alms - and she always behaved as if it was unnecessary or painful for her. Dostoevsky tried to fight for this love, crumbling to dust, for the dream of her - and told Apollinaria that she should marry him. She, as usual, answered sharply, almost rudely. Soon they started arguing again. She contradicted him, mocked him, or treated him like an uninteresting, casual acquaintance. And then Dostoevsky began to play roulette. He lost everything he had, and she had, and when she decided to leave, Dostoevsky did not hold her back.
After the departure of Apollinaria, Dostoevsky found himself in a completely desperate situation. Then he had a seizure, he was moving away from this state for a long time. Apollinaria arrived in Petersburg, and immediately something happened that was bound to happen. Dostoevsky even more resolutely offered her to marry him. But she did not change her decision: not only was she not going to join her fate with Dostoevsky, but in four months she led their relationship to an irrevocable break. In the spring of 1866, Apollinaria left for the village, to her brother. She and Dostoyevsky said goodbye, knowing full well that their paths would never cross again.
In Petersburg, she dealt the final blow to the past, breaking with
Dostoevsky, from whom, in her opinion, all the troubles went. But freedom brought her little joy. Later she got married, but life together did not work out.
Those around her suffered greatly from her imperious, intolerant character. She died in 1918, 78 years old, hardly suspecting that in her neighborhood, on the same Crimean coast, in the same year, the one who, fifty years ago, took her place in the heart, ended her days. loved one and became his wife - Anna Grigoryevna Dostoevskaya.
On the advice of his very good friend, Dostoevsky decided to take a stenographer to carry out his "eccentric plan", he wanted to publish the novel "The Gambler". Shorthand was a novelty at that time, few people knew it, and Dostoevsky turned to a teacher of shorthand. He offered work on the novel to his best student, Anna Grigoryevna Sitkina, but warned her that the writer had a "strange and gloomy character" and that for all the work - seven sheets of large format - he would pay only 50 rubles.
Anna Grigorievna hastened to agree, not only because it was her dream to earn money by her work, but also because she knew the name of Dostoevsky and read his works. Opportunity to get to know famous writer and even help him literary work delighted and excited her. It was extraordinary luck.
Having received Dostoevsky's address from her teacher, she did not sleep well all night: she was frightened that tomorrow she would have to talk with such a learned and intelligent person, she trembled in advance. The next day she came to the address. When
Dostoevsky entered the room where Anna Grigorievna was waiting for him, the young girl drew attention to his different eyes. Although he looked much younger than she expected, he was slightly disappointing. In general, her first impression of Dostoevsky was difficult for her. However, it dissipated when she came to him a second time. He said that he liked the way she behaved when they first met.
Only later did she realize how lonely he was at that time, how much he needed warmth and participation. She really liked his simplicity and sincerity - but from the words and manner of speaking this smart, strange, but unhappy, as if abandoned by everyone, something sank in her heart. She later told her mother complicated feelings awakened in her
Dostoevsky: pity, compassion, amazement, irresistible craving. He was offended by life, a wonderful, kind and extraordinary person, she was breathtaking when she listened to him, everything in her turned upside down from this meeting.
For this nervous, slightly exalted girl, acquaintance with
Dostoevsky was a huge event: she fell in love with him at first sight, without realizing it.
Since then, they have been working for several hours a day. The initial feeling of awkwardness disappeared, they willingly talked in between dictations. Every day he got used to her more and more, called her
"dear, dear," and these kind words pleased her. He was grateful to his co-worker, who spared no time or effort to help him. They loved to talk heart to heart so much, got used to each other so much in four weeks of work, that both were scared when "The Gambler" came to an end. Dostoevsky was afraid of ending his acquaintance with Anna Grigorievna. On October 29, Dostoevsky dictated the final lines of The Gambler. A few days later Anna
Grigorievna came to him to come to an agreement about the work on finishing
"Crimes and Punishments". He was obviously glad to see her. And he immediately decided to propose to her. But at the moment when he proposed to his stenographer, he did not yet suspect that she would take an even greater place in his heart than all his other women. Marriage was necessary for him, he was aware of this and was ready to marry Anna Grigorievna "by calculation." She agreed.
During a short fiancé, both were very pleased with each other.
Dostoevsky came to the bride every evening, brought her sweets ... And, finally, everything was ready: the apartment was rented, things were transported, dresses were tried on, and on February 15, 1867, in the presence of friends and acquaintances, they were married.
In the first days after the marriage, a cheerful bustle reigned. Relatives and friends invited the "young" to evenings and dinners, and in their entire lives they did not drink as much champagne as during these two weeks. But the beginning turned out to be bad: they did not understand each other well, he thought that she was bored with him, she was offended that he seemed to be avoiding her. A month after the marriage, Anna Grigorievna came into a semi-hysterical state, since there was a tense atmosphere in the house, she barely sees her husband and they do not even have that spiritual intimacy that was created during joint work. And Anna Grigoryevna offered to go abroad. Project overseas trip Dostoevsky really liked it, but in order to get money, he had to go to Moscow, to his sister, and he took his wife with him. In Moscow, Anna Grigorievna was waiting for new trials: in the family of her sister
Dostoevsky, she was received with hostility. Although they soon realized that she was still a girl, clearly adoring her husband, and they accepted a new relative into their bosom.
The second torment was Dostoevsky's jealousy: he arranged scenes for his wife on the most trifling occasion. Once he was so angry that he forgot that they were in a hotel, and he screamed at the top of his voice, his face was contorted, he was scary, she was afraid that he would kill her, and burst into tears. Only then did he come to his senses, began to kiss her hands, he himself began to cry and confessed his monstrous jealousy. Scenes and difficulties did not hide, however, one fact from the spouses: in Moscow, their relationship improved significantly, because they remained together much more than in St. Petersburg. This consciousness strengthened Anna Grigorievna's desire to go abroad and spend at least two or three months in solitude. But when they returned to St. Petersburg and announced their intention, a noise and commotion arose in the family. Everyone began to dissuade Dostoevsky from going abroad, and he completely lost heart, hesitated, and was about to give up the trip abroad. And that's when
Anna Grigoryevna unexpectedly showed hidden power of her character and decided on an extreme measure: she pawned everything she had - furniture, silver, things, dresses, everything that she chose and bought with such joy. And soon they went abroad. They were going to spend three months in Europe, and returned from there after more than four years. But during these four years they managed to forget about the unsuccessful beginning of their life together: it has now turned into a close, happy and lasting community.
They stayed for some time in Berlin, then, passing through Germany, they settled in Dresden. It was here that their mutual rapprochement began, which very soon dispelled all his anxieties and doubts. They were completely various people- by age, temperament, interests, mind, but they also had much in common, and a happy combination of similarity and difference ensured the success of their married life.
Anna Grigoryevna was shy, and only when she was alone with her husband did she become brisk and display what he called "hurriedness." He understood and appreciated this: he himself was timid, embarrassed with strangers, and also did not feel any embarrassment only alone with his wife, not like with Marya
Dmitrievna or Apollinaria. Her youth and inexperience had a calming effect on him, reassuring and dispelling his inferiority complexes and self-abasement.
Usually, in marriage, each other's shortcomings are intimately known, and therefore a slight disappointment arises. The Dostoevskys, on the contrary, opened up from proximity the best sides their nature. Anna Grigorievna, who fell in love with and married Dostoevsky, saw that he was absolutely extraordinary, brilliant, terrible, difficult, and he, having married an industrious secretary, discovered that not only was he "the patron and protector of a young being," but she was his "angel keeper", and friend, and support. Anna Grigorievna dearly loved
Dostoevsky as a man and a person, she loved with a mixed love of wife and mistress, mother and daughter.
Marrying Dostoevsky, Anna Grigorievna was hardly aware of what awaited her, and only after marriage did she understand the difficulty of the questions that confronted her. There were his jealousy and suspicion, and his passion for the game, and his illness, and his peculiarities and oddities. And above all the problem of physical relations. As in everything else, their mutual adjustment did not come immediately, but as a result of a long, sometimes painful process.
Dostoevsky was happy with her, because she gave a natural outlet to all his inclinations and strange fantasies. Her role was liberating and purifying. She therefore removed the burden of guilt from him: he ceased to feel like a sinner or a debauchee.
Their marriage developed physically and morally. This process was facilitated by the fact that they ended up together and alone for a very long time. In essence, their trip abroad was their honeymoon trip: But it lasted four years. And by the time Anna Grigorievna began to have children, the spiritual mutual and sexual adaptation of the spouses was completed, and they could safely say that their marriage was happy.
Then they had to go through a lot, and especially her. Dostoevsky again began to play in the casino, and lost all the money, Anna Grigorievna pawned everything they had. After that, they moved to Geneva and lived there on what Anna Grigoryevna's mother sent them. They led a very modest and regular life. But despite all the obstacles, their rapprochement grew stronger and stronger, both in joy and in sorrow.
In February 1868 their daughter was born. Dostoevsky was proud and pleased with his fatherhood and passionately loved the child. But little Sonya
"darling angel," as he called her, did not survive, and in May they lowered her coffin into a grave in the Geneva cemetery. They immediately left Geneva and moved to Italy. There they rested for a while and started on their journey again.
After some time, they again ended up in Dresden, and there their second daughter was born, they named her Love. Parents were shaking over her, but she was a strong child. But financial situation it was very difficult. Later, when Dostoyevsky completed The Idiot, they had money. They lived in
Dresden for the whole of 1870, and during this time their marriage settled down, took on finished forms - both physically, as a cohabitation of two close people, and as a family organism.
The beginning of life in Russia was difficult: Anna Grigoryevna's house was sold for next to nothing, but they did not give up. For fourteen years of life with Dostoevsky, Anna
Grigorievna experienced many insults, anxieties and misfortunes (their second son,
Alexei, born in 1875, died soon after), but she never complained about her fate.
It is safe to say that the years spent with Anna
Grigorievna in Russia, were the most calm, peaceful and, perhaps, the happiest in his life. The well-established life and sexual satisfaction, which in 1877 led to the complete disappearance of epilepsy, did little to change Dostoevsky's character and habits. He was well over fifty when he calmed down somewhat - at least outwardly - and began to get used to family life.
His ardor and suspicion did not decrease in the least with the years. He often struck strangers in society with their angry remarks. At sixty, he was just as jealous as he had been in his youth. But he was just as passionate in the manifestations of his love.
By old age, he was so used to Anna Grigorievna and the family that he absolutely could not do without them. In 1879 and early 1880, Dostoevsky's health deteriorated greatly. In January, his pulmonary artery ruptured from excitement, and two days later he began to bleed.
They intensified, the doctors failed to stop them, he fell into unconsciousness several times. On January 28, 1881, he called Anna Grigoryevna to him, took her by the hand and whispered: "Remember, Anya, I have always loved you dearly and have never cheated on you, even mentally." By evening he was gone.
Anna Grigoryevna remained faithful to her husband beyond the grave. In the year of her death, she was only 35 years old, but she considered her women's life finished and devoted herself to the service of his name. She died in the Crimea, alone, away from family and friends, in June 1918 - and the last of the women whom Dostoevsky loved went down to the grave with her.
S_Svetlana - 21.04.2011Three wives of F.M. Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
(to the 190th anniversary of the writer )
Great literature is the literature of love and great passions, the love of writers for the muses of their lives. Who are they, prototypes and muses of love? What relationship connected them with the authors of those novels that granted them immortality?!
Maria Dmitrievna - First wife
IN" most honest, noblest and most generous woman of all IN"
On December 22, 1849, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, along with a whole group of freethinkers who were recognized as dangerous state criminals, was taken to the Semyonovsky parade ground in St. Petersburg. He had 5 minutes to live, no more. The verdict was sounded - "To subject the retired engineer Lieutenant Dostoevsky to death by shooting".
Looking ahead, let's say that at the last minute the death penalty was replaced by a link to hard labor for 4 years, and then service as a private. But at that moment, when the priest offered the cross for the last kiss, - the whole short life flashed before his eyes as a writer. The aggravated memory contained in seconds the whole years of life and years of love
Dostoevsky's life was not full of stormy romances or petty intrigues. He was embarrassed and shy when it came to women. He could dream for hours about love and beautiful strangers, but when he had to meet living women, he became ridiculous, and his attempts at intimacy invariably ended in real disaster. Perhaps that is why in all his major works Dostoevsky portrayed the failures of love. And love has always been associated with sacrifice and suffering.
When Dostoevsky arrived in Semipalatinsk in 1854, he was a mature, 33-year-old man. It was here that he met Alexander Ivanovich Isaev and his wife Marya Dmitrievna. Marya Dmitrievna, a beautiful blonde, was a passionate and exalted nature. She was well-read, quite educated, inquisitive, and unusually lively and impressionable. Her appearance was generally fragile and sickly, and in this way she sometimes reminded Dostoevsky of his mother.
Dostoevsky saw in the variability of her moods, breakdowns in her voice and light tears a sign of deep and sublime feelings. When he began to visit the Isaevs, Marya Dmitrievna took pity on her strange guest, although she was hardly aware of his exclusivity. She herself at that moment needed support: her life was dreary and lonely, she could not maintain acquaintances because of her husband's drunkenness and antics, and there was no money for this.
And although she proudly and meekly carried her cross, she often wanted to complain and pour out her sore heart. And Dostoevsky was an excellent listener. He was always at hand. He perfectly understood her grievances, helped her endure all her misfortunes with dignity - and he entertained her in this swamp of provincial boredom.
Maria Dmitrievna was the first interesting young woman he met after four years of hard labor. Masochistic inclinations were intertwined in Dostoevsky in the most bizarre way: to love meant sacrificing oneself and responding with one's whole soul, with one's entire body to the suffering of others, even at the cost of one's own torment.
She understood very well that Dostoevsky had kindled a real, deep passion for her - women usually easily recognize this - and she accepted his “courtesy”, as she called them, willingly, without attaching too much importance to them, however.
At the beginning of 1855, Marya Dmitrievna finally answered Dostoevsky's love, there was a rapprochement. But just in those days, Isaev was appointed as an assessor in Kuznetsk. It meant separation - perhaps forever.
After the departure of Marya Dmitrievna, the writer was very homesick. Having become a widow, after the death of her husband, Marya Dmitrievna decides to “test” his love. At the very end of 1855, Dostoevsky received a strange letter from her. She asks his impartial friendly advice: "If there was an elderly, and wealthy, and kind person, and made me an offer" -
After reading these lines, Dostoevsky staggered and fainted. When he woke up, he told himself in despair that Marya Dmitrievna was going to marry someone else. After spending the whole night in sobs and anguish, he wrote to her the next morning that he would die if she left him.
He loved with all the force of a belated first love, with all the ardor of novelty, with all the passion and excitement of a gambler who put his fortune on one card. At night, he was tormented by nightmares and crowded with tears. But there could be no marriage - his beloved fell in love with another.
Dostoevsky was overcome by an irresistible desire to give everything to Marya Dmitrievna, to sacrifice his love for the sake of her new feeling, to leave, and not interfere with her arranging life as she wants. When she saw that Dostoevsky did not reproach her, but only cared about her future, she was shocked.
A little time passed, and Dostoevsky's material affairs began to improve. Under the influence of these circumstances, or because of the variability of her character, Marya Dmitrievna noticeably lost interest in her fiancé. The question of marriage with him somehow disappeared by itself. In her letters to Dostoevsky, she did not skimp on words of tenderness, calling him her brother. Marya Dmitrievna declared that she had lost faith in her new attachment and did not really love anyone except Dostoevsky.
He received formal consent to marry him in the very near future. Like a runner in a difficult competition, Dostoevsky found himself at the goal, so exhausted by the effort that he accepted the victory almost with indifference. At the beginning of 1857, everything was agreed, he borrowed the necessary amount of money, rented a room, received permission from his superiors and leave for marriage. On February 6, Marya Dmitrievna and Fyodor Mikhailovich were married.
Their moods and desires almost never coincided. In that tense, nervous atmosphere that Marya Dmitrievna created, Dostoevsky had a feeling of guilt, which gave way to outbursts of passion, stormy, convulsive and unhealthy, to which Marya Dmitrievna responded either with fright or coldness. They both annoyed, tortured and wore each other down in a constant struggle. Instead of a honeymoon, disappointment, pain and tedious attempts to achieve an elusive sexual harmony fell to their lot.
For Dostoevsky, she was the first woman with whom he was close not by a short embrace of a chance meeting, but by constant marital cohabitation. But she did not share either his voluptuousness or his sensuality. Dostoevsky had his own life, to which Marya Dmitrievna had nothing to do.
She withered and died. He traveled, wrote, published magazines, he visited many cities. One day, on his return, he found her in bed, and for a whole year he had to take care of her. She was dying of consumption painfully and difficultly. On April 15, 1864, she died - she died quietly, with full memory, and blessing everyone.
Dostoevsky loved her for all the feelings that she awakened in him, for everything that he put into her, for everything that was connected with her - and for the suffering that she caused him. As he himself later said: "She was the most honest, noblest and most generous woman I have ever known in my life."
Apollinaria Suslova
Some time later, Dostoevsky again longed for "female society", and his heart was again free.
When he settled in St. Petersburg, his public readings at student evenings were a great success. In this atmosphere of upsurge, noisy applause and applause, Dostoevsky met the one who was destined to play a different role in his fate. After one of the performances, a slender young girl with large gray-blue eyes, with regular features of an intelligent face, with her head proudly thrown back, framed by magnificent reddish braids, approached him. Her name was Apollinaria Prokofievna Suslova, she was 22 years old, she listened to lectures at the university.
Of course, Dostoevsky first of all had to feel the charm of her beauty and youth. He was 20 years older than her and was always attracted to very young women. Dostoevsky always transferred his sexual fantasies to young girls. He perfectly understood and described the physical passion of a mature man for teenagers and twelve-year-old girls.
Dostoevsky was her first man. He was also her first strong attachment. But too much upset and humiliated the young girl in her first man: he subordinated their meetings to writing, business, family, all kinds of circumstances of his difficult existence. She was jealous of Marya Dmitrievna with dull and passionate jealousy - and did not want to accept Dostoevsky's explanations that he could not divorce his sick, dying wife.
She could not agree to inequality in position: she gave everything for this love, he - nothing. Taking care of his wife in every possible way, he did not sacrifice anything for Apollinaria. But she was everything that colored his life outside the home. He now lived a double existence, in two unlike worlds.
Later, the two decide to go abroad in the summer together. Apollinaria left alone, he was supposed to follow her, but he could not get out until August. Separation from Apollinaria only kindled his passion. But upon arrival, she said that she loved another. Only then did he realize what had happened.
Dostoevsky came to terms with the fact that he had to arrange the affairs of the heart of the very woman who had cheated on him, and whom he continued to love and desire. She also had mixed feelings for the writer. In Petersburg, he was the master of the situation, and ruled, and tormented her, and, perhaps, loved less than she. And now his love not only did not suffer, but even, on the contrary, intensified from her betrayal. In the wrong game of love and torment, the places of the victim and the executioner changed: the defeated became the winner. Dostoevsky was to experience this very soon.
But when he realized this report to himself, it turned out to be too late for resistance, and besides, the whole complexity of relations with Apollinaria became for him a source of secret sweetness. His love for the young girl entered a new burning circle: suffering because of her became a pleasure. Daily communication with Apollinaria physically inflamed him, and he really burned on the slow fire of his unsatisfied passion.
After the death of Marya Dmitrievna, Dostoevsky wrote to Apollinaria for her to come. But she doesn't want to see him. At first he tried to distract himself by taking whatever came to hand. In his life, some random women start up again. Then he decided that his salvation was in marrying a good clean girl.
The chance introduces him to a beautiful and talented 20-year-old young lady from an excellent noble family, Anna Korvin-Krukovskaya, she is very suitable for the role of a savior, and it seems to Dostoevsky that he is in love with her. A month later, he is already ready to ask for her hand, but nothing comes of this venture, and in those very months, he intensively visits his sister Apollinaria, and openly confides his heart troubles to her.
The intervention of Nadezhda (Apollinaria's sister) apparently influenced her obstinate sister, and something like a reconciliation took place between them. Soon Dostoevsky left Russia and went to Apollinaria. He didn't see her for two years. Since then, his love has been nourished by memories and imagination.
When they finally met, Dostoevsky immediately saw how she had changed. She became colder and more distant. She mockingly said that his high impulses were banal sensitivity, and responded with contempt to his passionate kisses. If there were moments of physical rapprochement, she gave them to him like alms - and she always behaved as if she did not need it or it was painful.
Dostoevsky tried to fight for this love, crumbling to dust, for the dream of her - and told Apollinaria that she should marry him. She, as usual, answered sharply, almost rudely. Soon they started arguing again. She contradicted him, mocked him, or treated him like an uninteresting, casual acquaintance.
And then Dostoevsky began to play roulette. He lost everything he had, and she had, and when she decided to leave, Dostoevsky did not hold her back. After the departure of Apollinaria, Dostoevsky found himself in a completely desperate situation. Then he had a seizure, he was moving away from this state for a long time.
In the spring of 1866, Apollinaria left for the village, to her brother. She and Dostoyevsky said goodbye, knowing full well that their paths would never cross again. But freedom brought her little joy. Later she got married, but life together did not work out. Those around her suffered greatly from her imperious, intolerant character.
She died in 1918, 78 years old, hardly suspecting that in her neighborhood, on the same Crimean coast, in the same year, the one who, fifty years ago, took her place in the heart, ended her days. loved one and became his wife.
IN" Sun of my life IN" - Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya
On the advice of his very good friend, Dostoevsky decided to take a stenographer to carry out his "eccentric plan", he wanted to print the novel "The Player". Shorthand was a novelty at that time, few people knew it, and Dostoevsky turned to a teacher of shorthand. He offered work on the novel to his best student, Anna Grigorievna Sitkina, but warned her that the writer had a “strange and gloomy character” and that for all the work - seven sheets of large format - he would pay only 50 rubles.
Anna Grigorievna hastened to agree, not only because it was her dream to earn money by her work, but also because she knew the name of Dostoevsky and read his works. The opportunity to meet a famous writer and even help him in his literary work delighted and excited her. It was extraordinary luck.
At the first meeting, the writer slightly disappointed her. Only later did she realize how lonely he was at that time, how much he needed warmth and participation. She really liked his simplicity and sincerity - from the words and manner of speaking this smart, strange, but unhappy, as if abandoned by everyone, something sank in her heart.
She then told her mother about the complex feelings awakened in her by Dostoevsky: pity, compassion, amazement, irresistible cravings. He was offended by life, a wonderful, kind and extraordinary person, she was breathtaking when she listened to him, everything in her turned upside down from this meeting. For this nervous, slightly exalted girl, acquaintance with Dostoevsky was a huge event: she fell in love with him at first sight, without realizing it herself.
Since then, they have been working for several hours a day. The initial feeling of awkwardness disappeared, they willingly talked in between dictations. Every day he got used to her more and more, he called her V “darling”, V “darling”, and these affectionate words pleased her. He was grateful to his co-worker, who spared no time or effort to help him.
They loved to talk heart to heart so much, got used to each other so much in four weeks of work, that they both got scared when "Player" came to an end. Dostoevsky was afraid of ending his acquaintance with Anna Grigorievna. On October 29, Dostoevsky dictated the final lines of The Gambler. A few days later, Anna Grigorievna came to him to agree on working on the end of Crime and Punishment. He was obviously glad to see her. And he immediately decided to propose to her.
But at the moment when he proposed to his stenographer, he did not yet suspect that she would take an even greater place in his heart than all his other women. Marriage was necessary for him, he was aware of this and was ready to marry Anna Grigoryevna V "by calculation". She agreed.
On February 15, 1867, in the presence of friends and acquaintances, they were married. But the beginning turned out to be bad: they did not understand each other well, he thought that she was bored with him, she was offended that he seemed to be avoiding her. A month after the marriage, Anna Grigorievna came into a semi-hysterical state: there is a tense atmosphere in the house, she barely sees her husband, and they don’t even have that spiritual intimacy that was created during joint work.
And Anna Grigoryevna offered to go abroad. Dostoevsky really liked the project of a trip abroad, but in order to get money, he had to go to Moscow, to his sister, and he took his wife with him. In Moscow, new trials awaited Anna Grigorievna: in the family of Dostoevsky's sister, she was received with hostility. Although they soon realized that she was still a girl who clearly adored her husband, and, in the end, they accepted a new relative into their bosom.
The second torment was Dostoevsky's jealousy: he arranged scenes for his wife on the most trifling occasion. Once he was so angry that he forgot that they were in a hotel, and he screamed at the top of his voice, his face was contorted, he was scary, she was afraid that he would kill her, and burst into tears. Only then did he come to his senses, began to kiss her hands, he himself began to cry and confessed his monstrous jealousy.
In Moscow, their relationship improved significantly, because they stayed together much more than in St. Petersburg. This consciousness strengthened in Anna Grigorievna the desire to go abroad and spend at least two or three months in solitude. But when they returned to St. Petersburg and announced their intention, a noise and commotion arose in the family. Everyone began to dissuade Dostoevsky from going abroad, and he completely lost heart, hesitated and was about to refuse.
And then Anna Grigorievna unexpectedly showed the hidden strength of her character and decided on an extreme measure: she pawned everything she had - furniture, silver, things, dresses, everything that she chose and bought with such joy. And soon they went abroad. They were going to spend three months in Europe, and returned from there after more than four years. But during these four years they managed to forget about the unsuccessful beginning of their life together: it has now turned into a close, happy and lasting community.
They spent some time in Berlin, then, after passing through Germany, they settled in Dresden. It was here that their mutual rapprochement began, which very soon dispelled all his anxieties and doubts. They were completely different people - in age, temperament, interests, mind, but they also had much in common, and a happy combination of similarity and difference ensured the success of their married life.
Anna Grigorievna was shy and only when alone with her husband did she become lively and show what he called "hasteness". He understood and appreciated this: he himself was timid, embarrassed with strangers, and also did not feel any embarrassment only when he was alone with his wife, not like with Marya Dmitrievna or Apollinaria. Her youth and inexperience had a calming effect on him, reassuring and dispelling his inferiority complexes and self-abasement.
Usually, in marriage, each other's shortcomings are intimately known, and therefore a slight disappointment arises. The Dostoevskys, on the contrary, revealed the best aspects of their nature from closeness. Anna Grigorievna, who fell in love with and married Dostoevsky, saw that he was absolutely extraordinary, brilliant, terrible, difficult.
And he, who married a diligent secretary, discovered that not only he was the “patron and protector of a young creature”, but she was his “guardian angel”, and a friend and support. Anna Grigorievna passionately loved Dostoevsky as a man and a person, she loved his wife and mistress, mother and daughter with a mixed love.
Marrying Dostoevsky, Anna Grigorievna was hardly aware of what awaited her, and only after marriage did she understand the difficulty of the questions that confronted her. There were his jealousy, and suspicion, and his passion for the game, and his illness, and his peculiarities, and oddities. And, above all, the problem of physical relationships. As in everything else, their mutual adjustment did not come immediately, but as a result of a long, sometimes painful process.
Then they had to go through a lot, and especially her. Dostoevsky again began to play in the casino, and lost all the money, Anna Grigorievna pawned everything they had. After that, they moved to Geneva and lived there on what Anna Grigoryevna's mother sent them. They were very humble and regular image life. But, in spite of all the obstacles, their rapprochement intensified both in joy and in sorrow.
In February 1868 their daughter was born. Dostoevsky was proud and pleased with his fatherhood and passionately loved the child. But little Sonya, "dear angel" as he called her, did not survive, and in May they lowered her coffin into the grave in the Geneva cemetery. They immediately left Geneva and moved to Italy. There they rested for a while and started on their journey again. After some time, they again ended up in Dresden, and there their second daughter was born, they named her Love. Parents were shaking over her, and the girl grew up as a strong child.
But the financial situation was very difficult. Later, when Dostoevsky completed The IdiotV, they had money. They lived in Dresden throughout 1870. But suddenly they decided to return to Russia. There were many reasons for this. On June 8, 1871, they moved to St. Petersburg: a week later, Anna Grigorievna had a son, Fedor.
The beginning of life in Russia was difficult: Anna Grigoryevna's house was sold for next to nothing, but they did not give up. During the 14 years of her life with Dostoevsky, Anna Grigorievna experienced many insults, anxieties and misfortunes (their second son, Alexei, who was born in 1875, died soon after), but she never complained about her fate.
It is safe to say that the years spent with Anna Grigoryevna in Russia were the most calm, peaceful and, perhaps, the happiest in his life.
The well-established life and sexual satisfaction, which in 1877 led to the complete disappearance of epilepsy, did little to change Dostoevsky's character and habits. He was well over 50 when he calmed down somewhat - at least outwardly - and began to get used to family life.
His ardor and suspicion have not diminished over the years. He often startled strangers in society with his angry remarks. At 60, he was just as jealous as in his youth. But he is also passionate in the manifestations of his love.
By old age, he was so used to Anna Grigorievna and the family that he absolutely could not do without them. In 1879 and early 1880, Dostoevsky's health deteriorated greatly. In January, his pulmonary artery ruptured from excitement, and two days later he began to bleed. They intensified, the doctors failed to stop them, he fell into unconsciousness several times.
On January 28, 1881, he called Anna Grigorievna to him, took her by the hand and whispered: "Remember, Anya, I have always loved you dearly and have never cheated on you, even mentally." By evening he was gone.
Anna Grigoryevna remained faithful to her husband beyond the grave. In the year of his death, she was only 35 years old, but she considered her womanly life ended and devoted herself to serving his name. She died in the Crimea, alone, away from family and friends, in June 1918 - and the last of the women whom Dostoevsky loved went down to the grave with her.
What should be the wife of a great man? This question was asked by biographers of many famous people.
How often are great women next to great men who become like-minded people, helpers, friends? Be that as it may, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was lucky: his second wife, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, was just such a person.
Anna Grigoryevna Dostoevskaya lived a long and rich life, outliving the writer by almost 40 years.
In order to understand the role of Anna Grigorievna in the fate of the classic, it is enough to look at Dostoevsky's life "before" and "after" the meeting with this amazing woman. So, by the time he met her in 1866, Dostoevsky was the author of several stories, some of which were highly acclaimed. For example, "Poor people" - they were enthusiastically received by Belinsky and Nekrasov. And some, for example, "Double" - suffered a complete fiasco, having received devastating reviews from these same writers.
If success in literature, although variable, was still there, then other areas of Dostoevsky's life and career looked much more deplorable: participation in the Petrashevsky case led him to four years of hard labor and exile; the magazines created with his brother were closed and left behind huge debts; health was so undermined that practically most life the writer lived with a feeling of "on last days»; unsuccessful marriage with Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva and her death - all this did not contribute to either creativity or peace of mind.
On the eve of his acquaintance with Anna Grigorievna, one more catastrophe was added to these: under a bonded agreement with the publisher F.T. Stelovsky Dostoevsky had to provide new novel by November 1, 1866. There was about a month left, otherwise all rights to subsequent works by F.M. Dostoevsky passed to the publisher. By the way, Dostoevsky was not the only writer who found himself in such a situation: a little earlier, on unfavorable terms for the author, the works of A.F. Pisemsky; V.V. got into the "bondage" Krestovsky, author of Petersburg Slums. For only 25 rubles, the works of M.I. Glinka at his sister L.I. Shestakova.
On this occasion, Dostoevsky wrote to Maikov:
“He has so much money that he will buy all Russian literature if he wants to. Does that person not have the money that Glinka bought in total for 25 rubles?
The situation was critical. Friends suggested that the writer create the main line of the novel, a kind of synopsis, as they would say now, and divide it between them. Each of the literary friends could write a separate chapter, and the novel would be ready. But Dostoevsky could not agree to this. Then friends suggested finding a stenographer: in this case, the chance to write a novel on time still appeared.
Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina became this stenographer. It is unlikely that another woman could be so aware and feel the situation. During the day the novel was dictated by the writer, at night the chapters were transcribed and written. By the appointed date, the novel "The Gambler" was ready. It was written in just 25 days, from 4 to 29 October 1866.
Illustration for the novel "The Gambler" Stellovsky was not going to give up the opportunity to outplay Dostoevsky so quickly. On the day the manuscript was handed over, he simply left the city. The clerk refused to accept the manuscript. The discouraged and disappointed Dostoevsky was again rescued by Anna Grigoryevna. After consulting with acquaintances, she persuaded the writer to hand over the manuscript against receipt to the bailiff of the unit in which Stellovsky lived. The victory remained with Dostoevsky, but in many respects the merit belonged to Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, who pretty soon became not only his wife, but also true friend, assistant and companion.
"Netochka Nezvanova"
To understand the relationship between them, it is necessary to turn to events much earlier. Anna Grigorievna was born in the family of a petty St. Petersburg official Grigory Ivanovich Snitkin, who was an admirer of Dostoevsky. In the family, she was even nicknamed Netochka, after the name of the heroine of the story "Netochka Nezvanova". Her mother, Anna Nikolaevna Miltopeus, a Swede of Finnish origin, was the complete opposite of her addicted and impractical husband. Energetic, imperious, she showed herself to be the complete mistress of the house.
Anna Grigorievna inherited both the understanding character of her father and the determination of her mother. And she projected the relationship between her parents onto her future husband: “... They always remained themselves, not echoing or imitating each other in the least. And they did not get entangled with their soul - I - in his psychology, he - in mine, and thus my good husband and I - we both felt free at heart."
Anna wrote about her attitude to Dostoevsky as follows:
“My love was purely head, ideological. It was rather adoration, admiration for a man so talented and possessing such high spiritual qualities. It was a soul-searching pity for a man who had suffered so much, who had never seen joy and happiness, and who had been so abandoned by those close ones who would be obliged to repay him with love and care for him for everything that (he) did for them all his life. The dream of becoming a companion of his life, sharing his labors, facilitating his life, giving him happiness - took possession of my imagination, and
Fyodor Mikhailovich became my god, my idol, and it seems that I was ready to kneel before him all my life.
Joint life with Dostoevsky
The family life of Anna Grigorievna and Fyodor Mikhailovich also did not escape misfortunes and uncertainty in the future. They happened to survive years of almost beggarly existence abroad, the death of two children, Dostoevsky's manic passion for playing. And yet, it was Anna Grigorievna who managed to put their life in order, organize the work of the writer, free him, in the end, from those financial debts that had accumulated since the unsuccessful publication of magazines.
Despite the age difference and the difficult nature of her husband, Anna was able to establish their life together.
The wife struggled with addiction roulette games, and helped in the work: shorthand his novels, transcribed manuscripts, read proofs and organized the book trade.
Gradually, she took over all the financial affairs, and Fedor Mikhailovich no longer interfered in them, which, by the way, had an extremely positive effect on the family budget. (If only he would intervene - what a look Anna Grigorievna has)
It was Anna Grigorievna who decided on such a desperate act as her own edition of the novel "Demons". There were no precedents at that time when a writer managed to independently publish his works and get real profit from it. Even Pushkin's attempts to receive income from the publication of his literary works have been a complete fiasco.
There were several book firms: Bazunov, Volf, Isakov and others who bought the rights to publish books, and then published and distributed them throughout Russia. How much the authors lost on this can be calculated quite easily: Bazunov offered 500 rubles for the right to publish the novel "Demons" (and this is already a "cult" and not a novice writer), while income after the independent publication of the book amounted to about 4,000 rubles.
Anna Grigoryevna proved herself to be a true business woman. She delved into the matter to the smallest detail, many of which she learned literally in a “spy” way: ordering Business Cards; asking in printing houses on what conditions books are printed; pretending to be bargaining in a bookstore, I found out what extra charges he makes. From such inquiries, she found out what percentage and at what number of copies should be ceded to booksellers.
And here is the result - "Demons" were sold out instantly and extremely profitably. From that moment on, the main activity of Anna Grigoryevna was the publication of her husband's books ...
In the year of Dostoevsky's death (1881), Anna Grigorievna turned 35 years old. She did not remarry and devoted herself entirely to perpetuating the memory of Fyodor Mikhailovich. She published the collected works of the writer seven times, organized an apartment-museum, wrote memoirs, gave endless interviews, and spoke at numerous literary evenings.
In the summer of 1917, events that disturbed the whole country threw her into the Crimea, where she fell ill with severe malaria and died a year later in Yalta. They buried her away from her husband, although she asked otherwise. She dreamed of finding peace next to Fyodor Mikhailovich, in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and that at the same time they would not put a separate monument to her, but would only cut out a few lines on the tombstone. last will Anna Grigoryevna was performed only in 1968.
Childhood and youth of the future wife of the great writer
Born Anna Snitkina came from a St. Petersburg family of a petty official. Since childhood, the girl dreamed of somehow changing the world, making it better and kinder. The first acquaintance with creativity then already famous writer Anna took place at about the age of sixteen, when she accidentally found Dostoevsky's Notes from the House of the Dead in her father's library. It was this work that became for Anna the starting point that she had been waiting for. From that moment on, the girl decides to become a teacher and in 1864 enters the Department of Physical and Mathematical Sciences of the Pedagogical Courses. However, Anna only managed to study for a year, her father died and the young dreamy lady had to put aside high ideals a little and start earning a living for her family.
In order to somehow help her relatives after the death of her father, Anna Snitkina enters stenographer courses, where her natural zeal leads to the fact that by the end of her studies, the girl becomes a better student of Professor Olkhin, to whom Dostoevsky will turn later. The acquaintance with her future husband took place on October 4, 1866, when Anna was invited to work with Dostoevsky on the novel The Gambler. This enigmatic writer struck the girl at first sight. Yes, and Anna Snitkina, an ordinary stenographer, did not leave Fyodor Mikhailovich indifferent. After a few days of working together, he was able to really speak frankly and pour out his soul in front of this young lady. Maybe even then the writer felt a real kinship of souls, which many never meet on their life path.
Faithful wife and true companion
A few months after they met, Dostoevsky makes a marriage proposal to Anna Snitkina. According to the girl herself, he was very worried about the fact that she might refuse. But the feeling was mutual, and on February 15, 1867, the wedding of the Dostoevsky spouses took place. However, the first months of married life turned out to be not “honey” at all, the family of Fyodor Mikhailovich humiliated his young wife in every possible way and tried, on occasion, to sting as painfully as possible. But Anna Grigoryevna did not break down, she decided that family happiness was only in her hands. Having sold all her valuables, she takes her husband to Germany, where she gives him complete freedom and provides peace for normal work. This is where they really started happy life. Anna Dostoevskaya also has another important victory - it was she who helped the novelist to give up his addiction to roulette, for which he later thanked her very much.
In 1868, the first-born daughter Sonya appeared in the Dostoevsky family, who, unfortunately, died in early childhood. The next year, in Dresden, God sends them another daughter, Lubov. And in 1871, when the family had already returned to St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky had a son, Fyodor, and then, in 1875, a son, Alexei, who died three years later from epilepsy.
Personal achievements of Anna Dostoevskaya
In addition to the fact that it was Anna Grigoryevna who was in charge of all the economic affairs of the family and was able to get her out of the debt hole, she also dealt with all matters with printing houses and publishing houses, thereby providing her husband with scope for creativity, not burdened with everyday problems. Dostoevskaya herself published all the works of the writer and even distributed his books. Thus, Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya became one of the first Russian women entrepreneurs of that time. Even after the death of the writer, she did not leave the work of his life. It was Dostoevsky's wife who collected all his writings, documents, photographs, letters and organized a whole room in Historical Museum city of Moscow, dedicated to Dostoevsky. An important biographical source of Dostoevsky's life is her diaries and memoirs about her husband, published in 1923 and 1925, respectively.
Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya is also known as one of the first Russian women who were fond of philately. collect your own collection postage stamps the writer's wife started back in 1867, partly to prove to her husband that a woman is also capable of long time go to your goal and do not stop. Interestingly, in her entire life, Anna Dostoevskaya did not pay for a single stamp; all of them were received by her as a gift or removed from envelopes. Where the album with the stamps of Dostoevsky's wife went is unknown.
It's hard to be a good wife. Can't imagine what it's like to be a wife brilliant man, and also good. Give the genius happiness and peace. Give all of yourself for peace, love and harmony in the family, while remaining a person. Anna Grigoryevna Dostoevskaya managed to do the impossible.
Stenographer
Netochka Snitkina had to enroll in a stenographer's course in order to later help the family financially. And so, as the best student, she was offered to work with Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, whose works she read.
Dostoevsky had only 26 days left to write a new novel and not fall into bondage to the publisher. A twenty year old girl famous writer caused a double impression. On the one hand - a genius, and on the other - unhappy, abandoned, lonely, from whom everyone needs only one thing - money. From pity one step to love, at least for a Russian woman. And Dostoevsky, feeling warmth, opened up to the girl in all his sorrows. But they managed to work on the novel and successfully completed it on time. However, the publisher went into hiding so as not to accept the manuscript. Anna Grigorievna showed remarkable self-control and handed over the manuscript to the police department. The duel with the publisher was won.
The end of their work upset both of them, and Fyodor Mikhailovich offered to cooperate on next thing. Moreover, he shyly made a proposal to the girl to become his wife. And so, in 1867, Netochka Snitkina became the true and necessary friend of a genius.
Complex ambiguous feelings
Anna Dostoevskaya first of all felt sorry for her husband, adored his talent and wanted to make his life easier, in which his relatives angrily interfered. Fyodor Mikhailovich offered to leave Petersburg, but there was no money. Anna Dostoevskaya almost without hesitation pawned her dowry - and here they are, first in Moscow, and then in Geneva. There they stayed for four years. In Baden, Fedor Mikhailovich lost absolutely everything they had, right down to his wife's dresses. But, realizing that this was a disease, Anna Dostoevskaya did not even reproach her husband. The Lord appreciated her humility and cured the player forever from his all-consuming passion. They had a daughter, but she died three months later. Both suffered endlessly. But the Lord sent them a second daughter. Together with her, they returned to their homeland. And in the first week in Russia they had a son.
character changes
Everyone noted that Anna Dostoevskaya became resolute and strong-willed. The writer has accumulated huge debts. The young wife undertook to unravel complex material matters, freeing the impractical writer from this routine. Dostoevsky could only marvel at the stubbornness and inflexibility of the character of a woman who loves and protects her family.
She managed to do everything: work fourteen hours a day, take shorthand, correct, listen to new chapters of the novel at night, write a diary, monitor her husband’s shattered health ... And when her third child appeared, she decided to publish the works herself.
family business
Publishing and bookselling, with the organizational skills of Anna Grigorievna, went successfully. Isn't this the personal achievement of Anna Dostoevskaya? Success inspired the writer. But Anna Grigoryevna never lost sight of the little things either. When they went somewhere, she stocked up on a blanket to wrap her husband, took cough medicine, handkerchiefs. All this is imperceptible, but irreplaceable, and is valued by the spouse as the highest manifestation of love.
But the little one is dying. The depth of Fyodor Mikhailovich's despair is indescribable. Anna Grigoryevna hid her grief as best she could, although her hands fell, she sometimes even could not deal with two children - Lyubov and Fedya. And they go to the elders in Optina Pustyn. Then this episode will be included in the novel "The Brothers Karamazov".
Big job
Of course, it doesn't come by itself. Behind him is tireless work on himself, which Anna Grigoryevna did. She humbled her natural impetuosity, because of which quarrels could and did occur. But they always ended in reconciliation, and Fyodor Mikhailovich fell in love with her with new force. And his inner life was difficult and stressful. It was at times small in addition sick and demanding. That is, the feelings of the spouses did not become stagnant in everyday life, but were full of mutual care.
Collecting stamps
Even when they were in Geneva, the young couple argued. Fedor Mikhailovich assured that a woman is not capable of doing anything for a long time. To which, flaring up, Anna replied that she would start collecting stamps and would not give up this occupation. Bought right here stationery store klyasser and at home proudly pasted the first stamp from the letter that had come to them. The hostess, seeing this, gave her old stamps.
This is how Anna Dostoevskaya laid the foundation for the collection. The most interesting thing is that she was engaged in philately for the rest of her life. But what happened to the collection after her death, no one knows.
Irreparable grief
Fyodor Mikhailovich was a very sick man. Emphysema brought him to the grave in 1881. Anna Grigorievna was thirty-five years old. Everyone spoke about the genius that the country had lost, but everyone forgot about his widow, who lost happiness and love with him. She vowed to live for their children and to publish his collected works, and created his museum. Her biography testifies to this. Anna Dostoevskaya served her husband even after his death.
Anna Grigoryevna herself died in 1918 in the Crimea. She was seriously ill, she was starving, she was already beginning to Civil War, and she continued to parse her husband's manuscripts, creating an archive of Fedor Mikhailovich. This is how Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya lived her life. Her biography is both simple and complex at the same time.
