In November 1821, Dostoevsky, one of the most famous Russian writers and philosophers, was born on November 11. In this article we will talk about his biography and literary work.
Dostoevsky family
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was born in Moscow in the family of a nobleman Mikhail Andreevich, the head physician serving in the Mariinsky hospital, and Maria Fedorovna. In the family, he was one of eight children and only the second son. His father was from the Polish gentry, whose estate was in the Belarusian part of Polesie, and his mother came from an old Moscow merchant family, originating in the Kaluga province. It is worth saying that Fedor Mikhailovich was little interested in the rich history of his kind. He spoke of his parents as poor, but hardworking people who allowed him to receive an excellent upbringing and high-quality education, for which he was grateful to his family. Maria Fedorovna taught her son to read Christian literature, which left him a strong impression and largely determined his future life.
In 1831, the father of the family acquired the small estate Darovoe in the Tula province. The Dostoevsky family began to visit this country house every summer. There, the future writer got the opportunity to get acquainted with the real life of the peasants. In general, according to him, childhood was the best time in his life.
Writer Education
Initially, the formation of Fyodor and his elder brother Michael was dealt with by their father, teaching them in Latin. Then their home teaching was continued by the teacher Drashusov and his sons, who studied French with boys, mathematics and literature. This continued until 1834, when the brothers were assigned to the elite pension of Chermak in Moscow, where they studied until 1837.
When Fedor was 16 years old, his mother died of tuberculosis. Further years F.M. Dostoevsky and his brother spent preparing to enter an engineering school. They spent some time in the Kostomarov boarding house, where they continued to study literature. Despite the fact that both brothers wanted to write, his father considered this lesson to be completely unprofitable.
The beginning of literary activity
Fedor did not feel any desire to be in school and was burdened by being there, in his free hours he studied world and domestic literature. Inspired by her at night, he was engaged in his literary experiments, reading out excerpts from his brother. Over time, a literary circle formed in the Main Engineering School under the influence of Dostoevsky. In 1843, he graduated from his studies and was appointed to the post of engineer in St. Petersburg, which he soon abandoned, deciding to devote himself entirely to literary work. His father died from an apoplexy stroke (although, according to the memoirs of his relatives, he was killed by his own peasants, which is called into question by researchers of Dostoevsky’s biography) in 1839 and was no longer able to oppose the decision of his son.
The very first works of Dostoevsky, whose birthday is celebrated on November 11, did not reach us - these were dramas on historical themes. Since 1844, he has been engaged in translations, while working on his work Poor People. In 1845 he was met with pleasure in Belinsky’s circle, and he soon became a well-known writer, the “new Gogol,” but his next novel, The Double, was not appreciated, and soon Dostoevsky’s relationship (new style birthday was November 11) with circle deteriorated. He also quarreled with the editorial board of Sovremennik magazine and began to publish mainly in Domestic Notes. However, the acquired fame allowed him to get acquainted with a much wider circle of people, and soon he became a member of the philosophical and literary circle of the Beketov brothers, with one of whom he studied at the engineering school. Through one of the participants in this society, he came to the Petrashevists and began to regularly attend their meetings from the winter of 1847.
Petrashevsky circle
The main topics that the members of the Petrashevsky Society discussed at their meetings were the emancipation of the peasants, printing, and the change of legal proceedings. Soon Dostoevsky became one of several who organized a separate radical community among Petrashevists. In 1849, many of them, including the writer, were arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Staging the execution
The court recognized Dostoevsky as one of the main criminals, despite the fact that he rejected the accusations in every possible way, and sentenced him to death by execution, depriving him of all his fortunes. However, a few days later the order of execution was replaced by eight-year hard labor, and that, in turn, by four years, followed by long-term military service, by special decree of Nicholas 1. In December 1849, the execution of Petrashevists was staged, and only at the last moment was announced pardon and sending to hard labor. One of the nearly executed ones went crazy after such a test. Undoubtedly, this event had a strong influence on the views of the writer.
Years of hard labor
During the transfer to Tobolsk, a meeting took place with the wives of the Decembrists, who secretly passed the gospel to future convicts (Dostoevsky kept his until the end of his life). The following years he spent in hard labor in Omsk, trying to change his attitude among prisoners, he was perceived negatively due to the fact that he was a nobleman. Dostoevsky could write books only in the infirmary in secret, since the prisoners were deprived of the right to correspond.
Soon after the end of the penal servitude, Dostoevsky was appointed to serve in the Semipalatinsk regiment, where he met his future wife Maria Isaeva, whose marriage was unhappy and ended unsuccessfully. The writer rose to the rank of ensign in 1857, when pardon was announced to both Petrashevists and Decembrists.
Mercy and return to the capital
Upon returning to St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky had to make a literary debut again - these were Notes from the Dead House, which were universally recognized, since the genre in which the writer told about the life of convicts was completely new. The writer published several works in the journal Vremya, which he published together with his brother Mikhail. After a while, the magazine was closed, and the brothers began to print another publication - The Epoch, which also closed a few years later. At this time, he took an active part in the public life of the country, having suffered the destruction of socialist ideals, recognized himself as an open Slavophile, and affirmed the social significance of art. Dostoevsky’s books reflect his views on reality, which contemporaries did not always understand, at times they seemed to them too harsh and innovative, and sometimes too conservative.
Traveling in Europe
In 1862, Dostoevsky, whose birthday is celebrated on November 11, first went abroad to undergo medical treatment at the resorts, but in the end he traveled to most of Europe, addicted to the game of roulette in Baden-Baden and having spent almost all his money. In principle, Dostoevsky had problems with money and creditors for almost his entire life. He spent part of the trip in the company of A. Suslova, a young uninhibited young lady. He described many of his adventures in Europe in his novel The Player. In addition, the writer was shocked by the negative consequences of the Great French Revolution, and he established himself in the opinion that the only possible development path for Russia is a unique and distinctive one that does not repeat the European one.
Second wife
In 1867, the writer married his stenographer Anna Snitkina. They had four children, of whom only two survived, and in the end only the only surviving son Fedor became the continuer of the family. The next few years, they lived together abroad, where Dostoevsky, whose birthday is celebrated on November 11, began work on some of the latest novels that are part of the famous Great Five Books - Crime and Punishment, the most famous philosophical novel, The Idiot, where the author reveals the theme of a man trying to make others happy, but suffering as a result, “Demons”, telling about revolutionary trends, and “Teenager”.
The Brothers Karamazov, also referring to the Pentateuch, the last novel by Dostoevsky, was in a sense a summing up of the whole creative path, since it contained features and images of all the previous works of the writer.
The writer spent the last 8 years of his life in the Novgorod province, in the town of Staraya Russa, where he lived with his wife and children and continued to engage in writing, completing the novels that had begun.
In June 1880, Dostoevsky Fedor Mikhailovich, whose work significantly influenced literature as a whole, arrived at the opening of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow, where many famous writers were present. In the evening, he made a famous speech about Pushkin at a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.
The death of Dostoevsky
The years of life of F.M. Dostoevsky - 1821-1881. Fedor Mikhailovich died on January 28, 1881 from tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, aggravated by pulmonary emphysema, shortly after the scandal with his sister Vera, who asked him to abandon the estate in favor of the sisters. The writer was buried in one of the cemeteries of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, a huge number of people gathered to say goodbye to him.
Although Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was famous, whose biography and interesting facts about his life we examined in this article, acquired during his lifetime, real, grandiose fame came to him only after his death.