CHILDHOOD
Fyodor Dostoevsky was born on October 30, 1821 in a workhouse hospital of Moscow. His father Mikhail Dostoevsky was a staff physician who, according to some was a despotic father and a heavy drinker. His mother Maria Dostoevsky was the daughter of a Moscow merchant, and unlike his father, was sensible, sentimental and caring. Dostoevsky was second of their seven children.
Memories of early childhood include those of his early life in the staff accommodation of Marinsky Hospital where his father was a staff doctor. In the early childhood of
Fyodor, his father was too busy in his profession. As a child, Dostoevsky remember that, he or his siblings never played any pranks or ran about. Going for walks was a regular practice in the family and these walks were very solemn.
His father always talked about improvement in academics. As a child, he had never left his home town but for a couple of occasions when he joined his family in a pilgrimage.
Fyodor had a confined sort of childhood and so even in later life his novels never focused on the wide expanses of nature. Due to a lack of playmates in early childhood, he grew up to be hypersensitive, excessively demanding and jealous. It would however be paradoxical to talk of an isolated childhood in the midst of his six siblings but still Fyodor was not really capable of ordinary social interaction.
When Dostoevsky was 10, his parents bought the small form of Darovoe in the government of Tulssa, near Moscow. This meant deliverance from confinement for Fyodor and his siblings and his novels carried traces of influence of this.
EDUCATION
Nearly around the time when these visits to the country began, education was initiated. Maternal instruction in alphabet began at a very early age. Two visiting teachers – a priest and a Frenchman, were also appointed. Then father gave them lessons in Latin. In 1834, He along with his brother Michael went to school by the name L J Tchermark at Moscow. At school Fyodor was familiar with very few people.
DEATH OF MOTHER
Fyodor’s mother was a sensible and caring woman. Her husband, Fyodor’s father was a heavy drinker and Fyodor and his brother did not have much financial freedom at home even for their very basic necessities, father always encouraged Fyodor and his brother to procure money by their own means.
At home there was always an atmosphere of monotony and gloom, in which Fyoder’s mother fell ill and died in early 1837 when Fyodor was 15 years old. Fyodor always carried memories of his mother with reverence but she can scarcely have played any great part in his life.
MILITARY COLLEGE
Before the death of their mother it was already decided that Fyodor and Michael would be sent to the Military Engineering Academy at Petersburg in which their father had managed to obtain free seats for them.
The two boys were to stay alone there first time in their lives, the two were left alone at a new place. Later in the entrance examination Fyodor got through while Michael was rejected. Fyodor was a pensive, solitary student prone to fits of depression.
During his college days, he used to regularly write to his father. In one of his letters he mentioned "what terrible examples have I not seen there!" He wrote "I saw young boys who have worked out what their whole life was going to be like, at what particular time they
would obtain a certain rank, what could be more profitable to their career, what was the best of making money…." During this period he directed his energies towards reading, especially French.
Also there was one custom of whipping of new boys, or ‘hazel hens’ as they were called. The new boys were made to crawl on all four, under the table and would be whipped when they would emerge out from the other side. This was thoroughly detested by Fyodor who hated every moment at college. To come out of these frustrations and depressions he started reading Julius Caesar and found the solace in the world of literature.
DEATH OF FATHER
Dostoevsky’s father was murdered by serfs in 1839. At the time of his father’s death, Dostoevsky was a cadet at Military Engineering Academy.
LIFE IN ARMY
Dostoevsky and his brother entered the Military Engineering College at St Petersburg in 1837. True to his work and service, he obtained the commission in 1841 and was subsequently promoted to the rank of a lieutenant in 1842.
Dostoevsky attached himself to Army Engineering Corps. St Petersburg in 1843 where he remained only for a year and then resigned his commission in 1844 only to start serious career in writing which started with the writing of Poor Folks.
In January 1856, Dostoevsky was promoted to a non–commissioned officer. In October the same year, he was promoted to the rank of a Lieutenant
FINANCIAL CRISIS
As Fyodor and his brothers grew up their father would often talk to them of acute financial crisis, and would explain that he was a man of limited means and it would be good if the boys could have independent means of procuring finance. There are evidences of Fyodor expressing his financial need to his father. Till his father was alive, he kept all things of finance in his hands. These were the days when Fyodor and Michel were sent to study engineering at Petersburg. The two had a hand to mouth living and on one occasion Fyodor could be seen living on bread and milk only. But financial difficulties gave him a new view of literature.
In order to earn a steady livelihood, Dostoevsky had nothing but his writing talent and thus in the midst of acute financial crisis his first original essay Poor Folks was born. It was a
short novel in epistolary form, written and re-written in the winter of 1844-45. Dostoevsky had no choice but to write in order to earn a living. Poor folk, a short novel, in epistolary form was written and re-written during the winter of 1844-45. The primary characteristic of the novel was a close relationship with Gogol. The style of Poor Folk is close to that of Gogol.
During his college days and also during his lifetime, Dostoevsky faced perennial financial problems. He was so generous that he would end up paying for his batman’s (personal servant) companion, a laundry woman who in turn provided money to her numerous friends. He would without knowledge provide hospitality and benevolence to people who ideally never deserved his sympathy. This generosity always proved to be a hindrance in his material progress.
IMPRISONMENT
Carrying on the pursuit of literature, a warm critical draft of Poor Folks was published in 1846. Dostoevsky began attending discussion groups.
In 1849, he was arrested for participating in a mildly subversive group, the Petrashevsky and sentenced first to prison and then to a harsh exile in Siberia for a total of 10 years.
MARRIAGE
In 1854, on emergence from prison, he came into contact with Baron Wrangel, who came to Semipalatinsk as District prosecutor in November 1854. The two became intimate, Dostoevsky would visit his new friend several times a day and avail endless hospitality. Here, Dostoevsky made acquaintance with a family. It consisted of a husband, wife and a son of seven or eight.
The man in the family named Isaev, held a small post in the Customs department at Semipalatinsk, but by the time of Dostoevsky’s arrival his sole occupation appeared to be consumption of alcohol, which hastened and rendered tolerable, the slow progress of a painful kidney disease.
Dostoevsky’s visits to the family were welcome only by the lady called Maria Dmitrineva Isaeva, who was a pretty blonde with middle height, slight built and a passionate woman.
Dostoevsky was inflatuated by the lady who eventually became his mistress and eventually his wife. The relationship between Dostoevsky and Maria, both before and after their marriage was surrounded by a haze of uncertainty which was probably never dispelled.
RELATIONSHIP WITH POLLINA
Meanwhile, his wife died. After his wife’s death, Dostoevsky came in contact with a girl and was attracted by her intellect. In September 1861, he came across a short story by a young university student, Apollinaria (Pollina) Suslova. Dostoevesky made acquaintance with her on an occasion. An extremely frank diary by Suslova was source of information about their relationship. The two had a regular exchange of letters and met frequently till October 1863. Dostoevsky and Pollina broke finally by 1865.
He immediately proposed to her but was rejected outright. Shortly his brother Michael died leaving behind a big debt. In these tragic circumstances and also burdened financially by his late brother's debts, Dostoevsky suffered an attack of depression. In that desperate state, he started visiting gambling dens. This in turn led him into a further debt trap, but this could not deter him from scaling literary heights.
TOUR TO EUROPE
In 1863 Pollina and Dostoevsky had plans of traveling together to France and Italy during summer. But due to his wife’s ill health Dostoevsky could not leave as per schedule with Pollina, who left in June. He also ran short of finances and had to borrow money from the fund for needy Men of Letters. Dostoevsky could start only by mid–August 1863.
But by then Pollina and met a young Spanish Doctor and fallen in love with him, though the man did not really love her. This amounted to a heart break for Dostoevsky. Yet he pursued his relationship with Pollina with whom he continued to travel as her new friend the Spanish doctor was ailing from typhus.
But Pollina was an expensive companion and Dostoevsky had to borrow more money in order to travel with her
MEETING ANNA
Around this time he was in need of a stenographer to complete the publication of his new novel in time and found a 19-year-old Anna Snitkin to be a perfect partner. They succeeded in delivering the manuscript of The Gambler in time and their closeness at work resulted in their marriage, on February 15, 1867. But problems didn’t end there. His brother’s debts dragged him towards penury. Further Sofia, their first child lived only for three months and second daughter Lyubov got a nervous breakdown later from which she never recovered. Aleksey, the third born in 1875 died of fever when he was three. Throughout this period Dostoevsky had been an ideal father and a good husband, taking care of his wife and children. His love for his child Sofia on her death is seen in these lines "Where is that little person for whom – and I mean it – I am ready to be crucified if only that would bring her back to life."
Anna and Dostoevsky quarreled several times on trivial issues leading Dostoevsky re-affirm his belief that a wife was the natural enemy of her husband. One of the reasons of their quarrel was Pollina Suslova. Once he got a harsh letter from Pollina who was vexed by Dostoevsky’s second marriage. The tone was so rude that he became absent minded for some time and could not recover for a long time from the blow he had on his pride from Pollina's letter.
THE CITIZEN
After his tour to Europe Dostoevsky returned to Russia and began serious writing in 1871. He accepted the editorship of a reactionary weekly called Grazhdamin (The Citizen). In his, The Diary of a writer 1873 – 1877, initially a column in The Citizen but later an independent periodical, Dostoevsky published a variety of prose works including some of his outstanding short stories.
LITERARY SUCCESS
The later years were considered the apex of his career in which he finally saw both artistic and economic success coming his way. In 1879 he began publishing The Brothers Karamazov in The Russian Messenger which received great reviews. This novel not only .
got him fame as usual but got him financial success which was rare for him as for most of his life, he and his family were reeling under financial crisis
LATER YEARS
His last years were the best of his life and he could overcome his economic problems through his literary success. He also proved to be a good speaker and his speech to the 'Lovers of Russian Literature' at Puskin became memorable.
An account of last minute could be found in a Moscow journal "He lay dressed on a sofa with his head thrown back on the pillow. The light of the lamp and the candles on the small bedside table fell directly on his forehead and cheeks, white as paper and on the bloodstain on his chin. The breath came with a kind of faint whistling sound from his throat and through the convulsively open lips. His eyelids were half closed by the same kind of mechanically spasmodic process of his stricken organism…. He was in coma."
Dostoevsky died on January 28, 1881. His burial took place at Alexander Nevsky Monastery at Petersburg. Nicolai Berdyaev, an existentialist, claimed Dostoevsky to be Russia’s greatest metaphysicical author. Dostoevsky’s thought recapitulates Gautam Buddha: "A meticulous study of psychological consequences of our actions teaches us that the moral law will catch up to those who think they are above it." But his background of ‘Western Consciousness’ pulls him away thoroughly from Eastern analysis: "Most important thing on earth is individual soul.’ Dostoevsky’s idea of right conduct is abjuring false arrogance
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is perhaps one of the most enigmatic figures to his biographers and readers alike. His misfortunes and sufferings were portrayed through the characters in his work. His irreconcilable inner conflicts revealed that this great Russian writer was at war with himself. Dostoevsky’s profound effect on ‘Western Consciousness’ can be easily traced out from almost all 20th century American literature. Throughout his life, he vacillated between religion and politics but never wavered in his aim as writer. He devoted his life "to the solution of the mystery of man." His aim as a writer had been "to find man in man while preserving the fullest possible realism…..People". He was a realist in the fullest sence of the word, depicting all the depths of the human soul. Russian Literature is enriched by two of its major contributors – Tolstoy & F M Dostoevsky.
1821 Fyodor Dostoevsky was born on October 30. He was baptized on November 4th.
1834 He entered the school of L J Tchermark at Moscow.
1836 Introduced to and influenced by Pushkin’s literature.
1837 His Mother Maria died on 27th February.
Entered Prepatory school of K F Kostomarov.
1838 Admitted to St Petersburg’s Academy of Military Engineers.
1839 His father Mickail Dostoevsky died.
1842 He joined the army.
1845 Grigorievich Belinsky approached on reading Poor Folk.
1846 Suffered from nervous ailment possibly epilepsy.
1849 Arrested and imprisoned several times. Finally a death sentence converted to hard labor in Siberian prison.
1850 Arrived at Tobolsk and then continued journey to Omsk where he served prison sentence till 1854.
1854 Sentence was completed. Enrolled in the Siberian Regiment.
1856 Promoted to non-commissioned rank.
1857 Married Maria Isaeva.
1859 Allowed to stay in European Russia with his wife Maria.
1862 Visited western European countries including England, France and Switzerland.
1864 Edited the Journal Epoch.
His wife and brother Michael died.
1865 Married A G Snitkin, a stenographer.
1871 Returned to Petersburg from his trip.
1872 Joined the editorial staff of The Citizen.
1874 Infraction of the censorship regulation resulted in his imprisonment.
1880 Banquet of Moscow Writers and Journalists in Dostoevky’s honor.
At Puskin’s festivities, Dostoevsky’s speech became memorable.
1881 Died on January 28th. A public burial was held on January 31st at the cemetery of Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Petersburg
1844 Translated Balzac’s Eugenic Grandet and Poor Folk.
1845 Poor Folk completed.
Started work on Novel in Nine Letters.
1847 Novel in Nine Letters published.
Poor Folk appeared in book form.
1848 The Stranger-Woman, A Weak Heart, Christmas and Wedding and Bright Nights were published along with Jealous Husband.
1849 Netochaka Nezvanova published.
1855 Dostoevsky wrote a poem on the death of Nicholas I.
1857 Worked on The Little Hero.
1859 Worked on Uncle’s Dream.
1861 Published Injury and Insult in the journal Vremya and in book form.
1861 Published The House of Dead.
A Silly Story appeared in Vremya.
1862 Two editions of The House of Dead appeared in book form.
1863 Winter notes on Summer Impressions published in Vremya.
Planned The Gambler.
1865 An Unusual Occurrence published in the journal Epoch.
Began the novel Crime and Punishment.
1865-66 Published Crime and Punishment.
1867 Planned the Diary of a Writer.
Began The Idiot.
1868 Published The Idiot in book form.
1870 Started working on The Permanent Husband.
Began The Possessed.
Fourth edition of Crime and Punishment.
1871-72 Published The Possessed.
The Permanent Husband published in book form.
1873 Published Diary of a Writer in The Citizen, a journal.
1874-75 Second edition of The Idiot.
Began the novel The Hobbledehoy and published it in book form.
Fourth edition of The House of Dead.
1876 The Hobbledehoy appeared in book form.
1877 The Little Girl appeared with The Citizen as supplement.
1878 Began works on The Brothers Karamazov.
Fourth edition of Crime and Punishment.
1879-80 Published The Brothers Karamazov.
Fifth edition of Injury and Insult.
The most important turning point in his life was his imprisonment at the age of 27 shortly before which his writing career began. During imprisonment, he used to read the Bible and other great French works. The inner enlightenment that dawned upon him during the period was to lead him to the pinnacle of literary creativity in his later life. His experience and impressions during imprisonment reflect into his characters both in terms of personality and ideology.
Most important and the greatest works of Dostoevsky were during the period 1866 to 1881 which included ‘Crime And Punishment’ (1866) ‘The Idiot’ (1868), ‘The Possessed (1872), The Brothers Karamazov (1880).
Crime And Punishment
Crime And Punishment is the story of a young student, Raskolnikov ,who commits a murder on principle. From the complex motives which he himself finds it difficult to analyze, he murders an old woman money lender together with her sister who unexpectedly appeared in the scene while the act was being committed.
The publication of Crime and Punishment made Dostoevsky one of the world’s greatest novelists. In this novel he has closely and completely reasoned out the problems of life and philosophy.
Dostoevsky’s one of the most important, meticulous fictional work was Crime and Punishment. It was published first in the Journal The Russian Messenger. His original plan was to name it ‘The Drunkards’ but the theme of drunkenness had a minor role to play in the final version. According to Dostoevsky it was a psychological account of a crime. A young man expelled from the university, convinced by his frail and unfinished ideas decides to kill an old woman. The old woman is portrayed in bad shade in order to convince himself and the readers alike, a façade for the killing of the old lady. "Why does she live?" "Is she useful to anyone at all?" he ponders. But in the end the criminal regrets the deed and accepts suffering. Dostoevsky’s position as a leading Russian writer was restored despite unfavorable reaction from the liberal press, which proves the novel’s popularity.
The Idiot
It was written 20 years after his arrest and imprisonment. This story of an execution told by the character Prince Myshkin resembles Dostoevsky’s own experiences. The thoughts before the last minute of death sentence are most terrible and nagging, "what if I didn’t have to die…I would turn every minute into an age, nothing would be wasted, every minute would be accounted for ….." With this came a new outlook towards life for Dostoevsky and better use of time became his motive in life. "When I look back on my past and think how much time I wasted on nothing, how many times I sinned against my heart and soul, then my heart bleeds. Life is a gift, Life is happiness, and every minute can be an eternity of happiness." The two moral values, which struck to Dostoevsky, were unconditional love and forgiveness, which renewed his appreciation for life
The Possessed
Even Karl Marx acknowledged a grain of truth to the disastrous portraits of revolutionaries in The Possessed. Dostoevsky’s insuppressible views with the radical and revolutionary elements in Russian political life peaked with The Possessed. But he was against some of the revolutionaries portraying them as 'demons', having materialistic, atheistic and Utopian ideology that had been, since 1840s, the matter of interest for Russian intellectuals.
The Brothers Karamazov
This is an epic of over 400,000 words. This work is based on the story of three brothers and the murder of their father, Smerdyankov .The murder is, in fact committed by the man’s illegitimate son. The problems discussed in this novel are the problems faced by every Christian apologist – the problem of suffering and sin.
The novel stands for the best designed novels of Dostoevsky. It’s complete in the sense that it seems to be his most meticulous effort in the depiction of human psyche, ideas and ideologies and claims of philosophy and religion.
According to Sigmund Freud, the treatment of patricide in this novel equals Shakespeare in Hamlet and Sophocles in Oedipus Rex.
His intellect comes out through these lines of the novel: "To be a human-being among human beings and remain one forever, no matter what misfortunes befall, not to become depressed, and not to falter – this is what life is, herein lies its task
No man can live without the sacred and precious memories of childhood.
When … in the course of all these thousands of years has man ever acted in accordance with his own interests?
For what is man without desires, without free will, and without the power of choice but a stop in an organ pipe?
Talking nonsense is man’s only privilege that distinguishes him from all other organisms.
You laugh at your dream’s absurdities, and at the same time you feel that in the fabric of those absurdities some thought is hidden, but a thought that is real, something belonging to your actual life, something that exists and has always existed in your actual life.
If there is no God, then I am God.
So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find some one to worship.
In an abstract love for humanity one almost always loves only oneself.
The complete atheist stands on the penultimate step to most perfect faith.
You are told a lot about your education, but some beautiful, sacred memory, preserved since childhood, is perhaps the best education of all. If a man carries many such memories into life with him, he is saved for the rest of his days.
It is not the brains that matter most, but that which guides them – the character, the heart, generous qualities, progressive ideas.
Neither man nor nation can exist without a sublime idea.
The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.
Innovators and men of genius have almost always been regarded as fools at the beginning (and very often at the end) of their careers.
If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man… you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he’s a good man.
Man only likes to count his troubles, but he does not count his joys.
Without some goal and some efforts to reach it, no man can live.
To strive consciously for an object and to engage in engineering – that is, incessantly and eternally to make new roads, wherever they may lead.
Nothing is more seductive for man than his freedom of conscience. But nothing is a greater cause of suffering.
Until you have become really, in actual fact, as brother of everyone, brotherhood will not come to pass.
All the Utopias will come to pass only when we grow wings and all people are converted into angels.
Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
It seems, in fact, as though the second half of a man’s life is made up of nothing but the habits he has accumulated during the first half.
Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.
