Biography of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Place of birth: Moscow

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is a famous Russian writer, philosopher and thinker. He was born in Moscow in October 1821. The family in which he was born and grew up was wealthy.

The writer's father, Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky, was a wealthy nobleman and landowner, he was a doctor who at one time graduated from the Moscow Medical-Surgical Academy. For a long time his father worked at the Mariinsky Hospital. His medical practice brought him a good income, so over time he bought the village of Darovoye in the Tula province. However, he had bad habit- addiction to alcohol. While drinking, the writer's father mistreated his serfs, punished and offended them. This was precisely the reason for his death - in 1839 he was killed by his own serfs.

The writer's mother, Maria Feodorovna Dostoevskaya (maiden name Nechaeva), came from a wealthy merchant family. However, after the war, her family became impoverished and practically lost their fortune. A 19-year-old girl was married to Mikhail Dostoevsky, the writer’s father. The writer remembers his mother with warmth; she was always a good housewife and loving mother. She had 8 children - 4 boys and 4 girls. Fyodor Mikhailovich was the second child in the family. Fyodor Dostoevsky's older brother, Mikhail, also became a writer. Dostoevsky developed warm family relationships with his sisters and brothers. The writer's mother died early, when the boy was only 16 years old. Her death was caused by a common disease in those days - consumption (tuberculosis).

After the death of their mother, the father sent his two eldest sons (Mikhail and Fedor) to one of the boarding houses in St. Petersburg. In St. Petersburg, Fyodor Dostoevsky studied at the Main Engineering School, which he entered at the age of 17

After graduating from college, in 1842 the writer received the rank of engineer-second lieutenant, after which he was sent to serve. From his youth, Fedor was interested in literature, history and philosophy. He, like his older brother, respected the work of the great Russian writer A.S. Pushkin, the young man regularly attended Belinsky’s literary circle, where he communicated with writers and poets of his time.

In 1844, Dostoevsky retired and wrote his first meaningful story called “Poor People.” This work received the highest praise in domestic and world literature. Even critics of Russian society reacted favorably to this story.

The year 1849 became a turning point for the writer. He was arrested along with his accomplices for participating in a socialist conspiracy against the government (the “Petrashevsky case”), he was under investigation for a long time (8 months), after which he was convicted by a military court and sentenced to death. However, this sentence was not implemented and the writer remained alive. As punishment for what he had done, he was deprived of his nobility, all existing ranks and fortune, after which the writer was exiled to Siberia for hard labor for 4 years. It was a difficult time, at the end of which Dostoevsky was to be enlisted as an ordinary soldier. The preservation of civil rights for Dostoevsky after punishment was not accidental; Emperor Nicholas I appreciated the talented young writer; before, political conspirators were most often executed.

Dostoevsky served his sentence in Siberia (Omsk), then in 1854 he was sent as an ordinary soldier to serve in Semipalatinsk. Just a year later he was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and in 1856 he again became an officer, this was the reign of Emperor Alexander II.

Dostoevsky was not a completely healthy person; all his life he suffered from epilepsy, which in the old days was called epilepsy. The disease first appeared in the writer when he was working at hard labor. For this reason, he was dismissed and returned to St. Petersburg. Now he had enough time to seriously study literature.

His older brother, Mikhail, began publishing his own literary magazine called “Time” in 1861. In this magazine, the writer publishes for the first time his novel “The Humiliated and Insulted,” which society accepted with understanding and sympathy. Somewhat later, another work of the author was published - “Notes from the House of the Dead”, in which the writer, under an assumed name, told readers about his life and the lives of other people serving time at hard labor. All of Russia read this work and appreciated what was hidden between the lines. The magazine "Time" was closed after three years, but the brothers released a new one - "Epoch". On the pages of these magazines, the world first saw such wonderful works of the author as: “Notes from the Underground”, “Winter Notes about summer impressions" and many others.

In 1866, his brother Mikhail died. This was a real blow for Fedor, who had a very close family relationship with him. During this period, Dostoevsky wrote his most famous novel, which today is the main calling card of the writer, “Crime and Punishment.” Somewhat later, in 1868, his other work “The Idiot” was published, and in 1870 his novel “Demons” was published. Despite the fact that the writer treated Russian society cruelly in these works, it recognized all three of his works.

Later, in 1876, Dostoevsky had his own publication, “The Diary of a Writer,” which literally gained great popularity within a year (the publication was represented by multiple essays, feuilletons and notes and was produced in a small circulation - only 8 thousand copies).

Dostoevsky did not immediately find his happiness in his personal life. He was first married to Maria Isaeva, whom he married in 1957. Maria used to be the wife of an acquaintance of Dostoevsky. When her husband died, in August 1855, she married a second time. The couple was married in a church, since Dostoevsky was a deeply religious person. The woman had a son from her first marriage, Pavel, who later became the writer’s adopted son. It is unlikely that this woman loved her new young husband; she often provoked quarrels, during which she reproached him and regretted marrying him.

Appolinaria Suslova became the writer’s second beloved woman. However, she was a feminist who had different views on life, which most likely was the reason for the separation.

Anna Grigorievna Snitkina is the writer’s second and last wife; he married her in 1986. With this woman, he finally found happiness and peace. Dostoevsky was a gambling man; there was even a period in his life when, during one of his trips abroad, he became interested in playing roulette and regularly lost money. Anna Snitkina was initially Dostoevsky's partner and stenographer. It was this woman who helped the writer compose and dictate the novel “The Player” in just 26 days, thanks to which it was delivered on time. It was this woman who seriously took charge of the writer’s well-being and took upon herself all the concerns about his economic condition. Anna helped Dostoevsky quit gambling.

Starting in 1971, the author began his most fruitful period. Over the last 10 years of his life, Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky died in 1881 at the end of January and was buried in St. Petersburg in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, wrote many works: “Teenager”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “The Meek” and many others. It gained the greatest popularity during these years.

Dostoevsky's main achievements

The creativity of this greatest writer left a significant imprint on world culture and Russian literature. Everyone perceives his works in their own way, but they are all highly valued both in our country and abroad. Being a deeply religious person, Dostoevsky tries to convey to the reader the deep meaning of human morality and ethics, calling people to honesty, justice and goodness. His way of “reaching out” to the best strings human soul not always standard, but almost always effective and leads to a positive result.

Important dates in Dostoevsky's biography

1834 – studying at the private boarding school of L.I. Chermak.

1838 - beginning of studies at the Engineering School.

1843 – graduation, receiving the rank of officer, enlistment.

1844 - dismissal from military service.

1846 - the novel "Poor People" was published.

1849 – arrest of the writer (Petrashevsky case).

1854 - end of hard labor.

1854 - the writer enlisted as an ordinary soldier in the Siberian Line Battalion (Semipalatinsk).

1855 - promotion to non-commissioned officer.

1857 - wedding with Maria Isaeva.

1859 – resignation due to health reasons.

1859 - move to Tver, followed by a move to St. Petersburg.

1860 - the beginning of publication of the magazine "Time".

1860 - 1863 – publication of “Notes from the House of the Dead” and “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions.”

1863 - publication of the magazine "Time" was prohibited.

1864 - the beginning of the publishing of the magazine "Epoch".

1864 - death of Dostoevsky's wife.

1866 - Dostoevsky’s meeting with his future second wife, A.G. Snitkina.

1866 - completion of Crime and Punishment.

1867 - wedding of Dostoevsky and A.G. Snitkina.

1868 - 1973 - the end of the novels "The Idiot" and "Demons".

1875 - the novel "The Teenager" was written.

1880 – completion of the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”.

Interesting facts from the life of Dostoevsky

In Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky very accurately describes the topography of St. Petersburg, especially the description of the courtyard where Raskolnikov hid the things stolen from the old woman.

The writer was extremely jealous, constantly suspecting his beloved women of treason.

The latter, the writer’s wife, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, loved her husband so much that even after his death she remained faithful to her beloved until the end of her life. She served the name of Dostoevsky and never married again.

Many films (documentary and feature) have been made about Dostoevsky, which tell about important events that happened in the writer’s life: “The Life and Death of Dostoevsky”, “Dostoevsky”, “Three Women of Dostoevsky”, “26 Days in the Life of Dostoevsky” and many others.

"Encyclopedia of Death. Chronicles of Charon"

Part 2: Dictionary of Selected Deaths

The ability to live well and die well is one and the same science.

Epicurus

DOSTOEVSKY Fyodor Mikhailovich

(1821-1881) Russian writer

At the end of January 1881, Dostoevsky became seriously ill and began bleeding from the throat. On the morning of January 28, the writer’s wife Anna Grigorievna, waking up at seven in the morning, saw that Dostoevsky was looking in her direction. Anna Grigorievna asked him about his health, to which he replied:

You know, Anya, I haven’t slept for three hours now and I’m still thinking, and only now I clearly realized that I’m going to die today.

My darling, why are you thinking this? - Anna Grigorievna objected in terrible concern. - After all, you are better now, the blood is no longer flowing, obviously a “plug” has formed, as Koshlakov said. For God’s sake, don’t torment yourself with doubts, you will still live, I assure you!

No, I know, I have to die today. Light a candle, Anya, and give me the Gospel.

“This Gospel,” recalls A.G. Dostoevskaya, “was presented to Fyodor Mikhailovich in Tobolsk (when he was going to hard labor) by the wives of the Decembrists... Fyodor Mikhailovich did not part with this holy book during all four years of his stay in hard labor. Subsequently. .. he often, having thought about or doubting something, opened this Gospel at random and read what was on the first page (to the left of the reader). read.

The Gospel of Matthew was revealed. Ch. III, art. II: “John restrained him and said: I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me? But Jesus answered him: do not restrain, for in this way we must fulfill the great righteousness.”

You hear - “don’t hold me back” - that means I’ll die,” the husband said and closed the book.

I couldn't stop crying. Fyodor Mikhailovich began to console me, spoke sweet, kind words to me, and thanked me for the happy life he lived with me. He entrusted the children to me, said that he believed me and hoped that I would always love and take care of them. Then he told me the words that a rare husband could say to his wife after fourteen years of marriage:

Remember, Anya, I have always loved you dearly and have never cheated on you, even mentally!

I was deeply touched by his sincere words, but also terribly alarmed, fearing that the excitement would bring him harm. I begged him not to think about death, not to upset us all with his doubts, asked him to rest, to sleep. My husband listened to me and stopped talking, but his peaceful face made it clear that the thought of death did not leave him and that he was not afraid of the transition to another world.

Around nine in the morning, Fyodor Mikhailovich calmly fell asleep, without letting go of my hand. I sat motionless, afraid that any movement would disturb his sleep. But at eleven o'clock the husband suddenly woke up, got up from the pillow, and the bleeding resumed. I was in complete despair, although I tried my best to look cheerful and assured my husband that a little blood had come out and that, probably, like the third day, a “plug” would form again. In response to my reassuring words, Fyodor Mikhailovich only sadly shook his head, as if completely convinced that the prediction of death would come true today. In the middle of the day, relatives, friends and strangers began to come again, again bringing letters and telegrams...

I didn’t leave my husband’s side all day; he held my hand in his and whispered: “Poor... dear... what am I leaving you with... poor thing, how hard will life be for you?..” Several times he whispered: “Call the children.” I called, my husband extended his lips to them, they kissed him and, on the doctor’s orders, immediately left, and Fyodor Mikhailovich saw them off with a sad look. About two hours before his death, when the children came to his call, Fyodor Mikhailovich ordered the Gospel to be given to his son Fedya...

At about seven o'clock a lot of people gathered in the living room and dining room and were waiting for Koshlakov, who visited us around that hour. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Fyodor Mikhailovich shuddered, rose slightly on the sofa, and a streak of blood again stained his face. We began to give Fyodor Mikhailovich pieces of ice, but the bleeding did not stop... Fyodor Mikhailovich was unconscious, the children and I were kneeling at his head and crying, trying our best to refrain from loud sobs, since the doctor warned that the last feeling, what leaves a person is hearing, and any disturbance of the silence can slow down the agony and prolong the suffering of the dying person. I held my husband in my hand and felt that his pulse was beating weaker and weaker. At eight o'clock twenty-eight minutes in the evening Fyodor Mikhailovich passed away into eternity."

Childhood, years of study

Fyodor Mikhailovich was born in Moscow, in the family of the staff doctor of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. The family had eight children. They lived very poorly. The future writer learned very early what the need for money was, and future fate I never let him forget it. However, parents made every effort to ensure that their children received a good education: we taught them ourselves, invited private teachers.

Little Fedya's first book was "One Hundred and Four Sacred Stories of the Old and New Testaments."

By the age of seventeen, Dostoevsky had read Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Karamzin, and European classics, and Pushkin already “knew almost everything by heart.”

In 1837, his father took Fyodor and his older brother Mikhail to St. Petersburg to enter a military educational institution - the Main Engineering School. Mikhail is not allowed to take the entrance exams due to health reasons, but Fedor enters.

Mikhailovsky (Engineering) Castle in St. Petersburg.

The brother soon leaves to study in Revel (now Tallinn), the father returns to Moscow, and Dostoevsky remains alone in the capital. He had few friends among his fellow practitioners. He spent most of the free time that he managed to find after intense studies and drill training reading. At school he began to write himself.

After completing his studies (1843), Dostoevsky was enrolled in the Engineering Corps. The prospect of a good career opened up, but Fyodor Mikhailovich, almost without hesitation, resigned a few months later and concentrated entirely on literary work.

Brilliant debut and fall from the heights of glory

For almost two years Dostoevsky has been working hard on his first story. "Poor People"– writes, rewrites, adds, shortens, rewrites again. This is a story in letters exchanged between the modest official Makar Devushkin and the orphan Varenka Dobroselova, who lives in one of the gloomy districts of St. Petersburg, and makes a living by sewing.

Critics saw in the story only warm sympathy for the “little people” and a talented artistic exposure of the unjust structure of society. But Dostoevsky's story is more complex, deeper. One of the reasons for Makar and Varenka’s collapse in life is that they don’t really hear each other.

“Poor People,” even before its publication (1846), brought Dostoevsky great success (the manuscript was read and hotly discussed in literary circles).

Also in 1846, Dostoevsky’s new story “The Double” appeared. There is also a petty official in it - Golyadkin. He secretly and in vain dreams of making a career and marrying the boss’s daughter. These long, fruitless dreams lead to the appearance of his lucky double in the hero’s mind (or in reality?). With dexterity, arrogance and cunning, he gradually achieves everything that Golyadkin himself so strived for, who now finds himself completely forced out of life, and most importantly, understands with horror: his double is acting exactly as he would like, but he himself did not dare to act.

In this story, the writer for the first time approached the most serious, by his own admission, idea of ​​his work - the inconsistency, unpredictability of human nature, the existence in the most inconspicuous person of depths hidden from him, “double” thoughts and desires. True, he did not then find a form to implement his idea, as he himself later admitted.

Third major work young Dostoevsky - the story "The Mistress" (1847). Its hero, a young scientist Ordynov, finds himself a participant in terrible and mysterious events. The action takes place on the border between mysterious dreams and reality.

Petrashevtsev circle. Arrest

In the spring of 1846, Dostoevsky was approached on the street stranger and asked the question: “What is the idea for your future story, may I ask?” This was Mikhail Vasilyevich Butashevich-Petrashevsky (1821–1866), lawyer, philosopher and writer.

Soon the young writer became a frequent visitor to “Fridays” - meetings at Petrashevsky’s, where young people from all walks of life gathered and where they talked about literature, politics, and social issues. Most of all, the minds were occupied by the then fashionable ideas of the French utopian socialists - Saint-Simon, Fourier and others.

It was believed that a person behaves badly and commits crimes because he is forced to do so environment and property inequality, and if life is arranged fairly and reasonably, everyone will become decent and virtuous.

Soon a group led by Nikolai Aleksandrovich Speshnev stood out among the Petrashevites. The goal of this group is not only the exchange of ideas and the development of projects for a future social structure, but also the organization of an underground printing house, and in the future, possibly, a “revolution in Russia.” Dostoevsky also joined this group.

On April 23, 1849, many of the Petrashevites were arrested following a denunciation and placed in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Twenty-one people, including Dostoevsky, were sentenced to death penalty"shooting". But then the execution was replaced by hard labor (Dostoevsky was given four years of hard labor - “and then a private”). However, an order was received to carry out the preparation procedure for the execution and only then announce the final decision.

Early in the morning of December 22, 1849, the condemned were taken to the square (now Pionerskaya Square in St. Petersburg in front of the Youth Theater).

Pionerskaya Square in St. Petersburg.

Of all those who expected death in a few moments, only one came to confess to the priest (and without this, a person who considers himself a Christian cannot imagine moving to another world). Dostoevsky told Speshnev in French: “We will be together with Christ.” “A handful of ashes,” Speshnev answered him with a grin. Then Dostoevsky could not or did not want to object to him.

The convicts wore white robes - shrouds. Three were brought and tied to posts; White caps were pulled over their heads. The soldiers raised their guns and took aim. Dostoevsky stood in the second three, and, therefore, he had no more than a minute left to live. Then a drumbeat sounded: the officer who arrived gave the general in command of the execution an order to commute the sentence.

A few more days passed, and the Petrashevites were sent by convoy to hard labor in Siberia. Dostoevsky's path lay through Tobolsk. There he met with the wives of the Decembrists - Natalya Dmitrievna Fonvizina and Praskovya Egorovna Annenkova. Along with food and warm clothes, they presented each of the prisoners with a Gospel. Dostoevsky later recalled that long years in prison this book was his only permitted reading. He kept her with him constantly and then, having freed himself, did not part with her for the rest of his life.

Among the convicts there were, of course, the most different people, but mostly these were convicted of robbery and murder. The authorities were sometimes more cruel than many of the prisoners.

At hard labor, Dostoevsky was deprived of the right not only to study creative work, but even read and write, learn about what is happening in the world and in literature. However, all this contributed to incredible spiritual focus. Pondering own life, learning terrible things about them tragic fates those around him, Dostoevsky understood more and more clearly that, on the one hand, “evil lurks deeper in humanity than socialist doctors assume” and no structure of society in itself will correct this evil. On the other hand, no living conditions can justify a serious crime committed by a person or relieve him of responsibility for sin. Otherwise, we will have to admit that people are obedient slaves of circumstances. And this means giving up inner freedom, which makes a person an individual.

Dostoevsky also understood that the shed blood of others never leads to good, but only leads to new, even more blood.

Once upon a time in his childhood, in the village, little Fedya, walking behind a ravine, was frightened by the cry “The wolf is running!” and ran away in horror. He was stopped, calmed down and caressed by a man named Marey, who was plowing in the field.

Looking at scary faces convicts, Dostoevsky realized that one of them could well be “the same Marey.” “I suddenly felt that I could look at these unfortunate people with a completely different look.” In every person, if you look at him not from top to bottom, not with fear, malice or contempt, but with love, as at a brother, you can see the image of God.

For several years, Dostoevsky could only read the Gospel - the same one given by the wives of the Decembrists in Tobolsk. Of course, Dostoevsky had read it before, “almost from his first childhood.” But in hard labor, where you have to live with the maximum tension of all spiritual and physical strength where good and evil collide on a daily basis, the truths of the gospel are understood more deeply than in the wild.

Everything understood and experienced during these four years largely determined Dostoevsky’s further creative path. The action of all his great novels takes place in the specific setting of some Russian city, in a certain year (the writer usually even indicated the month and date). But the background against which events unfold is the whole world history and everything that is narrated in the Gospel.

However, many years would still pass before these novels were created. Having served his four-year sentence of hard labor, Dostoevsky left the gates of the Omsk fortress in January 1854 (he would later describe his experience there in Notes from the House of the Dead). Returning to the capital cities was still impossible; he had to serve as a simple soldier in Semipalatinsk, and then five for long years live in Siberia.

In 1857, Dostoevsky married Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, the widow of a Semipalatinsk official. Siberian and St. Petersburg friends and well-wishers of Dostoevsky are lobbying Emperor Alexander II for him and seeking permission to publish and move first to Tver, and at the end of 1859 to St. Petersburg.

Return to literature

In literature and public life Much has happened in Russia during Dostoevsky's almost ten-year absence. New talents have emerged. It was necessary to again win a literary reputation, to express in artistic form what was experienced and understood in penal servitude and in Siberia.

There were heated debates in society about how and when to cancel serfdom, in what ways the country should develop. In revolutionary-minded circles - Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov set the tone in them - it was considered possible and necessary to forcibly change the social system.

In one of the leaflets, Rus' was called “to the axe.” Supporters of decisive action had no doubt that the “new people”, armed with “advanced theories” - like the heroes of Chernyshevsky’s famous novel “What is to be done?” – have the right and obligation to lead the masses to a bright future.

Dostoevsky saw all the “darkness and horror” that these ideas would bring to Russia and the whole world, earlier and more clearly than others.

On April 15, 1864, Maria Dmitrievna, Dostoevsky’s wife, died from a serious lung disease. Three months later, the most faithful and closest person to him, brother Mikhail, dies.

"In one year my life seemed to break..."– writes Fyodor Mikhailovich. My brother's family is left without a breadwinner. Dostoevsky takes on all his debts and is forced, by his own admission, to work harder than hard labor in order to somehow make ends meet. At the same time, the writer himself is already seriously ill.

Once again he had to face how deadly, literally, a lack of money can be. Under these conditions, Dostoevsky begins work on a work based on “a psychological report of a crime.”

The crime has been committed "a young man... succumbing to some strange... ideas that are floating in the air"- this is how the author himself described his plan in a letter to the editor of the Russian Messenger magazine, Mikhail Nikiforovich Katkov.

After the publication of the novel "Crime and Punishment" (1866), which had big success, Dostoevsky’s financial situation remains difficult. He is still forced to work his ass off: having taken money in advance for the design of a future work, he then hurries to finish it on time.

On the advice of friends, the writer decides to hire a stenographer, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, to speed up his work. She was twenty years old at the time—she was born the year Poor People was released. Soon Fyodor Mikhailovich proposes to her, and the girl accepts him. Dostoevsky finds what he always lacked - a beloved, faithful and reliable companion in life, finds a family.

After his marriage, Dostoevsky went abroad with his wife - mainly in order to at least temporarily escape from creditors and write a great novel, to pay off his debts.

Dostoevsky's next novel is "The Idiot" (1868)– dedicated to reflection on the mystery of the incarnation of God in man, the combination of Divine and human nature.

The writer set himself the task: to create the image of a “positively beautiful person” and see what will happen to him in the human community, how his relationships with others will develop, how he will influence them and they will influence him.

The hero of the novel, Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, is called “Prince Christ” in the drafts. So Dostoevsky outlined for himself that the novel had to introduce a person who was as similar as possible to Christ - kindness, philanthropy, lack of selfishness, gentleness, meekness.

Warning and Testament

In 1869 in Moscow the head secret society"People's reprisal" Sergei Nechaev organized the murder of student Ivanov, who refused to complete his assignment. Dostoevsky recreated this story in the novel "Demons"(1871–1872), moving the action to a provincial town.

Vasily Perov. Portrait of F.M. Dostoevsky. 1872

The novel was written in 1875 "Teenager". Its main character, Arkady Dolgoruky, through persistent hoarding and a hermit's life, will collect a huge fortune, enjoy the “solitary and calm consciousness of his strength” and power over the world, and then give his millions to people - let them “distribute”. Arkady himself will proudly retire “into the desert.” The main thing for the hero is not the future gift to people, but namely strength, power and superiority over millions of “ordinary” people.

Dostoevsky's final novel - "The Brothers Karamazov"(1879–1880). In it, the writer created the image of his most charming hero - the young monastic novice Alyosha Karamazov.

Alyosha, a sincere believer, is opposed by his brother Ivan, who rebels against God because there is too much evil in the world. How does God allow this? The future happiness of all mankind, says Ivan Karamazov, is not worth one “tear of a child.”

But with the entire system of images in the novel, Dostoevsky shows: children suffer from evil generated by man, and not by God. God endowed man with freedom, and therefore responsibility; and there is no such evil in the world for which one can absolve oneself of responsibility:

“for everything is like an ocean, everything flows and touches, if you touch it in one place, it reverberates at the other end of the world”... “And therefore you are to blame for everyone and everything.” (Part two. Book six. Chapter III. From conversations and teachings of Elder Zosima).

But Ivan does not want to accept this responsibility, he places the blame both for what is happening around him and for the evil he himself is doing on other people, on God, on the devil, who appears to him in painful visions.

In "The Brothers Karamazov" the writer shows how responsible a person is not only for his own sinful desires, but also for the “theories” he composed.

The novel "The Brothers Karamazov" was conceived in two books. In the second, Alyosha’s activities were supposed to unfold among people, in the world, where he goes after leaving the monastery, on the advice of his spiritual mentor, Elder Zosima. However, Dostoevsky managed to write only the first book.

At the end of January 1881, the writer’s long-standing lung disease worsened. Before his death, he asked his wife to tell his fortune using the Gospel, the same one he brought from hard labor. The book opened at the third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew: “John restrained Him... But Jesus answered him: Leave now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” “You hear, don’t hold back,” Fyodor Mikhailovich said to his wife. “That means I’ll die.” A few hours later, Dostoevsky passed away.

Homework

Prepare messages / select quotation material / draw up a response plan (optionally) on the topic of: "Poor people in Russian literature".

Literature

Encyclopedia for children. Avanta+. Volume 09. Part 1. Russian literature. From epics and chronicles to the classics of the 19th century. M., 1999.

Name: Fyodor Dostoevsky

Age: 59 years old

Place of Birth: Moscow

A place of death: Saint Petersburg

Activity: Russian writer

Family status: was married

Fyodor Dostoevsky - biography

At the first meeting with my future wife, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, Dostoevsky told her, a complete stranger and unknown girl, the story of your life. “His story affected me creepy impression“I felt a chill run through my skin,” recalled Anna Grigorievna. “This seemingly secretive and stern man told me his entire past life in such detail, so sincerely and sincerely that I was involuntarily surprised. Only later did I understand that Fyodor Mikhailovich, completely alone and surrounded by people hostile to him, at that time felt a thirst to openly tell someone a biography about his life...”

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in 1821 in the once noble noble family Dostoevsky, whose family came from the Russian-Lithuanian gentry. The chronicles mention the fact that back in 1506, Prince Fyodor Ivanovich Yaroslavich granted his voivode Danila Rtishchev the family coat of arms and the vast estate of Dostoevo near present-day Brest, and from that voivode the entire large Dostoevsky family came. However, by the beginning of the century before last, only one coat of arms remained from the family inheritance, and the father of the future writer, Mikhail Andreevich Dostoevsky, was forced to feed his family with his own labor - he worked as a staff doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital on Bozhedomka in Moscow. The family lived in a wing at the hospital, and all eight children of Mikhail Andreevich and his wife Maria Fedorovna were born there.

Fyodor Dostoevsky - childhood and youth

Fedya Dostoevsky received a decent education for noble children of that time - he knew Latin, French and German. The children were taught the basics of literacy by their mother, then Fyodor, together with his older brother Mikhail, entered the Moscow private boarding school of Leonty Chermak. “The humane attitude towards us, children, on the part of our parents was the reason that during their lifetime they did not dare to place us in a gymnasium, although it would have cost much less,” Fyodor Mikhailovich’s brother, Andrei Dostoevsky, later wrote in his memoirs about the biography.

Gymnasiums did not enjoy a good reputation at that time, and they had the usual and ordinary corporal punishment for any slightest offense. As a result, private boarding houses were preferred.” When Fedor turned 16, his father sent him and Mikhail to study at Kostomarov’s private boarding school in St. Petersburg. After completing their studies, the boys moved to the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School, which was then considered one of the privileged educational institutions for the “golden youth”. Fyodor also considered himself among the elite - primarily the intellectual one, since the money his father sent was sometimes not enough even for the most necessary things.

Unlike Mikhail, who did not attach any importance to this of great importance, Fedor was embarrassed by his old dress and the constant lack of cash. During the day, the brothers went to school, and in the evenings they often visited literary salons, where at that time the works of Schiller, Goethe, as well as Auguste Comte and Louis Blanc, French historians and sociologists fashionable in those years, were discussed.

The brothers' carefree youth ended in 1839, when news of their father's death came to St. Petersburg - according to the existing “family legend,” Mikhail Andreevich died on his Darovoye estate at the hands of his own serfs, whom he caught red-handed stealing timber. Perhaps it was the shock associated with the death of his father that forced Fyodor to move away from evenings in bohemian salons and join socialist circles, which were then active in large numbers among students.

The circle members talked about the ugliness of censorship and serfdom, the corruption of officials and the oppression of freedom-loving youth. “I can say that Dostoevsky never was and could not be a revolutionary,” his classmate Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky later recalled. The only thing is that he, as a noble man of feeling, could be carried away by feelings of indignation and even anger at the sight of injustices and violence committed against the humiliated and insulted, which was the reason for his visits to Petrashevsky’s circle.”

It was under the influence of Petrashevsky’s ideas that Fyodor Mikhailovich wrote his first novel, “Poor People,” which made him famous. Success changed the life of yesterday's student - the engineering service was over, now Dostoevsky could rightfully call himself a writer. The name of Dostoevsky in his biography became known not only in the circles of writers and poets, but also among the general reading public. Dostoevsky's debut turned out to be successful, and no one had any doubt that his path to the top literary fame will be straight and easy.

But life decreed otherwise. In 1849, the “Petrashevsky case” broke out - the reason for the arrest was the public reading of Belinsky’s letter to Gogol, prohibited by censorship. All two dozen of those arrested, and Dostoevsky among them, repented of their passion for “harmful ideas.” Nevertheless, the gendarmes saw in their “disastrous conversations” signs of preparation for “unrest and riots that threaten the overthrow of all order, the violation of the most sacred rights of religion, law and property.”

The court sentenced them to death by execution on the Semyonovsky parade ground, and only in last moment, when all the condemned were already standing on the scaffold in the clothes of death row prisoners, the emperor relented and announced a pardon, replacing the execution with hard labor. Mikhail Petrashevsky himself was sent to hard labor for life, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, like most “revolutionaries,” received only 4 years of hard labor followed by service as an ordinary soldier.

Fyodor Dostoevsky served his sentence in Omsk. At first he worked in a brick factory, firing alabaster, and later worked in an engineering workshop. “For all four years I lived hopelessly in the prison, behind the walls, and only went out to work,” the writer recalled. - The work was hard, and sometimes I was exhausted, in bad weather, in wetness, in slush, or in winter in unbearable cold... We lived in a heap, all together, in the same barracks. The floor is dirty to an inch, the ceiling is dripping - everything is dripping. We slept on bare bunks, only one pillow was allowed. They covered themselves with short sheepskin coats, and their legs were always bare all night. You'll tremble all night. I count those 4 years as the time during which he was buried alive and closed in a coffin...” During hard labor, Dostoevsky’s epilepsy worsened, attacks of which later tormented him all his life.

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Semipalatinsk

After his release, Dostoevsky was sent to serve in the seventh Siberian linear battalion at the Semipalatinsk fortress - then this town was not known as a training ground nuclear tests, but as a run-of-the-mill fortress that guarded the border from raids by Kazakh nomads. “It was a half-city, half-village with crooked wooden houses,” recalled Baron Alexander Wrangel, who served as the prosecutor of Semipalatinsk at that time, many years later. Dostoevsky was settled in an ancient hut, which stood in the most bleak place: a steep wasteland, shifting sand, not a bush, not a tree.

Fyodor Mikhailovich paid five rubles for his premises, laundry and food. But what was his food like! A soldier was then given four kopecks for welding. Of these four kopecks, the company commander and cook kept one and a half kopecks for their benefit. Of course, life was cheap then: one pound of meat cost a penny, a pound of buckwheat cost thirty kopecks. Fyodor Mikhailovich took home his daily portion of cabbage soup. porridge and black bread, and if he didn’t eat it himself, he gave it to his poor mistress...”

It was there, in Semipalatinsk, that Dostoevsky first fell seriously in love. His chosen one was Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, the wife of a former gymnasium teacher, and now an official in the tavern department, exiled from the capital to the ends of the world for some sins. “Maria Dmitrievna was over thirty years old,” recalled Baron Wrangel. - Enough beautiful blonde of medium height, very thin, passionate and exalted nature. She caressed Fyodor Mikhailovich, but I don’t think she deeply appreciated him, she simply took pity on the unfortunate man, downtrodden by fate... I don’t think that Maria Dmitrievna was in any serious way in love.

Fyodor Mikhailovich mistook the feeling of pity and compassion for mutual love and fell in love with her with all the fervor of youth.” Painful and fragile. Maria reminded the writer of his mother, and in his attitude towards her there was more tenderness than passion. Dostoevsky was ashamed of his feelings for married woman, was worried and tormented by the hopelessness of the situation. But about a year after they met, in August 1855, Isaev died suddenly, and Fyodor Mikhailovich immediately proposed marriage to his beloved, which, however, the widow did not immediately accept.

They got married only at the beginning of 1857, when Dostoevsky received an officer rank and Maria Dmitrievna gained confidence that he could provide for her and her son Pavel. But, unfortunately, this marriage did not live up to Dostoevsky’s hopes. Later he wrote to Alexander Wrangel: “Oh, my friend, she loved me infinitely, I loved her also without measure, but we did not live happily with her... We were positively unhappy together (according to her strange, suspicious and painful- fantastic character), - we could not stop loving each other; even the more unhappy they were, the more attached they became to each other.”

In 1859, Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg with his wife and stepson. And he discovered that his name was not at all forgotten by the public; on the contrary, the fame of a writer and a “political prisoner” accompanied him everywhere. He began writing again - first the novel “Notes from the House of the Dead”, then “Humiliated and Insulted”, “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions”. Together with his older brother Mikhail, he opened the magazine “Time” - his brother, who bought his own tobacco factory with his father’s inheritance, subsidized the publication of the almanac.

Alas, several years later it turned out that Mikhail Mikhailovich was a very mediocre businessman, and after his sudden death Both the factory and the editorial office of the magazine were left with huge debts that Fyodor Mikhailovich had to take on. Later, his second wife, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, wrote: “To pay these debts, Fyodor Mikhailovich had to work beyond his strength... How would my husband’s works benefit artistically if he, without these debts incurred, could write novels without rushing through and finishing them before sending them to press.

In literature and society, Dostoevsky’s works are often compared with the works of other talented writers and Dostoevsky is reproached for the excessive complexity, intricacy and congestion of his novels, while others’ works are polished, and Turgenev’s, for example, are almost jewelry-honed. And rarely does it occur to anyone to remember and weigh the circumstances under which other writers lived and worked, and under which my husband lived and worked.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky - biography of personal life

But then, in the early 60s, it seemed that Dostoevsky had a second youth. He amazed those around him with his ability to work; he was often excited and cheerful. At this time she came to him new love- this was a certain Apollinaria Suslova, a graduate of the boarding school for noble maidens, who later became the prototype for both Nastasya Filippovna in The Idiot and Polina in The Player. Apollinaria was the complete opposite of Maria Dmitrievna - a young, strong, independent girl.

And the feelings that the writer experienced for her were also completely different from his love for his wife: instead of tenderness and compassion - passion and desire to possess. In her memoirs about her father, Fyodor Mikhailovich’s daughter Lyubov Dostoevskaya wrote that Apollinaria sent him “a declaration of love” in the fall of 1861. The letter was found among my father's papers - it is written simply, naively and poetically. At first impression, we see a timid young girl, blinded by the genius of the great writer. Dostoevsky was touched by Polina's letter. This declaration of love came to him at the moment when he needed it most..."

Their relationship lasted three years. At first, Polina was flattered by the adoration of the great writer, but gradually her feelings for Dostoevsky cooled. According to Fyodor Mikhailovich’s biographers, Apollinaria was expecting some kind of romantic love, but she met real passion mature man. Dostoevsky himself assessed his passion this way: “Apollinaria is a great egoist. The selfishness and pride in her are colossal. She demands everything from people, all perfections, does not forgive a single imperfection in respect for other good traits, but she herself relieves herself of the slightest responsibilities towards people.” Leaving his wife in St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky traveled around Europe with Apollinaria, spent time in casinos - Fyodor Mikhailovich turned out to be a passionate but unlucky gambler - and lost a lot at roulette.

In 1864, Dostoevsky’s “second youth” unexpectedly ended. In April, his wife Maria Dmitrievna died. and literally three months later, brother Mikhail Mikhailovich died suddenly. Dostoevsky subsequently wrote to his old friend Wrangel: “... I was suddenly left alone, and I simply became scared. My whole life was turned in two at once. The one half I crossed had everything I lived for. and in the other, still unknown half, everything is alien, everything is new, and not a single heart that could replace both of them for me.”

In addition to mental suffering, the death of his brother also entailed serious financial consequences for Dostoevsky: he found himself without money and without a magazine, which was closed for debts. Fyodor Mikhailovich proposed to Apollinaria Suslova to marry him - this would also solve the issues with his debts, because Polina was from a fairly wealthy family. But the girl refused; by that time, not a trace remained of her enthusiastic attitude towards Dostoevsky. In December 1864, she wrote in her diary: “People are telling me about FM. I just hate him. He made me suffer so much when it was possible to do without suffering.”

Another failed bride of the writer was Anna Korvin-Krukovskaya, a representative of the ancient noble family, sister of the famous Sofia Kovalevskaya. According to the writer’s biographers, at first things seemed to be heading towards a wedding, but then the engagement was terminated without explanation. However, Fyodor Mikhailovich himself always claimed that it was he who freed the bride from this promise: “This is a girl of high moral qualities: but her beliefs are diametrically opposed to mine, and she cannot give them up, she is too straightforward. It’s unlikely that our marriage could be happy.”

From life's hardships, Dostoevsky tried to hide abroad, but creditors pursued him there too, threatening deprivation of copyright, inventory of property and debtor's prison. His relatives also demanded money - the widow of his brother Mikhail believed that Fedor was obliged to provide her and her children with a decent existence. Desperately trying to get at least some money, he entered into enslaving contracts to write two novels at once - “The Gambler” and “Crime and Punishment”, but soon realized that he had neither the moral nor the physical strength to meet the deadlines set by the contracts. Dostoevsky tried to distract himself by playing, but luck, as usual, did not favor him, and, losing his last money, he became increasingly depressed and melancholy. In addition, due to his undermined mental balance, he was literally tormented by epileptic attacks.

It was in this state that 20-year-old Anna Grigorievna Snitkina found the writer. Anna first heard the name of Dostoevsky at the age of 16 - from her father Grigory Ivanovich, a poor nobleman and petty St. Petersburg official who was a passionate admirer of literature and was fond of theater. According to her own recollections, Anya secretly took the edition of “Notes from the House of the Dead” from her father, read it at night and shed bitter tears on the pages. She was an ordinary St. Petersburg girl mid-19th century - from the age of nine she was sent to study at the School of St. Anna on Kirochnaya Street, then to the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium.

Anyuta was an excellent student, she read voraciously women's novels and seriously dreamed of reorganizing this world - for example, becoming a doctor or teacher. Despite the fact that already during her studies at the gymnasium it became clear that literature for her was much closer and more interesting than the natural sciences. In the fall of 1864, graduate Snitkina entered the physics and mathematics department of Pedagogical Courses. But neither physics nor mathematics were good for her, and biology became a complete torture: when the teacher in the class began to dissect a dead cat, Anya fainted.

In addition, a year later her father became seriously ill, and Anna had to earn money herself to support the family. She decided to leave her teaching career and went to study stenography courses opened by the then famous Professor Olkhin. “At first I was completely unsuccessful at shorthand,” Anya later recalled, “and only after the 5th or 6th lecture did I begin to master this gibberish writing.” A year later, Anya Snitkina was considered Olkhin’s best student, and when Dostoevsky himself approached the professor, wanting to hire a stenographer, he didn’t even have a doubt about who to send to the famous writer.

Their acquaintance took place on October 4, 1866. “At twenty-five minutes past eleven I went up to Alonkin’s house and asked the janitor standing at the gate where apartment No. 13 was,” Anna Grigorievna recalled. - The house was large, with many small apartments inhabited by merchants and artisans. It immediately reminded me of the house in the novel Crime and Punishment, in which the hero of the novel Raskolnikov lived. Dostoevsky's apartment was on the second floor. I rang the bell, and the door was immediately opened by an elderly maid who invited me into the dining room...

The maid asked me to sit down, saying that the master would come now. Indeed, about two minutes later Fyodor Mikhailovich appeared... At first glance, Dostoevsky seemed quite old to me. But as soon as he spoke, he immediately became younger, and I thought that he was unlikely to be more than thirty-five to seven years old. He was of average height and stood very erect. Light brown, even slightly reddish hair, was heavily pomaded and carefully smoothed. But what struck me were his eyes; they were different: one was brown, in the other the pupil was dilated over the entire eye and the iris was imperceptible. This duality of the eyes gave Dostoevsky’s gaze a kind of mysterious expression...”

However, at first their work did not go well: Dostoevsky was irritated by something and smoked a lot. He tried to dictate new article for the "Russian Messenger", but then, apologizing, he invited Anna to come in the evening, around eight o'clock. Arriving in the evening, Snitkina found Fyodor Mikhailovich in much better condition, he was talkative and hospitable. He admitted that he liked the way she behaved at the first meeting - seriously, almost sternly, she did not smoke and did not at all resemble modern girls with bobbed hair. Gradually they began to communicate freely, and unexpectedly for Anna, Fyodor Mikhailovich suddenly began to tell her the biography of his life.

This evening conversation became the first pleasant event for Fyodor Mikhailovich in such a difficult last year of his life. The very next morning after his “confession” he wrote in a letter to the poet Maikov: “Olkhin sent me his best student... Anna Grigorievna Snitkina is a young and rather pretty girl, 20 years old, of good family, who completed her gymnasium course excellently, with an extremely kind and clear character. Our work went great...

Thanks to the efforts of Anna Grigorievna, Dostoevsky managed to fulfill the incredible terms of the contract with the publisher Stellovsky and write the entire novel “The Player” in twenty-six days. “At the end of the novel, I noticed that my stenographer sincerely loved me,” Dostoevsky wrote in one of his letters. -Although she never said a word to me about it, I liked her more and more. Since my life has been terribly boring and hard for me since the death of my brother, I asked her to marry me... The difference in years is terrible (20 and 44), but I am more and more convinced that she will be happy. She has a heart, and she knows how to love.”

Their engagement took place literally a month after they met - November 8, 1866. As Anna Grigorievna herself recalled, when making the proposal, Dostoevsky was very worried and, fearing an outright refusal, first spoke about fictional characters allegedly conceived by him of a novel: they say, do you think that a young girl, let’s say her name is Anya, could fall in love with her tenderly loving, but old and sick artist, who is also burdened with debts?

“Imagine that this artist is me, that I confessed my love to you and asked you to be my wife. Tell me, what would you answer me? - Fyodor Mikhailovich’s face expressed such embarrassment, such heartache that I finally realized that this was not just a literary conversation and that I would deal a terrible blow to his vanity and pride if I gave an evasive answer. I looked at the excited face of Fyodor Mikhailovich, so dear to me, and said: “I would answer you that I love you and will love you all my life!”

I will not pass on the tender, love-filled words that Fyodor Mikhailovich spoke to me in those unforgettable moments: they are sacred to me...”

Their wedding took place on February 15, 1867 at about 8 pm in the Izmailovsky Trinity Cathedral in St. Petersburg. It seemed that Anna Grigorievna’s joy would have no end, but literally a week later the harsh reality reminded itself of itself. Firstly, Dostoevsky’s stepson Pavel spoke out against Anna, who regarded the appearance new woman as a threat to their interests. “Pavel Alexandrovich formed a view of me as a usurper, as a woman who forcibly entered their family, where hitherto he was the complete master,” Dostoevskaya recalled.

Unable to interfere with our marriage, Pavel Alexandrovich decided to make it unbearable for me. It is very possible that with his constant troubles, quarrels and slander against me to Fyodor Mikhailovich, he hoped to quarrel us and force us to separate.” Secondly, the young wife was constantly slandered by other relatives of the writer, who feared that she would “cut” the amount of financial assistance that Dostoevsky distributed to them from his fees. It got to the point that after just a month of living together, constant scandals made the life of the newlyweds so difficult. that Anna Grigorievna was seriously afraid of a final break in relations.

The catastrophe, however, did not happen - and mainly thanks to the extraordinary intelligence, determination and energy of Anna Grigorievna herself. She pawned all her valuables in the pawnshop and persuaded Fyodor Mikhailovich to go abroad, to Germany, secretly from his relatives, in order to change the situation and live together at least for a short time. Dostoevsky agreed to escape, explaining his decision in a letter to the poet Maikov: “There are two main reasons. 1) Save not only mental health, but even life in certain circumstances. .. 2) Creditors.”

It was planned that the trip abroad would take only three months, but thanks to Anna Grigorievna’s prudence, she managed to snatch her loved one out of her usual environment for four whole years, which prevented her from becoming a full-fledged wife. “Finally, a period of serene happiness came for me: there were no financial worries, there were no persons standing between me and my husband, there was full opportunity enjoy his company."

Anna Grigorievna also weaned her husband from his addiction to roulette, somehow managing to evoke shame in his soul for the lost money. Dostoevsky wrote in one of his letters to his wife: “A great thing has happened to me, the vile fantasy that tormented me for almost ten years has disappeared (or, better, since the death of my brother, when I was suddenly depressed by debts): I dreamed of winning everything; dreamed seriously, passionately... Now it's all over! I will remember this all my life and bless you, my angel, every time. No, now it’s yours, yours inseparably, all yours. Until now, half of this damned fantasy belonged to me.”

In February 1868, in Geneva, the Dostoevskys finally gave birth to their first child - daughter Sophia. “But we were not given long to enjoy our cloudless happiness. - wrote Anna Figorievna. - In the first days of May, the weather was wonderful, and we, on the urgent advice of the doctor, took our dear baby to the park every day, where she slept in her stroller for two or three hours. One unfortunate day during such a walk the weather suddenly changed, and apparently the girl caught a cold, because that same night she developed a fever and a cough.” Already on May 12, she died, and the Dostoevskys’ grief seemed to know no bounds.

“Life seemed to have stopped for us; all our thoughts, all our conversations were focused on memories of Sonya and that happy time when she illuminated our lives with her presence... But the merciful God took pity on our suffering: we soon became convinced that God had blessed our marriage and we could hope again have a child. Our joy was immeasurable, and my dear husband began to take care of me just as carefully. just like during my first pregnancy.”

Later, Anna Grigorievna gave birth to her husband two more sons - the eldest Fyodor (1871) and the youngest Alexei (1875). True, the Dostoevsky couple once again had the bitter fate of surviving the death of their child: in May 1878, three-year-old Alyosha died from an attack of epilepsy.

Anna Grigorievna supported her husband in difficult moments, and was for him loving wife, and a soul friend. But besides this, she became for Dostoevsky, to put it modern language, his literary agent and manager. It was thanks to his wife’s practicality and initiative that he was able to finally pay off all the debts that had poisoned his life for years. Anna Grigorievna started with that. What. Having studied the intricacies of publishing, I decided to print and sell myself new book Dostoevsky's novel "Demons".

She did not rent a room for this, but simply indicated her home address in newspaper advertisements and paid the buyers herself. Much to her husband’s surprise, literally within a month the entire circulation of the book had already been sold out, and Anna Grigorievna officially established a new enterprise: “F.M. Book Trade Store.” Dostoevsky (exclusively for nonresidents).”

Finally, it was Anna Grigorievna who insisted that the family leave noisy St. Petersburg forever - away from obsessive and greedy relatives. The Dostoevskys chose to live in the town of Staraya Russa in the Novgorod province, where they bought a two-story wooden mansion.

Anna Grigorievna wrote in her memoirs: “The time spent in Russa is one of my most beautiful memories. The children were quite healthy, and throughout the entire winter they never had to call a doctor to see them. which did not happen when we lived in the capital. Fyodor Mikhailovich also felt good: thanks to a calm, measured life and the absence of all unpleasant surprises (so frequent in St. Petersburg), the husband’s nerves became stronger, and epileptic seizures occurred less frequently and were less severe.

And as a result of this, Fyodor Mikhailovich rarely got angry or irritated, and was always almost good-natured, talkative and cheerful... Our everyday life in Staraya Russa everything was distributed according to hours, and this was strictly observed. Working at night, my husband got up no earlier than eleven o'clock. When he went out to drink coffee, he called the children, and they happily ran to him and told him all the incidents that happened that morning, and about everything they saw on their walk. And Fyodor Mikhailovich, looking at them, rejoiced and maintained the liveliest conversation with them.

Neither before nor since have I seen a person who could do it as well as my husband. enter into the worldview of children and thus interest them in your conversation. In the afternoon, Fyodor Mikhailovich called me into his office to dictate what he had managed to write during the night... In the evening, Fyodor Mikhailovich was playing with the children, to the sounds of an organ (Fyodor Mikhailovich himself bought it for the children, and now they are also having fun with it his grandchildren) danced with me the quadrille, waltz and mazurka. My husband especially loved the mazurka and, to be fair, he danced it wildly and enthusiastically...”

Fyodor Dostoevsky - death and funeral

In the fall of 1880, the Dostoevsky family returned to St. Petersburg. They decided to spend this winter in the capital - Fyodor Mikhailovich complained of poor health, and Anna Grigorievna was afraid to entrust his health to provincial doctors. On the night of January 25-26, 1881, he was working as usual when his fountain pen fell behind a bookcase. Fyodor Mikhailovich tried to move the bookcase, but strong voltage his throat began to bleed - in last years the writer suffered from emphysema. For the next two days, Fyodor Mikhailovich remained in in serious condition, and died on the evening of January 28.

Dostoevsky's funeral became a historical event: almost thirty thousand people accompanied his coffin to the Alecheandro-Nevsky Lavra. Every Russian experienced the death of the great writer as national mourning and personal grief.

For a long time Anna Grigorievna could not come to terms with the death of Dostoevsky. On the day of her husband’s funeral, she made a vow to devote the rest of her life to serving his name. Anna Grigorievna continued to live in the past. As her daughter Lyubov Fedorovna wrote, “Mom did not live in the twentieth century, but remained in the 70s of the nineteenth. Her people are the friends of Fyodor Mikhailovich, her society is a circle of departed people close to Dostoevsky. She lived with them. Everyone who works on the study of the life or works of Dostoevsky seemed like a close person to her.”

Anna Grigorievna died in June 1918 in Yalta and was buried in a local cemetery - far from St. Petersburg, from her relatives, from Dostoevsky’s grave, dear to her. In her will, she asked that she be buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, next to her husband, and that a separate monument not be erected, but just a few lines cut out. In 1968 her last will was fulfilled.

Three years after the death of Anna Grigorievna, the famous literary critic L.P. Grossman wrote about her: “She managed to melt down the tragic personal life Dostoevsky in the calm and complete happiness of his last time. She undoubtedly extended Dostoevsky's life. With deep wisdom loving heart Anna Grigorievna managed to solve the most difficult task - to be the life companion of a neurologically ill person, a former convict, an epileptic and the greatest creative genius.”

In this article we will describe the life and work of Dostoevsky: we will briefly tell you about major events. Fyodor Mikhailovich was born on October 30 (old style - 11) 1821. An essay on Dostoevsky's work will introduce you to the main works and achievements of this man in the literary field. But we will start from the very beginning - with the origin of the future writer, with his biography.

The problems of Dostoevsky's creativity can be deeply understood only by becoming acquainted with the life of this man. After all fiction always in one way or another reflects the features of the biography of the creator of the works. In the case of Dostoevsky this is especially noticeable.

Origin of Dostoevsky

Fyodor Mikhailovich's father was from the Rtishchev branch, descendants of Daniil Ivanovich Rtishchev, defender of the Orthodox faith in Southwestern Rus'. For his special successes, he was given the village of Dostoevo, located in the Podolsk province. The Dostoevsky surname originates from there.

However, by the beginning of the 19th century, the Dostoevsky family became impoverished. Andrei Mikhailovich, the writer’s grandfather, served in the Podolsk province, in the town of Bratslav, as an archpriest. Mikhail Andreevich, the father of the author we are interested in, at one time graduated from the Medical-Surgical Academy. During Patriotic War, in 1812, he fought with others against the French, after which, in 1819, he married Maria Fedorovna Nechaeva, the daughter of a merchant from Moscow. Mikhail Andreevich, having retired, received a position as a doctor in an office open to poor people, which was popularly nicknamed Bozhedomka.

Where was Fedor Mikhailovich born?

The apartment of the future writer's family was located in the right wing of this hospital. In it, set aside as a government apartment for a doctor, Fyodor Mikhailovich was born in 1821. His mother, as we have already mentioned, came from a family of merchants. Pictures of premature deaths, poverty, illness, disorder - the boy’s first impressions, under the influence of which the future writer’s very unusual view of the world took shape. Dostoevsky's work reflects this.

The situation in the family of the future writer

The family, which grew over time to 9 people, was forced to huddle in only two rooms. Mikhail Andreevich was a suspicious and hot-tempered person.

Maria Feodorovna was of a completely different type: economical, cheerful, kind. The relationship between the boy's parents was based on submission to the whims and will of the father. The nanny and mother of the future writer were revered sacredly religious traditions country, raising future generations to respect the faith of their fathers. Maria Feodorovna died early - at the age of 36. She was buried at the Lazarevskoye cemetery.

First acquaintance with literature

The Dostoevsky family devoted a lot of time to education and science. At an early age, Fyodor Mikhailovich discovered the joy of communicating with a book. The very first works with which he became acquainted were the folk tales of Arina Arkhipovna, the nanny. After that there were Pushkin and Zhukovsky - Maria Fedorovna’s favorite writers.

Fyodor Mikhailovich became acquainted with the main classics at an early age foreign literature: Hugo, Cervantes and Homer. In the evenings, his father arranged for the family to read N. M. Karamzin’s work “History of the Russian State.” All this instilled in the future writer an early interest in literature. The life and work of F. Dostoevsky were largely influenced by the environment from which this writer came.

Mikhail Andreevich seeks hereditary nobility

In 1827, Mikhail Andreevich was awarded the Order of the 3rd degree for his diligent and excellent service, and a year later he was also awarded the rank of collegiate assessor, which at that time gave a person the right to hereditary nobility. The father of the future writer well understood the value of higher education and therefore sought to seriously prepare his children for admission to educational institutions.

Tragedy from Dostoevsky's childhood

The future writer experienced a tragedy in his youth that left an indelible mark on his soul for the rest of his life. He fell in love with the cook's daughter, a nine-year-old girl, with a sincere childish feeling. One summer day a cry was heard in the garden. Fyodor ran out into the street and noticed her lying in a white tattered dress on the ground. The women bent over the girl. From their conversation, Fyodor realized that the culprit of the tragedy was a drunken tramp. After that, they went for their father, but his help was not needed, since the girl had already died.

Writer's education

Fyodor Mikhailovich received his initial education at a private boarding school in Moscow. In 1838 he entered the Main Engineering School located in St. Petersburg. He graduated in 1843, becoming a military engineer.

In those years, this school was considered one of the best educational institutions in the country. It is no coincidence that a lot of people came from there famous people. Among Dostoevsky's comrades at the school there were many talents, which later turned into famous personalities. These are Dmitry Grigorovich (writer), Konstantin Trutovsky (artist), Ilya Sechenov (physiologist), Eduard Totleben (organizer of the defense of Sevastopol), Fyodor Radetsky (hero of Shipka). Both humanitarian and special disciplines were taught here. For example, global and National history, Russian literature, drawing and civil architecture.

The tragedy of the "little man"

Dostoevsky preferred solitude to the noisy society of students. Reading was his favorite pastime. The future writer’s erudition amazed his comrades. But the desire for loneliness and solitude in his character was not an innate trait. At the school, Fyodor Mikhailovich had to endure the tragedy of the soul of the so-called “little man”. Indeed, in this educational institution, the students were mainly children of the bureaucratic and military bureaucracy. Their parents gave gifts to their teachers, sparing no expense. In this environment, Dostoevsky looked like a stranger and was often subjected to insults and ridicule. During these years, a feeling of wounded pride flared up in his soul, which later reflected the work of Dostoevsky.

But, despite these difficulties, Fyodor Mikhailovich managed to achieve recognition from both his comrades and teachers. Over time, everyone became convinced that this was a man of extraordinary intelligence and outstanding abilities.

Father's death

In 1839, Fyodor Mikhailovich’s father suddenly died from an apoplexy. There were rumors that it was not a natural death - he was killed by men for his tough character. This news shocked Dostoevsky, and for the first time he suffered a seizure, a harbinger of future epilepsy, from which Fyodor Mikhailovich suffered all his life.

Service as an engineer, first works

Dostoevsky in 1843, having completed the course, was enrolled in engineering building to serve with the engineering team of St. Petersburg, but did not serve there for long. A year later he decided to take up literary creativity, a passion for which I have had for a long time. At first he began to translate classics, such as Balzac. After some time, the idea for a novel arose in letters entitled “Poor People.” This was the first independent work from which Dostoevsky’s work began. Then followed the stories and stories: “Mr. Prokharchin”, “The Double”, “Netochka Nezvanova”, “White Nights”.

Rapprochement with the Petrashevites circle, tragic consequences

The year 1847 was marked by a rapprochement with Butashevich-Petrashevsky, who held the famous “Fridays”. He was a propagandist and admirer of Fourier. At these evenings, the writer met the poets Alexei Pleshcheev, Alexander Palm, Sergei Durov, as well as the prose writer Saltykov and scientists Vladimir Milyutin and Nikolai Mordvinov. At meetings of Petrashevites, socialist teachings and plans for revolutionary coups were discussed. Dostoevsky was a supporter of the immediate abolition of serfdom in Russia.

However, the government learned about the circle, and in 1849, 37 participants, including Dostoevsky, were imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress. They were sentenced to death, but the emperor commuted the sentence, and the writer was exiled to hard labor in Siberia.

In Tobolsk, at hard labor

He went to Tobolsk in the terrible frost on an open sleigh. Here Annenkova and Fonvizina visited the Petrashevites. The whole country admired the feat of these women. They gave each condemned person a Gospel in which money was invested. The fact is that the prisoners were not allowed to have their own savings, so this softened the harsh living conditions for some time.

While in hard labor, the writer realized how far the rationalistic, speculative ideas of the “new Christianity” were from the feeling of Christ, whose bearer is the people. Fyodor Mikhailovich brought a new one from here. Its basis is the folk type of Christianity. This subsequently reflected further creativity Dostoevsky, which we will tell you about a little later.

Military service in Omsk

For the writer, four years of hard labor was replaced after some time military service. He was escorted from Omsk under escort to the city of Semipalatinsk. Here Dostoevsky's life and work continued. The writer served as a private, later receiving the rank of officer. He returned to St. Petersburg only at the end of 1859.

Magazine publishing

At this time, Fyodor Mikhailovich’s spiritual search began, which in the 60s ended with the formation of the writer’s pochvennik beliefs. The biography and work of Dostoevsky at this time were marked by the following events. Since 1861, the writer, together with Mikhail, his brother, began publishing a magazine called "Time", and after it was banned - "Epoch". Working on new books and magazines, Fyodor Mikhailovich developed his own view of the problems public figure and the writer in our country is Russian, a unique version of Christian socialism.

The writer's first works after hard labor

Dostoevsky's life and work changed greatly after Tobolsk. In 1861, the first novel of this writer appeared, which he created after hard labor. This work (“Humiliated and Insulted”) reflects Fyodor Mikhailovich’s sympathy for the “little people” who are subjected to incessant humiliation by the powers that be. We bought a big one public importance also "Notes from dead house"(years of creation - 1861-1863), which were started by the writer while still in hard labor. "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions" appeared in the magazine "Time" in 1863. In them, Fyodor Mikhailovich criticized the systems of Western European political beliefs. In 1864 they were published in the light of "Notes from the Underground". This is a kind of confession of Fyodor Mikhailovich. In the work he renounced his previous ideals.

Further work of Dostoevsky

Let us briefly describe other works of this writer. In 1866, a novel appeared called “Crime and Punishment,” which is considered one of the most significant in his work. In 1868, The Idiot was published, a novel in which an attempt was made to create positive hero, which confronts a predatory, cruel world. In the 70s, the work of F.M. Dostoevsky continues. Novels such as “Demons” (published in 1871) and “The Teenager,” which appeared in 1879, became widely known. "The Brothers Karamazov" is a novel that became the last work. He summed up Dostoevsky's work. The years of publication of the novel are 1879-1880. In this work main character, Alyosha Karamazov, helping others in trouble and alleviating suffering, is convinced that the most important thing in our life is a feeling of forgiveness and love. In 1881, on February 9, Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich died in St. Petersburg.

The life and work of Dostoevsky were briefly described in our article. It cannot be said that the writer was always interested more than anyone else in the problem of man. Let's write briefly about this important feature that Dostoevsky's work had.

Man in creative writing

Fyodor Mikhailovich throughout his entire creative path reflected on the main problem of humanity - how to overcome pride, which is the main source of separation between people. Of course, there are other themes in Dostoevsky’s work, but it is largely based on this one. The writer believed that any of us has the ability to create. And he must do this while he lives; it is necessary to express himself. The writer devoted his entire life to the topic of Man. The biography and work of Dostoevsky confirm this.