When Dostoevsky was born and died. Fyodor Dostoevsky - biography, personal life of the writer: Man is a mystery

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 unfamiliar girl, the story of his 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 everything. past life mine with such details, 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 heights of literary fame would be direct 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 penalty through execution on Semenovsky 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 term 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 a married woman, 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 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 the biographers of Fyodor Mikhailovich, Apollinaria was waiting for some kind of romantic love and 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, every perfection, and does not forgive a single imperfection in respect for others. good features, 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 dad, read it at night and shed bitter tears on the pages. She was an ordinary St. Petersburg girl from the middle XIX 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 torment: 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 approached 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 throughout 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 a new article for Russkiy Vestnik, but then, apologizing, he suggested that Anna come over 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, afraid of receiving an outright refusal, first spoke about the fictional characters of the novel he supposedly conceived: they say, do you think that a young girl, let’s say her name is Anya, could fall in love with someone who loves her tenderly? , but an old and sick artist, 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 tender full of love the 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 of a new woman as a threat to his 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. Things got to the point where within a month life 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 Fedor (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 began 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 Dostoevsky’s life or works seemed like family 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 wish was fulfilled.

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

1821 1881 Russian writer.

Russian writer, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1877). In the stories "Poor People" (1846), "White Nights" (1848), "Netochka Nezvanova" (1846, unfinished) and others, he described the suffering " little man"as a social tragedy. In the story "The Double" (1846) he gave a psychological analysis of a split consciousness. A member of M. V. Petrashevsky's circle, Dostoevsky was arrested in 1849 and sentenced to death, replaced by hard labor (1850 54) with subsequent service as a private. In 1859 he returned to St. Petersburg. “Notes from the House of the Dead” (1861 62) tragic destinies and the dignity of a person in hard labor. Together with his brother M. M. Dostoevsky, he published the “soil” magazines “Time” (1861 63) and “Epoch” (1864 65). In the novels “Crime and Punishment” (1866), “The Idiot” (1868), “Demons” (1871 72), “Teenager” (1875), “The Brothers Karamazov” (1879 80) and others, there is a philosophical understanding of the social And spiritual crisis Russia, a dialogic clash of original personalities, a passionate search for social and human harmony, deep psychologism and tragedy. Journalistic "Diary of a Writer" (1873 81). Dostoevsky's work had a powerful influence on Russian and world literature.

Biography

Born on October 30 (November 11, new year) in Moscow in the family of the staff doctor of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. Father, Mikhail Andreevich, nobleman; mother, Maria Fedorovna, from an old Moscow merchant family.

He received an excellent education at the private boarding school of L. Chermak, one of the best in Moscow. The family loved to read and subscribed to the magazine “Library for Reading,” which made it possible to get acquainted with the latest foreign literature. Of the Russian authors, they loved Karamzin, Zhukovsky, and Pushkin. The mother, a religious nature, introduced the children to the Gospel from a young age and took them on pilgrimages to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Having had a hard time with the death of his mother (1837), Dostoevsky, by the decision of his father, entered the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School, one of the best educational institutions of that time. A new life was given to him with great effort, nerves, and ambition. But there was another life - internal, hidden, unknown to others.

In 1839, his father unexpectedly died. This news shocked Dostoevsky and provoked a severe nervous attack - a harbinger of future epilepsy, to which he had a hereditary predisposition.

He graduated from college in 1843 and was enlisted in the drafting department of the engineering department. A year later he retired, convinced that his calling was literature.

Dostoevsky's first novel, Poor People, was written in 1845 and published by Nekrasov in the Petersburg Collection (1846). Belinsky proclaimed "the emergence... of an extraordinary talent...".

Belinsky rated the stories “The Double” (1846) and “The Mistress” (1847) lower, noting the lengthiness of the narrative, but Dostoevsky continued to write in his own way, disagreeing with the critic’s assessment.

Later "White Nights" (1848) and "Netochka Nezvanova" (1849) were published, which revealed features of Dostoevsky's realism that distinguished him from among writers " natural school": in-depth psychologism, exclusivity of characters and situations.

Successfully started literary activity ends tragically. Dostoevsky was one of the members of the Petrashevsky circle, which united adherents of French utopian socialism (Fourier, Saint-Simon). In 1849, for participating in this circle, the writer was arrested and sentenced to death, which was later replaced by four years of hard labor and settlement in Siberia.

After the death of Nicholas I and the beginning of the liberal reign of Alexander II, the fate of Dostoevsky, like many political criminals, was softened. His rights to the nobility were returned to him, and he retired in 1859 with the rank of second lieutenant (in 1849, standing at the scaffold, he heard a rescript: “... a retired lieutenant... to hard labor in fortresses for... 4 years, and then private").

In 1859 Dostoevsky received permission to live in Tver, then in St. Petersburg. At this time, he published the stories "Uncle's Dream", "The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants" (1859), and the novel "The Humiliated and Insulted" (1861). Almost ten years of physical and moral torment sharpened Dostoevsky’s sensitivity to human suffering, intensifying the intense quest for social justice. These years became for him years of spiritual turning point, the collapse of socialist illusions, and growing contradictions in his worldview. He actively participated in the public life of Russia, opposed the revolutionary democratic program of Chernyshevsky and Dobrolyubov, rejecting the theory of “art for art’s sake,” arguing social value art.

After hard labor, "Notes from the House of the Dead" was written. Summer months The writer spent 1862 and 1863 abroad, visiting Germany, England, France, Italy and other countries. He believed that historical path which Europe passed after french revolution 1789 would have been disastrous for Russia, as would have been the introduction of new bourgeois relations, negative traits which shocked him during his trips around Western Europe. Russia’s special, original path to “earthly paradise” is Dostoevsky’s socio-political program in the early 1860s.

In 1864, “Notes from the Underground” was written, an important work for understanding the writer’s changed worldview. In 1865, while abroad, in the resort of Wiesbaden, to improve his health, the writer began work on the novel Crime and Punishment (1866), which reflected the entire complex path of his inner quest.

In 1867, Dostoevsky married Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, his stenographer, who became a close and devoted friend to him.

Soon they went abroad: they lived in Germany, Switzerland, Italy (1867 71). During these years, the writer worked on the novels “The Idiot” (1868) and “Demons” (1870 71), which he finished in Russia. In May 1872, the Dostoevskys left St. Petersburg for the summer for Staraya Rusa, where they subsequently bought a modest dacha and lived here with their two children even in winter. The novels “The Teenager” (1874 75) and “The Brothers Karamazov” (1880) were written almost entirely in Staraya Russa.

Since 1873, the writer became the executive editor of the magazine "Citizen", on the pages of which he began to publish "The Diary of a Writer", which at that time was a life teacher for thousands of Russian people.

At the end of May 1880, Dostoevsky came to Moscow for the opening of the monument to A. Pushkin (June 6, on the birthday of the great poet), where all of Moscow gathered. Turgenev, Maikov, Grigorovich and other Russian writers were here. Dostoevsky's speech was called by Aksakov "a brilliant, historical event."

The writer's health deteriorated, and on January 28 (February 9, n.s.) 1881, Dostoevsky died in St. Petersburg. He was buried in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Biography, life story of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

Origin

On their father's side, the Dostoevskys are one of the branches of the Rtishchev family, which originates from Aslan-Chelebi-Murza, baptized by the Moscow prince. The Rtishchevs were part of the inner circle of Prince Ivan Vasilyevich of Serpukhov and Borovsk, who in 1456, having quarreled with Vasily the Dark, left for Lithuania. There Ivan Vasilyevich became Prince Pinsky. He granted the villages of Kalechino and Lepovitsa to Stepan Rtishchev. In 1506, Ivan Vasilyevich’s son, Fyodor, granted Danila Rtishchev part of the village of Dostoev in Pinsk Povet. Hence the Dostoevskys. Since 1577, the writer's paternal ancestors received the right to use the Radwan - the Polish noble coat of arms. Dostoevsky's father drank a lot and was extremely cruel. “My grandfather Mikhail,” reports Lyubov Dostoevskaya, “always treated his serfs very strictly. The more he drank, the more violent he became, until they finally killed him." Dostoevsky's mother, Maria Feodorovna (1800-1837), came from a wealthy Russian merchant family, the Nechaevs. She was a wonderful and kind woman. Her image greatly influenced the writer’s worldview.

The writer's youth

He was the second of 7 children to survive.

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

The year 1837 became an important date for Dostoevsky. This is the year of his mother’s death, the year of death, whose work he (like his brother) has been engrossed in since childhood, the year of moving to St. Petersburg and entering the Main Engineering School, and now the Military Engineering and Technical University. Thanks to which he received not only a high-quality engineering education, but also the opportunity to continue cultural development. In 1839, he receives news of the murder of his father by serfs. Dostoevsky participates in the work of the Belinsky circle. One year before leaving military service Dostoevsky first translated and published Balzac's Eugene Grande (1843). A year later, his first work, “Poor People,” was published, and he immediately became famous: V. G. Belinsky highly appreciated this work. But next book The “double” encounters misunderstanding.

CONTINUED BELOW

"The military court finds the defendant Dostoevsky guilty of the fact that, having received in March of this year from Moscow from the nobleman Pleshcheev... a copy of the criminal letter of the writer Belinsky, he read this letter in meetings: first with the defendant Durov, then with the defendant Petrashevsky. Therefore, the military court sentenced him for failure to report the dissemination of a criminal letter from the writer Belinsky about religion and government... to deprive him, on the basis of the Code of Military Decrees... of ranks and all the rights of the state, and to subject him to the death penalty by shooting".

The trial and harsh sentence to death (December 22, 1849) on the Semenovsky parade ground was framed as a mock execution. At the last moment, the convicts were given a pardon and sentenced to hard labor. One of those sentenced to execution, Grigoriev, went crazy. Dostoevsky conveyed the feelings that he might experience before his execution in the words of Prince Myshkin in one of the monologues in the novel “The Idiot.”

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

Dostoevsky spent the next four years in hard labor in Omsk. The memoirs of one of the eyewitnesses of the writer’s hard labor life have been preserved. In 1854, Dostoevsky was released and sent as a private to the seventh linear Siberian battalion. It is necessary to understand that the improvement of social status, even in the position of a private, was influenced by the fact that he had an education received at the Higher Engineering educational institution. While serving in Semipalatinsk, he became friends with Chokan Valikhanov, a future famous Kazakh traveler and ethnographer. There, a young writer and a young scientist was assigned common monument. Here he began an affair with Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, who was married to a gymnasium teacher, Alexander Isaev, a bitter drunkard. After some time, Isaev was transferred to the place of the assessor in Kuznetsk. On August 14, 1855, Fyodor Mikhailovich receives a letter from Kuznetsk: M.D. Isaeva’s husband died after a long illness.

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

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

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

In 1859, Dostoevsky published his stories “The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants” and “Uncle’s Dream” in Otechestvennye Zapiski.

On June 30, 1859, Dostoevsky was given temporary ticket No. 2030, allowing him to travel to Tver, and on July 2, the writer left Semipalatinsk. In 1860, Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg with his wife and adopted son Pavel, but secret surveillance of him did not stop until the mid-1870s. From the beginning of 1861, Fyodor Mikhailovich helped his brother Mikhail publish his own magazine “Time”, after the closure of which in 1863 the brothers began publishing the magazine “Epoch”. On the pages of these magazines such works of Dostoevsky appear as “The Humiliated and Insulted,” “Notes from the House of the Dead,” “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions,” and “Notes from the Underground.”

Dostoevsky takes a trip abroad with the young emancipated person Apollinaria Suslova, in Baden-Baden he becomes addicted to the ruinous game of roulette, experiences a constant need for money, and at the same time (1864) loses his wife and brother. The unusual way of European life completes the destruction of the socialist illusions of youth, forms a critical perception of bourgeois values ​​and rejection of the West.

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

The novel “Crime and Punishment” was paid for very well by Katkov, but so that this money would not be taken away by creditors, the writer goes abroad with his new wife Anna Snitkina. The trip is reflected in the diary that Snitkina-Dostoevskaya began to keep in 1867. On the way to Germany, the couple stopped for several days in Vilna.

Creativity flourishes

Snitkina arranged the writer’s life, took upon herself all the economic issues of his activities, and in 1871 Dostoevsky gave up roulette forever.

For the last 8 years the writer lived in the city of Staraya Russa, Novgorod province. These years of life were very fruitful: 1872 - “Demons”, 1873 - the beginning of the “Diary of a Writer” (a series of feuilletons, essays, polemical notes and passionate journalistic notes on the topic of the day), 1875 - “Teenager”, 1876 - “Meek”, 1879 -1880 - “The Brothers Karamazov”. At the same time, two events became significant for Dostoevsky. In 1878, Emperor Alexander II invited the writer to introduce him to his family, and in 1880, just a year before his death, Dostoevsky gave a famous speech at the opening of the monument

In 1821, on November 11, Dostoevsky, one of the most famous Russian writers and philosophers, was born. In this article we will talk about his biography and literary work.

Dostoevsky family

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was born in Moscow into the family of nobleman Mikhail Andreevich, a staff physician serving at the Mariinsky Hospital, and Maria Fedorovna. In the family he was one of eight children and only the second son. His father came from whose estate was located in the Belarusian part of Polesie, and his mother came from an old Moscow merchant family, originating in the Kaluga province. It is worth saying that Fyodor Mikhailovich had little interest in the rich history of his family. He spoke of his parents as poor, but hard-working people who allowed him to receive an excellent upbringing and quality education, for which he was grateful to his family. Maria Fedorovna taught her son to read Christian literature, which left a strong impression on him and largely determined his future life.

In 1831, the father of the family acquired the small estate Darovoye in the Tula province. The Dostoevsky family began to visit this country house every summer. There the future writer had the opportunity to get acquainted with real life peasants In general, according to him, childhood was the best time in his life.

Writer's education

Initially, their father was in charge of the education of Fyodor and his older brother Mikhail, teaching them Latin. Then their home education was continued by teacher Drashusov and his sons, who taught the boys French, mathematics and literature. This continued until 1834, when the brothers were sent to the elite Chermak boarding school in Moscow, where they studied until 1837.

When Fedor was 16 years old, his mother died of tuberculosis. Subsequent years F.M. Dostoevsky spent time with his brother preparing to enter engineering school. They spent some time at Kostomarov's boarding house, where they continued to study literature. Despite the fact that both brothers wanted to write, their father considered this activity completely unprofitable.

Beginning of literary activity

Fyodor did not feel any desire to be in school and was burdened by being there; in his free hours he studied world history and domestic literature. Under inspiration from her, at night he worked on his literary experiments and read passages to his brother. Over time, a literary circle was formed at the Main Engineering School under the influence of Dostoevsky. In 1843, he completed his studies and was appointed to the position of engineer in St. Petersburg, which he soon abandoned, deciding to devote himself entirely to literary creativity. His father died of apoplexy (although, according to the recollections of relatives, he was killed by his own peasants, which is questioned by researchers of Dostoevsky’s biography) in 1839 and was no longer able to oppose his son’s decision.

The very first works of Dostoevsky, whose birthday is celebrated on November 11, have not reached us - they were dramas on historical themes. Since 1844, he has been translating, while simultaneously working on his work “Poor People.” In 1845 he was greeted with pleasure in Belinsky's circle, and soon he became widely known famous writer, the “new Gogol,” but his next novel “The Double” was not appreciated, and soon Dostoevsky’s relationship (his birthday in the new style is November 11) with the circle deteriorated. He also quarreled with the editors of the Sovremennik magazine and began publishing mainly in Otechestvennye zapiski. However, the fame he acquired allowed him to meet a much wider range of people, and he soon became a member of the philosophical and literary circle of the Beketov brothers, with one of whom he studied at an engineering school. Through one of the members of this society, he came to the Petrashevites and began regularly attending their meetings in the winter of 1847.

Circle of Petrashevites

The main topics that members of the Petrashevsky Society discussed at their meetings were the liberation of peasants, book printing and changes in legal proceedings. Soon Dostoevsky was one of several who organized a separate radical community among the Petrashevites. In 1849, many of them, including the writer, were arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Mock execution

The court recognized Dostoevsky as one of the main criminals, despite the fact that he strongly rejected the charges, and sentenced him to death by shooting, having first deprived him of his entire fortune. However, a few days later, the order to execute was replaced by an eight-year hard labor, which in turn was replaced by a four-year sentence followed by long service in the army, according to a special decree of Nicholas 1. In December 1849, the execution of the Petrashevites was staged, and only at the last moment was it announced pardon and sent to hard labor. One of those almost executed went crazy after such an ordeal. There is no doubt that this event had a strong influence on the writer’s views.

Years of hard labor

During the transfer to Tobolsk, a meeting took place with the wives of the Decembrists, who secretly handed over the Gospels to the future convicts (Dostoevsky kept his for the rest of his life). He spent the following years in Omsk at hard labor, trying to change the attitude towards himself among the prisoners; he was perceived negatively due to the fact that he was a nobleman. Dostoevsky could write books only in secret in the infirmary, since the prisoners were deprived of the right of correspondence.

Soon after the end of hard labor, Dostoevsky was assigned to serve in the Semipalatinsk regiment, where he met his future wife Maria Isaeva, whose marriage was unhappy and ended unsuccessfully. The writer rose to the rank of ensign in 1857, when both the Petrashevites and the Decembrists were pardoned.

Pardon and return to the capital

Upon returning to Russia, he had to make his literary debut again - it was “Notes from the House of the Dead”, which received universal recognition, since the genre in which the writer talked about the life of convicts was completely new. The writer published several works in the magazine “Time,” which he published together with his brother Mikhail. After some time, the magazine was closed, and the brothers began to publish another publication - “Epoch”, which also closed a few years later. At this time, he took an active part in the public life of the country, having suffered the destruction of socialist ideals, recognized himself as an open Slavophile, and asserted the social significance of art. Dostoevsky's books reflect his views on reality, which his contemporaries did not always understand; sometimes they seemed too harsh and innovative, and sometimes too conservative.

Traveling around Europe

In 1862, Dostoevsky, whose birthday is celebrated on November 11, traveled abroad for the first time to receive treatment at resorts, but he ended up traveling throughout most of Europe, becoming addicted to playing roulette in Baden-Baden and squandering almost all his money. Basically, Dostoevsky had problems with money and creditors throughout almost his entire life. He spent part of the trip in the company of A. Suslova, a young, relaxed lady. He described many of his adventures in Europe in his novel The Gambler. In addition, the writer was shocked by the negative consequences of the Great French Revolution, and he became convinced that the only possible path of development for Russia is unique and original, not repeating the European one.

Second wife

In 1867, the writer married his stenographer Anna Snitkina. They had four children, of whom only two survived, and in the end only the only surviving son, Fyodor, became the successor of the family. They lived together for the next few years abroad, where Dostoevsky, whose birthday is November 11, began work on some of the last novels included in the famous "Great Pentateuch" - Crime and Punishment, the most famous philosophical novel, “The Idiot”, where the author explores the theme of a person trying to make others happy but ultimately suffering, “Demons”, which talks about revolutionary movements, and “Teenager”.

"The Brothers Karamazov", also related to the Pentateuch last novel Dostoevsky, was in a sense a summing up of everything creative path, since it contained the features and images of all previous works writer.

The writer spent the last 8 years of his life in the Novgorod province, in the town of Staraya Russa, where he lived with his wife and children and continued to engage in writing, completing the novels he had begun.

In June 1880, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, whose work significantly influenced literature in general, came to the opening of the monument to Pushkin in Moscow, where many famous writers were present. In the evening, he delivered a famous speech about Pushkin at a meeting of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.

Death of Dostoevsky

Years of life of F. M. Dostoevsky - 1821-1881. Fyodor Mikhailovich died on January 28, 1881 from tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, aggravated by emphysema, shortly after a scandal with his sister Vera, who asked him to give up the inherited estate in favor of his sisters. The writer was buried in one of the cemeteries of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and a huge number of people gathered to say goodbye to him.

Although the fame of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, biography and Interesting Facts whose life we ​​discussed in this article, acquired during his lifetime, real, grandiose fame came to him only after his death.

Some call him a prophet, a gloomy philosopher, others - evil genius. He himself called himself “a child of the century, a child of unbelief, doubt.” Much has been said about Dostoevsky as a writer, but his personality is surrounded by an aura of mystery. The multifaceted nature of the classic allowed him to leave his mark on the pages of history and inspire millions of people around the world. His ability to expose vices without turning away from them made the heroes so alive, and his works so full of mental suffering. Immersion in the world of Dostoevsky can be painful and difficult, but it gives birth to something new in people; this is precisely the kind of literature that educates. Dostoevsky is a phenomenon that needs to be studied long and thoughtfully. short biography Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, some interesting facts from his life and creativity will be presented to your attention in the article.

Brief biography in dates

The main task of life, as Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote, is “not to become discouraged, not to fall,” despite all the trials sent from above. And he had a lot of them.

November 11, 1821 - birth. Where was Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky born? He was born in our glorious capital - Moscow. Father - staff doctor Mikhail Andreevich, the family is a believer, pious. They named it after their grandfather.

The boy began studying at a young age under the guidance of his parents; by the age of 10 he knew the history of Russia quite well; his mother taught him to read. Attention was also paid to religious education: daily prayer before bed was a family tradition.

In 1837, Fyodor Mikhailovich’s mother Maria died, and in 1839, father Mikhail.

1838 - Dostoevsky enters the Main Engineering School of St. Petersburg.

1841 - becomes an officer.

1843 – enrolled in engineering building. Studying was not fun, there was a strong craving for literature, the writer made his first creative experiments even then.

1847 – visit to Petrashevsky Fridays.

April 23, 1849 - Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

From January 1850 to February 1854 – Omsk Fortress, hard labor. This period had a strong influence on the writer’s creativity and worldview.

1854–1859 – period of military service, city of Semipalatinsk.

1857 – wedding with Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva.

June 7, 1862 - the first trip abroad, where Dostoevsky stayed until October. I became interested in gambling for a long time.

1863 – love, relationship with A. Suslova.

1864 – the writer’s wife Maria and older brother Mikhail die.

1867 – marries stenographer A. Snitkina.

Until 1871 they traveled a lot outside of Russia.

1877 - spends a lot of time with Nekrasov, then makes a speech at his funeral.

1881 – Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky dies, he was 59 years old.

Biography in detail

The childhood of the writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky can be called prosperous: born into a noble family in 1821, he received an excellent home education and upbringing. My parents managed to instill a love of languages ​​(Latin, French, German) and history. After reaching the age of 16, Fedor was sent to a private boarding school. Then training continued at the St. Petersburg Military Engineering School. Dostoevsky showed interest in literature even then, visited literary salons with his brother, and tried to write himself.

As the biography of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky testifies, 1839 claims the life of his father. Internal protest is looking for a way out, Dostoevsky begins to get acquainted with the socialists, and visits Petrashevsky’s circle. The novel "Poor People" was written under the influence of the ideas of that period. This work allowed the writer to finally finish his hated engineering service and engage in literature. From an unknown student, Dostoevsky became a successful writer until censorship intervened.

In 1849, the ideas of the Petrashevites were recognized as harmful, members of the circle were arrested and sent to hard labor. It is noteworthy that the sentence was originally death, but the last 10 minutes changed it. The Petrashevites who were already on the scaffold were pardoned, limiting their punishment to four years of hard labor. Mikhail Petrashevsky was sentenced to life hard labor. Dostoevsky was sent to Omsk.

The biography of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky says that serving his sentence was difficult for the writer. He compares that time to being buried alive. Hard, monotonous work like firing bricks, disgusting conditions, and cold undermined Fyodor Mikhailovich’s health, but also gave him food for thought, new ideas, and themes for creativity.

After serving his sentence, Dostoevsky served in Semipalatinsk, where his only joy was his first love - Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva. This relationship was tender, somewhat reminiscent of the relationship between a mother and her son. The only thing that stopped the writer from proposing to a woman was the fact that she had a husband. A little later he died. In 1857, Dostoevsky finally wooed Maria Isaeva, and they got married. After marriage, the relationship changed somewhat; the writer himself speaks of them as “unhappy.”

1859 - return to St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky writes again, opens the magazine “Time” with his brother. Brother Mikhail runs his business ineptly, gets into debt, and dies. Fyodor Mikhailovich has to deal with debts. He has to write quickly to be able to pay off all the accumulated debts. But even in such a hurry, the most complex works of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky were created.

In 1860, Dostoevsky falls in love with the young Apollinaria Suslova, who is completely different from his wife Maria. The relationship was also different - passionate, vibrant, lasted three years. At the same time, Fyodor Mikhailovich became interested in playing roulette and lost a lot. This period of life is reflected in the novel “The Player”.

1864 claimed the lives of his brother and wife. It was as if something had broken in the writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Relations with Suslova are fading, the writer feels lost, alone in the world. He tries to escape from himself abroad, to distract himself, but the melancholy does not leave him. Epileptic seizures become more frequent. This is how Anna Snitkina, a young stenographer, recognized and fell in love with Dostoevsky. The man shared his life story with the girl; he needed to talk it out. Gradually they became close, although the age difference was 24 years. Anna accepted Dostoevsky’s offer to marry him sincerely, because Fyodor Mikhailovich aroused the brightest, most enthusiastic feelings in her. The marriage was perceived negatively by society, Dostoevsky's adopted son Pavel. The newlyweds are leaving for Germany.

The relationship with Snitkina had a beneficial effect on the writer: he got rid of his addiction to roulette and became calmer. In 1868, Sophia is born, but dies three months later. After a difficult period of common experiences, Anna and Fyodor Mikhailovich continue to try to conceive a child. They succeed: Lyubov (1869), Fedor (1871) and Alexey (1875) are born. Alexey inherited the disease from his father and died at the age of three. His wife became for Fyodor Mikhailovich support and support, a spiritual outlet. In addition, it helped improve my financial situation. The family moves to Staraya Russa to escape the nervous life in St. Petersburg. Thanks to Anna, a girl wise beyond her years, Fyodor Mikhailovich becomes happy, at least for a short time. Here they spend their time happily and serenely, until Dostoevsky’s health forces them to return to the capital.

In 1881 the writer dies.

Carrot or stick: how Fyodor Mikhailovich raised children

The indisputability of his father's authority was the basis of Dostoevsky's upbringing, which passed into his own family. Decency, responsibility - the writer managed to invest these qualities in his children. Even if they did not grow up to be the same geniuses as their father, some craving for literature existed in each of them.

The writer considered the main mistakes of education:

• ignoring inner world child;
• intrusive attention;
• bias.

He called the suppression of individuality, cruelty, and making life easier as a crime against a child. Dostoevsky considered the main tool of education not corporal punishment, but parental love. He himself incredibly loved his children and was very worried about their illnesses and losses.

An important place in a child’s life, as Fyodor Mikhailovich believed, should be given to spiritual light and religion. The writer rightly believed that a child always takes an example from the family where he was born. Dostoevsky's educational measures were based on intuition.

There were literary evenings good tradition in the family of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. These evening readings of literary masterpieces were traditional in the author’s childhood. Often, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s children fell asleep and did not understand anything they read, but he continued to cultivate literary taste. Often the writer read with such feeling that he began to cry in the process. I loved to hear what impression this or that novel made on children.

Another educational element is visiting the theater. Opera was preferred.

Lyubov Dostoevskaya

Lyubov Fedorovna's attempts to become a writer were unsuccessful. Maybe the reason was that her work was always inevitably compared with her father’s brilliant novels, maybe she was writing about the wrong things. Eventually main work her life was a description of her father's biography.

The girl who lost him at the age of 11 was very afraid that in the next world Fyodor Mikhailovich’s sins would not be forgiven. She believed that life continues after death, but here on earth one must seek happiness. For Dostoevsky’s daughter, it consisted primarily in a clear conscience.

Lyubov Fedorovna lived to be 56 years old and spent the last few years in sunny Italy. She was probably happier there than at home.

Fedor Dostoevsky

Fedor Fedorovich became a horse breeder. The boy began to show interest in horses as a child. Tried to create literary works, but it didn’t work out. He was vain and strived to achieve success in life; he inherited these qualities from his grandfather. If Fedor Fedorovich was not sure that he could be the first in something, he preferred not to do it, his pride was so pronounced. He was nervous and withdrawn, wasteful, prone to excitement, like his father.

Fedor lost his father at the age of 9, but he managed to invest in him best qualities. His father's upbringing helped him a lot in life, he received a good education. In his business he achieved great success, perhaps because he loved what he did.

Creative path in dates

The beginning of Dostoevsky's creative career was bright; he wrote in many genres.

Genres early period creativity of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky:

• humorous story;
• physiological essay;
• tragicomic story;
• Christmas story;
• story;
• novel.

In 1840–1841 - creation historical dramas"Mary Stuart", "Boris Godunov".

1844 – translation of Balzac’s “Eugenie Grande” is published.

1845 – finished the story “Poor People”, met Belinsky and Nekrasov.

1846 - “The Petersburg Collection” was published, “Poor People” were published.

“The Double” was published in February, and “Mr. Prokharchin” was published in October.

In 1847, Dostoevsky wrote “The Mistress” and published it in the “St. Petersburg Gazette”.

“White Nights” was written in December 1848, and “Netochka Nezvanova” in 1849.

1854-1859 – service in Semipalatinsk, “Uncle’s Dream”, “The Village of Stepanchikovo and its Inhabitants”.

In 1860, the Russian World published a fragment “ Notes of the Dead Houses". The first collected works were published.

1861 – the beginning of the publication of the magazine “Time”, the printing of part of the novel “Humiliated and Insulted”, “Notes from the House of the Dead”.

In 1863, “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions” were created.

May of the same year – the magazine “Time” was closed.

1864 – the beginning of publication of the magazine “Epoch”. "Notes from the Underground".

1865 - “An Extraordinary Event, or Passage in Passage” is published in Krokodil.

1866 – written by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”, “The Gambler”. Traveling abroad with family. "Idiot".

In 1870, Dostoevsky wrote the story “The Eternal Husband.”

1871-1872 - “Demons.”

1875 – “Teenager” was published in “Notes of the Fatherland”.

1876 ​​– resumption of activity of the “Diary of a Writer”.

From 1879 to 1880, The Brothers Karamazov was written.

Places in St. Petersburg

The city preserves the spirit of the writer; many of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s books were written here.

1. Dostoevsky studied at the Engineering Mikhailovsky Castle.
2. The Serapinskaya Hotel on Moskovsky Prospekt became the writer’s place of residence in 1837; he lived here, seeing St. Petersburg for the first time in his life.
3. “Poor People” was written in the house of the postal director Pryanichnikov.
4. “Mr. Prokharchin” was created in Kochenderfer’s house on Kazanskaya Street.
5. Fyodor Mikhailovich lived in Soloshich’s apartment building on Vasilyevsky Island in the 1840s.
6. The Kotomina apartment building introduced Dostoevsky to Petrashevsky.
7. The writer lived on Voznesensky Prospekt during his arrest and wrote “White Nights”, “Honest Thief” and other stories.
8. “Notes from the House of the Dead”, “Humiliated and Insulted” were written on 3rd Krasnoarmeyskaya Street.
9. The writer lived in the house of A. Astafieva in 1861-1863.
10. In the Strubinsky house on Grechesky Avenue - from 1875 to 1878.

Symbolism of Dostoevsky

You can analyze the books of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky endlessly, finding new and new symbols. Dostoevsky mastered the art of penetrating into the essence of things, their soul. It is precisely the ability to unravel these symbols one by one that makes traveling through the pages of novels so exciting.

• Axe.

This symbol carries a deadly meaning, being a kind of emblem of Dostoevsky’s work. The ax symbolizes murder, crime, decisive desperate step, crucial moment. If a person says the word “axe,” most likely the first thing that comes to mind is “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.

• Clean linen.

His appearance in novels occurs at certain similar moments, which allows us to talk about symbolism. For example, Raskolnikov was prevented from committing a murder by a maid hanging out clean laundry. Ivan Karamazov had a similar situation. It is not so much the linen itself that is symbolic, but its color - white, denoting purity, correctness, purity.

• Smells.

It is enough to glance over any of Dostoevsky’s novels to understand how important smells are to him. One of them, which occurs more often than others, is the smell of a corruptive spirit.

• Silver pledge.

One of the most important symbols. The silver cigarette case was not made of silver at all. A motive of falsity, counterfeitness, and suspicion appears. Raskolnikov, having made a cigarette case out of wood, similar to a silver one, as if he had already committed a deception, a crime.

• The sound of a brass bell.

The symbol plays a warning role. A small detail makes the reader feel the mood of the hero and imagine events more vividly. Small objects are endowed with strange, unusual features, emphasizing the exceptionality of the circumstances.

• Wood and iron.

In novels there are many things from these materials, each of them carries certain meaning. If wood symbolizes man, sacrifice, bodily torment, then iron symbolizes crime, murder, evil.

Finally, I would like to note some interesting facts from the life of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.

1. Dostoevsky wrote most of all in the last 10 years of his life.
2. Dostoevsky loved sex, used the services of prostitutes, even while married.
3. Nietzsche called Dostoevsky the best psychologist.
4. He smoked a lot and loved strong tea.
5. He was jealous of his women at every post, and forbade them even to smile in public.
6. Most often he worked at night.
7. The hero of the novel “The Idiot” is a self-portrait of the writer.
8. There are many film adaptations of Dostoevsky’s works, as well as those dedicated to him.
9. Fyodor Mikhailovich had his first child at the age of 46.
10. Leonardo DiCaprio also celebrates his birthday on November 11th.
11. More than 30,000 people came to the writer's funeral.
12. Sigmund Freud considered Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov to be the greatest novel ever written.

We also present to your attention famous quotes Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky:

You must love life more than the meaning of life. Freedom is not about not being restrained, but about being in control. In everything there is a line beyond which it is dangerous to cross; for once you have stepped over, it is impossible to go back. Happiness is not in happiness, but only in its achievement. No one will make the first move, because everyone thinks that it is not mutual. The Russian people seem to enjoy their suffering. Life goes breathless without an aim. To stop reading books means to stop thinking. There is no happiness in comfort; happiness is bought through suffering. B true loving heart either jealousy kills love, or love kills jealousy.

Conclusion

The outcome of every person's life is his actions. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (lived 1821-1881) left behind brilliant novels, having lived a relatively short life. Who knows if these novels would have been born if the author’s life had been easy, without obstacles and hardships? Dostoevsky, whom they know and love, is impossible without suffering, mental tossing, and internal overcoming. They are what make the works so real.