Dostoevsky's great-grandson spoke about the writer's bad habits. Birthday of Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich

F. M. Dostoevsky

For children (collection of excerpts from stories and novels)

© Stepanyan K., introductory article, comments, 2000

© Design of the series. Publishing house "Children's Literature", 2002

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky and us

Reading this book is only the first step on the path to Dostoevsky. Every person needs to read and experience at least the main works of this writer - “Crime and Punishment”, “The Idiot”, “Demons”, “Teenager”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “Notes from the Underground”, talking about Pushkin. And not only because without it one cannot be called cultured person, much more important is that without this it is impossible to understand life, the people around and yourself. You can, of course, live as they say, in calm ignorance, but this is a deceptive calm: you will be carried along in the flow of life and the further you go, the more often you will anxiously ask yourself: where am I, what am I doing here and what awaits me? Then?

The Bible and other sacred books of humanity help us understand life; Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and many writers and thinkers of the past and present help us. Dostoevsky's voice is also very necessary and important.

Life is complex, difficult and full of trials, but at the same time it is bright and joyful, because in it there is love and goodness, the happiness of helping one’s neighbor and overcoming evil in oneself, immortal life souls and God's endless mercy. Dostoevsky does not teach anything “from top to bottom” - he shows: here is good and here is evil, choose, for every person is free. Try to be honest with your conscience, do not justify yourself, because bad thoughts and desires are just as (and sometimes more) dangerous as actions.

You need to read Dostoevsky slowly, no matter how difficult it may be at first. It’s hard not because Dostoevsky, as is commonly thought, is a gloomy writer, although after reading some of the passages collected in this book one may get exactly that impression. But these are still mostly separate parts large works, and the parts where we are mainly talking about children. The experiences of children, their difficulties and misfortunes always worried Dostoevsky very much, and he strove to ensure that they also excited and made his readers empathize. And there is no need to be afraid of this and there is no need to skip or quickly skim through such pages: just as we learn to live among people, learn the rules of behavior and cultivate willpower, we must also cultivate our feelings, but no best school education of feelings than empathy for other people.

In fact, Dostoevsky is a very optimistic and inspiring writer, because in his works one can always see the light and ways out of the most difficult situations. We'll talk about this later. But this book mainly contains excerpts and short stories describing the suffering of the heroes from material poverty (material, because there is also spiritual poverty, and it is much worse). Sometimes it seems that it is impossible to read, your heart breaks when you get used to the torment of little Nelly or the family of Ilyusha Snegirev. But this pain heals the heart. After all, unfortunately, there is a lot of poverty and misery around us in Everyday life, and, having been educated by Dostoevsky, we will be able to better understand how much mental torment, and not just physical - cold, hunger - a poor person experiences, how his pride suffers when he is forced to ask, how painful inequality is for him (especially if this is a child) with seemingly the same children as him, but only with rich parents, and how unbearable it is for poor parents to be unable to feed, clothe, cure their beloved son or daughter.

Dostoevsky is not a sentimental author at all: he does not call on us to feel sorry for any poor person just because he is poor. The writer understands: sometimes it happens that the person himself is to blame for the poverty of himself and his family. But someone else’s guilt does not free us from anything: our guilt, if we did not help our suffering neighbor, will still be our fault. If we see a person hanging on the edge of an abyss, we will extend our hand and help him get out, and only then ask how he got there (and if we don’t help, our conscience will torment us all our lives). But very often a person turns out to be poor not because he is stupid, likes to drink or is lazy; It happens that, once he has failed in life, he can no longer improve his affairs. Often the cause of poverty is illness - one’s own or that of loved ones, betrayal of friends and much more.

But besides indifference or, even worse, contempt for the poor, there is another danger, another extreme, and Dostoevsky also warns about it. When we read about such suffering, or even more so see them in life, along with sympathy and compassion, a protest is often born in us: this situation cannot be tolerated any longer, everything must be corrected now. And you definitely need to help, but only very carefully and carefully. Poor people, Dostoevsky shows us, are very vulnerable, they can be terribly offended by any appeal “from above,” the position of a “benefactor” who “condescends” to them. You can always help with care, sympathy, simply kind words. But what you shouldn’t do is decide that there is no point in helping these specific people, you just need to remake the whole world in a fair way: take away what is unnecessary from the rich, give it to the poor, so that everyone has the same. People are all different, and no one knows exactly what “fair” means. Very often, such a desire to “remake the world” is a manifestation of a hidden desire to stand out, to become a leader, a hero.

A truly kind and conscientious person will never allow himself to use wealth without sharing with the poor, without helping them. But you cannot force others to be good; you can only act according to goodness and conscience yourself. And maybe your example will teach someone else. Any other path will only increase the evil in the world.

All this - and not only this, of course - helps us recognize and understand Dostoevsky’s books.

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born on October 30 (November 11, new style) 1821 in Moscow, in the family of a poor doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital on Bozhedomka (now Dostoevsky Street. The hospital is still located there, and in one of its outbuildings there is Dostoevsky’s museum-apartment). Fedor was the second eldest, and in total there were eight children in the family. They lived very modestly, but nevertheless, the parents tried to give their children a decent education, taught them themselves, and held home readings in the evenings: parents and older children took turns reading aloud, and the younger ones listened. We read Derzhavin, Zhukovsky, Karamzin, historical novels– “The Ice House” by Lazhechnikov, “Yuri Miloslavsky” by Zagoskina. The children themselves read a lot. By the age of seventeen, Dostoevsky had already read Pushkin (whom he “knew almost everything by heart”), Derzhavin, Lermontov, Balzac, Schiller, Hugo, Hoffmann, Shakespeare, Goethe, Cooper, Pascal, and W. Scott.

Without children It would be impossible to love humanity like that.

(Fedor Dostoevsky )

Who did Dostoevsky’s children become, what was their fate and how did they treat Great writer to your offspring?

Despite his cruel upbringing, sometimes even tyranny, little Fyodor Dostoevsky respected his father. When the writer had his own children, he tried to adopt only the bright sides of his father Mikhail Andreevich and raise little Dostoevskys with all the love and tenderness. Yes, with early childhood, Lyuba and Fedor participated in literary evenings, when the writer read to them the works of Geniuses - Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Tolstoy.
Fyodor Mikhailovich attended church twice a week, without his children. But one day, when Lyubochka was 9 years old, the writer took her with him to the Service, put her on a chair and told her about what was happening.
So how many children did Dostoevsky have and what kind of characters did his descendants have? In total, the writer had four children and an adopted son from his first wife, with whom the relationship did not work out right away.

Isaev Pavel Alexandrovich

The adopted son of F. M. Dostoevsky from his first wife Maria

• Date of birth: November 10 (22), 1847
• Date of death: 1900

Despite the coldness of his stepson, Dostoevsky always treated him with warmth.

Little is known about his fate. From 1857 to 1859, Pavel studied on cadet leave in Siberia, but was expelled due to “childish pranks.” Fyodor Mikhailovich worried about him, found teachers, places of service, but due to his character and behavior, Pavel did not stay anywhere for long. Judging by the letters, the writer was always worried about the future of his adopted son and sent him money until the end of his days.
As for Anna Grigorievna, in her memoirs she did not speak very well of Pavel. One day, having learned about the engagement of Fedora and Anna, Isaev Jr. showed up at the writer’s office, where he rudely expressed his attitude towards the wedding. That day there was a quarrel between them and Fyodor Mikhailovich even kicked his stepson out of his office. Dostoevsky’s entourage insisted that Pavel behaved rudely, pompously and lazily, but despite this, the writer always said that he considered his adopted son an honest and kind fellow, and indeed, between them, after all, there was some kind of affection of their own. When Pavel's son was born, he was named after Dostoevsky - Fedor.

According to Anna Grigorievna, Pavel Isaev is the prototype of Alexander Lobov in the work “The Eternal Husband”.

Sofya Feodorovna Dostoevskaya

First daughter of F. M. Dostoevsky

• Date of birth: February 21 (March 5), 1868
• Date of death: May 12 (24), 1868

On February 22, 1868, little Sophia was born. When, worried, Fyodor Mikhailovich first heard a child’s cry outside the door, he rushed into the room where the exhausted Anna lay with her little daughter and began to kiss the hands of his dear wife.
In his letters to his sister V.M. Ivanova, Dostoevsky wrote “Anya gave me a daughter. A nice, healthy and smart girl who looks ridiculously like me.” The birth of his daughter stirred up in the writer those feelings that were unknown to him until that moment. He did not leave the little angel for a minute - he cared for him, swaddled him and assured him that, despite such an early age, Sonya would recognize him.

At the beginning of May, on the urgent recommendations of doctors, the Dostoevsky family went for a walk with little Sophia. On one of these days, during a walk, it began strong wind and Sonya most likely caught a cold. The girl’s cough and high temperature did not arouse suspicion among the doctors; they assured that Sophia would soon recover, and even 3 hours before her death, they were convinced of their words.
But fate was not kind to the Dostoevskys. After several days spent in agony, the small body became lifeless. It is impossible to describe the grief of Anna and Fyodor at that moment. Dostoevsky lost weight, became haggard, and was inconsolable.
Sonya's grave is located in Geneva, in the Cemetery of the Kings. On a small slab there is an inscription in French “Sophia. Daughter of Fyodor and Anna Dostoevsky.”

Lyubov Feodorovna Dostoevskaya

Second daughter of F. M. Dostoevsky

• Date of birth September 14, 1869
• Date of death November 10, 1926

When the second daughter was born, the Dostoevskys’ life began to sparkle with new colors. Fyodor Mikhailovich treated Lyuba with extraordinary tenderness, bathed her, lulled her to sleep and was happy. In his letters to his family, he wrote: “The girl is healthy, cheerful, developed beyond her years, she always sings with me when I sing to her, and she keeps laughing; a rather quiet, non-capricious child. She looks ridiculously like me, down to the slightest feature.”.

When Lyuba was 11 years old, Fyodor Mikhailovich was already dying. The bitter loss affected the daughter’s health, and although the writer said that Lyubochka healthy child, in his letters there was concern about her nervous health. His fears were not unfounded. After the death of her father, Lyuba spent a lot of time in sanatoriums and resorts to recover from numerous illnesses. She also had no luck with personal life. Until the end of her days, Lyubov Fedorovna remained alone. Trying to imitate Fyodor Mikhailovich in everything, Lyuba began to write works herself, but, unfortunately, her works had no value.

Dostoevsky's daughter died at the age of 57, from leukemia, in Italy.

Fyodor Fedorovich Dostoevsky

The eldest son of F. M. Dostoevsky

• Date of birth: July 16 (28), 1871
• Date of death: January 4, 1922

“If a son is born at least ten minutes before midnight on July 15, we will call him Vladimir,” recalled Anna Grigorievna, but Dostoevsky’s first son was not destined to bear the name Vladimir. He was born on July 16 and was named after his father. This is how Fyodor Fyodorovich Dostoevsky was born.

From childhood, Dostoevsky Jr. showed an extraordinary interest in horse breeding. The Dostoevskys were often afraid that the horses would kill their son, but Fedya always found mutual language with horses. So, the son became famous writer horse breeding specialist. A few years after his father’s death, Fedya moved to live in Simferopol. The first marriage of Dostoevsky Jr. was not happy and by the age of 30 he was divorced and completely devoted his life to horse racing, where he earned first places and won all the prizes.

Once in Simferopol there was a costume ball at the governor's and it was there that Fedor found his love and his second wife Ekaterina. Soon their family welcomed a daughter, who died a couple of minutes after birth. A little later, Catherine gave birth to the writer’s son two heirs - Andrei and Fedor.

When Fyodor's mother Anna Grigorievna died, he remained to live in Crimea, but was arrested and sentenced to death. Then using his last name, Dostoevsky Jr. was released.

He returned to Moscow in 1921. Hunger and numerous illnesses left him no chance of life. He died in 1922.

Alexey Fedorovich Dostoevsky

Second son of F. M. Dostoevsky

• Date of birth: August 10 (22), 1875
• Date of death: May 16 (28), 1978

On August 10, another son appeared in the Dostoevsky family, who was named Alexei. In his letters, Fyodor Mikhailovich often mentioned that the child was healthy and strong. From the memoirs of Lyubov Fedorovna it is known that Lesha was his father’s favorite of all the children. Little Lyuba and Fedya were not allowed to enter the writer’s office without asking, when Lesha could enter at any time.

Dostoevsky’s love for little Lesha was special, as if he knew that soon his second son would be gone.

On May 16, 1978, Anna and Fedor noticed convulsive twitching on Alexei’s face. They immediately went to the doctor, but he convinced the parents that everything was fine with Lesha. When the convulsions did not go away, the Dostoevskys turned to another doctor, Professor Uspensky. After examining little Lesha’s shaking body, he said that everything would soon pass. From the memoirs of Anna Grigorievna: “Fyodor Mikhailovich went to see the doctor off, returned terribly pale and knelt by the sofa, I wanted to ask him what exactly the doctor said (and he, as I found out later, told Fyodor Mikhailovich that the agony had already begun), but he made a sign forbidding me to speak.” On that day, the writer’s second son died.

“When the children reached a more or less conscious age, Fyodor Mikhailovich charged them with the responsibility of mixing two types of tobacco”

The fact that Dmitry Andreevich Dostoevsky is a descendant of the great writer is clear at first glance. They are very similar - Fyodor Mikhailovich and his great-grandson. He lives in St. Petersburg. We met in Gatchina at the Literature and Cinema festival. Dostoevsky's great-grandson turned out to be a temperamental person and never let anyone get bored.

Dmitry Andreevich Dostoevsky

“I have mastered 21 professions, starting with a tram driver”

The grandson of Mikhail Sholokhov, Alexander Sholokhov, told how he once met Radishchev’s descendants. They struck him with their resemblance to the famous ancestor. You are also very similar to your great-grandfather. Have you ever dealt with representatives of other famous families?

At one time I was the leader of the Assembly of the Nobility, which, unlike the main one, united serving nobles. There were many representatives there famous names, including the Karamzins. They are also very similar to their famous relative.

Meeting a descendant famous person, first of all, you pay attention to his appearance, and when you get to know him better, you study his character. Many personal traits are passed on from generation to generation. If we talk about Fyodor Mikhailovich, then it is impossible not to mention that he had a sweet tooth. This inclination manifested itself to a lesser extent in me, but my son and granddaughter are fine with it. I have seen references to the love of sweets in the letters of my father and grandfather.

Fyodor Mikhailovich smoked heavily. I did some research on my immediate ancestors and found out that they too had this tendency. Dostoevsky's wife Anna Grigorievna mentions that her husband took cigarette after cigarette. Moreover, it was a whole action. When the children reached a more or less conscious age, Fyodor Mikhailovich charged them with the responsibility of mixing two types of tobacco in certain proportions. The children apparently loved to twirl this mixture. They were busy stuffing cigarettes. According to modern concepts, they prepared poison for their father, especially since he suffered from a lung disease. Antibiotics did not yet exist, so he was destroying himself, and the children helped him with this.

Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

- Did noble kinship predetermine your life?

Definitely. When they ask me if I have anything to do with famous writer, I look a person in the eyes and decide whether it’s worth communicating with him. But you can always say: “No. Namesake." People finding out that you are a descendant famous person, trying to understand: what are you like? And this can become a tragedy of life.

Fyodor Mikhailovich’s daughter, Lyuba, could say: why is everyone talking about my father, why don’t they talk about me, I will write too. And she wrote. But I wouldn't say she had talent. With great difficulty I forced myself to read what she wrote.

Anna Grigorievna has a confessional where she says that nature rests on the descendants of geniuses. Lyuba lived hard all her life, never got married, did not give birth to children. Her family line was broken. She considered herself a special woman and was afraid to sell herself short with her chosen one, which has two written confirmations.

She wanted to marry the governor of Staraya Russa, but he did not pay attention to her. Her communication with Lev Lvovich Tolstoy also did not develop into a romance.

When her mother was told, why don’t you, a young widow, get married, she replied that after Dostoevsky, you could only marry Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy himself, but he was already taken. And something similar happened to Lyuba. Together with Lev Lvovich she wrote some plays, but in the end they broke up.

Dostoevsky has a prophecy regarding his own family. Already on his deathbed, he called the children to him and read them a parable about prodigal son. Both of his children were away from home. He understood that he would not be able to influence them. Lyuba leaves Russia when not a single Russian person has even thought about leaving: In 1912, she tells her mother that she is going to Europe for treatment, and then will return, and she herself lived abroad until her death and died there. And she lived on the money received from the publication of her father’s books, which her mother carefully sent her.

There is a tragic letter where Anna Grigorievna asks Lyuba not to play in the casino, reminds her of her father’s sad example (I have never seen any other mention of this). Maybe Lyuba pulled herself together and didn’t play anymore.

Abroad, she wrote memoirs for the anniversary of her father’s death. French. We published them in 1928. Lyuba was born in Dresden, so she was drawn to Europe. And her brother Fedya was born in St. Petersburg, and when his mother wrote to him: “Go to Europe, unwind, relax,” she answered: “What didn’t I see there?”

All his life he worked with racehorses, kept a stable, and when it burned down, he barely managed the best horses save. It is interesting that Fyodor Mikhailovich’s sisters remained in Moscow, and his brothers went to St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky in last days, but he was not going to die, he wrote in notebook and in a letter to Anna Grigorievna about preparations for moving to Moscow.

- How old were you when you found out who you were?

About 15 years old. As soon as my mother felt that she could tell me about it, she added: “Just talk less about it.” It was such a time.

And I was in no hurry to tell my eldest granddaughter Anya about her famous ancestor. On New Year's days we went to the Dostoevsky Museum. Nearby is a monument to him. We've arrived. Anya already knew how to read, she traced the letters with her finger: “Oh, and I’m Dostoevskaya.” Then I explained to her that this uncle was a relative and promised to show her how many books he had written. Two days later we found a small book in her possession, which she had sewn herself, filled with sine waves. Anya wrote a book.

- And your son...

He is gradually replacing me. I immediately decided that I would not put pressure on him with my attitude towards Fyodor Mikhailovich, let him form on his own. He didn’t push books with the words: “Read your great-great-grandfather.” It formed itself.

- Who he is by profession?

He studied at the pedagogical school, but majored in “teacher” in English" did not work. And this is also in our genes.

Fyodor Mikhailovich received a higher education and was a topographical engineer, but six months later he resigned and became a free man, began to write and live on it. It was difficult to exist then literary works. Turgenev and Tolstoy had villages and peasants who worked for them. Dostoevsky did not have such help. Son Fedor not a single day public service was not a member. Grandson Andrei, my father, spent most of his life in Soviet time.

He graduated from the Industrial Institute, and now the Polytechnic Institute in Leningrad, and studied forest management. Then the war began, he actually went to the front in the first days, was wounded, and in 1946, due to medical reasons, received an early pension. I refused on principle to receive higher education.

- What is the principle?

I thought that it was not interesting to be an engineer for 80 rubles a month. I wanted to learn a lot. I have 21 professions. In Soviet times, I was generally considered a flyer. In the HR department, looking at my work book, they were wary of me. They looked carefully into the eyes, and in the end they accepted. It is obvious that he is not a drunkard.

- I know that you drove a tram, but what else did you do?

The range of professions ranges from technical to artistic.

- And which is the most artistic?

Applying diamond edges to crystal vases. This is one of my first professions. In high schools, compulsory professional education. I went to school on Fontanka, where half of my classmates studied at an art glass factory, and the other engraved rollers with which designs were applied to fabric. From early childhood he was interested in radio engineering and assembled receivers.

In the 90s, difficulties came and I found myself without a job. I was invited to Germany to open the Dostoevsky Society, and I stayed to work there, repairing the first VCRs and televisions. He received money and sent parcels to his family in order to somehow feed them.

- So you lived there alone?

First one. I brought my whole family to Germany when I realized that I could easily get a job, and if necessary, I would go and drive a Munich tram.

The quality knitting of my wife Lyuda came in handy. I took her to the park, she sat on a bench and knitted. There was an opportunity to make money, and we didn’t refuse anything. We returned home in a foreign car.

They left Germany in a surprising way. The Emergency Committee happened. They announce on TV that they are ready to provide political asylum in a simplified form, automatically extending the visa for Russians staying in Germany. We gathered in a family council and thought that suddenly the border would be closed, that’s all, and we’d be stuck here. We packed up and went home. Although we had a rented apartment in Germany, Full time job, although unofficial. Live and be happy. But nostalgia set in for me in the third month.

- You could live happily by creating the Dostoevsky Foundation.

Even in my youth I thought: I am the great-grandson of a great man, but will I live off this or will I become independent? My life was divided into two parts: one belonged to Fyodor Mikhailovich, and the second was my own. But the idea of ​​creating something special didn’t occur to me. The only thing I did was protect the surname itself as a trademark so that it would not appear everywhere, so that Dostoevsky casinos would not appear.

- But there is a hotel.

I received the corresponding paper later than the name of the hotel. We do not have the opportunity to change anything in hindsight.

I was informed from Staraya Russa that Muscovites purchased four plots of land, built a hotel, and named it “Dostoevsky”. They asked how I felt about this. I replied: “So be it.” Even Anna Grigorievna was not against the steamship of the same name on the Volga. While traveling along the river, she wrote: “The Dostoevsky steamship passed me.” And she lived on Dostoevsky Street in Yalta. When the metro station in St. Petersburg was named “Dostoevskaya,” I thought: so be it. In honor of Anna Grigorievna.

Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya

“Fyodor Mikhailovich loved beer”

- When you are invited to different cities and countries to events dedicated to Dostoevsky, what do they want from you?

Basically, representing oneself as a direct descendant. Roughly speaking, they call you as a wedding general. This does not suit me, and I make reports: for example, about the lives of children, based on a thousand letters from Anna Grigorievna to children and their letters to her. They are kept in the Pushkin House, but no one except me has attacked them so far.

From them I learned that Fyodor Mikhailovich was very fond of beer. Anna Grigorievna wrote that in every city where they stopped there was some nice place. There they sat, admired the scenery and drank beer, he mentions light beer. This drink was an important product in my family. I myself moved away from him, but my son loves him.

- So, it’s still possible to extract new facts and make discoveries?

It happens. We have a chance to find the draft manuscript of The Brothers Karamazov. Some traces remained, as well as the assumption that it was stolen and moved through the rebellious Russia in 1918 towards Georgia. Ultimately, I think she went abroad and is hiding somewhere, if we assume that the manuscripts do not burn. It contains the writer's edits, which are invaluable for textual work.

A lot of things are missing, for example, the manuscript of “Demons”, and the letters have disappeared. I found references to the fact that Dostoevsky’s children Fedya and Lyuba studied poorly. Fedya honestly writes to his mother that he is skipping classes and somehow, while walking in the garden, he ended up on a bench next to a gray-haired general. We got to talking, and it turned out that during his service in Siberia he had letters from Fyodor Mikhailovich, about twenty of them. But they all burned down. And when the Dostoevskys bought a house in Staraya Russa, it turned out that the owner hid that from time to time the plot was flooded with water. Somehow Lyuba was left there alone, but things from the first floor were not moved upstairs, and the suitcases with Dostoevsky’s letters got wet. She threw them away.

“Dostoevsky’s nephew was sent to build the White Sea-Baltic Canal”

- Let's reproduce the family tree.

Fyodor Mikhailovich had four children. The first and last died in infancy. Lyuba, as we have already said, had no offspring. There remained Fedor, whose pedigree stretches to this day. After him, Fyodor and Andrey were next again. Fedor III died at the age of 16. Mom saved his poems. They were published in the Chronicle of the Dostoevsky Family. When I showed them to the poets and told them that a 16-year-old boy wrote them, everyone was shocked. How mature it is.

- It’s interesting that three Fedors in a row.

It is an old Russian tradition to name the eldest son after his father. Andrei also had two children - my pre-war sister and me, post-war. The fact that I am Dmitry - my mother most likely insisted on this in memory of her early deceased brother. My sister Tatyana and I are almost ten years apart. We are from different generations. Her life in many ways repeated the fate of Lyuba. I don’t know whose life I’m living.

- What was your grandson’s name?

Fedya. Fedor is the fourth. I insisted on Ivan. I liked that Alexey was there, Dmitry was there, and let there be Ivan. I believe that for Fyodor Mikhailovich, three brothers are hypostases of one person: a rebel, a believer and a doubter. My son Alexey became captain of the monastery fleet on Valaam. He served in the army there and stayed. Everyone was worried then that their children might be sent to Chechnya. He didn’t have a family yet, but he had to continue the family line. And then Fyodor Mikhailovich, together with the Lord, helped.

It turned out that my son was late for the autumn draft; there was already a kit there. And he stayed at the monastery for the winter and came to court. The abbot gave him an eternal blessing - a rare occurrence. My son has been living there for almost twenty years.

During one of his trips, Alexey met with Vladyka Tomsk, and it turned out that he dreamed of turning the ship into a church so that it would ply the rivers of Siberia. He invited his son to become his captain. There are only one or two churches in the villages, but there is no money to build new ones. And on the ship you can have a wedding and a funeral service.

I received a call from the archbishop's office and asked, as a father, if I gave my blessing to my son for further action. I got excited and said I didn’t mind. But the son decided differently: “I have not yet been filled with the Valaam spirit.”

- If you honor your ancestors, then they support you?

I have my own ideas on this matter. I got cancer when I was young. I want to live, but I need to have surgery. There was no guarantee that I would survive. But he’s alive.

Although my mother was transformed into a Soviet person, she remembered that she came from the nobility. Her grandfather Shestakov was the chief of artillery of the Peter and Paul Fortress, governor-general of Vilna (present-day Vilnius). In Soviet times, my mother was forced to hide this; in the “social origin” column she indicated that she was from the middle class.

Then she joined the extremely nasty surname of Dostoevsky - as defined by Ulyanov-Lenin. She herself escaped arrest, but my father spent a month in prison on Shpalernaya. The file says that he was arrested three days after Kirov’s murder.

The fact that he was imprisoned became known abroad. They started writing there: the grandson of a great writer in prison. And the father was released. Fyodor Mikhailovich saved. Or they could have sewn on anything, as they did in relation to Andrei Andreevich, the nephew of Fyodor Mikhailovich, the son of his brother: he was taken away in 1931.

There are documents regarding these arrests that no one except me has seen. The hair stood on end, everything was so far-fetched. Andrei Andreevich was sent to build the White Sea-Baltic Canal, and he was 64 years old. Spas Lunacharsky, although he was no longer a minister. Andrei Andreevich died two years later. I first read his first explanation after his arrest in the Geneva archive, having permission to read it from the FSB. This is where the sheer devilry lies.

- Your surname probably attracted a variety of people to you?

Constantly. But I am also a relative of Pushkin through Pavlishchev, on the female side. And perhaps closer to him than some of his current descendants.

- What kind of history is connected in your family with Hollywood?

I am passionate about this topic; I want the script about Anna Grigorievna to be staged. My grandmother Ekaterina Petrovna wrote it and defined it as an artistic documentary. According to my research, it is based on her conversations with Anna Grigorievna about Fyodor Mikhailovich.

Grandmother, of course, did not see him: Dostoevsky died when she met his son. She sent the script to Hollywood in 1956, and died in 1957.

Ekaterina Petrovna talked with Nina Berberova. So she claimed that the script was accepted. It was necessary to conclude an agreement, but Ekaterina Petrovna was no longer in the world. The script went into the archives. I wish I could find him - I think he’s not lost in the Hollywood archives.

My grandmother gave private lessons and taught Bolshevik youth, since she knew four languages. This is what I lived on. And then she received a false message that her son Andrei had died. In general, she decided to leave the USSR. I ended up in Regensburg, Paris, and then in Menton. There she lived out the rest of her days and was buried in an Orthodox cemetery. I was there. An interesting thought came to me that I would like to lie there too. Such beauty! A view of the Mediterranean Sea, which looks like an emerald, and tangerines and lemons grow nearby.

- I'm glad I met you. You are such a temperamental person, living what you should live.

There really is a temperament. Fyodor Mikhailovich was just as lively. And Fyodor Fedorovich also had a temperament. I won't say that about my father. And in our genes there is a complete absence of rancor. Also from Fyodor Mikhailovich. Anna Grigorievna writes about this. Although he called some people his literary enemies, he dreamed of making peace with them.

Andrei Dostoevsky was born on March 15, 1825. The older brothers, Mikhail and Fedor, were not only friendly with each other, but also, unlike Andrei, were connected by common literary and journalistic interests. But at the very beginning, all three chose the same field.

Like both brothers, Andrei studied at the Moscow boarding school Chermak, from where, after the 5th grade, he planned to enter the mathematics department of the university. But under the influence of Mikhail, he moves to St. Petersburg, where, following Fedor, he decides to enter the Main Engineering School. Mikhail and Fedor lived in the same apartment at that time, and the future classic had already begun to study the intricacies of engineering. But Andrei (like his older brother Mikhail, who was declared unfit for engineering service based on the results of a medical examination) failed to pass the exams, and he entered the School of Civil Engineers, later renamed the Construction School. Studying future architect graduated in 1848 with honors, and was hired into the Department of Projects and Estimates of the Main Directorate of Communications and Public Buildings. But the newly minted engineer did not manage to work in St. Petersburg for long. In April 1849, he was arrested in the well-known Petrashevsky case, confused with his brother Mikhail. The mistake will become clear only after two weeks, which Andrei will spend in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

On July 16, 1850, Andrei Mikhailovich’s wedding took place with Domnika Ivanovna Fedorchenko. They had 2 sons and 2 daughters.
(1857-1894)
(1863-1933)
Evgenia by marriage (1853-1919) Married a descendant of an ancient Yaroslavl family, later a major military and scientific figure, academician, general and admiral, founder of Russian meteorology, Mikhail Alexandrovich. Just like A.G. Dostoevskaya, having completed shorthand courses, helped her husband a lot in his work.
Varvara Savostyanov (1858-1935) married Vladimir Konstantinovich Savostyanov. She lived in the provinces for many years. Left memories of F.M. Dostoevsky, published by her daughter Maria Vladimirovna Savostyanova. She died in Leningrad and was buried in the same grave with her brother, Andrei Andreevich Dostoevsky, at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery.

Andrei Mikhailovich worked in Elizavetgrad from October 1849 to July 1858.
After the arrest story, the youngest of the Dostoevsky brothers is forced to change the trajectory of his career. The chief manager of communications, Count Kleinmichel, in order to get rid of the architect with a sensational surname, appoints him as the city architect of Elisavetgrad (present-day Kirovograd). Andrei Mikhailovich worked there for almost 10 years - until 1858. At the same time, brother Fedor returns from exile. Together with Mikhail, they begin to publish a joint magazine. Andrei's fate also changes.

Together with his wife and children, he moved to work in Simferopol, where he worked for two years.

In May 1860, another translation followed. Andrei Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was appointed to the position of provincial architect and travels to the city of Yekaterinoslav to perform official duties.

1821, October 30 (November 11) Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born, in Moscow in the right wing of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor. There were six more children in the Dostoevsky family: Mikhail (1820-1864), Varvara (1822-1893), Andrei, Vera (1829-1896), Nikolai (1831-1883), Alexandra (1835-1889). Fyodor grew up in a rather harsh environment, over which hovered the gloomy spirit of his father - a “nervous, irritable and proud” man, always busy caring for the well-being of the family.

Children were brought up in fear and obedience, according to the traditions of antiquity, spending most of their time in front of their parents. Rarely leaving the walls of the hospital building, they outside world they communicated very little, except through the sick, with whom Fyodor Mikhailovich, secretly from his father, sometimes spoke. There was also a nanny, hired from among Moscow bourgeois women, whose name was Alena Frolovna. Dostoevsky remembered her with the same tenderness as Pushkin remembered Arina Rodionovna. It was from her that he heard the first fairy tales: about the Firebird, Alyosha Popovich, the Blue Bird, etc.

Father, Mikhail Andreevich (1789-1839), the son of a Uniate priest, a doctor (head doctor, surgeon) at the Moscow Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, received the title of hereditary nobleman in 1828. In 1831 he acquired the village of Darovoye, Kashira district, Tula province, and in 1833 the neighboring village of Chermoshnya.

In raising his children, the father was an independent, educated, caring family man, but had a quick-tempered and suspicious character. After the death of his wife in 1837, he retired and settled in Darovo. According to documents, he died of apoplexy; according to the recollections of relatives and oral traditions, he was killed by his peasants.

Mother, Maria Fedorovna (née Nechaeva; 1800-1837) - from a merchant family, a religious woman, annually took her children to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, taught them to read from the book “One Hundred and Four Sacred Stories of the Old and New Testaments” (in the novel “” memories about this book are included in the story of Elder Zosima about his childhood). In the parents’ house they read aloud “The History of the Russian State” by N. M. Karamzin, the works of G. R. Derzhavin, V. A. Zhukovsky, A. S. Pushkin.

With particular animation, Dostoevsky recalled in his mature years his acquaintance with Scripture: “In our family, we knew the Gospel almost from our first childhood.” The Old Testament “Book of Job” also became a vivid childhood impression of the writer. Fyodor Mikhailovich’s younger brother Andrei Mikhailovich wrote that “brother Fedya read more historical works, serious works, as well as novels that came across. Brother Mikhail loved poetry and wrote poems himself... But at Pushkin they made peace, and both, it seems, then knew almost everything by heart...”

The death of Alexander Sergeevich by young Fedya was perceived as a personal grief. Andrei Mikhailovich wrote: “brother Fedya, in conversations with his older brother, repeated several times that if we did not have family mourning (mother Maria Fedorovna died), then he would ask his father’s permission to mourn for Pushkin.”

Dostoevsky's youth

Since 1832, the family annually spent the summer in the village of Darovoye (Tula province), purchased by their father. Meetings and conversations with men were forever etched in Dostoevsky’s memory and later served as creative material (the story “” from the “Diary of a Writer” for 1876).

In 1832, Dostoevsky and his older brother Mikhail began studying with teachers who came to the house, from 1833 they studied at the boarding house of N. I. Drashusov (Sushara), then at the boarding house of L. I. Chermak, where the astronomer D. M. Perevoshchikov and paleologist taught A. M. Kubarev. Russian language teacher N.I. Bilevich played a certain role in Dostoevsky’s spiritual development.

Memories of the boarding school served as material for many of the writer’s works. The atmosphere of educational institutions and isolation from the family caused a painful reaction in Dostoevsky (autobiographical traits of the hero of the novel "", experiencing deep moral upheavals in the "Tushar boarding house"). At the same time, the years of study were marked by an awakened passion for reading.

In 1837, the writer’s mother died, and soon his father took Dostoevsky and his brother Mikhail to St. Petersburg to continue their education. More writer did not meet his father, who died in 1839 (according to official information, he died of apoplexy; according to family legends, he was killed by serfs). Dostoevsky's attitude towards his father, a suspicious and morbidly suspicious man, was ambivalent.

Having had a hard time surviving the death of her mother, which coincided with the news of the death of A.S. Pushkin (which he perceived as a personal loss), Dostoevsky in May 1837 traveled with his brother Mikhail to St. Petersburg and entered the preparatory boarding school of K. F. Kostomarov. At the same time, he met I. N. Shidlovsky, whose religious and romantic mood captivated Dostoevsky.

First literary publications

Even on the way to St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky mentally “composed a novel from Venetian life,” and in 1838 Riesenkampf spoke “about his own literary experiences.”

From January 1838, Dostoevsky studied at the Main Engineering School, where he described a typical day as follows: “... from early morning until evening, we in classes barely have time to follow the lectures. ...We are sent to military training, we are given lessons in fencing, dancing, singing...we are put on guard, and this is how the whole time passes...”

The difficult impression of the “hard labor years” of the training was partially brightened by friendly relations with V. Grigorovich, doctor A. E. Riesenkampf, duty officer A. I. Savelyev, and artist K. A. Trutovsky. Subsequently, Dostoevsky always believed that the choice of educational institution was wrong. He suffered from the military atmosphere and drill, from disciplines alien to his interests and from loneliness.

As his schoolmate, the artist K. A. Trutovsky, testified, Dostoevsky kept himself aloof, but amazed his comrades with his erudition, and a literary circle formed around him. The first literary ideas took shape at the school.

In 1841, at an evening given by his brother Mikhail, Dostoevsky read excerpts from his dramatic works, which are known only by their names - “Mary Stuart” and “Boris Godunov” - giving rise to associations with the names of F. Schiller and A. S. Pushkin, apparently the deepest literary hobbies of the young Dostoevsky; was also read by N.V. Gogol, E. Hoffmann, W. Scott, George Sand, V. Hugo.

After graduating from college, having served less than a year in the St. Petersburg engineering team, in the summer of 1844 Dostoevsky retired with the rank of lieutenant, deciding to devote himself entirely to literary creativity.

Among literary preferences Dostoevsky of that time was O. de Balzac: by translating his story “Eugenia Grande” (1844, without indicating the name of the translator), the writer entered the literary field. At the same time, Dostoevsky worked on translating the novels of Eugene Sue and George Sand (they did not appear in print). The choice of works testified to the literary tastes of the aspiring writer: in those years he was not alien to romantic and sentimentalist styles, he liked dramatic collisions, large-scale characters, and action-packed storytelling. In the works of George Sand, as he recalled at the end of his life, he was “struck ... by the chaste, highest purity of types and ideals and the modest charm of the strict, restrained tone of the story.”

Dostoevsky informed his brother about his work on the drama “The Jew Yankel” in January 1844. The manuscripts of the dramas have not survived, but the literary hobbies of the aspiring writer emerge from their titles: Schiller, Pushkin, Gogol. After the death of his father, the relatives of the writer's mother took care of Dostoevsky's younger brothers and sisters, and Fyodor and Mikhail received a small inheritance.

After graduating from college (end of 1843), he was enlisted as a field engineer-second lieutenant in the St. Petersburg engineering team, but already in the early summer of 1844, having decided to devote himself entirely to literature, he resigned and was discharged with the rank of lieutenant.

In January 1844, Dostoevsky completed the translation of Balzac's story "Eugene Grande", which he was especially keen on at that time. The translation became Dostoevsky's first published literary work. In 1844 he began and in May 1845, after numerous alterations, he completed the novel ““.

The novel “Poor People”, whose connection with “ Stationmaster Dostoevsky himself emphasized Pushkin and Gogol’s “The Overcoat” and was an exceptional success. Based on the traditions of the physiological essay, Dostoevsky creates a realistic picture of the life of the “downtrodden” inhabitants of the “St. Petersburg corners”, a gallery social types from street beggar to “His Excellency.”

Dostoevsky spent the summer of 1845 (as well as the next) in Reval with his brother Mikhail. In the fall of 1845, upon returning to St. Petersburg, he often met with Belinsky. In October, the writer, together with Nekrasov and Grigorovich, compiled an anonymous program announcement for the almanac “Zuboskal” (03, 1845, No. 11), and in early December, at an evening with Belinsky, he read the chapters “” (03, 1846, No. 2), in which for the first time gives psychological analysis split consciousness, “dualism”. The story "" (1846) and the story "" (1847), in which many of the motives, ideas and characters of Dostoevsky's works of the 1860-1870s were outlined, were not understood by modern criticism.

Belinsky also radically changed his attitude towards Dostoevsky, condemning the “fantastic” element, “pretentiousness”, “manneredness” of these works. In other works of the young Dostoevsky - in the stories "", "", the cycle of acute socio-psychological feuilletons "The Petersburg Chronicle" and unfinished novel“” - the problems of the writer’s creativity are expanding, psychologism is intensifying with a characteristic emphasis on the analysis of the most complex, elusive internal phenomena.

At the end of 1846, there was a cooling in the relations between Dostoevsky and Belinsky. Later, he had a conflict with the editors of Sovremennik: Dostoevsky’s suspicious, proud character played a big role here. The ridicule of the writer by recent friends (especially Turgenev, Nekrasov), the harsh tone of Belinsky’s critical reviews of his works were acutely felt by the writer. Around this time, according to the testimony of Dr. S.D. Yanovsky, Dostoevsky showed the first symptoms of epilepsy.

The writer is burdened by exhausting work for “Notes of the Fatherland.” Poverty forced him to take on any job literary work(in particular, he edited articles for the Reference encyclopedic dictionary"A. V. Starchevsky).

Arrest and exile

In 1846, Dostoevsky became close to the Maykov family, regularly visited the literary and philosophical circle of the Beketov brothers, in which V. Maykov was the leader, and A.N. was the regular participants. Maikov and A.N. Pleshcheev are friends of Dostoevsky. From March-April 1847, Dostoevsky became a visitor to the “Fridays” of M.V. Butashevich-Petrashevsky. He also participates in the organization of a secret printing house for printing appeals to peasants and soldiers.

Dostoevsky's arrest occurred on April 23, 1849; his archive was taken away during his arrest and probably destroyed in the III department. Dostoevsky spent 8 months in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress under investigation, during which he showed courage, hiding many facts and trying, if possible, to mitigate the guilt of his comrades. He was recognized by the investigation as “one of the most important” among the Petrashevites, guilty of “intent to overthrow existing domestic laws and public order.”

The initial verdict of the military judicial commission read: “... the retired engineer-lieutenant Dostoevsky, for failure to report the dissemination of a criminal letter about religion and government by the writer Belinsky and the malicious writing of lieutenant Grigoriev, will be deprived of his ranks, all rights of state and subjected to the death penalty by shooting.”

On December 22, 1849, Dostoevsky, along with others, awaited the execution of the death sentence on the Semyonovsky parade ground. According to the resolution of Nicholas I, his execution was replaced by 4 years of hard labor with deprivation of “all rights of state” and subsequent surrender to the army.

On the night of December 24, Dostoevsky was sent from St. Petersburg in chains. On January 10, 1850 he arrived in Tobolsk, where in the caretaker’s apartment the writer met with the wives of the Decembrists - P.E. Annenkova, A.G. Muravyova and N.D. Fonvizina; they gave him the Gospel, which he kept all his life. From January 1850 to 1854, Dostoevsky, together with Durov, served hard labor as a “laborer” in the Omsk fortress.

In January 1854, he was enlisted as a private in the 7th Line Battalion (Semipalatinsk) and was able to resume correspondence with his brother Mikhail and A. Maikov. In November 1855, Dostoevsky was promoted to non-commissioned officer, and after much trouble from prosecutor Wrangel and other Siberian and St. Petersburg acquaintances (including E.I. Totleben) to warrant officer; in the spring of 1857 the writer was returned hereditary nobility and the right to publish, but police surveillance over it remained until 1875.

In 1857 Dostoevsky married the widowed M.D. Isaeva, who, according to him, was “a woman of the most sublime and enthusiastic soul... An idealist in the full sense of the word... she was both pure and naive, and she was just like a child.” The marriage was not happy: Isaeva agreed after much hesitation that tormented Dostoevsky.

In Siberia, the writer began work on his memoirs about hard labor (“Siberian” notebook containing folklore, ethnographic and diary entries, served as a source for "" and many other books by Dostoevsky). In 1857 his brother published the story " Little hero", written by Dostoevsky in the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Having created two “provincial” comic stories - “” and “”, Dostoevsky entered into negotiations with M.N. through his brother Mikhail. Katkov, Nekrasov, A.A. Kraevsky. However, modern criticism did not appreciate and passed over these first works of the “new” Dostoevsky in almost complete silence.

On March 18, 1859, Dostoevsky, upon request, was dismissed “due to illness” with the rank of second lieutenant and received permission to live in Tver (with a ban on entry into the St. Petersburg and Moscow provinces). On July 2, 1859, he left Semipalatinsk with his wife and stepson. From 1859 - in Tver, where he renewed his previous literary acquaintances and made new ones. Later, the chief of gendarmes notified the Tver governor about permission for Dostoevsky to live in St. Petersburg, where he arrived in December 1859.

The flowering of Dostoevsky's creativity

Dostoevsky’s intensive activity combined editorial work on “other people’s” manuscripts with the publication of his own articles, polemical notes, notes, and most importantly works of art.

“- a transitional work, a peculiar return at a new stage of development to the motives of creativity of the 1840s, enriched by the experience of what was experienced and felt in the 1850s; it has very strong autobiographical motives. At the same time, the novel contained the features of the plots, style and characters of the works of the late Dostoevsky. ““ was a huge success.

In Siberia, according to Dostoevsky, his “convictions” changed “gradually and after a very, very long time.” The essence of these changes, Dostoevsky in the very general form formulated as “a return to the folk root, to the recognition of the Russian soul, to the recognition of the folk spirit.” In the magazines "Time" and "Epoch" the Dostoevsky brothers acted as ideologists of "pochvennichestvo" - a specific modification of the ideas of Slavophilism.

“Pochvennichestvo” was rather an attempt to outline the contours of a “general idea”, to find a platform that would reconcile Westerners and Slavophiles, “civilization” and the people’s principles. Skeptical about the revolutionary ways of transforming Russia and Europe, Dostoevsky expressed these doubts in works of art, articles and announcements of Vremya, in sharp polemics with the publications of Sovremennik.

The essence of Dostoevsky's objections is the possibility, after the reform, of a rapprochement between the government and the intelligentsia and the people, their peaceful cooperation. Dostoevsky continues this polemic in the story “” (“Epoch”, 1864) - a philosophical and artistic prelude to the “ideological” novels of the writer.

Dostoevsky wrote: “I am proud that for the first time I brought out the real man of the Russian majority and for the first time exposed his ugly and tragic side. Tragedy lies in the consciousness of ugliness. I alone brought out the tragedy of the underground, which consists in suffering, in self-punishment, in the consciousness of the best and in the impossibility of achieving it and, most importantly, in the vivid conviction of these unfortunates that everyone is like that, and therefore, there is no need to improve!”

In June 1862, Dostoevsky traveled abroad for the first time; visited Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, England. In August 1863 the writer went abroad for the second time. In Paris he met with A.P. Suslova, whose dramatic relationship (1861-1866) was reflected in the novel ““, “” and other works.

In Baden-Baden, carried away by the gambling nature of his nature, playing roulette, he loses “all, completely to the ground”; This long-term hobby of Dostoevsky is one of the qualities of his passionate nature.

In October 1863 he returned to Russia. Until mid-November he lived with his sick wife in Vladimir, and at the end of 1863-April 1864 in Moscow, traveling to St. Petersburg on business. 1864 brought heavy losses to Dostoevsky. On April 15, his wife died of consumption. The personality of Maria Dmitrievna, as well as the circumstances of their “unhappy” love, were reflected in many of Dostoevsky’s works (in particular, in the images of Katerina Ivanovna - “ ” and Nastasya Filippovna - “ “).

On June 10, M.M. died. Dostoevsky. On September 26, Dostoevsky attends Grigoriev’s funeral. After the death of his brother, Dostoevsky took over the publication of the magazine “Epoch”, which was burdened with a large debt and lagged behind by 3 months; The magazine began to appear more regularly, but a sharp drop in subscriptions in 1865 forced the writer to stop publishing. He owed creditors about 15 thousand rubles, which he was able to pay only towards the end of his life. In an effort to provide working conditions, Dostoevsky entered into a contract with F.T. Stellovsky for the publication of collected works and undertook to write for him new novel by November 1, 1866.

In the spring of 1865, Dostoevsky was a frequent guest of the family of General V.V. Korvin-Krukovsky, eldest daughter whom A.V. Korvin-Krukovskaya he was very passionate about. In July he went to Wiesbaden, from where in the fall of 1865 he offered Katkov a story for the Russian Messenger, which later developed into a novel.

In the summer of 1866, Dostoevsky was in Moscow and at a dacha in the village of Lyublino, near the family of his sister Vera Mikhailovna, where he wrote the novel ““ at night. “A psychological report of a crime” became the plot outline of the novel, the main idea of ​​which Dostoevsky outlined as follows: “Unsolvable questions arise before the murderer, unsuspected and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's truth, earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up being forced to denounce himself. Forced to die in hard labor, but to join the people again...”

Petersburg and “current reality”, wealth, are accurately and multifacetedly depicted in the novel social characters, « the whole world class and professional types,” but this is reality transformed and discovered by the artist, whose gaze penetrates to the very essence of things. Intense philosophical debates, prophetic dreams, confessions and nightmares, grotesque caricature scenes that naturally turn into tragic, symbolic meetings of heroes, an apocalyptic image of a ghostly city are organically linked in Dostoevsky’s novel. The novel, according to the author himself, was “extremely successful” and raised his “reputation as a writer.”

In 1866, the expiring contract with the publisher forced Dostoevsky to simultaneously work on two novels - "" and "". Dostoevsky resorts to in an unusual way works: October 4, 1866 stenographer A.G. comes to him. Snitkina; he began to dictate to her the novel “The Gambler,” which reflected the writer’s impressions of his acquaintance with Western Europe.

At the center of the novel is the clash of a “multi-developed, but unfinished in everything, distrustful and not daring not to believe, rebelling against authority and fearing them” “foreign Russian” with “complete” European types. Main character- “a poet in his own way, but the fact is that he himself is ashamed of this poetry, for he deeply feels its baseness, although the need for risk ennobles him in his own eyes.”

In the winter of 1867, Snitkina became Dostoevsky's wife. The new marriage was more successful. From April 1867 to July 1871, Dostoevsky and his wife lived abroad (Berlin, Dresden, Baden-Baden, Geneva, Milan, Florence). There, on February 22, 1868, a daughter, Sophia, was born, whose sudden death (May of the same year) Dostoevsky took seriously. On September 14, 1869, daughter Lyubov was born; later in Russia July 16, 1871 - son Fedor; Aug 12 1875 - son Alexey, who died at the age of three from an epileptic fit.

In 1867-1868 Dostoevsky worked on the novel ““. “The idea of ​​the novel,” the author pointed out, “is my old and favorite one, but it is so difficult that I did not dare take on it for a long time. The main idea of ​​the novel is to portray a positively beautiful person. There is nothing more difficult in the world than this, and especially now...”

Dostoevsky began the novel "" by interrupting work on the widely conceived epics "Atheism" and "The Life of a Great Sinner" and hastily composing the "story" "". The immediate impetus for the creation of the novel was the “Nechaev case.”

Activity secret society“People’s reprisal”, the murder by five members of the organization of a student of the Petrovsky Agricultural Academy I.I. Ivanov - these are the events that formed the basis of “Demons” and received a philosophical and psychological interpretation in the novel. The writer’s attention was drawn to the circumstances of the murder, the ideological and organizational principles of the terrorists (“Catechism of a Revolutionary”), the figures of the accomplices in the crime, the personality of the head of the society S.G. Nechaeva.

In the process of working on the novel, the concept was modified many times. Initially, it is a direct response to events. The scope of the pamphlet subsequently expanded significantly, not only Nechaevites, but also figures of the 1860s, liberals of the 1840s, T.N. Granovsky, Petrashevites, Belinsky, V.S. Pecherin, A.I. Herzen, even the Decembrists and P.Ya. The Chaadaevs find themselves in the grotesque-tragic space of the novel.

Gradually, the novel develops into a critical depiction of the common “disease” experienced by Russia and Europe, a clear symptom of which is the “demonism” of Nechaev and the Nechaevites. At the center of the novel, its philosophical and ideological focus is not the sinister “swindler” Pyotr Verkhovensky (Nechaev), but the mysterious and demonic figure of Nikolai Stavrogin, who “allowed everything.”

In July 1871, Dostoevsky with his wife and daughter returned to St. Petersburg. The writer and his family spent the summer of 1872 in Staraya Russa; this city has become permanent place family's summer stay. In 1876 Dostoevsky purchased a house here.

In 1872, the writer visited the “Wednesdays” of Prince V.P. Meshchersky, a supporter of counter-reforms and publisher of the newspaper-magazine “Citizen”. At the request of the publisher, supported by A. Maikov and Tyutchev, Dostoevsky in December 1872 agreed to take over the editorship of “Citizen”, stipulating in advance that he would assume these responsibilities temporarily.

In “The Citizen” (1873), Dostoevsky carried out the long-conceived idea of ​​“A Writer’s Diary” (a cycle of essays of a political, literary and memoir nature, united by the idea of ​​direct, personal communication with the reader), published a number of articles and notes (including political reviews “Foreign Events ").

Soon Dostoevsky began to feel burdened by the editor. work, the clashes with Meshchersky also became increasingly harsh, and the impossibility of turning the weekly into “an organ of people with independent convictions” became more obvious. In the spring of 1874, the writer refused to be an editor, although he occasionally collaborated with The Citizen and later. Due to deteriorating health (increased emphysema), in June 1847 he left for treatment in Ems and repeated trips there in 1875, 1876 and 1879.

In the mid-1870s. Dostoevsky's relationship with Saltykov-Shchedrin, interrupted at the height of the controversy between "Epoch" and "Sovremennik", and with Nekrasov, was renewed, at whose suggestion (1874) the writer published his new novel "" - "a novel of education" in "Otechestvennye zapiski" kind of “Fathers and Sons” by Dostoevsky.

The hero’s personality and worldview are formed in an environment of “general decay” and the collapse of the foundations of society, in the fight against the temptations of the age. The confession of a teenager analyzes the complex, contradictory, chaotic process of personality formation in an “ugly” world that has lost its “moral center,” the slow maturation of a new “idea” under the powerful influence of the “great thought” of the wanderer Versilov and the philosophy of life of the “good-looking” wanderer Makar Dolgoruky.

In the end 1875 Dostoevsky again returns to journalistic work - the “mono-magazine” “” (1876 and 1877), which had big success and allowed the writer to enter into direct dialogue with reader-correspondents.

The author defined the nature of the publication in this way: “A Writer’s Diary will be similar to a feuilleton, but with the difference that a month’s feuilleton naturally cannot be similar to a week’s feuilleton. I am not a chronicler: on the contrary, this is a perfect diary in the full sense of the word, that is, a report on what interested me most personally.”

“Diary” 1876-1877 - a fusion of journalistic articles, essays, feuilletons, “anti-critique”, memoirs and works of art. The Diary refracted Dostoevsky’s immediate, hot on the heels, impressions and opinions about the most important phenomena of European and Russian socio-political and cultural life, which worried Dostoevsky about legal, social, ethical-pedagogical, aesthetic and political problems.

A large place in the “Diary” is occupied by the writer’s attempts to see in modern chaos the contours of a “new creation”, the foundations of an “emerging” life, to predict the appearance of the “coming future Russia honest people who want only one truth."
Criticism of bourgeois Europe and a deep analysis of the state of post-reform Russia are paradoxically combined in the “Diary” with polemics against various trends of social thought of the 1870s, from conservative utopias to populist and socialist ideas.

IN last years life, Dostoevsky's popularity increases. In 1877 he was elected a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In May 1879, the writer was invited to the International Literary Congress in London, at the session of which he was elected a member of the honorary committee of the international literary association.

Dostoevsky actively participates in the activities of the St. Petersburg Frebel Society. He often performs at literary and musical evenings and matinees, reading excerpts from his works and poems by Pushkin. In January 1877, Dostoevsky, impressed by Nekrasov’s “Last Songs,” visits the dying poet, often seeing him in November; On December 30, he makes a speech at Nekrasov’s funeral.

Dostoevsky's activities required direct acquaintance with “living life.” He visits (with the assistance of A.F. Koni) colonies for juvenile delinquents (1875) and the Orphanage (1876). In 1878, after the death of his beloved son Alyosha, he made a trip to Optina Pustyn, where he talked with Elder Ambrose. The writer is especially concerned about events in Russia.

In March 1878, Dostoevsky was at the trial of Vera Zasulich in the St. Petersburg District Court, and in April he responded to a letter from students asking to speak out about the beating of student demonstration participants by shopkeepers; In February 1880, he was present at the execution of I. O. Mlodetsky, who shot M. T. Loris-Melikov.

Intensive, diverse contacts with the surrounding reality, active journalistic and social activity served as multifaceted preparation for a new stage in the writer’s work. In "A Writer's Diary" the ideas and plot of his latest novel matured and were tested. At the end of 1877, Dostoevsky announced the termination of the Diary in connection with his intention to engage in “one artistic work that took shape... during these two years of publication of the Diary, inconspicuously and involuntarily.”

“” is the final work of the writer, in which many of the ideas of his work received artistic embodiment. The history of the Karamazovs, as the author wrote, is not just a family chronicle, but a typified and generalized “image of our modern reality, our modern intelligentsia Russia.”

The philosophy and psychology of “crime and punishment”, the dilemma of “socialism and Christianity”, the eternal struggle between “God” and “the devil” in the souls of people, the traditional theme of “fathers and sons” in classical Russian literature - these are the problems of the novel. In "" the criminal offense is connected with the great world "questions" and eternal artistic and philosophical themes.

In January 1881, Dostoevsky speaks at a meeting of the council of the Slavic Benevolent Society, works on the first issue of the renewed “Diary of a Writer,” and learns the role of a schema-monk in “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” by A. K. Tolstoy for home performance in the salon of S. A. Tolstoy, decides “to definitely participate in Pushkin evening" January 29. He was going to “publish the “Diary of a Writer”... for two years, and then dreamed of writing the second part ““, where almost all the previous heroes would appear...”. On the night of January 25-26, Dostoevsky’s throat began to bleed. On the afternoon of January 28, Dostoevsky said goodbye to the children at 8:38 a.m. evening he died.

Death and funeral of the writer

On January 31, 1881, the writer’s funeral took place in front of a huge crowd of people. He is buried in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra in St. Petersburg.

Books on the biography of Dostoevsky F.M.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor Mikhailovich // Russian biographical dictionary: in 25 volumes. - St. Petersburg-M., 1896-1918.

Pereverzev V. F., Riza-Zade F. Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich // Literary encyclopedia. - M.: Publishing House Kom. Acad., 1930. - T. 3.

Friedlander G. M. Dostoevsky // History of Russian literature. - USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Russian lit. (Pushkin. House). - M.; L.: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1956. - T. 9. - P. 7-118.

Grossman L.P. Dostoevsky. - M.: Young Guard, 1962. - 543 p. - (Life wonderful people; issue 357).

Friedlander G. M. F. M. Dostoevsky // History of Russian literature. - USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Russian lit. (Pushkin. House). - L.: Nauka., 1982. - T. 3. - P. 695-760.

Ornatskaya T. I., Tunimanov V. A. Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich // Russian writers. 1800-1917.

Biographical Dictionary.. - M.: Great Russian Encyclopedia, 1992. - T. 2. - P. 165-177. - 624 s. - ISBN 5-85270-064-9.

Chronicle of the life and work of F. M. Dostoevsky: 1821-1881 / Comp. Yakubovich I. D., Ornatskaya T. I.. - Institute of Russian Literature ( Pushkin House) RAS. - St. Petersburg: Academic Project, 1993. - T. 1 (1821-1864). - 540 s. - ISBN 5-7331-043-5.

Chronicle of the life and work of F. M. Dostoevsky: 1821–1881 / Comp. Yakubovich I. D., Ornatskaya T. I.. - Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) RAS. - St. Petersburg: Academic Project, 1994. - T. 2 (1865-1874). - 586 p. - ISBN 5-7331-006-0.

Chronicle of the life and work of F. M. Dostoevsky: 1821–1881 / Comp. Yakubovich I. D., Ornatskaya T. I.. - Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) RAS. - St. Petersburg: Academic Project, 1995. - T. 3 (1875-1881). - 614 p. - ISBN 5-7331-0002-8.

Troyat A. Fyodor Dostoevsky. - M.: Eksmo, 2005. - 480 p. - (“Russian biographies”). - ISBN 5-699-03260-6.

Saraskina L. I. Dostoevsky. - M.: Young Guard, 2011. - 825 p. - (Life of remarkable people; issue 1320). - ISBN 978-5-235-03458-7.

Inna Svechenovskaya. Dostoevsky. A duel with passion. Publisher: "Neva", 2006. - ISBN: 5-7654-4739-2.

Saraskina L.I. Dostoevsky. 2nd edition. Publishing house "Young Guard", 2013. Series: Life of remarkable people. — ISBN: 978-5-235-03458-7.