Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky's birthday. Biography and work of Dostoevsky

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

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's family

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was born in Moscow into the family of a nobleman Mikhail Andreevich, a staff doctor serving at the Mariinsky Hospital, and Maria Feodorovna. In the family, he was one of eight children and only the second son. His father was from the Polish gentry, whose estate was located in the Belarusian part of Polesye, and his mother came from an old Moscow merchant family, originating in the Kaluga province. It is worth saying that Fedor Mikhailovich had little interest in the rich history of his family. He spoke of his parents as poor, but hardworking 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 how to read Christian literature, which left a strong impression on him and largely determined his future life.

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

A writer's education

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

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

The beginning of literary activity

Fyodor did not feel any desire to be in the school and was burdened by being there, in his free hours he studied world and domestic literature. Under inspiration from her, at night he was engaged in his literary experiments, reading 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 wasappointed 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 working on his work "Poor People". In 1845, he was welcomed with pleasure in Belinsky's circle, and soon he became a well-known writer, the "new Gogol", but his next novel, The Double, was not appreciated, and soon Dostoevsky's relationship (birthday according to the new style - November 11) with spoiled around. He also quarreled with the editors of the Sovremennik magazine and began to publish mainly in Otechestvennye Zapiski. However, the acquired fame allowed him to get acquainted with a much wider circle of people, and soon he became a member of the philosophical and literary circle of the Beketov brothers, with one of whom he studied at an engineering school. Through one of the members of this society, he got to the Petrashevites and began to regularly attend their meetings from the winter of 1847.

Petrashevsky Circle

The main topics that members of the Petrashevsky Society discussed at their meetings were the liberation of the peasants, printing and changinglegal proceedings. Soon Dostoevsky became 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 denied the accusations in every possible way, and sentenced him to death by firing squad, depriving him of his entire fortune. However, a few days later the execution order was replaced by an eight-year penal servitude, which, in turn, was replaced by a four-year one, followed by a long service in the army, by 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 the near-executed went mad after such an ordeal. There is no doubt that this event had a strong influence on the views of the writer.

Years of hard labor

During the transfer to Tobolsk, there was a meeting with the wives of the Decembrists, who secretly handed over the Gospel to the future convicts (Dostoevsky kept his until the end of his life). He spent the next years in Omsk in 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 the infirmary in secret, since the prisoners were deprived of the right to correspond.

Shortly after the end of hard labor, Dostoevsky was appointed to serve in the Semipalatinsk regiment, where he met his future wife Maria Isaeva, whose marriage wasunhappy and failed. 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

On his return to St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky 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 Vremya magazine, which he published jointly with his brother Mikhail. After some time, the magazine was closed, and the brothers began to print another publication - Epoch, which also closed a few years later. At that time, he took an active part in the public life of the country, having undergone 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 contemporaries far from always understood, sometimes they seemed to them too harsh and innovative, and sometimes too conservative.

Travel Europe

In 1862, Dostoevsky, whose birthday is November 11, traveled abroad for the first time to receive treatment at resorts, but he ended up traveling most of Europe, becoming addicted to playing roulette in Baden-Baden and squandering almost everything your money. In principle, 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 younguninhibited young lady. He described many of his adventures in Europe in the novel The Gambler. In addition, the writer was shocked by the negative consequences of the French Revolution, and he became firmly convinced that the only possible development path for Russia is a unique and original one, not repeating the European one.

Second wife

In 1867 the writer married his stenographer Anna Snitkina. They had four children, of which only two survived, and as a result, only the only surviving son Fedor became the successor of the family. The next few years they lived together abroad, where Dostoevsky, whose birthday is celebrated on November 11, began work on some of the last novels included in the famous "Great Pentateuch" - this is "Crime and Punishment", the most famous philosophical novel, "The Idiot", where the author reveals the theme of a person who tries to make others happy, but ends up suffering, "Demons", which tells about revolutionary currents, and "Teenager".

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

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

In June 1880 Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich, 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.

The death of Dostoevsky

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

Although Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, whose biography and interesting facts about his life we have analyzed in this article, gained fame during his lifetime, real, grandiose fame came to him only after his death.