In memory of F. Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky reveals in his writings a harmonious and very complete worldview: all the most varied particulars of life and thought, passing in an endless string before his reader, are imbued with one moral idea. In sketching countless types from the most diverse areas of social life - from the schema-monk to the socialist, from infants and philosophers to the elderly, from praying praying women to harlots - Dostoevsky does not miss a single picture, not a single, one might say, line tied in one way or another to his idea. The richness of the author's moral content is so abundant, it is so quickly in a hurry to pour out that twelve thick volumes and a sixty-year working life are not enough for him to have time to express the desired words to the world. Tormented by the thirst for this sermon, he does not have time to improve his stories from the external artistic side and instead of the usual stretching and chewing of sometimes insignificant ideas into hundreds of pages of different pictures and types, our writer, on the contrary, hastily and concisely piles idea upon idea, mental law upon law; the reader's intense attention does not have time to catch up with his eyes, and he, constantly stopping his reading, turns his gaze again to the re-read lines - they are so meaningful and serious. The reason for this is not the incomprehensibility of the presentation, not the vagueness of thought, but precisely the overflowing completeness of the content, which has no parallel in all our literature. Reading Dostoevsky is, although sweet, tedious and hard work; fifty pages of his story provide the reader with the content of five hundred pages of stories by other writers, and in addition, often a sleepless night of painful self-reproach or enthusiastic hopes and aspirations.

WHAT DOSTOEVSKY WROTE ABOUT

... Dostoevsky the psychologist is the same at a distance of his entire literary activity. Let's say more. He wrote about the same thing all the time. What exactly? Many find it difficult to answer this question; critics admit that there is no area in science or life for which ideas cannot be drawn from his creations. Everyone, even the author’s bitter enemies, recognizes his amazingly correct mental analysis, but I have not seen a generalization of his creations and therefore I offer my own.

That idea uniting all his works, which many search in vain, was not patriotism, not Slavophilism, not even religion, understood as a collection of dogmas, this idea was from inner, spiritual, personal life; she was her premise, not a tendency, but simply the central theme of his story, she is living, close to everyone, his own reality. Revival is what Dostoevsky wrote about in all his stories: repentance and rebirth, the fall and correction, and if not, then fierce suicide; It is only around these moods that the entire life of all his heroes revolves, and only from this point of view is the author himself interested in various theological and social issues in his latest journalistic works. Yes, this is that sacred trembling in the human heart of the beginnings of a new life, a life of love and virtue, which is so dear, so delightful for everyone, that it encourages the reader himself, together with the heroes of the stories, to experience the feelings that almost really excite them; this gradually preparing, but sometimes instantly rising before the consciousness, determination to abandon the service of selfishness and passions, those painful sufferings of the soul with which it is preceded and accompanied; this cross of a prudent robber or, on the contrary, a robber-blasphemer - this is what Dostoevsky described, and the reader himself deduces from this, if he does not want to resist reason and conscience, that between two different crosses there must certainly be a third one, in which one robber trusts and is saved, and the other spews blasphemies and dies. “Poor People”, “Teenager”, the hero of “The House of the Dead”, the heroes of “Demons”, Raskolnikov and Sonya, the Marmeladovs, Nellie and Alyosha with their ugly father, the Karamazov family and their acquaintances women and girls, monks and numerous types of children - all this mass of people, good, evil and hesitant, but equally dear to the author’s heart, bursting with love, is posed by him to the question of life and resolves it in one form or another, and if they have already resolved, then they help resolve it for others. Some, for example, Netochka Nezvanova and her Katya, Polenka Marmeladova, Little Hero, “The Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree,” partly Nellie, and especially Kolya Krasotkin and Ilyusha and their comrades, allow it in childhood; others, like the “Teenager”, Natasha in “The Humiliated and Insulted”, Raskolnikov with Sonya, Dmitry Karamazov with Smerdyakov, the husband of the “Meek”, and the happy rival of the “Eternal Husband”, and all almost female types, come across him in their youth or when marriage; finally, the same question sometimes catches people in their old age, for example, Makar Devushkin, the “Funny Man,” Natasha’s parent and his enemy the prince, the Marmeladovs, Versilov in “The Teenager” and Verkhovensky the father in “Demons.” No one can evade this question in life, or at least before death.

The high dignity of the writer depicting the torments and joys of the spiritual rebirth of man lies precisely in the fact that, through his all-pervasive analysis, he identified both those most important spiritual properties and movements, under the conditions of which moral rebirth occurs, and those external, that is, received from outside, life impulses , by which a person is called to self-deepening. If we reduce to general concepts all the parts of Dostoevsky’s stories that examine this subject, or, more precisely, all the author’s stories, for they all examine this subject entirely, then we will get a completely clear and highest degree a convincing theory in which, although there are almost no words: “grace”, “Redeemer”, but where these concepts are constantly required by the very logic of things.

From this it is clear what kind of lively interest Dostoevsky’s works should arouse from the point of view of moral theology and especially pastoral theology. Why pastoral? Namely because Dostoevsky, not limiting himself, as has been said, to describing the inner life of those being reborn, with particular strength and artistic beauty describes the character of those people who contribute to the revival of their neighbors. The mood of his own creative spirit when describing life, there is exactly what a shepherd needs to have, that is, an all-encompassing love for people, a fiery, suffering zeal for their conversion to goodness and truth, a tearing sorrow for their stubbornness and malice, and with all this - a bright hope for a return to goodness and to the God of all fallen sons. This hope for the all-conquering power of Christian truth and Christian love, confirmed by the paintings written by the author, in which the most fierce lawlessness bows before the invincible weapon of Christ, is a truly holy, apostolic hope. It is especially important that this hope does not live in the mind of a child or a sentimental darling of life, but in a soul that has suffered a lot, which has seen a lot of sin and a lot of unbelief. We will talk about rebirth according to Dostoevsky from the point of view of pastoral theology, and not moral, that is, about the regenerating influence of one will on another, and we will touch upon the description of the subjective process of rebirth itself only to the extent that it turns out to be necessary for this first task. The first question is: what should a regenerator be like? The second is who can contribute to the revival and how much? Third - how does the assimilation of one or the other proceed?

REVIVAL MINISTRY

Through what properties of the spirit does a person become a participant in this highest service? The writer either gives the answer to this question on his own behalf, for example in “The Dream of a Funny Man,” or confesses on behalf of his heroes the general motives that call the chosen one to preach revival.

Knowledge of the truth and compassionate love are the main motivations for preaching. It was as if the writer saw God’s paradise and contemplated in it reborn people, pure and blessed, freed from all the contradictions of life completely, quickly and simply. From these heights of general spiritual bliss he looks at the sinful and sorrowful world and, in a swift outburst of love and words, strives to lift it to heaven: this love and faith are so strong that all human ridicule is powerless before them: “...They call me crazy. .. But now I’m not angry, now everyone is dear to me, and even when they laugh at me... I myself would laugh with them - not just at myself, but loving them, if I weren’t so sad, looking at them. It's sad because they don't know the truth, but I know the truth. Oh, how hard it is for one to know the truth! But they won’t understand it, no, they won’t understand it.” Knowing the truth is painful when you love people who do not know it, but this torment, this sinful darkness of the world even increased the love for people.

Dostoevsky returns to the last thought often and with particular force, contrasting the present sinful state of the world with the imagined innocent state. “... Unhappy, poor, but dear and forever loved and giving birth to the same painful love for herself in even her most ungrateful children, like ours!..” - I cried, shaking with uncontrollable, enthusiastic love for that native former land, which I left” (“The Dream of a Funny Man”). “On our land we can truly love only with torment and only through torment! We don’t know how to love otherwise and don’t know any other love. I want torment in order to love. I want, I yearn at this very moment to kiss, shedding tears, only that land that I left, and I don’t want, I don’t accept any other life!”

“The righteous appeared who came to these people with tears and told them about their pride, about the loss of moderation and harmony, about their loss of shame. They laughed at them or stoned them. Holy blood flowed on the thresholds of churches. But people began to appear who began to figure out how everyone could unite again in such a way that everyone would, without ceasing, love themselves more than anyone else, and at the same time not interfere with anyone else and thus all live together, as if in a harmonious society. Entire wars have been fought over this idea. All the combatants firmly believed at the same time that science, wisdom and a sense of self-preservation would finally force man to unite into a harmonious and reasonable society, and therefore, in order to speed things up, the “wise” tried to quickly exterminate all the “unwise” and those who did not understand their idea, so that they did not interfere with her triumph. But the sense of self-preservation quickly began to weaken, and proud and voluptuous people appeared and directly demanded everything or nothing. To acquire everything, they resorted to villainy, and if it failed, to suicide. Religions appeared with the cult of non-existence and self-destruction for the sake of eternal peace in nothingness. Finally, these people were tired of meaningless work and suffering appeared on their faces, and these people proclaimed that suffering is beauty, for in suffering there is only thought. They sang of suffering in their songs.” This love, the author’s tender love for the sinful earth, is expressed, among other things, in the fact that he always knows how to dress in a nice suit the most prosaic setting of the most prosaic city in Russia, about which another poet speaks:

The vault of heaven is green and pale,
Boredom, cold and granite.

When Dostoevsky describes St. Petersburg dirty courtyards, janitors, cooks, landladies, the premises of the intelligent proletariat and even fallen women, the reader not only does not develop a contemptuous disgust for all these people, but, on the contrary, some kind of especially compassionate love, some kind of hope for the opportunity to announce all these wretched dens of poverty and vice with hymns of praise to Christ and create a warm atmosphere in this very situation tender love and joy. Here is the explanation for the fact that, without closing his eyes to the gloomy reality, the writer so deeply loves life out of the bright hope of its revival, the life of man: not devoid of love for nature, he simply does not have time to talk about nature and prefers pictures of urban life to any other .

“It was a gloomy story, one of those gloomy and painful stories that so often and imperceptibly, almost mysteriously come true under the heavy St. Petersburg sky, in the dark hidden corners of a huge city, among the eccentric boiling of life, stupid selfishness, the clashing interests of street debauchery, hidden crimes , among all this utter hell of a meaningless and abnormal life.” Defining life so gloomily, he, however, then looks at all its evil as a misunderstanding and writes an article “On the fact that we are all good people" Are “good people” because they are so easy to convert to the truth? No, it is difficult to convert them, but the truth itself is so beautiful, love itself is so attractive that no matter how difficult the feat of its preacher may be, the one who has understood the mystery of life, who has loved children, will not wish for another feat, another content for life. The author presents this high mood of the preacher in this story as the fruit of mystical insight; in another case, it visits a young man dying of consumption; finally, this mood is fully revealed in the conversations of Elder Zosima. The chosen one of heaven is so imbued with his calling, so closely merges his life with the work of preaching and reviving people, that he considers all his shortcomings, all his sins to be his own, as proof of his insufficient zeal, lack of wisdom and holiness in him, and that is why he considers himself guilty for everyone and in everything, he is even ready to consider himself the original tempter and seducer of humanity, just as the hero of “The Dream of a Funny Man” is ready to accept torment for everyone, as Elder Zosima explains. Such is the lofty meaning of this oft-repeated thought of Dostoevsky regarding the general guilt for everyone and in everything, a thought, alas, so grossly misunderstood and vulgarized by some of his many unsuccessful interpreters. But let us generalize what has been said about the gift of spiritual rebirth: this gift is achieved by those who: 1) having learned by inner experience the sweetness of truth and communion with God, 2) loved life so much with sorrow and hope that 3) completely lost the thread of their personal life and died himself, 4) not through artificial preaching, but through confession, through the opening of his heart and throughout his entire life, he calls his brothers to repentance and love. Such is Dostoevsky’s elder Zosima, such is his disciple Alyosha, in his so rich life, as if he has no life of his own and does not know today what he will do tomorrow, but everywhere planting peace, repentance and love around him: brothers, children and women - everything is humbled in the presence of his love, like animals to the sounds of Orpheus’ harp, and his whole life merges into the wonderful unity of Christ’s cause. Such is Makar Ivanovich in “The Teenager” - an old wanderer and at the same time a moralist-philosopher, passionately loving people and caring for the common salvation; Such a person (the retired Bishop Tikhon) is also mentioned in the novel “Demons.”

MINISTERS OF REVIVAL AND LOVE

Who are these ministers? We have just seen that to depict them, not only a religious type is given, but also a directly ecclesiastical one; it is understandable not only from a dogmatic, but also from a purely psychological point of view: in order to know another life, living among the vale of sin and suffering, through the experience of one’s own heart, one must know it not only as a mystical distraction, but as something that really acts and exists apart from me, and therefore, continuous historical power, that is, one must know the Church, which teaches one to believe in one’s invincibility through the gates of hell, one must live in the Church. But what can we say about those people who are involved in one of these properties of the called preacher, but did not have time to develop to the full, harmonious development of the others?

The answer is that such people are partly destined to have influence on their neighbors, although far from being so complete and not so wide. It is not deprived even of those beings who, not possessing the positive properties of the chosen one, are free, at least, from the vices that are opposite to them, but inherent in every natural person, that is, first of all, pride and cold self-isolation or, as the author puts it, isolation. These are primarily children and even infants. Yes, Dostoevsky’s children always receive the meaning of involuntary missionaries. Dostoevsky reproduces this idea so often in various stories that he could be accused of repetition if he did not know how to put a new feature into each, so to speak, version of this idea, like a new pearl in a magnificent diadem. The foundling child forces the “teenager” to cast aside his proud idea for the sake of compassion for his defenselessness; the child softened the evil, callous heart of the Pharisee merchant in the story of Makar Ivanovich (“Teenager”). Child Nelly reconciles the insulted father with his fallen daughter, child Polenka softens the murderer Raskolnikov, etc. Finally, in the last minutes of the life of the godless suicides, when their spirit has finally rebelled against the Lord, Providence places before them in reality, or even in feverish delirium, the forms of innocent suffering little ones, who either temporarily tear them away from their evil plan, or completely return them to repentance and life. Such is the meeting of a beggar child in “The Dream of a Funny Man,” and the same meeting in the delirium of the suicide Svidrigailov (“Crime and Punishment”) or Shatov’s newborn child in “Demons.”

The purity and humility of children, and especially in their defenselessness and suffering, awaken temporary love even in villains. Non-believers, like Ivan Karamazov, see children's suffering as reasons for pessimistic bitterness, while believers, on the contrary, see reconciliation and forgiveness, like Ilyusha's father (in The Brothers Karamazov), who forgave his enemy Dimitri for the sake of the suffering of the dying baby, whom he loved most in the world. The author himself in the story “The Boy at Christ’s Christmas Tree” clearly reveals the following idea: if even innocent children suffer here, then, of course, there is another, better world. But what practical significance can the reference to children have for us? What do children mean for pastoral theology? They mean the same as Christ's words: “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Children have purity and lack of pride, this is the cause of general isolation; they have no difference between inner life and external manifestations. Not wanting to consciously influence their neighbors, they unconsciously achieve greater influence than adults who are alien to purity and openness. An isolated, dying person seeks among his neighbors a heart with which he could immediately become related, merge, which would not be alien to him: such is the heart of children - these ever-present cosmopolitans.

But don’t adults have the same qualities - immediate humility, purity, openness and heartfelt accessibility? All this is found among people from the people, and then they are even stronger missionaries: such a person immediately becomes close, dear to everyone and can freely pour the contents of his soul into him, without fear of learned proud rivalry - such is the “man of the Seas” Makar Ivanovich, Lukerya (in “The Meek”) and others. “First of all, what attracted me (Makar Ivanovich), as I already noted above, was his extreme sincerity and lack of the slightest self-esteem; there was a presentiment of an almost sinless heart. There was “joy” of the heart, and therefore “goodness”. He was very fond of the word “fun” and used it often. True, sometimes a kind of painful enthusiasm came over him, a kind of painful tenderness - partly, I believe, because the fever, truly speaking, did not leave him all the time; but this did not interfere with the appearance. There were also contrasts: next to an amazing innocence, sometimes completely oblivious to irony (often to my chagrin), there also coexisted in him some cunning subtlety, most often in polemical errors. And he loved polemics, but sometimes he only used it in an original way: it was clear that he traveled a lot around Russia, listened to a lot, but, I repeat, most of all he loved tenderness, and therefore everything that suggested it; and he himself liked to tell interesting things.”

By pointing out this ability of representatives of the people, we must protect our great writer from those accusations of preaching ignorance and superstition, which were very persistently and equally insincerely thrown at him by his literary enemies. His teachers, from the people or from the monks, are always lovers of science, and even worldly sciences, and do not humiliate the dignity of the latter: Makar Ivanovich even knows a telescope. Dostoevsky himself says this in “A Writer’s Diary” about education and the need to spread it among the people: “Education even now occupies the first level in our society. Everything is inferior to her; all class advantages, one might say, melt away in it... In the intensified, speedy development of education lies our entire future, all our independence, all our strength, the only conscious path forward, and, most importantly, the path of peace, the path of harmony, the path to real strength... Only through education can we fill up the deep ditch that now separates us from our native soil. Literacy and its increased dissemination are the first step of any education.” To the idealistic “teenager,” this is what he writes in the hand of his teacher: “The thought of going to university is extremely beneficial for you. Science and life will undoubtedly open up even wider horizons of your thoughts and aspirations in three or four years, and if after university you want to turn to your idea again, then nothing will stop you from doing so.” Obviously, it is not the ignorance of the people that Dostoevsky boasts of, but their freedom. the best people from deceitful self-isolation and painful pride, these worst enemies of our revival, alas, not noticed by the cultural public and cultural education. Valuing science and education, Dostoevsky orders us to learn from the people, but not in the sense of complete isolation of Russian life from Europe, but for, firstly, moral purposes, and secondly, general cultural and world goals. European culture, imbued with the motive of self-love, does not bring together, but separates, internally alienates people and nations. Only those who are humble in heart have the ability to truly spiritually unite with everyone. And since humility in Russia is not only a personal trait, but a national trait, that is, introduced into individuals by folk culture that grew out of Orthodoxy, from Orthodox asceticism, then the entire Russian people has the ability to spiritually communicate. The latter was expressed in the genius of Pushkin, who knew how to artistically transform into all nationalities, which neither Shakespeare nor Schiller could do. This is the content of Dostoevsky’s famous “Pushkin Speech” and, in general, his teaching about the pan-human mission of the Russian people. We will not talk about it, but we will mention it to confirm the idea that social and philosophical views Dostoevsky follows from moral and psychological observations and facts, and does not precede them. Let's return to considering personal life. Before moving on to a description of how humility and love can, according to Dostoevsky, convert sinners and plant the Kingdom of God, let us also complete an overview of the character of his missionaries: after the ministers of the Church, children and peasants, he calls women to this work. A woman who is loving, but also humble - great power.

Love, but devoid of humility, produces family torment and grief, so the stronger this love, not only for the husband, but also for the children, the more evil it causes - if there is no humility in it. From proud love, betrayal and binge drinking of husbands, suicide of grooms and suffering of children: the love of Katerina Ivanovna - the bride ("The Brothers Karamazov") and Katerina Ivanovna - mother and wife ("Crime and Punishment"), the love of Lisa - daughter and bride, the love of Grushenka, “Meek”, or Nelly (“Humiliated and Insulted”), Katya (“Netochka Nezvanova”), Shatov’s wife (“Demons”) and all proud natures in general are the source of evil and unnecessary suffering. On the contrary, the love of the humble and self-abased is the source of peace and repentance. Such are the mother of Raskolnikov and Sonya, whom even the prisoners began to adore, guessing in her a humble and contrite heart, such is the mother of Natasha (“Humiliated and Insulted”) and the mother of “Teenager”, the legless sister of Ilyusha (“The Brothers Karamazov”), “Netochka Nezvanova” , mother of Alyosha Karamazov and many others. They do not strive to forcefully insist on their own, but with love, tears, forgiveness and prayer they almost always achieve repentance and conversion of their beloved husbands, parents and children. At the difficult step of renouncing their former life, their favorites and darlings are inspired by the example of this constant self-denial, as if absorbing the strength to self-denial, and the love of a being filled with humility makes the very feat of the former proud man sweet.

Dostoevsky's fifth missionary is himself reborn in his suffering.

“He who suffers in the flesh ceases to sin,” said the apostle (1 Pet 4:1). Almost all cases of conversion and repentance of Dostoevsky's heroes occur during either heavy losses or illnesses. We will not explain the idea that “even if our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16), for it is too familiar to all who have read the Divine Scripture. The practical conclusion from this for pastors is that there is no need to look with horror and murmuring at the suffering around them, others’ and one’s own. This thought generally reconciles a person with life, calms him down at the sight of the persistence of triumphant malice, which, nevertheless, one day in his suffering will give access to repentance, and according to the words of the Apostle: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God increased; Therefore, he who plants and he who waters is nothing, but God who makes everything grow” (1 Cor 3:6-7).

To be continued...

Some call him a prophet, a gloomy philosopher, others - an 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 characters 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 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 to study 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 the engineering corps. 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 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 - Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich dies, he was 59 years old.

Biography in detail

The childhood of the writer Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky can be called prosperous: born in noble family in 1821, he received an excellent home education, 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 they were created the most complex works Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.

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 believed major mistakes education:

• ignoring the child’s inner world;
• 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.

Literary evenings were a 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 the best qualities in him. His father's upbringing helped him greatly in life; he received a good education. He achieved great success in his business, perhaps because he loved what he did.

Creative path in dates

Start creative path Dostoevsky was bright, he wrote in many genres.

Genres of the early period of creativity of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky:

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

In 1840-1841 - the creation of historical dramas “Mary Stuart”, “Boris Godunov”.

1844 - translation of Balzac's "Eugenie Grande" is published.

1845 - the story “Poor People” was completed, 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, a decisive, desperate step, a turning point. 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 a person, a victim, 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. The best psychologist Dostoevsky was called Nietzsche.
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. He worked more often 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:

1. We must love life more than the meaning of life.
2. Freedom is not about not being restrained, but about being in control.
3. 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.
4. Happiness is not in happiness, but only in its achievement.
5. No one will make the first move, because everyone thinks that it is not mutual.
6. The Russian people seem to enjoy their suffering.
7. Life goes breathless without an aim.
8. To stop reading books means to stop thinking.
9. There is no happiness in comfort; happiness is bought through suffering.
10. 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.

How Dostoevsky became a writer

In 1840–1841, on the eve of graduation, life seemed especially difficult to Dostoevsky. He wrote drafts of dramas and novels at night, and the officer on duty sent him to bed. Standing at attention during parades and exercises, he thought about Hamlet and Pushkin’s poems. He was sent as an orderly to Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, the emperor's brother, and, thinking about his own, he forgot to report on form. “They send such fools,” said the Grand Duke. In 1841, Dostoevsky was promoted to ensign and had to complete his education as a student of officer classes. This meant the right to live outside the school and enjoy relative freedom.

He and a friend rented a four-room apartment and spent days and nights reading and writing.

In 1843, ensign Dostoevsky received the rank of second lieutenant and was enlisted in the drafting room of the Engineering Department. His career, however, turned out to be very short. There is a story that the reason for his resignation in September 1844, a year after production, was an unpleasant incident with his drawing, which caught the eye of the emperor himself. Nicholas I allegedly wrote on the drawing:

“What an idiot drew this!”

The royal words, according to custom, were varnished to preserve them for future generations. Dostoevsky, offended that such an unflattering assessment would survive centuries, resigned.

And, penniless, he writes to his brother:

"why lose good years? I'll find a piece of bread. I'll work like hell. Now I'm free."

Dostoevsky was very disorderly and remained so until his death. He did not know how to manage either his time or his money. Chaos reigned in his apartment, and its owner moved from abundance to need within 24 hours. He was able to pay 100 rubles in interest for 300 borrowed from a moneylender for four months. He could spend the money he received from his guardian for the estate in one night, and then sit for weeks on tea, bread and sausage. It was in vain that his brother’s friend, Doctor Riesenkampf, decided to live in the same apartment with him: the prudent German failed to bring the dissolute spendthrift to reason. One day he received a thousand rubles from his guardian, and the next morning he came to the astonished Riesenkampf to ask for a loan of five rubles. On February 1, 1844, a new paycheck arrived, also a thousand rubles, but by evening Dostoevsky only had a hundred left: he managed to lose the rest at billiards and dominoes.

In winter, Dostoevsky often caught colds: the rooms were not heated, and there was not enough money for firewood.

He went to warm up in taverns and sat for hours with “lost personalities” - officials expelled from service, drunkards, gamblers and suspicious persons of both sexes. Dostoevsky had no addiction to alcohol and even tolerated it poorly; strong drinks avoided, drank wine or beer in taverns and at friendly feasts - and even then in small quantities. He was also rather indifferent to food, but he loved sweets very much. At this time he was distinguished by his thinness, sickness, and often suffered from colds, stomach pains and nervous cramps. He amazed his comrades with his oddities: he was superstitious, gave great importance signs and symbols, signs and prophecies, went to fortune-tellers and was afraid that he would fall into lethargy and be buried prematurely. This fear went so far that when he was ill, he would leave a note on the table, demanding that if he died, he would not be buried for five days. Once, when meeting a funeral procession, he fainted.

Dostoevsky worked hard and systematically on his novel “Poor People.” His entire bet was on this work:

“If my business fails,” he writes to his brother, “I may hang myself.”

In 1845, suffering from bitter need, sick and tired, unknown to anyone and alone, he reworks and corrects this first major creation of his again and again and does not know what to do with it: send it to a magazine or try to publish it himself. Worried and not daring to do anything, he loses weight and does not sleep all night long. In May 1845, his partner Grigorovich, the future author of Anton the Goremyka and a friend of many Russian and French writers of the 19th century, showed the manuscript of the novel to Nekrasov, who was preparing an almanac of prose and poetry for publication. After reading “Poor People,” Nekrasov was so delighted that he decided to immediately go to the young author that night. In vain Grigorovich suggested postponing the visit, saying that Dostoevsky was probably asleep at four o’clock in the morning. “What is it that’s sleeping,” Nekrasov got angry, “we’ll wake him up. This is beyond sleep." The impression made on Dostoevsky by this night visit, Nekrasov’s embrace, his excited praise, was unforgettable. At the dawn of a St. Petersburg spring day, fame came to him - the dream of his youth came true. “It was the most delightful moment of my entire life,” he admitted many years later.

Many of those who read the novel in manuscript cried with pity. The plot of the novel was love, but meek, dreamy and unhappy love. A petty official, the elderly and ugly Makar Devushkin, who fell in love with the young Varvara, who lived in a neighboring house, did not at all resemble romantic hero. Everything hindered him: timidity, baggyness, poverty, naivety, and he did not even hope to win the girl. He only pitied her, wanted to help her, ease her work and need - and all his joy was in renouncing himself. To sacrifice oneself, to spend beggarly savings on Varvara, to endure hardships for her sake, even to the point of giving up tobacco, to wear tattered clothes to send her delicacies and flowers, to sacrifice oneself humbly, secretly, without expecting a reward - this is what love was like little man who lived on the outskirts of life. This “downtrodden and even stupid official, whose buttons on his uniform were crumbling,” spoke “in the simplest syllable,” but from his unpretentious story it became clear that “the most downtrodden, the most last man, there is also a man called my brother.” Varvara, in the end, unravels his holy lie, and his need, and his sacrifice and decides to leave, ease his fate and save herself from poverty by marrying a “decent man” with money, although she does not love and is afraid her fiancé, and doubts his feelings for her.

Who is considered a writer? I didn't sleep well that night. I dreamed of a white milk pan with a long handle, and I tried to decide whether she could be considered a writer. And for some reason I decided for myself that it was probably impossible to consider her a writer, but it was possible to accept her into the Union. I dreamed