Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881) was a Russian novelist whose psychological depth made him - probably - the most influential writer of XNUMXth century fiction. He was also a renowned short story writer, editor, and journalist, able to alternate the darkest shadows of the human heart with unmatched moments of illumination.

His ideas deeply marked the movements of modernism, existentialism, theology and literary criticism, as well as numerous schools of psychology. Likewise, his work is considered prophetic due to the precision with which he predicted the rise of the Russian revolutionaries to power.

The rise of one of the great writers of all time

The most important events in Dostoyevsky's life - commuted execution, exile in Siberia and epilepsy episodes - are as well known as his works.. In fact, he took advantage of many of the dramatic events in his life to add exceptional complexity to his characters.

Context of your work

According to Gary Saul Molson (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020) many events around the Russian writer still remain unclear. In contrast, some inconsequential speculations are accepted as reliable facts of its existence. On the other hand, Dostoyevsky differed from other Russian authors (such as Tolstoy or Turgenev) in the context of his work in two fundamental respects.

First, he always worked under pressure from the numerous debts incurred due to his gambling and family problems.. Second, Dostoyevsky broke away from the typical description of beautiful and stable families; instead, he portrayed tragic groups surrounded by accidents. Likewise, Dostoyevsky analyzed issues - controversial at the time - such as social inequality and the role of women within Russian society.

Family, birth and childhood

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow, Russia, on November 11, 1821 (October 30 on the Julian calendar). He was the second of seven children between Mikhail Dostoyevsky (a nobleman from Darayóve), of Belarusian descent, and Maria Fiódorovna, a cultured woman from a Russian merchant family. The authoritarian character of the father — a doctor at the Moscow hospital for the poor — clashed drastically with the sweetness and warmth of an indulgent mother.

Adolescence

Until 1833, young Fyodor was homeschooled. In 1834, he and his brother Mikhail entered the Chermak boarding school for secondary school. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1837. Two years later, his father was murdered by his own servants (Dostoyevsky later declared) in retaliation for his tyrannical behavior. An event with many traits of myth in the light of some historians.

Training in the castle of the Military Academy

At that time, the Dostoyevsky brothers were already students at the Saint Petersburg Military Academy for Engineers., following the path traced by his father. Evidently, Fyodor felt very uncomfortable during his higher training. With the complicity of his brother - who was his closest friend - he began to venture into literary romanticism and Gothic fiction.

Despite his marked literary inclination, Dostoyevsky had no problems with numerical subjects during his training. Neither was there any setbacks to get a job once he graduated; obtained a position in the Department of Military Engineering. However, as noted by his daughter Aimée Dostoyevsky (1922), without the pressure of the abusive father, a twenty-something Fyodor was free to exercise his vocation.

Influences

The influence of the German poet Friedrich Schiller is noticeable in his early works (not preserved), Maria stuart y Boris Gudunov. Also, in those first steps, Dostoyevsky had a predilection for authors such as Sir Walter Scott, Ann Radcliffe, Nikolay Karamzim, and Aleksandr Pushkin. Of course, Honoré Balzac's visit to Saint Petersburg in 1844 was a momentous event, in his honor he translated Eugenie Grandet.

First literary publications

Phrase by Fyodor Dostoyevski.

Phrase by Fyodor Dostoyevski.

That same year he left the army to dedicate himself exclusively to writing. At the age of 24, Dostoyevsky stomped on the Russian literary sphere with his epistolary novel Poor people (1845) In this publication, the Moscow writer made his social sensibility and authentic style clear. He even won the praise of the renowned literary critic Belinsky, who introduced him to the intellectual and aristocratic elite of St. Petersburg.

Dostoyevsky's irruption generated animosity from other young Russian writers (such as Turgenev, for example). For this reason, his successor works -The double (1846) White Nights (1848) and Nietochka Nezvanova (1849) - received quite a few negative reviews. This situation disturbed him significantly; part of his reaction to the depression was to join groups of utopian and libertarian ideologies, the so-called nihilists.

Tragedy as fuel

Epilepsy episodes

Dostoyevsky suffered his first epileptic seizure at the age of nine. They would be sporadic episodes throughout his life. However, most biographers coincide in pointing out the death of the father as an aggravating event in his clinical picture. The Russian writer extrapolated the harshness of these experiences to elaborate his characters of Prince Myshkin (The idiot, 1869) and Smerdiákov (The Karamazov brothers.

Siberia

In 1849, Fyodor Dostoyevsky he was arrested by the Russian authorities. He was accused of being part of the Petrachevsky conspiracy, a political movement against Tsar Nicholas I. All those involved were sentenced to death, with commuted sentences - literally - in front of the wall. In return, Dostoyevsky was exiled to Siberia to perform forced labor for five long, septic and cruel years.

According to Aimée Dostoyevsky, her father "declared for some reason that the convicts had been his teachers." Gradually Dostoyevsky made use of his talents in the service of Russian greatness. What's more, he considered himself a disciple of Christ and a staunch detractor of nihilism. Hence, Dostoyevsky would no longer seek the approval of the rest of Europe (though not despising it), rather he enhanced the country's Slavic-Mongol heritage.

First marriage

Dostoyevsky served the second part of his sentence in Kazakhstan as a private. There, he began a relationship with Mariya Dmítrievna Isáyeva; in 1857 they were married. Shortly after, the amnesty granted by Tsar Alexander II restored his title of nobility, consequently, he was able to republish his works. The first to appear were The river dream y Stenpánchikovo and its inhabitants (both from 1859).

The Karamazov brothers.

The Karamazov brothers.

The relationship between Dostoyevsky and his first wife was stormy to say the least. She hated Tver, the city where they stayed for most of their third and fourth year of marriage. While he got used to the aristocratic elite of the region, she - in retaliation - began an affair with a young man of letters. In the end, Mariya confessed everything to her husband (including her materialistic motivations), humiliating him in the middle of a party.

Gambling and debt

In 1861, Fyodor Dostoyevsky founded the magazine vremya (Time) with his older brother Mikhail, just after they allowed him to return to Saint Petersburg. There he published The humiliated and the offended (1861) and Memories of the house of the dead (1862), with arguments based on his experiences in Siberia. The following year he made an expedition through Europe through Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Italy and Austria.

During his trip, Dostoyevsky was seduced by a new game of chance that emerged in the casinos of Paris: roulette. Consequently, he returned to Moscow in the autumn of 1863 completely bankrupt. To add insult to injury vremya it was banned due to an article on the Polish revolt. Although, the following year he published Memories of the subsoil in the magazine epoja (Time), a new magazine where he worked as an editor with Mikhail.

Successive misfortunes

But misfortune once again took its toll on him, as he was widowed at the end of 1864 and shortly after his older brother, Mikhail, died. For this reason, he fell into a deep depression and even more in the game, accumulating more debts (apart from 25.000 rubles, assumed because of the death of Mikhail). So Dostoyevsky decided to flee abroad, where the roulette wheel caught him once more.

Literary creation under pressure

Dostoyevsky's gambling (and naivety) caused creditors to pursue him to the end of his days. He returned to Saint Petersburg in 1865 to publish one of his most recognized works, Crime and Punishment. In an attempt to settle his accounts, he signed a contract with the publisher Stellovski in 1866. The stipulated three thousand rubles went directly into the hands of his creditors.

Second matrimony

The publishing contract jeopardized the rights to his own works if he delayed the delivery of a novel that same year. On February 12, 1867, he married Anna Grigórievna Snítkina, 25 years younger. She was the enthusiastic stenographer hired to dictate The player (1866) in just 26 days. On the occasion of their honeymoon (as well as to evade creditors), the newlyweds settled in Geneva, Switzerland.

As a result of that union, Sonia was born in February 1868; sadly, the baby died at three months. Dostoyevsky fell prey to the game again and decided to go with his wife on a brief tour of Italy. In 1869 they moved to Dresden, the hometown of their second daughter, Liuvob. That year also saw the launch of The idiotHowever, much of the money raised by the hit novel went to pay off debts.

Last years

During the 1870s, Dostoyevsky published an enormous number of works that confirmed him as one of the great writers of history. Not just from Russia, but from around the world. Some of the storylines and characters developed were inspired by autobiographical events and political events that shook Russia.

Except The eternal husband (1870), the other books were written and published after Dostoyevsky's return to Saint Petersburg in 1871. There, his third son, Fyodor, was born. Although the following years were of relative economic tranquility, Fyodor M.'s epilepsy problems worsened. The death of his fourth son, Aleksei (1875 - 1878) further affected the nervous picture of the Russian writer.

The idiot.

The idiot.

Latest publications of Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  • The demonized. Novel (1872).
  • The citizen. Weekly (1873 - 1874).
  • Diary of a writer. Magazine (1873 - 1877).
  • The teenager. Novel (1874).
  • The Karámazov brothers. Novel —he could only complete the first part— (1880).

Legacy

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky died at his home in Saint Petersburg on February 9, 1881, due to pulmonary emphysema associated with epilepsy. His funeral was attended by celebrities and politicians from all over Europe, as well as the most prominent Russian literary personalities of the time. Even - later explained his widow, Anna Grigorievna Dostoyevsky - the ceremony brought together a good number of young nihilists.

In this way, even his ideological adversaries paid tribute to the Russian genius. Not in vain, Dostoyevsky managed to influence a large number of philosophers, scientists or authors of the transcendence of Friedrich Nietzsche, Sigmund Freud, Franz Kafka and Stefan Zweig, among others. His work is universal, with a legacy comparable to that of Cervantes, Dante, Shakespeare or Víctor Hugo.


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