Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born on November 11, 1821, in the family home located on the grounds of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, in a lower class district of Moscow. His father, Mikhail Dostoevsky, was a military surgeon, and his mother, Maria Dostoevskaya, came from a merchant family. Dostoevsky was raised in a strict and religious household. His early life experiences, including the death of his parents, his observations of the hospital patients, and his time at a military engineering academy, would greatly influence his later writings.
When he was three years old, Fyodor’s nanny, Alena, ignited his interest in literature by reading to him heroic novels and fairy tales. By the time he was four, his mother was teaching him to read and write, and throughout his childhood both parents encouraged him to read a wide range of works including those of, Karamin, Pushkin, Goethe, Homer and many others. Reflecting on his childhood, Dostoevsky described his father as strict and demanding in his teaching, but the nightly readings by both parents had stimulated his imagination. By age 12, the somewhat frail Fyodor had become rebellious, and in 1833, Dostoevsky’s father borrowed money to send him to boarding school. However, Fyodor, having come from the poor section of Moscow had difficulty socializing with his classmates who had come from aristocratic families. The insights he acquired during this period would be reflected later in his novel, The Adolescent.
On September 27, 1837, when Fyodor was 15 years old, his mother died of tuberculosis. Fyodor had been sent to the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute, another environment that was ill-suited to his temperament. Fyodor showed no interest in the courses in mathematics, science and military engineering, preferring more artistic pursuits. Again, Fyodor found himself to be an outsider among his classmates. After the death of his father in June 1839, Fyodor completed his formal studies and received the rank of engineer cadet.
Dostoevsky’s literary career began in 1846 with the publication of his first novel, Poor Folk. In that novel he used his personal experiences at the boarding school to show how poor people suffer a lack of self-esteem that undermines their individuality and sense of self. The novel further demonstrates how this misery leads to the loss of their inner freedom and to dependence on the social authorities. Poor folk was a commercial success and brought Dostoevsky widespread recognition, enabling him to leave the military and devote himself to writing another novel.
Dostoevsky’s second novel, The Double, was published a month after the publication of Poor Folk. However, this work was met with scathing criticism and was a commercial failure, prompting Fyodor to support himself with a series of short stories between 1846 and 1848. During this period, he began reading the writings of the French authors, Fourier, Rousseau and Saint-Simon promoting socialism and the redistribution of wealth. Believing socialism might bring a greater level of “social equity,” Dostoevsky aligned himself with a secret revolutionary society.
During those two years, the European continent was undergoing a series of populist revolutions in France, Germany, the Netherlands and the Austrian Empire as people rioted for the abolition of serfdom. Absolute monarchies were under siege. Fearing that the members of the secret revolutionary society might trigger a similar revolution in Russia, Tsar Nicholas I, on April 23, 1849, had all members of that revolutionary society, including Fyodor Dostoevsky were arrested and sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress to await trial.
Four months later, the members of the society, including Dostoevsky, were brought to trial, charged with subversion against the government. They were convicted and sentenced to death by firing squad. On December 23, 1849 they were taken to Semyonov Place in Saint Petersburg and assembled for their imminent death. Then, before the command to “fire,” was given, a letter from the Tsar arrived declaring a stay of execution.
Dostoevsky’s sentence was commuted to four years of hard labor at katorga prison camp in Omsk, Siberia, followed by mandatory military service. He would later describe the condition of those barracks that were to serve as his home for the next four years:
In summer, intolerable closeness; in winter, unendurable cold. All the floors were rotten. Filth on the floors an inch thick; one could slip and fall … We were packed like herrings in a barrel … There was no room to turn around. From dusk to dawn it was impossible not to behave like pigs … Fleas, lice, and black beetles by the bushel …
Those four years spent in that prison camp, would profoundly influenced his worldview and the themes in his later novels. After his release in 1854, Dostoevsky returned to writing. In his novel The Idiot, published in 1869, he uses the character of Prince Myshkin to reflect his own experience, facing death in the final moments before the firing squad. His experiences in Siberia had a profound impact on his perspective on human suffering and redemption, evident in his later works. Crime and Punishment, published in 1866, is one of his most famous novels and explores the psychological torment of its protagonist, Raskolnikov, who commits a murder to prove his own superiority. Dostoevsky’s later works include “The Devils” (1872), “The Adolescent” (1875), and “The Brothers Karamazov” (1880). “The Brothers Karamazov” is often considered his magnum opus and explores complex themes of faith, morality, and the nature of God.
Fyodor Dostoevsky had been plagued throughout his life with epilepsy and in his later years developed pulmonary emphysema. On February 9, 1881, after several years of poor health, he succumbed to a pulmonary haemorrhage just a few months after completing “The Brothers Karamazov.” Dostoevsky is considered one of the greatest and most influential writers in world literature. His works explore the complex and often dark aspects of human psychology, morality, and existentialism.
Amplifying the wisdom of the ancient adage, “to think is to be sad,” Dostoevsky observed, “Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
