Catherine the Great will very likely be the most fascinating, brilliant, fun, sexy person that we will meet during our entire year of Russian history. She is a bit like Frederick the Great (her contemporary) in the Prussian story. The stories of her boyfriends is a whole course in itself. Listen to just a few words from Paul Bushkovitch about her reading and her general knowledge. She worked constantly to improve her mind.

"Catherine’s reading not only gave her a series of ideas about justice and administration but also about economic development and social status. The Enlightenment writers believed that society required a civilized population to flourish, and that came from education and culture. The new empress came to the throne at a propitious time, for the efforts of the Cadet Corps, the Academy, and Moscow University were beginning to show results. The generation that came to maturity with Catherine was the first to have absorbed European culture in full, and the first to include many men and even women who had also been abroad long enough to begin to understand European society. Catherine was determined to speed this process along. Though by birth and culture she was German, for most of her reign she was at the center of Russian culture, unlike any monarch after her and more so than even Peter himself. She was not merely a reader, but an active participant in Europe’s cultural life. She corresponded with Voltaire from 1763 until his death in 1778. She also had correspondents among the French Encyclopedists, Denis Diderot, and Jean d’Alembert, as well as the German Baron Friedrich Melchior Grimm. Grimm was a sort of literary journalist reporting from Paris, and after a visit to St. Petersburg in 1773–74 he was Catherine’s chief correspondent and epistolary confidant until her death. Catherine did not merely correspond with the great men of the Enlightenment. When she heard of Diderot’s financial problems she bought his library, granted him the use of it for life and paid him a salary as her librarian." Bushkovitch, Paul. A Concise History of Russia (Cambridge Concise Histories) (p. 125). Cambridge University Press.

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED READING

Paul I (1754-1801) (Tsar 1796-1801) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination. Officially, he was the only son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, although Catherine hinted that he was fathered by her lover Sergei Saltykov. Paul remained overshadowed by his mother for most of his life. He adopted the laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He also intervened in the French Revolutionary Wars and, toward the end of his reign, added Kartli and Kakheti in Eastern Georgia into the empire, which was confirmed by his son and successor Alexander I. Paul had a short sad life. His mother Catherine the Great did not want to yield any real power to her son, therefore she maneuvered constantly to denegrate his abilities. Paul was not a strong decisive person, and therefore he was way overmatched by his dynamic powerful mother. Only when she was gone in 1796 after a sudden stroke, did Paul step forward and rule as true Tsar of Russia. Sadly for him and his family, he only had five years on the throne before an assassin struck him down.

REQUIRED READING

Alexander I (born:1777; died:1825, Emperor 1801-1825) was the Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. Born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Paul I, Alexander succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered. He ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleonic Wars. As prince and during the early years of his reign, Alexander often used liberal rhetoric, but continued Russia's absolutist policies in practice. In the first years of his reign, he initiated some minor social reforms and (in 1803–04) major liberal educational reforms, such as building more universities. Alexander appointed Mikhail Speransky, the son of a village priest, as one of his closest advisors. The Collegia was abolished and replaced by the State Council, which was created to improve legislation. Plans were also made to set up a parliament and sign a constitution.

REQUIRED READING

 

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Set against the sweeping panoply of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, War and Peace—presented here in the first new English translation in forty years—is often considered the greatest novel ever written. At its center are Pierre Bezukhov, searching for meaning in his life; cynical Prince Andrei, ennobled by wartime suffering; and Natasha Rostov, whose impulsiveness threatens to destroy her happiness. As Tolstoy follows the changing fortunes of his characters, he crafts a view of humanity that is both epic and intimate and that continues to define fiction at its most resplendent.

This edition includes an introduction, note on the translation, cast of characters, maps, notes on the major battles depicted, and chapter summaries.

Praise for Antony Brigg's translation of War and Peace:

"The best translation so far of Tolstoy's masterpiece into English."
-Robert A. Maguire, professor emeritus of Russian studies, Columbia University

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED READING

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicholas I (born: 1796, died: 1855, Tsar 1825-1855) reigned as Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 1825 until 1855. He was the third son of Paul Iand younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brother's throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him. He is mainly remembered in history as a reactionary whose controversial reign was marked by geographical expansion, economic growth and massive industrialisation on the one hand, and centralisation of administrative policies and repression of dissent on the other. Nicholas had a happy marriage that produced a large family; all of their seven children survived childhood. Nicholas' biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky said that he displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a soldier—a junior officer totally consumed by spit and polish. A handsome man, he was highly nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail. In his public persona, stated Riasanovsky, "Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified: infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate."

REQUIRED READING

The Crimean War was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Sardinia-Piedmont. Geopolitical causes of the war included the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the expansion of the Russian Empire in the preceding Russo-Turkish Wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe. The flashpoint was a disagreement over the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, with the French promoting the rights of Roman Catholics, and Russia promoting those of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

RECOMMENDED READING

Alexander II (born: April 29, 1818; died March 13. 1881, Tsar 1855-1881) was the Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination. Alexander's most significant reform as emperor was emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator. The tsar was responsible for other reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more reactionary stance until his death. The photo at left is taken when Tsar Alexander was in his 60s.

 

In addition to Alexander II we will spend some time on the very great novel by Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons. The novel is a perfect summary of the transition taking place in Russian society at the middle of the 19th century, both in the imperial family and within Russian society. Turgenev tells the story of two young men in their twenties, university men, who come home to visit their parents, their old-fashioned parents, and during the visit, Turgenev shows us Russia in the midst of this huge mid-century change. The book is set at the very moment of the Liberation of the Serfs by Tsar Alexander II.

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED READING

LIFE OF FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY 1821-1881

On October 30, 1821 Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow to Mikhail Andreyevich, a surgeon, and Maria Fyodorovna. Dostoevsky's father was a doctor on the staff of Moscow's Hospital of St. Mary. Mikhail was a very cold, demanding and stern man. Dostoevsky's mother was a gentle saint who was totally subservient to her difficult husband, but gave the children her total devotion and left to them an image of Christian generosity.
1821-1837
Family life for the huge Dostoevsky family was very difficult. All nine members of the surgeon's family lived in 3 cramped rooms within the hospital complex. But even in this limited physical environment the doctor maintained an upper class set of values with very demanding educational goals set for the children. Doctor Dostoevsky taught the children many of their lessons himself. The family lived an intensely intimate life together with outsiders excluded. Thus Fyodor was extremely attached to his brother Mikhail but very uncomfortable with strangers. The family had no outside life. They lived together, ate together, studied together. It seems that this was the way the doctor wanted it. He was extremely tyrannical and wanted to dominate every single minute of his little private unit. The children had no outside friends. They never went out. They never did anything apart from the family. On the other hand, with such a huge family there was a lot of fun and good times and Dostoevsky remembered his family life as an almost idyllic happy time. Other family members contradicted this image pointing to the tyrannical rule of Doctor Dostoevsky.
1837
In Fyodor's sixteenth year his beloved mother died. At age sixteen Fyodor had to adjust to a total transformation of his life. With his mother gone, his father quit his practice at the hospital, gave up his quarters, moved to the country and sent the children off to various locations. Thus for the children it was a traumatic moment: they lost their mother and then their home and then their whole family structure all at once. The two older sons, Mikhail and Fyodor, were sent to Military school of engineering in St. Petersburg.
1838
Fyodor was miserable, poor, alone, but studied and did well. He read incessantly and discovered his life's purpose: "My soul is now inaccessible to the raging squalls that used to shake it. In it, all is peace as in the heart of a man who harbors a deep secret. To study the meaning of man and of life – I am making sufficient progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery. One must solve it. If you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery because I want to be a man." This from an 18 year old boy.(1839)
1839
With his wife dead, Doctor Dostoevsky now placed the younger children with an aunt and retired to a small country house he owned. As an overlord of the property he was absolutely impossible. He was cruel with his serfs and in retaliation they murdered him. Fyodor was extremely shocked and affected for his whole life by this event. He could not speak of it and never mentioned it to anyone ever again. But the event reverberated in his life and work and certainly inspired the character of Fyodor Karamazov. At his father's death, Fyodor inherited a small amount of money. He quit the military academy.
1840 The Gambler
He started to live a wild and profligate life: gambling became his passion, especially billiards for money.
1846 The Author
Dostoevsky had written Poor Folk now friends intervened and got it into the hands of a publisher. Like Byron, Dostoevsky a had huge youthful success: He is published to great acclaim at age 25.
1849 (April) Arrest
Dostoevsky was arrested as a member of radical socialist Petrashevsky circle.
December: mock execution.
Messenger arrives with commutation of sentence from the Czar.
Dostoevsky is sent off to four years penal servitude in Siberia.
1849-1853 Imprisonment
Horrible imprisonment (described in Notes from the House of the Dead).
"And I consider those four years as a time in which I was buried alive and closed in a coffin. How horrible that time was I have not the strength to tell you, dear friend. It was unspeakable, interminable suffering because every hour, every minute weighed upon my soul like a stone." (Mochulsky, p. 147) Has only the New Testament to read. He reads it incessantly. Undergoes conversion. Gives up his radical socialist ideas. Becomes convinced Christian (Russian Mother Church).
The Church
"Before all things, humble yourself, consider what your past life has been, consider what you may be able to effect in the future, consider how great a mass of meanness and pettiness and turpitude lies lurking at the bottom of your soul."
1853-1857
Dostoevsky is now sent to Siberia to complete his sentence serving as a private in the Russian army. "I do not complain. This is my cross and I have deserved it."
1857 Maria
Dostoevsky meets the already married Maria, begins affair.
Her husband dies and Dostoevsky proposes marriage.
Marries Maria Demetrievna.
1859 Married
Friends get his sentence reduced and allow him to return to St. Petersburg.
Settles down with wife and stepson. Starts journal Time with brother Michael. Publishes own works in journal.
1863 The Magazine
His magazineTime was suppressed by authorities
1864 Death of Maria
On April 15, 1864, his wife Maria Dmitrievna died after an excruciatingly painful illness suffering with tuberculosis. Dostoevsky recorded the moment: "Just now, at 7 o'clock in the evening, Maria Dmitrievna passed away, and wished you all a long and happy life (her words). Remember her with a kind word. She suffered so much during this time, that I don't know who could refuse to be reconciled with her."(Mochulsky, p. 260).
1866 Anna
Dostoevsky pressed with debts and with a publishing contract requiring a book by a certain date, hired a twenty-year old young woman named Anna Grigorievna to be his stenographer, In one month he dictated the whole of the novel The Gambler. Anna remained his faithful partner in family and work for the rest of his life and brought order into his writing and his publishing.
1867 Second Marriage
On Feb. 15, Dostoevsky marries Anna Grigorievna.
He is twenty-five years older than Anna.1860-1881Dostoevsky writes his greatest works.
1864Notes from the Underground
1866Crime and Punishment
1868The 1872 Idiot
1872The Devils(or The Possessed)
1875A Raw Youth
1878
Dostoevsky begins work on The Brothers Karamazov.
Death of Alyosha
Work on the novel is interrupted by tragedy in the Dostoevsky family. Little three-year-old Alyosha, his father's favorite son, dies suddenly of an epileptic seizure. Anna tells us about the event: "Fyodor went to bring the doctor, returned terribly pale, and knelt down by the sofa to which we had moved the tot so it would be more convenient for the doctor to examine him. I also knelt down next to my husband; I wanted to ask him what precisely the doctor had said (As I found out later, he had told Fyodor that the final agony had already begun); he motioned me with a sign not to speak. . . And what was my despair when suddenly the baby's breathing stopped and death came. Fyodor kissed the child, blessed him three times, and began to sob. I also wept." (Mochulsky, p. 571-72.) Thus the character of Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov is born in the instant of the death of Dostoevsky's own most beloved son. He thus endows his Alyosha in the book with all the love he had for his own son.
1880Brothers Karamazov
1881 Death of Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky dies. At his death he had achieved extraordinary fame and success. His funeral was an occasion for one of the most remarkable demonstrations of public feeling ever witnessed in the Russian capital.
Quotations in the above are taken from Konstantin Mochulsky, Dostoevsky, His Life and Work (Princeton University Press, 1967).

Dostoevsky Books

A Little Hero (1849)
Uncle’s Dream (1859)
The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants (1859)
The House of the Dead (1860-1862)
The Insulted and the Injured [The Humiliated and Wronged] (1861)
An Unpleasant Predicament (1861)
A Silly Story (1861) A Nasty Tale (1862)
Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1863)
Notes From Underground (1864)
An Unusual Happening (1865)
Crime and Punishment (1866)
The Gambler (1866)
The Idiot (1868)
The Eternal Husband (1870)
The Devils [The Demons] (1871-72)
The Diary of a Writer (1873)
A Raw Youth (1875)
A Gentle Creature (1876)
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877)
The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80)

REQUIRED READING

Crime and Punishment

From Wikipedia:

Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is the first great novel of his "mature period" of writing.

Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless vermin. He also plans this murder to test his own hypothesis that some people are naturally capable of such things, and even have the right to do them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by connecting himself mentally with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose.

RECOMMENDED READING

Institute Library Call Number: 891.73 Fra DOST

REQUIRED READING

Crime and Punishment

From Wikipedia:

Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is the first great novel of his "mature period" of writing.

Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless vermin. He also plans this murder to test his own hypothesis that some people are naturally capable of such things, and even have the right to do them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by connecting himself mentally with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose.

 

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED READING

Steven Marks,

How Russia Shaped the Modern World: From Art to Anti-Semitism, Ballet to Bolshevism,

Princeton University Press,

ISBN 0691118450

 

SPRING VACATION NEXT 2 WEEKS

Catherine the Great will very likely be the most fascinating, brilliant, fun, sexy person that we will meet during our entire year of Russian history. She is a bit like Frederick the Great (her contemporary) in the Prussian story. The stories of her boyfriends is a whole course in itself. Listen to just a few words from Paul Bushkovitch about her reading and her general knowledge. She worked constantly to improve her mind.

"Catherine’s reading not only gave her a series of ideas about justice and administration but also about economic development and social status. The Enlightenment writers believed that society required a civilized population to flourish, and that came from education and culture. The new empress came to the throne at a propitious time, for the efforts of the Cadet Corps, the Academy, and Moscow University were beginning to show results. The generation that came to maturity with Catherine was the first to have absorbed European culture in full, and the first to include many men and even women who had also been abroad long enough to begin to understand European society. Catherine was determined to speed this process along. Though by birth and culture she was German, for most of her reign she was at the center of Russian culture, unlike any monarch after her and more so than even Peter himself. She was not merely a reader, but an active participant in Europe’s cultural life. She corresponded with Voltaire from 1763 until his death in 1778. She also had correspondents among the French Encyclopedists, Denis Diderot, and Jean d’Alembert, as well as the German Baron Friedrich Melchior Grimm. Grimm was a sort of literary journalist reporting from Paris, and after a visit to St. Petersburg in 1773–74 he was Catherine’s chief correspondent and epistolary confidant until her death. Catherine did not merely correspond with the great men of the Enlightenment. When she heard of Diderot’s financial problems she bought his library, granted him the use of it for life and paid him a salary as her librarian." Bushkovitch, Paul. A Concise History of Russia (Cambridge Concise Histories) (p. 125). Cambridge University Press.

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED READING

Paul I (1754-1801) (Tsar 1796-1801) was Emperor of Russia from 1796 until his assassination. Officially, he was the only son of Peter III and Catherine the Great, although Catherine hinted that he was fathered by her lover Sergei Saltykov. Paul remained overshadowed by his mother for most of his life. He adopted the laws of succession to the Russian throne—rules that lasted until the end of the Romanov dynasty and of the Russian Empire. He also intervened in the French Revolutionary Wars and, toward the end of his reign, added Kartli and Kakheti in Eastern Georgia into the empire, which was confirmed by his son and successor Alexander I. Paul had a short sad life. His mother Catherine the Great did not want to yield any real power to her son, therefore she maneuvered constantly to denegrate his abilities. Paul was not a strong decisive person, and therefore he was way overmatched by his dynamic powerful mother. Only when she was gone in 1796 after a sudden stroke, did Paul step forward and rule as true Tsar of Russia. Sadly for him and his family, he only had five years on the throne before an assassin struck him down.

REQUIRED READING

Alexander I (born:1777; died:1825, Emperor 1801-1825) was the Emperor of Russia from 1801, the first King of Congress Poland from 1815, and the Grand Duke of Finland from 1809 to his death. He was the eldest son of Emperor Paul I and Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg. Born in Saint Petersburg to Grand Duke Paul Petrovich, later Paul I, Alexander succeeded to the throne after his father was murdered. He ruled Russia during the chaotic period of the Napoleonic Wars. As prince and during the early years of his reign, Alexander often used liberal rhetoric, but continued Russia's absolutist policies in practice. In the first years of his reign, he initiated some minor social reforms and (in 1803–04) major liberal educational reforms, such as building more universities. Alexander appointed Mikhail Speransky, the son of a village priest, as one of his closest advisors. The Collegia was abolished and replaced by the State Council, which was created to improve legislation. Plans were also made to set up a parliament and sign a constitution.

REQUIRED READING

 

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED BOOKS

Set against the sweeping panoply of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, War and Peace—presented here in the first new English translation in forty years—is often considered the greatest novel ever written. At its center are Pierre Bezukhov, searching for meaning in his life; cynical Prince Andrei, ennobled by wartime suffering; and Natasha Rostov, whose impulsiveness threatens to destroy her happiness. As Tolstoy follows the changing fortunes of his characters, he crafts a view of humanity that is both epic and intimate and that continues to define fiction at its most resplendent.

This edition includes an introduction, note on the translation, cast of characters, maps, notes on the major battles depicted, and chapter summaries.

Praise for Antony Brigg's translation of War and Peace:

"The best translation so far of Tolstoy's masterpiece into English."
-Robert A. Maguire, professor emeritus of Russian studies, Columbia University

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED READING

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicholas I (born: 1796, died: 1855, Tsar 1825-1855) reigned as Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 1825 until 1855. He was the third son of Paul Iand younger brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brother's throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him. He is mainly remembered in history as a reactionary whose controversial reign was marked by geographical expansion, economic growth and massive industrialisation on the one hand, and centralisation of administrative policies and repression of dissent on the other. Nicholas had a happy marriage that produced a large family; all of their seven children survived childhood. Nicholas' biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky said that he displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a soldier—a junior officer totally consumed by spit and polish. A handsome man, he was highly nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail. In his public persona, stated Riasanovsky, "Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified: infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate."

REQUIRED READING

The Crimean War was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Sardinia-Piedmont. Geopolitical causes of the war included the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the expansion of the Russian Empire in the preceding Russo-Turkish Wars, and the British and French preference to preserve the Ottoman Empire to maintain the balance of power in the Concert of Europe. The flashpoint was a disagreement over the rights of Christian minorities in Palestine, then part of the Ottoman Empire, with the French promoting the rights of Roman Catholics, and Russia promoting those of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

RECOMMENDED READING

Alexander II (born: April 29, 1818; died March 13. 1881, Tsar 1855-1881) was the Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland from 2 March 1855 until his assassination. Alexander's most significant reform as emperor was emancipation of Russia's serfs in 1861, for which he is known as Alexander the Liberator. The tsar was responsible for other reforms, including reorganizing the judicial system, setting up elected local judges, abolishing corporal punishment, promoting local self-government through the zemstvo system, imposing universal military service, ending some privileges of the nobility, and promoting university education. After an assassination attempt in 1866, Alexander adopted a somewhat more reactionary stance until his death. The photo at left is taken when Tsar Alexander was in his 60s.

 

In addition to Alexander II we will spend some time on the very great novel by Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons. The novel is a perfect summary of the transition taking place in Russian society at the middle of the 19th century, both in the imperial family and within Russian society. Turgenev tells the story of two young men in their twenties, university men, who come home to visit their parents, their old-fashioned parents, and during the visit, Turgenev shows us Russia in the midst of this huge mid-century change. The book is set at the very moment of the Liberation of the Serfs by Tsar Alexander II.

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED READING

LIFE OF FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY 1821-1881

On October 30, 1821 Fyodor Dostoevsky was born in Moscow to Mikhail Andreyevich, a surgeon, and Maria Fyodorovna. Dostoevsky's father was a doctor on the staff of Moscow's Hospital of St. Mary. Mikhail was a very cold, demanding and stern man. Dostoevsky's mother was a gentle saint who was totally subservient to her difficult husband, but gave the children her total devotion and left to them an image of Christian generosity.
1821-1837
Family life for the huge Dostoevsky family was very difficult. All nine members of the surgeon's family lived in 3 cramped rooms within the hospital complex. But even in this limited physical environment the doctor maintained an upper class set of values with very demanding educational goals set for the children. Doctor Dostoevsky taught the children many of their lessons himself. The family lived an intensely intimate life together with outsiders excluded. Thus Fyodor was extremely attached to his brother Mikhail but very uncomfortable with strangers. The family had no outside life. They lived together, ate together, studied together. It seems that this was the way the doctor wanted it. He was extremely tyrannical and wanted to dominate every single minute of his little private unit. The children had no outside friends. They never went out. They never did anything apart from the family. On the other hand, with such a huge family there was a lot of fun and good times and Dostoevsky remembered his family life as an almost idyllic happy time. Other family members contradicted this image pointing to the tyrannical rule of Doctor Dostoevsky.
1837
In Fyodor's sixteenth year his beloved mother died. At age sixteen Fyodor had to adjust to a total transformation of his life. With his mother gone, his father quit his practice at the hospital, gave up his quarters, moved to the country and sent the children off to various locations. Thus for the children it was a traumatic moment: they lost their mother and then their home and then their whole family structure all at once. The two older sons, Mikhail and Fyodor, were sent to Military school of engineering in St. Petersburg.
1838
Fyodor was miserable, poor, alone, but studied and did well. He read incessantly and discovered his life's purpose: "My soul is now inaccessible to the raging squalls that used to shake it. In it, all is peace as in the heart of a man who harbors a deep secret. To study the meaning of man and of life – I am making sufficient progress here. I have faith in myself. Man is a mystery. One must solve it. If you spend your entire life trying to puzzle it out, then do not say you have wasted your time. I occupy myself with this mystery because I want to be a man." This from an 18 year old boy.(1839)
1839
With his wife dead, Doctor Dostoevsky now placed the younger children with an aunt and retired to a small country house he owned. As an overlord of the property he was absolutely impossible. He was cruel with his serfs and in retaliation they murdered him. Fyodor was extremely shocked and affected for his whole life by this event. He could not speak of it and never mentioned it to anyone ever again. But the event reverberated in his life and work and certainly inspired the character of Fyodor Karamazov. At his father's death, Fyodor inherited a small amount of money. He quit the military academy.
1840 The Gambler
He started to live a wild and profligate life: gambling became his passion, especially billiards for money.
1846 The Author
Dostoevsky had written Poor Folk now friends intervened and got it into the hands of a publisher. Like Byron, Dostoevsky a had huge youthful success: He is published to great acclaim at age 25.
1849 (April) Arrest
Dostoevsky was arrested as a member of radical socialist Petrashevsky circle.
December: mock execution.
Messenger arrives with commutation of sentence from the Czar.
Dostoevsky is sent off to four years penal servitude in Siberia.
1849-1853 Imprisonment
Horrible imprisonment (described in Notes from the House of the Dead).
"And I consider those four years as a time in which I was buried alive and closed in a coffin. How horrible that time was I have not the strength to tell you, dear friend. It was unspeakable, interminable suffering because every hour, every minute weighed upon my soul like a stone." (Mochulsky, p. 147) Has only the New Testament to read. He reads it incessantly. Undergoes conversion. Gives up his radical socialist ideas. Becomes convinced Christian (Russian Mother Church).
The Church
"Before all things, humble yourself, consider what your past life has been, consider what you may be able to effect in the future, consider how great a mass of meanness and pettiness and turpitude lies lurking at the bottom of your soul."
1853-1857
Dostoevsky is now sent to Siberia to complete his sentence serving as a private in the Russian army. "I do not complain. This is my cross and I have deserved it."
1857 Maria
Dostoevsky meets the already married Maria, begins affair.
Her husband dies and Dostoevsky proposes marriage.
Marries Maria Demetrievna.
1859 Married
Friends get his sentence reduced and allow him to return to St. Petersburg.
Settles down with wife and stepson. Starts journal Time with brother Michael. Publishes own works in journal.
1863 The Magazine
His magazineTime was suppressed by authorities
1864 Death of Maria
On April 15, 1864, his wife Maria Dmitrievna died after an excruciatingly painful illness suffering with tuberculosis. Dostoevsky recorded the moment: "Just now, at 7 o'clock in the evening, Maria Dmitrievna passed away, and wished you all a long and happy life (her words). Remember her with a kind word. She suffered so much during this time, that I don't know who could refuse to be reconciled with her."(Mochulsky, p. 260).
1866 Anna
Dostoevsky pressed with debts and with a publishing contract requiring a book by a certain date, hired a twenty-year old young woman named Anna Grigorievna to be his stenographer, In one month he dictated the whole of the novel The Gambler. Anna remained his faithful partner in family and work for the rest of his life and brought order into his writing and his publishing.
1867 Second Marriage
On Feb. 15, Dostoevsky marries Anna Grigorievna.
He is twenty-five years older than Anna.1860-1881Dostoevsky writes his greatest works.
1864Notes from the Underground
1866Crime and Punishment
1868The 1872 Idiot
1872The Devils(or The Possessed)
1875A Raw Youth
1878
Dostoevsky begins work on The Brothers Karamazov.
Death of Alyosha
Work on the novel is interrupted by tragedy in the Dostoevsky family. Little three-year-old Alyosha, his father's favorite son, dies suddenly of an epileptic seizure. Anna tells us about the event: "Fyodor went to bring the doctor, returned terribly pale, and knelt down by the sofa to which we had moved the tot so it would be more convenient for the doctor to examine him. I also knelt down next to my husband; I wanted to ask him what precisely the doctor had said (As I found out later, he had told Fyodor that the final agony had already begun); he motioned me with a sign not to speak. . . And what was my despair when suddenly the baby's breathing stopped and death came. Fyodor kissed the child, blessed him three times, and began to sob. I also wept." (Mochulsky, p. 571-72.) Thus the character of Alyosha in The Brothers Karamazov is born in the instant of the death of Dostoevsky's own most beloved son. He thus endows his Alyosha in the book with all the love he had for his own son.
1880Brothers Karamazov
1881 Death of Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky dies. At his death he had achieved extraordinary fame and success. His funeral was an occasion for one of the most remarkable demonstrations of public feeling ever witnessed in the Russian capital.
Quotations in the above are taken from Konstantin Mochulsky, Dostoevsky, His Life and Work (Princeton University Press, 1967).

Dostoevsky Books

A Little Hero (1849)
Uncle’s Dream (1859)
The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants (1859)
The House of the Dead (1860-1862)
The Insulted and the Injured [The Humiliated and Wronged] (1861)
An Unpleasant Predicament (1861)
A Silly Story (1861) A Nasty Tale (1862)
Winter Notes on Summer Impressions (1863)
Notes From Underground (1864)
An Unusual Happening (1865)
Crime and Punishment (1866)
The Gambler (1866)
The Idiot (1868)
The Eternal Husband (1870)
The Devils [The Demons] (1871-72)
The Diary of a Writer (1873)
A Raw Youth (1875)
A Gentle Creature (1876)
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877)
The Brothers Karamazov (1879-80)

REQUIRED READING

Crime and Punishment

From Wikipedia:

Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is the first great novel of his "mature period" of writing.

Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless vermin. He also plans this murder to test his own hypothesis that some people are naturally capable of such things, and even have the right to do them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by connecting himself mentally with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose.

RECOMMENDED READING

Institute Library Call Number: 891.73 Fra DOST

REQUIRED READING

Crime and Punishment

From Wikipedia:

Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is the first great novel of his "mature period" of writing.

Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless vermin. He also plans this murder to test his own hypothesis that some people are naturally capable of such things, and even have the right to do them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by connecting himself mentally with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose.

 

REQUIRED READING

RECOMMENDED READING

Steven Marks,

How Russia Shaped the Modern World: From Art to Anti-Semitism, Ballet to Bolshevism,

Princeton University Press,

ISBN 0691118450

 

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