BIOGRAPHY OF FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY
Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was a Russian novelist, journalist, short-story writer whose psychological penetration into the human soul had a profound influence on the 20th century novel.
Dostoevsky was born in Moscow, as the second son of a former army doctor. He was educated at home and at a private school. Shortly after the death of his mother in 1837 he was sent to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Army Engineering College. In 1839 Dostoevsky's father died probably of apoplexy but there were strong rumors that he was murdered by his own serfs. Dostoevsky graduated as a military engineer, but resigned in 1844 to devote himself to writing. His first novel, Poor Folk appeared in 1846. It was followed by The Double, which depicted a man who was haunted by a look-alike who eventually usurps his position.
In 1846 he joined a group of utopian socialists. He was arrested in 1849 and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to imprisonment in Siberia. Dostoevsky spent four years in hard labor and four years as a soldier in Semipalatinsk.
Dostoevsky returned to St. Petersburg in 1854 as a writer with a religious mission and published three works that derive in different ways from his Siberia experiences: The House of the Dead, (1860) a fictional account of prison life, The Insulted and Injured, which reflects the author's refutation of naive Utopianism in the face of evil, and Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, his account of a trip to Western Europe.
In 1857 Dostoevsky married Maria Isaev, a 29-year old widow. He resigned from the army two years later. Between the years 1861 and 1863 he served as editor of the monthly periodical Time, which was later suppressed because of an article on the Polish uprising.
In 1864-65 his wife and brother died and he was burdened with debts, and his situation was made even worse by gambling. From the turmoil of the 1860s emerged Notes from the Underground, psychological study of an outsider, which marked a watershed in Dostoevsky's artistic development. The novel starts with the confessions of a mentally ill narrator and continues with the promise of spiritual rebirth. It was followed by Crime and Punishment, (1866) an account of an individual's fall and redemption, The Idiot, (1868) depicting a Christ-like figure, Prince Myshkin, and The Possessed, (1871) an exploration of philosophical nihilism.
In 1867 Dostoevsky married Anna Snitkin, his 22-year old stenographer, who seems to have understood her husband's manias and rages. They traveled abroad and returned in 1871. By the time of The Brothers Karamazov, which appeared in 1879-80, Dostoevsky was recognized in his own country as one of its great writers.
An epileptic all his life, Dostoevsky died in St. Petersburg on February 9, 1881. He was buried in the Aleksandr Nevsky monastery, St. Petersburg.
INFLUENCES ON THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV As one can tell, Dostoevsky led a very eventful and tumultuous life. He also lived in a time of great political and social excitement for Russia. The sixty years of his life were spent in a Russia that was emerging from a very long darkness and reaching out toward enlightenment. Only nine years before his birth, Napoleon had been driven from Russian soil. The destruction of the French had been complete and Russia found herself on par if not superior to Europe, which filled all of Russia with a pride and patriotism her people had not often felt through her long history. Yet, inanalagously, serfdom still existed, a ruthless nobility ruled, the powerful church clung to the past and its darkness, and the people were gripped in illiteracy, poverty, and ignorance. The idea of personal liberty, long established in Europe, France and America, were just beginning to infiltrate throughout Dostoevsky's life. It was a period of a new era approaching, a nervous discomfort which finally culminated in the social upheaval which completely broke with the past-- the Russian Revolution. The tumultuous times were reflected in his writings and influenced his extollation of the Russian soul and of his insight into humanity in the Brothers Karamazov.
One can also see the parallels between his personal experiences and events and characters in the Brothers Karamazov. When Dostoevsky was sixteen, his mother died, and after they moved to the country his father surrounded himself with a harem and became a lecherous drunkard. He was so abusive to his serfs that, according to rumor, they murdered him in his sleep. At the time, Dostoevsky was eighteen and in St. Petersburg attending school, but the rumors of the murder of his father left a deep impression on him. Fyodor Karamazov is modeled after these last years of Doctor Dostoevsky, and used the concept of the murder as well.
Two years after the death of his father, Dostoevsky became a second lieutenant
in the engineers. He remained in the service for four years, developed extravagant and reckless habits, and was constantly in debt. He was always awaiting money from the estate. Dmitri Karamazov was obviously modeled after these experiences.
Dostoevsky spent the next years writing. But when he was twenty-nine, he was arrested for being part of a socialist group. He and a number of other young liberals were sentenced to death, but with a miraculous pardon from the Tzar his life was saved at the very last minute, and his sentence was commuted to imprisonment and exile in Siberia.
He spent four years as a prisoner in Siberia, and this experience had a profound effect on him. He was in the constant company of murders, robbers, and other seedy criminals. Though he considered himself nobility because of pride and caste, Siberia proved to be a unique training school for novelists, especially for Dostoevsky: he had already begun to conceive of The Brothers Karamazov. He wrote in a letter to his brother years later, "I couldn't at all tell you how very much I suffered from not being allowed to write in prison. My mental labour comes only thus to the boil. Some things were all right; I felt it. I planned out in that way a great novel [The Brothers Karamazov], which I consider will be my definitive work." Also rooted in his imprisonment was his fervent spiritualism. In several journal entries and letters, Dostoevsky attributes his development in Christianity to these years in desolation during which he gained deep knowledge of himself and others.
When Dostoevsky's prison term ended, he still had to remain in Siberia for five years in exile. During this time he married the widow of a minor official, who has been described as a pretty blonde of middle height, thin, tubercular, passionate, an irrespnsible-- a hysterical woman with a strong streak of cruelty. Dostoevsky confessed years later: "We were unhappy together... but we could not cease to love one another." The character of Lise in the Brothers Karamazov is modeled after his first wife.
The religious questions that fill The Brothers Karamazov are ones that affected Dostoevsky all of his life. Despite his great faith, he was constantly haunted by second guesses and possibilities. In a letter to a friend he wrote: "The chief problem dealt with throughout this particlar work is the very one which has, my whole life long, tormented my conscious and subconscious being: The question of the existence of God." Dostoevsky intuitively explores conflicting perceptions of God, notably in the infamous "The Grand Inquisitor" and "The Devil. Ivan's Nightmare" chapters. The depth and knowledge in the writing of the characters and conflicting philosophies illustrate the thoroughness of Dostoevsky's personal explorations of the faith question.
Summary.Themes of the Book.Poetry Inspired by the Book.
Critiques of the Book.The Life of Dostoyevsky.Personal Analysis.>.