13.01.2023
Dostoevsky graduated from engineering school and worked for some time by profession. However, he soon left the unloved public service and devoted himself to writing.
After his dismissal from the service, Dostoevsky earned his bread exclusively by his literary work: he did not have serfs or a large inheritance from his parents, unlike, for example, Tolstoy or Turgenev.
Dostoevsky survived a civil execution in connection with the “Petrashevtsev” case. A civil execution differs from a simple execution in that the criminal is announced at the last moment that he is being left alive. Dostoevsky was sentenced to death, but before the execution of the execution itself, he was pardoned and exiled to Siberia for hard labor.
Dostoevsky’s first wife Maria Dmitrievna died of consumption. After their marriage, Dostoevsky continued to educate and take care of his stepson Pavel, the son of his late wife from his first marriage.
The late wife of the writer Maria Dmitrievna was partly the prototype of Katerina Ivanovna Marmeladova, the heroine of the novel “Crime and Punishment”. Katerina Ivanovna was ill with consumption and died at a young age.
Dostoevsky and Turgenev had a tense relationship. Turgenev emigrated from Russia abroad, for which Dostoevsky condemned him. Fyodor Mikhailovich himself was a Slavophile, a true patriot and preferred to live in his homeland, visiting abroad from time to time. In addition, Dostoevsky did not always speak flatteringly of Turgenev’s works, calling him a “scribbled” writer.
Once the publisher Stellovsky signed a “monstrous” contract with Dostoevsky, according to which the writer had to prepare a new novel in an incredibly short time. As a result, the novel “The Gambler” was written in less than a month. The scandalous publisher Stellovsky himself eventually went mad and died in a madhouse at the age of about 50.
Dostoevsky’s second marriage was very late. The writer married his stenographer Anna Snitkina when he was about 45 years old, and the bride was about 20 years old. This age difference is partly reminiscent of the history of relations between Luzhin and Dunya Raskolnikova.
Dostoevsky became a father for the first time at a very mature age. The writer’s first child was born when he was already 46 years old! Unfortunately, daughter Sonya died a few months after birth.
