Sign up
You have successfully registered, a confirmation email has been sent to the email address you provided.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
About museum
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was a Russian writer, thinker, philosopher and publicist, and a corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He was born into a family: his father was a nobleman and a physician, and his mother was the daughter of old-Moscow merchants. Despite modest means, his parents gave their children a good education and instilled a love of literature. Summers were spent at the family estate in the Tula Governorate.
Dostoevsky received home schooling and then graduated from the private boarding school of L.I. Chermak — the best educational institution in Moscow. At his father's insistence he entered the Main Engineering School. However, his true passion was literature — at school he joined a circle of literature enthusiasts and began to write. After graduating he served briefly as an engineer sub-lieutenant and soon left a military career. In 1846 a fateful meeting with M.V. Petrashevsky radically changed Dostoevsky's life. Participation in discussions of social issues — his conviction in the need to abolish serfdom and expand civil liberties — led to his arrest and sentence to hard labor. The four years spent in confinement were a turning point in the writer's life and made him a deeply religious man. After his release and the restoration of his publishing rights, a new phase of Dostoevsky's work began. "Notes from the House of the Dead," which portray the lives of convicts, caused a wide public stir.
In subsequent years Dostoevsky, together with his brother, founded several literary journals in which his most famous works were published, including the novel "The Insulted and Humiliated," "Notes from Underground," and many others. Travels through England, Italy, France, Austria, and Switzerland also influenced his work and worldview.
The idea for the novel "The Gambler" arose from Dostoevsky's personal experience and interest in gambling. This period of the writer's life was overshadowed by his father's tragic death, the closure of the journal, and mounting debts. However, it was during this difficult time that Dostoevsky conceived "Crime and Punishment" — the novel that brought him long-awaited fame. "The Idiot," "Demons," "The Adolescent," and finally the culmination of his work — "The Brothers Karamazov" followed. Several of Dostoevsky's works have been included in lists of the 100 greatest books of all time and have become world classics.
Dostoevsky's personal life was eventful and complicated. His first marriage to Maria Isaeva lasted seven years but ended with his wife's sudden death. A stormy romance with Apollinaria Suslova left a vivid mark on the writer's biography and served as a prototype for female characters in "The Idiot" and "The Gambler." Only in his second marriage to Anna Snitkina, a woman who combined gentleness with business acumen, did the writer find domestic happiness. The couple had four children. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky died in 1881 of tuberculosis and pulmonary emphysema at the age of 59.
Музеи, посвящённые персоне
Date of birth
11 November 1821
Date of death
09 February 1881
Occupation
Writer