DOSTOEVSKY: LETTERS AND REMINISCENCE
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DOSTOEVSKY:
LETTERS AND REMINISCENCES TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY
KOTELIANSKY MIDDLETON MURRY
S. S.
AND
V>av>V
try
J.
W^Tf^cbtAR
M\s>'ma^,..
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS 1923
)
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE LTD. EDINBURGH
* ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS LETTER FROM
F.
M.
DOSTOEVSKY
TO
HIS
BROTHER
page 1
DOSTOEVSKY'S LETTERS TO
A. N.
MAIKOV
15
REMINISCENCES OF DOSTOEVSKY BY HIS WIFE
97
DOSTOEVSKY'S LETTERS TO HIS WIFE ON THE POUSHKIN CELEBRATIONS
155
DOSTOEVSKY
AND
POBIEDONOSZEV
LETTERS
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
:
SOME 237 267
LETTER FROM F. M. DOSTOEVSKY TO HIS BROTHER
LETTER TO HIS BROTHER The
full text of Dostoevsky 's letter, day he was sentenced to death, December 22, 1849, to his brother Mihail. Only the first paragraph of the letter has been published before.
following
written
It is
on
is
the
the
now published
in full for the first time.
It is
a
document of exceptional importance. The original letter cannot now be traced. But a copy of it, made by Madame Dostoevsky, is now kept in the Central Archives. It has now been made public. Mihail Dostoevsky was, after all, allowed to see Fiodor
before
his
departure
for
Siberia.
In
his
Reminiscences (1881), A. P. Miliukov relates that Fiodor said to his brother at parting
:
During these three months I have gone through much I mean, I have gone through much in myself; and now there are the things I am going to see and go through. There will be much to be '
;
written.'
The Peter and Paul Fortress, December 22, 1849.
MlHAIL MlHAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY, Nevsky Prospect, opposite Gryazny
Street,
in the house of Neslind.
Brother,
am
my
precious friend
!
settled
all is
!
I
sentenced to four years' hard labour in the
fortress (I believe, of
serve as a private.
we were taken
Orenburg) and after that to
To-day, the 22nd of December,
Semionov
to the
Ground.
Drill
There the sentence of death was read to
all
of us,
we
were told to kiss the Cross, our swords were broken over our heads, and our last toilet was
made
(white
Then three were tied to the pillar for execution. I was the sixth. Three at a time were called out consequently, I was in the second batch and no more than a minute was left me to live. I remembered you, brother, and all yours during the last minute you, you alone, were in my mind, shirts).
;
;
only then I realised
mine
!
I also
how
managed
Durov who stood
I love you,
dear brother
to embrace Plescheyev
close to
me and
and
to say good-bye
DOSTOEVSKY
6
Finally the retreat was sounded, and
to them.
those tied to the pillar were led back, and
it
was
announced to us that His Imperial Majesty granted
Then followed the present sentences. Palm alone has been pardoned, and returns with
us our
lives.
his old
rank to the army.
I
was
just
told,
dear brother, that to-day or
to-morrow we are to be sent off.
But
I
was
was impossible
told that this
only write you this letter
me
asked to see you.
I
make
:
a reply as soon as you can.
I
I
;
may
haste and give
am
afraid that
you may somehow have got to know of our deathsentence. From the windows of the prison-van,
when we were taken I
to the Semionov Drill Ground,
saw a multitude of people
;
perhaps the news
Now you
reached you, and you suffered for me. will
be easier on
my
account.
Brother
!
I
not become downhearted or low-spirited.
have
Life
is
what is outside us. There will be people near me, and to be a man among people and remain a man for ever, everywhere
life
life,
in ourselves, not in
not to be downhearted nor to misfortunes
may
befall
the task of
life.
I
has entered into it 's
true
!
have
my flesh
—
me
fall
this is life
realised this.
and into
The head which was
with the highest
life
in
whatever ;
this is
This idea
my blood.
Yes,
creating, living
of art, which had realised and
grown used to the highest needs of the
spirit,
that
7 LETTER TO HIS BROTHER has already been cut off from my shoulders.
head
memory and
There remain the
the images created
They
but not yet incarnated by me.
will lacerate
But there remains in me my heart and the same flesh and blood which can also love, and suffer, and desire, and remember, and this, On voit le soleil ! Now, good-bye, after all, is life. me,
true
it is
brother
Now
!
me
Don't grieve for
!
about material things
the Bible
!
and several sheets of
still)
A
(and the finished story
(I
my
Child's Tale)
taken away from me, and in be got by you. clothes, if
may
Money
I also leave
have
manu-
getting
my
have been
probability will
all
overcoat and old
you send to fetch them.
Now,
brother,
perhaps have to march a long distance. is
My
needed.
receive this letter,
need
books
the rough plan of the play and the novel
script,
I
my
:
and
if
dear brother, there
some money, send
now more than
me
it
air (for
is
me
any
when you
possibility of
at once.
Money
I
one particular purpose).
Then if the money from Moscow comes, remember me and do not desert me. Well, that is all I have debts, 1 but what
Send
also a
few
lines.
—
!
can
I
do
?
Kiss your wife and children.
me 1
continually
;
see that they
Money owed by Dostoevsky
Child's Talc.
to
Remind them
of
do not forget me.
Krajevsky was paid by
A
DOSTOEVSKY
8
Perhaps,
we
shall yet
meet some time
Brother,
!
take care of yourself and of your family, quietly
and
children.
There has nevei
Live positively.
.
yet been working in of spiritual
Think of the future of yoi
carefully. .
.
life
live
me
such a healthy abundance
But
as now.
am
my body endure ?
will
away sick, I suffer from scrofula. But never mind Brother, I have already gone through so much in life that now hardly anything can frighten me. Let come what may At the first opportunity I shall let you know I
do not know.
I
going
!
!
Give the Maikovs
about myself. last greetings.
them that
Tell
for their constant interest in
words will
her
for
me, as
warm
prompt you,
much
my
thank them
Apollonovich others.
as possible, as your heart
thank him.
wish
I
remember her
Press the hands of Nikolay
and Apollon Maikov, and
Find
all
Say a few
fate.
happiness, and shall ever
2
and
farewell
to Eugenia Petrovna. 1
with grateful respect.
the
I
my
Yanovsky.
Finally, press the
Press
also of all his
hands of
hand,
all
who
And those who have remember me to them also. Kiss
have not forgotten me. forgotten
me—
Andrey and
let
Write a
letter to
our brother
him know about me.
Write also
our brother Kolya.
1 Eugenia Petrovna was the mother of the poet Apollon Maikov, Dostoevsky'a friend. 2 N. A. Maikov, the father of A. N. Maikov.
LETTER TO HIS BROTHER
9
This I ask you in
my own
and Aunt.
to Uncle
name, and greet them for me. I
Write to our
sisters
:
wish them happiness.
And maybe, we brother
shall
Take care of
!
the love of God, until
we
time
on
yourself, go
living, for
Perhaps some
we meet.
embrace each other and
shall
time
our golden
youth,
meet again some time,
and our hopes, which at tearing out from
my
that
was,
recall
our
our
youth
am
very instant I
this
heart with
my
blood, to bury
them.
Can into
my
there
indeed be that I shall never take a pen
it
hands
may
I think that after the four years
?
be a possibility.
I shall
send you every-
may write, if I write anything, my God How many imaginations, lived through by me, created by me anew, will perish, will be ex-
thing that I !
tinguished in
my
blood
my
brain or will be spilt as poison in
Yes,
!
shall perish.
pen in
my
am
not allowed to write,
I
Better fifteen years of prison with a
hands
Write to
if I
!
me more
more, more facts.
often,
write
more
details,
In every letter write about
kinds of family details,
of
trifles,
all
don't forget.
me hope and life. If you knew letters revived me here in the fortress.
This will give
how your These
last
two months and a
half,
when
it
was
forbidden to write or receive a letter, have been
DOSTOEVSKY
10
The fact that you did not send me money now and then worried me on your account it meant you yourself were in very hard on me.
I
was
ill.
;
great need lovely
Kiss the children once again
!
that they
may
brother, be
me
hearted, do
me.
my
be happy
happy
But do not grieve for
do not leave
faces
little
my
Be happy
!
their
mind.
Ah,
yourself too,
!
grieve, for the love of God,
Do
!
;
believe that I
am
do not
not down-
remember that hope has not deserted
In four years there will be a mitigation of fate.
I shall
be a private
soldier,
—no longer
a prisoner, and remember that some time I shall
embrace you.
was to-day in the grip of death for three-quarters of an hour I have lived it through I
;
with that idea I live
again
I
;
was at the
last instant
and now
!
any one has bad memories of me, if I have quarrelled with any one, if I have created in any one an unpleasant impression tell them they should forget it, if you manage to meet them. There is no gall or spite in my soul I should dearly love to embrace any one of my former friends at this If
—
;
moment.
It is a comfort, I experienced it to-day
when saying good-bye I
thought at that
execution would still
alive
and
to
my dear ones before death.
moment
kill
you.
that the news of the
But now be
easy, I
shall live in the future
am
with the
!
LETTER TO HIS BROTHER thought that some time
I shall
now in my mind. What are you doing
11
embrace you.
Only
this is
thinking to-day cold
it
What have you been
?
Do you know about
?
was to-day
my
us
?
How
!
you soon. Otherwise I shall be for four months without news of you. I saw the envelopes in which you sent money the address was during the last two months Ah,
if
only
letter reaches
;
written in your hand, and I
was glad that you were
well.
When
I look
back at the past and think how
much time has been wasted
in vain,
how much
time was lost in delusions, in errors, in idleness, in
how
ignorance of
how
to live,
how
Life
is
did not value time,
my
often I sinned against
—my heart bleeds.
I
a
heart and
gift, life is
spirit,
happiness,
each minute might have been an age of happiness. Si jeunesse savait
being reborn into to
you that
my
spirit
Now, changing my life, I am a new form. Brother I swear
!
I shall
!
not lose hope, and shall preserve
and heart
to a better thing.
in purity.
That is
I shall
be reborn
my whole hope, my whole
comfort
The in
me
life in
the demands of the flesh which were not
wholly pure
Now
prison has already sufficiently killed
;
I
took
little
heed of myself before.
privations are nothing to me, and, therefore,
!
!
DOSTOEVSKY
12
any material hardship will This cannot be Ah To have health
do not
fear that
!
you again
detailed
?
my
You
brother
can only preserve
will
be right
closely,
I
kiss
my
you
shall tell I
you how
have told you
waste
dear
Do not
me
:
journey.
I
!
embrace
grieve, I
pray I
Remember then what
go on. plan
as
In the next letter
!
out your
life,
do not
think of your
Oh, to see you, to see you
!
Good-bye
!
myself away from everything that was
I tear it is
;
I
me
Remember me
closely.
arrange your destiny,
it,
children.
Now
my
shall
health, then everything
without pain in your heart. you, do not grieve for
from
will receive
Well, good-bye, good-bye, brother
you
When
!
an account as possible of
If I
me.
!
!
Good-bye, good-bye, I write
kill
painful to leave
it
It is painful to
!
break oneself in two, to cut the heart in two.
Good-bye
am
!
Good-bye
convinced
do not
let
—
I
hope
But
!
;
I
shall
your memory grow
good-bye, once more
—Your brother
I
do not change, love me, cold,
and the thought
of your love will be the best part of my bye,
see you,
!
Good-
life.
Good-bye
to
all
Fiodor Dostoevsky.
Dec. 22, 1849.
At
my
from me.
arrest several books were taken
away
Only two of them were prohibited books.
:
:
LETTER TO HIS BROTHER
13
But there is one of the books was The Work of this request Eugenia his critical essays Valerian Maikov Petrovna's copy. It was her treasure, and she At my arrest I asked the police officer lent it me. to return that book to her, and gave him the Won't you get the
rest for yourself ?
:
—
:
address.
I
do not know
Make enquiries away from her. Your
!
I
if
do not want to take
I
the
it
this
to her.
memory
Good-bye, good-bye, once more
—
On
he returned
F.
!
Dostoevsky.
margins
do not know
horses.
if I
shall
I believe I shall
have to march or go on
go on horses.
Perhaps
!
Once again press Emily Fiodorovna's hand, kiss the little ones. Remember me to Krayevsky perhaps
Write
.
.
.
me more
particularly about your arrest,
confinement, and liberation.
F. M.
DOSTOEVSKY'S LETTERS TO A. N. MAIKOV
i§
LETTERS TO
A. N.
MAIKOV
The eight hitherto unpublished letters written by F. M. Dostoevsky to A. N. Maikov are taken from the originals
kept in the Poushkin Department of the
Academy
These letters are preserved there, together with Dostoevsky 's other letters to Maikov which have already been Russian
of Sciences in Petersburg.
published.
The
letters
here published are of great interest,
owing to their outspoken tone, but also as containing many facts bearing on Dostoevsky 's life chiefly
abroad during the period 1867-1871.
Maikov was a great friend of Dostoevsky 's, and their which dated from before 1848, was the
friendship,
greater because of the affinity of their political views.
Owing
to that affinity
'
the friends understood each
other from their letters, just as well as
by personal
is why the letters have a special Furthermore, they contain Dostoevsky 's
That
contact.'
significance.
most intimate convictions and utterances about Russia and the Russian people, his prognostications of the future destinies of Russia, and his opinions about the disintegrated West. These letters also tell the history of Dostoevsky 's creation of The Idiot, and the author's own opinion of that work they afford a clear and concise explanation of the idea of The Devils (called The Possessed in the '
'
;
;
18 English
DOSTOEVSKY translation)
;
they
contain
Dostoevsky's
account of the psychology of his creative activity
they also include his literary judgments and opinions of certain writers, such as Leo Tolstoy, Turgenev, Schedrin, and Danilevsky.
To A. N. Maikov January
Geneva, December
My
12th, 1868. dlstf 1867t
dear and good friend, Apollon Nicolayevich,
when I can write you a What have you thought of me ? couple of pages That I have forgotten you ? I know you won't the time has come, at
last,
!
Believe
hour of time
;
What
all.
is
I
my
me
I have not had a single mean literally. I have forgotten
think that.
poor Pasha
have sent no money
have not had, I write to
:
now
literally,
you and
1
doing
for
;
whom
to
two months
a farthing
to
(I
?
send him
shall describe everything,
I
!)
and
await your answer with morbid impatience.
shall
Being in the dark
And
is killing
as for me, this is
was
tortured.
pose
?
me.
my
story
You know what
:
it
/ worked and
means to com-
No, thank God, you do not know
you have never written to
!
I
order,
by the
yard,
and have never experienced that
hellish
torture.
—-Having
believe
*
received
in
advance from the
Dostoevsky's stepson, Pavel Alexandrovich Isayev, the son of hie wife by her first marriage.
first
19
DOSTOEVSKY
20
Russky Viesinik so much money (Horror! 4500 roubles), I fully
hoped in the beginning of the year
that poesy would not desert me, that the poetical idea would flash out and develop artistically towards
the end of the year, and that I should succeed
Moreover, this seemed to
in satisfying every one.
me
many
the more likely inasmuch as
ideas are always flashing through
my
and being conceived.
soul,
are only flashes, tion,
my
creative
brain and
But then these
and they need a complete
realisa-
which invariably comes unexpectedly and
of a sudden.
all
It is impossible, however, to calcu-
when it is going to come. Only afterwards when one has received a complete image in one's
late
can one start
heart
then one
Well
:
all
autumn
may
composition.
artistic
even calculate without mistake.
through the summer and
I selected various ideas
ingenious), but
And
my
all
through the
(some of them most
experience enabled
me
always
to feel beforehand the falsity, difficulty, or ephemerality of this or that idea.
and began working,
I
At
last I fixed
wrote a great deal
;
the 4th of December (new style) I threw
the devil.
I assure
been tolerable because
The 4th
was
it
I did not
;
want
of
but
on one but on
it all
to
you that the novel might have I got incredibly sick of it just
tolerable,
Well,
that.
December
and not
!
positively good.
what was
And meanwhile
I to
do
?
the con-
LETTERS TO of
ditions
our
A. N.
MAIKOV
can
existence
be
21
described
as
follows.
Did
I tell you, I don't
remember
(indeed, I re-
member nothing), that, finally, when all my means had come to an end, I wrote to Katkov x asking him to send me one hundred roubles a month ? I
He
believe I did tell you.
But
sending punctually.
in
agreed and began
my
letter to
thanking him, I confirmed positively, on
Katkov,
my honour,
the novel, and that in
him that he should have December I would send a
considerable part of
to the office.
the assurance I had given
it
(I
promised
the more readily, because the writing had gone well I
and so much had been written
wrote to him saying that
my
!)
After that
expenses were extra-
ordinary and asking whether he could send of the agreed
sum
me
out
(500 roubles) one instalment of
200 instead of 100 (for December).
His consent
and the money came in December, just at the
moment when
I
had destroyed the novel.
my
was
I to
had
realised at last that all
my
on
do
?
All
hopes were shattered.
work and writing
my
real
(I
hopes are set
novels, that, were I to
write a decent novel, I could to the Editor,
What
pay
off
my
debt
and to you, send a biggish sum to
Pasha and to Emily Fiodorovna, 2 and myself be 1
2
Editor and publisher of the monthly review Russkp Viestnik. The widow of Dostoevsky's brother, Mihail Mihailovich.
DOSTOEVSKY
22
Were
able to live.
good novel,
—
however, to write a really
I,
I could sell the book-rights
and manage
some money, pay half or two-thirds of my debts and return to Petersburg.) But everything went smash. On receiving the 200 roubles from to get
Katkov,
would arrive without
number
;
time for the January
theirs* part would reach
But
office late.
January
promise that the novel
fail in
I regretted that
the editorial fail for
my
I confirmed
I
promised
1st (old style),
and
I
it
without
begged him
not to bring out the January number of the Russky
my
Viestnik without
novel (as the review never
comes out before the middle of the month). After that (since
all
my
future turned on this) I
began tormenting myself with thinking out a new novel.
world.
The
old one I would not go on with for the
I could not.
I
thought from the 4th
the 18th December (old style) inclusive.
On
till
the
average, I fancy I turned out six plans (at least six)
every day.
was
I didn't
go
My off
head became a
my
mill.
;
to write the style) I sent
the Editor five chapters of Part I (about
five printed sheets)
with a letter in which I promised
to send the remaining
January 10th (new I
it
head, I don't understand.
At last on December 18th I sat down new novel on the 5th January (new off to
How
two chapters of Part
style).
I
on
Yesterday, the 11th,
despatched those two chapters and so have de-
;
LETTERS TO
A. N.
livered the whole of Part I,
MAIKOV
—about
23
six or six
and a
half printed sheets.
The
parcel they ought to have received
first
December 30th (old style), and the second consequently, if they will get by January 4th before
;
they like they can
January number.
still
publish Part
I
in
the
Part II (of which of course I
have not yet written a
gave
line) I
my
word to
send to the Editor by February 1st (old style), punctually and unfailingly.
Do
understand,
my
friend
;
how
could I have
thought of writing letters to any one, and there
is
the further question, what could I have written
about
And
?
therefore, like the
are, understand,
enforced silence.
humane man you
and, as a friend, forgive Besides, the time itself
me my
was a very
hard one.
Now
about the novel, so as to make an end of In the main I myself cannot
that.
thing I sent off
—
opinion
it is
effective.
but
idea,
I
I
is like.
But
it.
In
is
is
and
I
am
all
above
it
not ready for
perfectly alluring
and
I love
—to depict a thoroughly good man.
opinion, there can be nothing
this,
form an
have been afraid to make a novel of
That idea
than
as far as I can
have long been troubled by a certain
although the idea
my
what the
not very ship-shape and not at
for the idea is too difficult, it,
tell
all in
our time.
more
difficult
Certainly you will
—
'
DOSTOEVSKY
24 absolutely
with
agree
assumed a
At one time
this.
partial creative
form
me
ate position alone compelled this abortive idea. 4
but only a partial
;
My
desper-
make
use of
when a complete one was needed.
one,
That
On
to
took my chance as at roulette
I
Perhaps the idea
this
develop under the pen
will
:
!
unpardonable.
is
the whole the plan has been created.
Details
occur in the subsequent development, which tempt
me
much and keep up
very
the ardour in me.
But the whole ? But the hero ? For the whole turns on the figure of the hero. So it has posited itself.
am
I
Will
obliged to posit a figure.
develop under the pen presented themselves
And imagine what horrors
? :
it
turned out that besides
it
the hero there was also a heroine, consequently two heroes are
!
And
apart from these heroes there
two more characters
characters
—that
sidiary characters, to
parts.)
I
am
my
one
soul,
ordinarily faint.
firmly enough I
minimum)
;
is
in eight
is
—two
are firmly
not yet outlined at
—
principal, the first
Perhaps in
—he
but
is
my
is
it.
all,
extra-
heart he dwells
terribly difficult.
should need twice as in order to write
(Sub-
greatly in debt
besides, the novel
;
and the fourth, the
any rate
whom
Out of the four heroes
outlined in
front-rank
to say, nearly heroes.
is
a great multitude
—absolutely
much time
At
(this is a
— LETTERS TO The
my
first part, in
me
seems to
there
MAIKOV
A. N.
opinion,
is still
hope
25
But
it
the hope
is
weak.
is
for it
:
compromised and that
in this, that nothing is yet
the subsequent parts are capable of satisfactory
(At least I hope they are
development.
necessary
that
:
about what
One thing
a mere introduction.
essentially,
is,
it
is
should arouse a certain curiosity
But of
going to follow.
is
Part I
!)
positively can't judge.
this
I
have one reader only
I
Anna Gregorevna [Dostoevsky's wife] she likes it very much but she is no judge in my business. In Part II everything must be definitely posited (but still far from being explained). Then there will be one scene (one of the vital ones), but how is it going to turn out ? Yet I have it written in the ;
;
rough, and well.
On
the whole
all this is still
from you I expect a everything
will decide
but write to I
know
in
me
my
also
it
is
it is
first
Besides, I implore you, let
am
it
published there
may have
me know
Let
me know,
instantly,
I
arrived too late.
should appear in January necessity.
?
even
if
is
to
me
;
me
me know
—whether
my
afraid
Part II
not good, write to
is
is
but
part (although
immediately the Russky Viestnik novel
;
the most difficult
about the
heart that
nevertheless).
judgment.
strict :
in the future
out
terribly
still
And
that
it
of the utmost
for the love of
God,
you send only two
let
lines.
DOSTOEVSKY
26
When
I sent
Katkov Part
I, I
told
him almost
exactly the same as I have told you about
The novel
novel.
is
called
The
Idiot,
can judge himself, especially when he
Perhaps Part
the work.
I
my
Yet no man is
hot from
also is not so bad.
If I
have not developed the principal character,
this
was necessary by the laws of my whole scheme.
That
is
why
await your opinion with such eager
I
But enough about the
impatience.
novel.
All
the work I have done since the 18th of December
has put
me
into such a fever that I can neither
think nor speak of anything
few words about our off writing to
My
life
else.
Now
I
'11
say a
here from the time I
left
you.
But we have this to the good that, thanks to the monthly receipt of a hundred roubles, we are in want of nothing. Anna Gregorevna and I live modestly, but quite comfortably. But expenses are impending and a small sum, if only a very small one, must always be kept in reserve. In a month and a half Anna Gregorevna (who bears up excellently) is going to make me a father. You realise what expenses are impending. But during that period I shall ask for 200 roubles per month, and the Editor will send it. I have already sent him the equivalent of nearly a thousand life
roubles.
certainly
is
work.
And by February
5th I shall have sent
the equivalent of another 1000 (and perhaps better
;
LETTERS TO stuff,
am By
more
solid,
more
effective)
my
consequently I
;
dear fellow, but for the destruc-
have paid you
tion of the novel, I could certainly
what you
New
But now for wait another couple of months
lent
ask you to
me by
the
Year.
;
can't ask the Editor for a considerable I
have delivered Part
without
But
fail. is
Pasha
My
added
me
to all
But then
II.
my
chief,
but
is
sum
I will
my
the thought of what
obsession ?
27
a somewhat larger sum.
entitled to ask for
the way,
MAIKOV
A. N.
most
I I
until
pay you terrible
happening to
heart bleeds and the thought of him,
my
literary torments in
simply to despair
November and
What
!
December, drove
is
he doing
In
?
December I sent him no money but even before November he had left off writing to me. With the last allowance I made to him (60 roubles
in
from Katkov), sent through you,
wrote him a long
I
him to make an inquiry, very important to me, and quite easy for him. I implored him to answer me. Not and
letter,
a single line from him.
also asked
For the love of God, do
me some news of him. Does he hate me, does he ? What for, why ? Is it because I strained my resources to the very utmost to send him money and wait with burning impatience for the moment give
when
I
can send him more
he should hate me. heart,
I
put
?
It is impossible that it all
down not
to his
but to his lightmindedness and to his
in-
DOSTOEVSKY
28
make up his mind even to write a letter, he could not make up his mind to learn even
capacity to just as
the multiplication table
He
lived in the
till
he was twenty.
same house with Emily Fiodor-
ovna and got into debt
in spite of the fact that
up to November I was sending him quite enough. It was through you that I paid that debt to Emily
But how were they all in November and December ? They themselves are in want. Fedya l works, but he can't keep them all, and I can't send any money for a month (through you, Fiodorovna.
of course
I
;
implore you,
my
dear friend,
it is to
money from Katkov will come. Don't disdain my request and don't be annoyed with them. They are poor. And I will be your servant you
all
that the
my
life
value what you have done for write to
shall
send
me
name
Fedya.
house
Alonkin's
?
I
Are they
name and
Alonkin's Christian
(I forgot it) so
flat, if
living
I
I
in
Pasha to his father's
that I could write to him. will
turn them out of
he does not hear from
made myself
still
expressly asked
Alonkin trusts me, but he the
you how much me). To-morrow
long, I will prove to
me
;
since I
had
him for it. Neither from Pasha, nor from Emily Fiodorovna have I had an answer about the man's Christian name and his father's 1
Fiodor
responsible to
name.
And how can
— Bon of Mihail Mihailovich,
I write
a letter to
Dostoeveky's brother.
! ;
LETTERS TO Alonkin without that
He
?
MAIKOV
A. N. is
29
a merchant, he will
be offended.
may be able to send them money although I am in awful need of money in
But perhaps before
;
expectation of
I
my
wife's confinement.
we rub along without denying necessities,
them
;
ourselves the prime
yet our things are constantly being
Every time
pawned.
Although
money I redeem end of the month we pawn
I receive
but towards the
them again. Anna Gregorevna is my true helper and comforter. Her love to me is boundless although there characters.
is
a great deal of difference in our
(She sends her best greetings to you
and to Anna Ivanovna [Maikov's
wife].
She loves
you awfully because you value her mother, whom she adores. She values you both very highly, you and Anna Ivanovna, and esteems you deeply, with sincere,
with the sincerest
Above all we have Geneva from the cold.
feeling.)
suffered real discomfort in
Oh
if
you only knew, what
a stupid, dull, insignificant, savage people It is
it
not enough to travel through as a tourist.
try to live there for scribe to
some time
you now even
briefly
have accumulated too many. this vile republic
my
—there
all
No,
I can't de-
impressions
Bourgeois
life
has reached the nee plus
In the administration, and of Switzerland
But
!
is
:
I in
ultra.
through the whole
are parties
and continuous
;
DOSTOEVSKY
30
squabbles, pauperism, terrible mediocrity in everything.
A workman workman
finger of a
see
and to hear
oh,
if
bad
here
not worth the
is
little
It is ridiculous to
of ours.
The customs are savage you only knew what they consider good and
here.
it all.
Their inferiority of development
:
the
drunkenness, the thieving, the paltry swindling, that have become the rule in their commerce
!
Yet they have some good traits which after all place them immeasurably above the Germans. (In Germany I was above all struck by the stupidity of the people
:
they are
immeasurably stupid.)
infinitely stupid,
Yet with us
Nicolayevich Strahov, 1 a
man
they are
—even Nicolay
of high intellect,
even he does not want to understand the truth
:
The Germans,' he says, have invented gunpowder.' But it is their life that settled it for them And we at that very time were forming ourselves into a great nation, we checked Asia for ever, we bore an infinity of sufferings, we managed to endure it all, we did not lose our Russian idea, which will renew the world, but we strengthened finally, we endured the German, and yet after it 1
'
!
;
all
our people
is
more honest, more
immeasurably higher, nobler, naive, abler
;
idea, the highest Christian idea,
full
of a different
which
is
not even
understood by Europe with her moribund Catholicism 1
Dostoevsky's friend and biographer.
LETTERS TO
MAIKOV
A. N.
31
and her stupidly self-contradictory Lutheranism.
But
go on about that
I shan't
cult for
me
But
!
!
I read the
Golos, every
number
am
much, a great
Moscowskya Viedomosti and
new
its
deal, to you,
policy.
my
friend
a mass of things have accumulated
year I shall embrace you.
without
letters
fail.
my
dear fellow.
In
tion
—
sole comfort.
my
finds herself
need you
forests
still
on
its
;
and what your
I await
write, isola-
Anna Gregorevna is
with me.
But
I
my country.
need also
In Switzerland there are there are
could say
gloomy and tedious
happy because she
also, I
I
But perhaps
!
But
Good
!
For the love of God, do
my
this is
positively
to the very last letter
luck to the Golos for
this
diffi-
to live without Russia, I have such a
yearning for the country that I
wretched
so
it is
still
enough
forests,
mountains incomparably more
than there are in other countries of Europe,
although they are diminishing terribly with each year.
there
And now imagine is
:
five
months
in the year
awful cold and bises (north winds breaking
through the chain of the mountains). three
months
—almost the same winter as
Everybody shivers from the off
their flannels
public baths
cold,
And for we have.
they don't take
and cotton-wool (they have no
—imagine
now
the uncleanliness to
which they are accustomed); they don't provide themselves with winter clothes, they run about
DOSTOEVSKY
32 almost
same
in the
(and flannel alone
and with
winter),
how
standing
is
clothes
quite insufficient for such a
all this
—not
a grain of under-
improve their houses
to
summer
as in the
Why,
!
what use is a fireplace burning coal or wood, even if you were to keep it going all day long ? And to keep
going
it
And what there
's
all
the time costs two francs a day.
a lot of wood
no warmth.
windows
— then
;
then
Why,
consumed if
;
they had only double
all
!
I
these forests could be saved.
live like veritable savages
can put up with things
In
!
heated to the extreme, (five
it
degrees of warmth)
and in that cold waited
!
for
my
is
left
But
!
They say that
?
only 5° Centigrade
I sat in
my
overcoat,
money, pawned things
have
if
—
were 15° Centigrade. ;
In Mont-
In Geneva the
but
still it is
the water in the room freezes.
lately
changed
my
rooms, and
two nice rooms, one always Since therefore
warm room
it is
life
is
isn't it
in Florence this winter
cold did not rise higher than 8° as bad,
they
room, even when
there were nearly 10 degrees of cold. pellier there
In
of them.
still
and thought out the plan of the novel pleasant
it
won't ask them to introduce
twenty- five years' time nothing will be
They
—even then
even with an open fireplace
might be tolerable stoves
is
just
Now
I
we have now
cold, the other
warm.
constantly 10° or 11° in the tolerable.
I
have written so
— !
LETTERS TO
MAIKOV
A. N.
33
much, but have not managed to say anything
That I
is
am
God
my
why
The
I don't like letters.
For the love of
awaiting a letter from you.
you can
write as soon as
a letter to me, in
:
present depression, will have almost the value
Yes, I have forgotten to ask you
of a good deed.
don't
tell
any one what
reach the Russky Viestnik
have told them a
fib,
I don't
it.
turn out not a bad novel.
My
I shall
am now manage
?
I tell
health
you is
—
have gone
I
now
it is
months on end since
I
only
to
do
it will
But again about the
mad
very satisfactory.
very rarely, and
to
for I
;
—who knows —perhaps on the whole ;
it
having said that I had written
reshaping and copying
novel
want
by any chance
a good deal in the rough and that I
and
:
have written you about
I
the novel, for the time being.
it
chief thing
I
about
have
it.
fits
only
two and a half or three had any. My sincerest
greetings to your parents.
—Remember me also to
Strahov when you see him.
And tell him to remem-
ber
me
larly to I
to Averkiev and Dolgomostiev, particu-
Dolgomostiev.
embrace and
Haven't you met him
kiss you.
?
—Your true and loving F. Dostoevsky.
My I
particular greetings to
have had a
letter
Anna Ivanovna.
from Yanovsky.
good man, at times wonderful.
I love
He is a very him deeply.
DOSTOEVSKY
34
II
To A. N. Maikov
1
Geneva, February March,
My
good, precious and only friend
in applying
them)
—don't
be cross
—
(all
these
am happy because of my
you and
epithets are applicable to
1st
I
Judge me with the same
unconscionable silence.
My
understanding and the same heart as before.
was unconscionable
silence
but
;
have got
I
faculties
—in
I
all
Part II
The
[of
complete
it
definitely,
—too much depends on
now
in time.
I don't
I did
want even
avoid complete failure I
may
still
long one.
was too
late,
have at but
shall I tell
thing.
So much
myself
As
I like
who
not wish to spoil its success.
I only
success.
is
last sent off
you
?
Myself
that I
so,
likes it
rather.
it
But
want
to
in the subsequent parts
turning out a
Part II also
am
I can't
(I
what
;
it is
For
will
II,
it
but
it is
only
the readers say
just as in Part
me
say any-
incapable of any
the finale of Part
to all the rest,
it flags
trying to
I believe it will get there in time).
What
opinion.
:
Idiot],
improve, for the novel I
literally
—although did try several stuck—my head and my
could not answer you times.
almost
I
I, i.e.
?
I think
would be quite enough
;
LETTERS TO if
only the reader read
—
I
A. N.
MAIKOV
35
without great boredom,
it
no longer claim any other success.
My
dear friend, you promised
Part
after reading
me
day, but there
is
no
I
haunt the post
the novel
:
is
office
I
draw the
And
reply.
I
my
every
weak, and since thanks to
face,
need just
Without
opinion.
to
clear con-
your delicacy you are too shy and sorry to that truth to
it
and you have probably
letter,
had the Russky Viestnik. clusion
immediately
your opinion of
I to write
And now
here.
me
me
tell
you are postponing your I long for any that truth !
it it is
True, you
pure torture.
wrote
me two
but
can't be that you, in such a matter, should
it
letters before the
be exacting about letters If
you knew,
my
friend,
But enough of that. with what happiness I
!
re-read your last letter again
only
knew what
my
receipt of a letter
nobody
life
here
and again is like,
New Year
If
!
you
and what the
from you means to
here, I hear of nothing,
ginning of the
review was out
me
!
I see
and from the be-
even the newspapers
(Moscowskya Viedomosti and Golos) have not been arriving.
selves
;
Anna Gregorevna and I live all by ourbut, although we live fairly harmoniously
and love one another and besides are both busy, yet
I,
at least,
am
weary.
Anna Gregorevna main-
am
tains perfectly sincerely
(I
that she
Imagine, up
is
very happy.
convinced of till
it)
now we
DOSTOEVSKY
86
have not yet been blessed, and the expected gentle-
man
has not yet come into the world.
expect
I
him every day, because there are all the symptoms. I expected him yesterday, on my birthday he did not come. I await him to-day, but to-morrow ;
he
is
sure to come.
Anna Gregorevna
is
waiting reverently, loves the
coming guest boundlessly, and bears up cheerfully and firmly but just recently her nerves have got ;
on edge and at moments dark thoughts come to her
:
she
situation
may
So that the
is
afraid she
is
rather anxious and troublesome.
die, etc.
Of
money we have the very tiniest bit but at any rate we are not in distress, though expenses are on the way. Yet in that state Anna Gregorevna has ;
written shorthand and copied for me, and has also
managed
to sew
and to prepare everything that
needed for the baby.
Geneva
too bad
is
Sunday
;
there
is
than their Sunday. is
impossible
;
;
The worst of a gloomy place.
am
still
To move
owing to
my
in the dark as to
month
will
illness,
and Part
be a
is
that
To-day
is
nothing gloomier and nastier
difficult
III,
to another place
wife's illness
have to stay here for another I
all
is
five
shall
weeks, and then
The coming
money.
one to
we
now
me
:
which although
my
wife's
may be And then
it
must be sent off regularly. comes Part IV only then can I think of leaving
delayed,
;
— LETTERS TO Geneva, towards May.
A. N. It is
MAIKOV
a good thing that the
The whole
winter here has become milder.
February here was
37
warm and
of
bright, exactly as in
Petersburg in April, on a bright day.
am
I
always, incessantly, interested in every-
may write to me here. In the am always looking for something
thing you
papers I
same kind, as hay
—reflecting
tion I
it
newsof the
were for a needle in a bundle of
The abomina-
and conjecturing.
and vileness of our
literature
And how
sense even here.
and journalism
naive
that trash
all
The Sovremennik and the others try their hardest with the same old Saltykovs and Eliseyevs and the same old stale hatred for Russia, and the same old French Workers' Associations, and nothing is
!
—
And Saltykov
but that. all
Our Liberals cannot help the one and same time inveterate enemies
just as
being at
attacking the Zemstvo
of Russia
it
should be.
—conscious
Let anything succeed
ones.
—and their
in Russia, let there
be any profit for her
venom
I
overflows.
have observed
it
a thousand
Our extreme Radical party plays exactly the same game as the Viest [an extreme reactionary times.
paper], nor can
and
it
be otherwise.
filthiness of all
that
And
riff-raff,
—
the cynicism
this I learn at
times from the newspapers.
The
Viestnik.
I
have read
it
me
No.
1 of
the Russky
from the
first
page to the
editorial office sent
;
DOSTOEVSKY
88
There
last.
nothing of yours there
is
have been either too there
is
must
they keep you to adorn
late, or
number
the February
—you
—and in the January number
Polonsky (a very
poem), and Turgenev
fine
—with a very weak story [The History of Lieutenant Yergunov].
I
read the review of Tolstoy's
How much
Peace.
have read only though
should like to read
I
psychological details in
is
in it
!
that
with those ideas.
is
flashed across 1
we have
—Imagine :
how
Sophia Alexeyevna
'
?).
It
quite enough reviews
know nothing about Moskvich. Your Sophia :
I
—
a perfect beauty
me
lot of
You mentioned
Stasyulevich's
it
(is
the Moskva, about the
Alexeyevna
small
—For the love of God, write me
the Viestnik Europa
me
what a
details
oftener about literary matters.
seems to
many
There should be a wee
it.
Yet owing to those
good there
I
it all.
capital thing
a pity that there are so
it is
bit less.
must be a
It
half.
War and
fine it
but a thought
;
would
be, if such a
could appear as an episode
in a whole
poem about those
poem about
the Raskolniki [a religious sect], or in a
verse-novel about those times
never entered your head
produce an enormous
about your Slovo
where
it is
?
effect.
times, I mean, in a
Has such a design Such a poem would Well now, well, what !
—you do not say
Polku Igoreve
going to be published
Viestnik, probably.
?
In that case
In the Russky I shall
read
it!
LETTERS TO You can imagine
MAIKOV
A. N.
with what impatience
I
89 await
it.
Apart from the reading which you have mentioned,
—have you read
it
What
anywhere in public ?
me all
Tell
you read at the Krylov I read anniversary, apart from what you sent me ? about
it.
about
it
did
in the papers
;
but
not clear.
it is
There seems to have been lately a kind of
only about the subscrip-
I 've read lately
Russia.
lull in
Slavdom and Slav
tions for the famine-stricken.
must arouse a whole host of enemies
aspirations
among Russian
When
Liberals.
will these obsolete
and retrograde dregs be washed away
For a
!
Russian Liberal can't be considered as anything
but as obsolete and retrograde. *
educated society
'
of old
is
The
so-called
a motley collection of
everything that has separated
itself
from Russia,
that has not understood Russia and has become Frenchified,
and that
—that
is
best Liberals
enemy
why
—
is
he
what a Russian Liberal is
:
isn't
filthy little Poles in
—but
he a conscious
of his fatherland, isn't he a reactionary
Well, they can go to the devil
meet
Recall the
a reactionary.
recall Bielinsky
I enter into
With the
I
only ;
no relations whatsoever with them.
priest here [A.
K. Petrov]
But when the child meet him. But remember,
I
am
not ac-
born, I shall have
is
to
my
mean
Here
?
the cafes, in huge crowds
quainted.
priests, I
!
is,
friend, that
those abroad, are not
all like
our the
DOSTOEVSKY
40
Wiesbaden one, of left
;
spoke to you when
I
(Have you met him
Petersburg.
rare creature
whom
He
?
is
I
a
worthy, humble, with a sense of
personal dignity, of an angelic purity of heart, and
a passionate believer.)
God grant
Well,
that the
one turns out a good one, although he must
local
be spoilt by the aristocracy.
Here, in Geneva
(according to the Journal des Etrangers), there
a terrible number of Russian aristocrats
makes
it
it
;
is
only
the stranger that they have been wintering
not in Montreux, for instance, but in Geneva where the climate If I
is
not good.
move anywhere,
is still
about the address.
me
write to
good.
And you,
I can't
—
jury,
I
and
judges,
this
my
no delay
my
health
is
very
have been more
fits
heart thrilled with excitement.
opinion
and above
:
all
all
that I have read) I have
The moral nature of our jurymen,
higher than the European
and crime
;
from a Christian point of view. traitors
you
read your account of your having served
Of our courts (from formed
I shall let
for the love of Christ,
say that
my
but this
;
so that there should be
Since the spring
frequent.
on a
—
be to Italy
and at any rate
in the future,
know immediately
it will
abroad agree about
this.
has not yet been really settled
towards the criminal there
still
;
of our
is
infinitely
is
regarded
Even Russian But one thing
in that
seems to
humanity
me
to be
— LETTERS TO
A. N.
MAIKOV
41
a great deal of the theoretical, Liberal, non-indeIt does
pendent.
ing at this distance I
now and then.
But judgmay be badly mistaken. At
appear
in this respect our nature
any rate
higher than the European.
And
is
infinitely
generally
all
our
conceptions are more moral, and our Russian aims are higher than those of the
European world.
We
have a more direct and noble belief in goodness, goodness as Christianity, and not as a bourgeois solution of the problem of comfort.
newal
A
great re-
about to descend on the whole world,
is
through Russian thought (which, you are quite right, is solidly will
welded with Orthodoxy), and this
be achieved in
this is
my
less
than a hundred years,
passionate belief.
great object
may
But
be achieved,
in order that this
it is
essential that
the political right and supremacy of the Great-
Russian race over the whole Slav world should be definitively
our
little
and incontestably consummated. (And
Liberals preach the division of Russia
into federal states I
!)
have again a most enormous favour to ask you,
two favours, and I hope for everything from your good heart and your brotherly sympathy or rather
to me.
when
what it is about. I wrote to Katkov sent him Part II, asking him for 500
This I
roubles.
is
It is terrible
can't help asking.
At
—but first
what can I do ? I I had these dreams :
I
DOSTOEVSKY
42
To
(1)
write the four parts
(2) to
write
Katkov with
well,
my
—and
28-24
(i.e.
to approach
only then
But
great request.
—
I repeat
Now, with Part
can't help asking.
and
folios),
—
have
I
II,
means approximately 1700 roubles. Altogether I owe them 4560 roubles (oh !), it means then I still owe them 2860 roubles, and in this state of affairs I am sent to the office altogether 11 J folios,
asking again for 500 roubles,
i.e.
raising
again to 2860 -{-500=3360 roubles.
keep in view that by
this to
May
deliver the equivalent of 1700, will still
500 roubles.
in
any
If
case, I
1
:
I
is
and therefore there I
!
am
with this come
No.
But there
when sending that request for only the novel were good Then
me, or not,
it
debt
1st I shall again
would be more pardonable to
send
my
remain a debt of about 1700 roubles.
worried terribly,
it
it
—
I
But however, about it and along
do not know.
telling
my
Will they
ask.
you
all
two great
asked Katkov,
if
Request
requests.
he agreed to
me
have the 500 roubles, to send
let
me
300 roubles here,
and 200 roubles to Petersburg, to you personally.
And
yet, in spite of the fact that
receive these 200 roubles, I
still
you may perhaps
remain a scoundrel
towards you and can't pay you (who are certainly in need) not as
much
Anna Gregorevna times we speak of
as a farthing
are so tormented it
at night
;
but
!
Myself and
by
still
it
that at
my
request
!
LETTERS TO is
—wait
me from
a
A. N.
And my
—request No. —that 2,
without horror what
sufferings con-
I can't
even imagine
happening now to Emily
is
Fiodorovna.
She has her son Fedya
not cruel and
is it
and to throw
all
young man ?
43
longer and thereby you will save
little
awful sufferings.
sist in this
MAIKOV
my
not indecent on
but
;
is
it
part to rely
the burden of the family on this
He is young and timid and ought
not
young years and cerand that leads to a wrong
to be allowed to waste his tainly
path.
may lose patience, It
might very, very easily lead there.
must help them little.
it 's
—
Besides
:
I
am
them there
the same story
:
boy, a minor, to live possible, absurd,
Even
obliged to.
it is
by
is
Pasha.
if
I
only a
There again
impossible for a young
his
own work,
and indecent on
my
—
it is
im-
Cruel
part.
means pushing him to perdition he won't stand the strain. To me it was that Marie Dmitrievna It
;
[Dostoevsky's
first
her last request. case
wife]
And
bequeathed him,
it
was
therefore I implore you, in
you receive the 200
roubles, to
do
this
:
give
one hundred roubles to Emily Fiodorovna, and one
hundred to Pasha, but give Pasha at
first
only
50 roubles (without telling him that you have
another 50 roubles for him), and in two months'
time give him the other 50 roubles.
(Besides
board and lodging, he must have a new supply of underwear, and clothes, he needs some other
little
DOSTOEVSKY
44 things, in a
word he must have 50 roubles
Those 200 roubles,
Katkov
if
receive in a fortnight, or if he
month.
Pasha not to
I shall tell
You wrote me
early.
you
agrees, late it
is
call
at once.)
may
will
take a
on you too
that on the former occasion
they worried you very
much
forgive them,
;
my
To Emily Fiodorovna deliver the money yourself, or let her know through Pasha dear friend
that she
is
of course,
them.
if
!
to call on
you to receive
you receive the money
;
I shall write to
my second request, I worry but, my friend, save me from these
Well, that
you extremely
;
All this,
it.
is
sufferings.
To imagine
their situation
that I would rather bear that everything,
my
success of the novel in such conditions
stance,
are
!
!
it
such a pain to
is
And
myself.
to think
whole fate depends on the Oh,
it 's
Now how
hard to be a poet different,
Turgenev's circumstances,
for in-
and how
dare he after that appear with his Yergunov himself literally told
me
I
He
that he was a German,
and not a Russian, and he considered to reckon himself a German,
—
me
it
an honour
and not a Russian,
this is the literal truth.
Good-bye
for
the present,
my
friend.
What
more than anything else makes me glad on your account is that you do not allow your spirit to be idle.
Desires, ideals,
and aims are fermenting
in
LETTERS TO That
you. is
In our time,
a great deal.
's
MAIKOV
A. N.
seized with apathy, he
if
a
man
dead, and buried.
lost,
is
45
Good-bye, I embrace you closely and wish you that
is
words about
my
I constantly is
me
Write me, write
best.
Even the
novel.
read
an infinitude of
all
lies
;
if
only a few
tiniest thing.
the political news.
but
I
am
all
There
terribly scared
by
the weakening and lowering of our foreign policy
Apart from
lately.
this
Sovereign's reforms have
hope
is
The only
enemies.
He has already proved his firmness. may rule long !
greets you,
and Eugenia Petrovna.
is
many
Russia herself the
in him.
God grant he Anna Gregorevna
me to
in
them.
going to
I also
Anna Ivanovna please
;
remember
somehow believe a Misha or a Sonia make his appearance to-day, this has I
—
already been settled.
1
—Good-bye, my
Wholly your
dear friend.
F. Dostoevsky.
Ill
To A. N. Maikov Geneva,
1868. ^ig"* February 20th
Now
I
'm again writing you a few
lines,
my
dear
and again to make an (Did you receive my letter
friend Apollon Nicolayevich,
extraordinary request. 1
Sophie or Sonia Dostoevsky was born 22nd February 1868.
DOSTOEVSKY
46
of yesterday in which I wrote to you that
Katkov
might perhaps send you in two or three weeks' time two hundred roubles earnestly to help
I
?
me and
asked you most
money
to divide that
(one hundred to Emily Fiodorovna, fifty to Pasha
and to keep the remaining fifty (also for Pasha), without telling him about it, and to hand it over to him after two months). Owing to an at once,
urgent cause and an important reason
money differently.
pose of the
Namely
I :
must
hand over
one hundred to Emily Fiodorovna, and
Pasha now
fifty
give the remaining fifty roubles,
;
Anna Nicolayevna Gregorevna's mother. You may
dear friend, to
through Pasha that she should
Snitkin, let
call
dis-
her
to
my
Anna know
on you to get
Or rather we ourselves will write to her, and she will call on you. When leaving Petersburg it.
we pawned, furniture,
I believe,
and
all
all
our movables,
our things.
Anna Nicolayevna paid
the interest (a very high
herself has great expenses,
to pay at this
how,
it
money
to
as before,
our
For a whole year
one too) for us out of her pocket ask us for
all
;
but now she
and although she does not
pay the
interest
and continues
—we must help her now and just
And Pasha, I will send to somehave money later, in two months' time.
moment.
if I
Don't disappoint me, disappoint
me
;
but do
my
all
precious friend, don't
these commissions which
;
LETTERS TO have a most
vital
importance for me,
I shall try
entreat you.
my
Good-bye
for the present.
up
in
—
I
my
my
am
I
had a
me
fit,
and
I
so violent, that I
am
I
aching
so distracted, everything
head because of the
his address, I
because he
all
am
;
fit.
I
is
wrote a
afraid to send
may have moved
letter
but, although he has
again to
it
to him,
new rooms,
ask you to hand over the letter to him.
this unconscionable trouble I
but the letter to Pasha, which highly important to so affecting
my
my
me and
it
am
me
My for
giving you
;
I enclose here, is so
deals with a question
heart and soul that nothing can be
more important to
Be
over
muddled
dear friend, Apollon Nicolayevich, forgive all
closely.
head aches unbearably.
to Pasha, a most urgent one
given
ask them.
embrace you
I
have not recovered yet and
P.S.
them
F. Dostoevsky.
—Last night
in particular
I earnestly
I will
;
—Wholly your P.S.
47
best to prevent
from worrying you much
all
MAIKOV
A. N.
benefactor.
me than its speedy delivery. You have only to send this
him through some one at the AddressOffice. It is close to where you live and you will find it at once. In any event, I also inscribe on the letter the address of Pasha's late rooms, which also are not far from your house. Be my benefactor and deliver it to him immediately.
letter to
—
DOSTOEVSKY
48
IV To A. N. Maikov Geneva, March 1"S 1868.
Most kind and true your
I received
I
am
in the
most
Apollon Nicolayevich,
thank you extremely.
But
and anxiety
terrible agitation
;
have received a letter (from Anna Nicolayevna,
for I
my
wife's
had
called
1
letter,
friend,
mother) with strange news
on
her, ridden the high horse, said that
he does not want to know whether
that I
am
that Pasha
:
obliged to keep
him
'
;
I
am
in need,
that since a good
money was expected from Katkov, he was going to Moscow, would see Katkov personally, deal of
would explain to him money, on tively
my
informs
account.
me
and ask him
his position
Anna Nicolayevna
that he has already
Moscow (on the 5th February,
for
posifor
left
old style), and that
he has quarrelled with his chiefs and she
is
afraid of
his being dismissed.
Can you imagine now
my
my
position in the eyes of
blush for
my affairs,
situation ?
Katkov
and each time
I
?
am
What
is
Myself
I
positively
Katkov because they have treated me so decently and well, and this ties my hands Without having yet seen a single line, terribly. afraid to apply to
they have trusted
me
to the extent of 500 roubles
!
LETTERS TO in
A. N.
MAIKOV
advance (me, a sick man, abroad
luck would have
it,
I
How
500 roubles!).
49
and, as
;
ill-
have just asked for another terrible to
think of Pasha
coming and interrupting Katkov in his occupations, which are really enormous, and beginning to shout, and perhaps even to be blackening
my
—Finally.
Yesterday
character I
have thirty francs only, nurse
much
as
as
can
he
pawned my last coat. I and forty to pay to the
have to pay the midwife 100 francs,
I
;
and of course
insolent,
120 francs for the rooms and attendance due by
March 20th,
and 300 francs
are higher),
pawned. will
in six days' time (prices this
i.e.
owe
In six days at the latest
come
to an end,
and then
nothing to pawn, and
My my
I
my
month
for the things
my
30 francs
—not a brass farthing,
whole credit exhausted.
whole hope was that Katkov would agree to request about the 500 roubles, would send
two hundred
(as I
had
written),
you
and would send me
300 roubles here, and those 300 would come here
by March 20th, that is, in six days' time. Now what shall I do if Pasha makes him angry and finally
exhausts his patience (for any
man may
lose patience at last in certain circumstances),
he answers
me
do then
Then
for, ill.
?
because
And
with a refusal.
my
I
am
done
for,
what
shall I
absolutely done
now been confined and is moment I receive your letter.
wife has
at this
Well,
and
D
DOSTOEVSKY
50
The date is not put down but on the envelope is the mark of the Petersburg post office dated ;
February 26th. In that letter you say not a single word about
Then perhaps
this.
Nicolayevna asserts is
perhaps true indeed
it is
reason that
it is
And
Anna
yet
In that case,
it positively.
but you are not aware of
;
difficult for if
untrue.
he had
you to know,
made up
his
it
it (for
just for the
mind
to do this,
he certainly would have avoided meeting you). I sit
now crushed and broken and do not know
what to do. I had thought of writing to-day Katkov and apologising to him, by explaining
to to
for, firstly, as rehim the whole circumstances gards Katkov personally I feel so ashamed that I could sink into the ground, and secondly, as regards ;
the
money
not send the
letter,
better
I
it.
am afraid that On the other
and
all this
he
may
get cross and
hand, suppose I send
turns out untrue
make up my mind
I
?
had
to write to-morrow and
to send to-morrow (the letter to Katkov).
If only
some news would arrive to enlighten me But there is no news coming from anywhere But to wait is dangerous, and also difficult. At any rate !
!
I implore you,
my
business and send die of anguish.
dear friend
me news
But
if it is
talked, but did not act, I
:
investigate this
immediately, or I shall
not true,
if
Pasha only
mean, did not go to
LETTERS TO
A. N.
MAIKOV
51
Moscow, did not speak to Katkov and did not even
him
write to
(it is
almost the same thing, writing
and seeing him personally), tell
Pasha that
evna.
am
I
I
have learnt
—then it
please do not
from Anna Nicolay-
a word, in any event, not a word to him about
Nicolayevna. I
regard you
I
as
send Katkov a letter after
'11
Pasha
is
harm
:
what
my all
;
Anna
Providence.
must.
I
If
—
he did not go to Katkov,
I write
won't do him any great
not to blame,
certainly
In
afraid he will be very rude to her.
if
the prank of a young
man who is
my own part
not known
must tell you that I do not blame him very I am sorry for Pasha much indeed, it 's a case of youth and lack of self-control. It must be excused, and he should
there at
For
all.
I
;
:
not be treated harshly fool,
it
And
I
;
for,
being such a
won't take him long to go to the dogs.
imagined that he had grown sensible and
realised that
he was already nearly 21 years old,
and ought to work, since there was no I
little
capital.
thought that having obtained employment he at
last realised it is
that honest work was his duty, just as
the duty of every one, and that he must not
act stubbornly as
and without
listening to
though he had made a vow
to
any one,
do nothing and
And he, as I see it now, imagined that he was doing me a favour by having secured employment. And who put it into his head that
would not
stir.
DOSTOEVSKY
52
-
I
was
obliged to
keep him for ever, even after 21
His words to Anna Nicolayevna (which must tainly be
he
is
— true)
'
I don't
himself in need
he
;
does not love me.
impulse or an arrogant word
may mean,
that a word
is
not an act.
him and
I
want to do
I will help
the point
:
has he done
much
This
am
Certainly I
know how
know
me
obliged to keep
is
the last to blame him, and I
I
cer-
want to know whether
—are too significant in a certain sense to me. means that he
?
All
my
little
an
that
is,
life
long
But there
so.
for himself ?
's
It is
only for the last three months that he has had no allowance from me.
he received from his
me
Yet during these three months 20 roubles in cash, and
I
debt of 30 roubles to Emily Fiodorovna.
so, really
And
what he has not received only amounts
to one month's allowance
managed
paid
And
!
already he has
to get into a fever about
then, that the
man must
anything for himself
!
it
!
It
means,
be incapable of doing
It
is
not a comforting
Out of my very last resources I am now sending money both to him and to Emily Fiodorovna. And yet I am convinced that at Emily Fiodorovna's they are running me down for all
thought.
And added
to
What would happen
if
they are worth.
man.
work
—what then
My dear friend,
all this I
am
a sick
I
were unable to
my
Providence and
?
you alone are
LETTERS TO true friend I
Your
!
MAIKOV
A. N.
letter of
58
yesterday revived me.
have never had anything harder and more
my
cult to bear in style)
—my wife
bore
me
life
is
still
how my
least bit of unpleasant
ill,
(old
30 hours)
(after awful pains lasting
consequently imagine
The
on February 22nd
:
a daughter and
diffi-
and you can
nerves are on edge.
news has to be kept
me
much.
back from her
;
the baby,
a healthy, big, handsome, lovely,
is
superb baby
:
for she loves
so
positively half the
day
and can't go away from
her.
This
what
the
money
is
francs
bad
is
this
all
:
has been pawned.
pressing, immediate.
My
My
and continuous
terrible
to sleep at night
(To-day
is
:
fear
I
have
but
;
is
30
is
in
Katkov,
suppose he does not
Anya
if
And
I
first
buying medicine
falls
ill
?
;
which
Part III I
under-
of honour to deliver to the Editor
of April (old style)
Parts III and
my
have no means of
of the novel, which is not yet begun,
my word
;
which does not allow
what
:
the tenth day.)
calling in a doctor or of
by the
good
The exasperating news about Pasha
?
took on
is
debts are urgent,
whole hope
and the incessant thought
me
her
I kiss
everything to the very last rag, mine and
;
my wife's,
send
Sonia,
IV
;
the whole plan of
radically altered last night, for
the third time (and therefore, at least, another three days needed for the thinking out of the
arrangement)
;
the increased strain on
my
new
nerves
!
DOSTOEVSKY
54
my fits, —there you
and the number and violence of have my condition In addition to letter,
all this,
—up to the coming of your
—complete despair on account of the
failure
my novel, and consequently, without mentioning my anguish as an author, —the conviction that all hopes have vanished, for all my and badness of
hopes were fixed on the novel
your
letter
calling
you
gladdened
me
am
;
my Providence
how now in
Imagine, then,
!
I
not right
my present to me, as my
Indeed in
?
circumstances you are just the same
dead brother Misha was.
And success.
It gives
me new
complete and send written as
much
implore you,
my
me
off
heart.
Part III I shall
by April
as 11| folios in
1st.
two months
(i.e.
immediately.
in the
I
wrote that
one after another.
and
lost
my
and
finale
But
I
it
I
cost
may have
was inspired
me two
fits
exaggerated
sense of proportion, and therefore I
do not condemn
me
my dear
friend,
God
were
Ambition, of course,
could one do without
chief motives, I call
Oh,
for this anxiety, as if it
the anguish of ambition. is,
I
Believe me, your words to
await your impartial criticism.
there
!
I
February number),
me are a well-spring of living water. when
Haven't
dear friend, when you have read
the finale of Part II write
my
you gladden me with the news of
so
it ?
—But here my
to witness, are different.
LETTERS TO
MAIKOV
A. N.
In the case of this novel too
much
is
55
at stake, in
every way.
Your
always stimulate
letters
days on end
me and
for several
on everything
act as leaven
in
me.
I
should awfully like to have a talk with you about
This time I have confined myself
certain things.
to family trifles
the
in
in the
our
read
My
it
.
!
.
to
it is little
?
is
much
you can.
all
My
yours.
in ecstasies over her
—that
am
before
!
.
work, and I too.
writing you
.
!
What I
;
afraid, so
As
much
my fear. A
depressing, trifling letters I
embrace you
about the success of The
closely.
—Wholly
F. Dostoevsky.
Anyhow I shall write more Anya burst into tears when proud of me.
you
which has never beset
your
is
wife loves
you can't even imagine
.
as
Anna Ivanovna.
much
so
kind of unnatural fear even
me am
it
I should
yourself as
regards The Idiot, I afraid,
Can't
read.
Oh, how much
deeply and sends her greetings to
She
It
!
.
me about
greetings
it is
who was
late Fourierist,
Journal of the Ministry of Education
be pubUshed separately
Write
Surely
Yes, he has a strong head.
affair ?
has a small circulation,
like to
next time.
till
same Danilevsky, the
mixed up
But
wait
;
often now.
she read in your letter
Idiot.
She says that she
DOSTOEVSKY
56
To A. N. Maikov ~
° ENEVA
March >
20th no ._
1868
April 2nd
'
Kindest and good friend, Apollon Nicolayevich, first of all I
my dear friend, most deeply of all my commissions which have
thank you,
for the execution
turned out so troublesome, and in doing which you
have had to run about so much. worrying you
on
whom
I
but indeed you are the
;
can rely (which
—
worrying you).
Secondly
greetings, congratulations,
You
for us three.
no excuse at
is
all for
thank you for your
I
and wishes of happiness
are right,
my
have described from nature the father,
me for only man
Forgive
good
friend,
you
feeling of being a
and you have taken your beautiful words
from nature
now almost
all is
:
for a
perfectly true.
month,
hitherto completely
unknown
my
I
to this minute
when we have
by our common
have had,
new and
feelings utterly
moment when
saw
I
to
me
Sonia for the just been
;
from the
first
time up
washing her,
the tub.
Yes, an angelic
soul has flown into our house too.
But I shall not They grow and
describe to
efforts, in
my
you
sensations.
Now, my dear friend wrote to you in such anxiety, I
develop with each day. last
time when I
forgot
(!)
to
tell
you that as
:
far
back as
last
year
I
LETTERS TO Any a and
in Dresden,
me
MAIKOV
don't refuse
It is
!
you) that
dear friend,
now
nearly ten months since
you
refuse, it will bring
we decided on
it.
If
unhappiness
the
first
:
tell
My
be Sonia's godfather.
to
57
had agreed (and she scolded
I
having forgotten to
terribly for
you are
A. N.
Sonia
godfather and he refused
But you
will
this will
not cause you the least possible trouble
!
I add, that
not refuse, dear friend.
;
and as to our becoming related by compaternity
—so
The godmother is Anna Nicolayevna. Did she tell you ? For the love of God let me know your answer as soon as possible
much
—for
the better.
needed for the christening.
it is
nearly a month, and she
(Could
am
(I
inform you
—
sure she
takes
—to
is
perfectly
my
I
!
forehead
expression
is
am
god-
your goddaughter)
—
me of
impossibly,
strangeness
did not see
month
old
of face,
;
it
even even.
myself.
but she has
my
complete
though she were composing
don't speak about the features.
like
mine, even strangely
of course follow that she (for I
And your
—up to the wrinkles on her forehead,
in her cot as
lies
a novel
it if I
only about a
physiognomy,
—she
after
the verge
would not believe
The baby
is
?)
!
very good-looking in spite of the
is
that she
ridiculously I
not yet christened
be like that in Russia
it
daughter
fact
is
now
It is
is
so.
Her
It should
not very good-looking
a beauty only in the eyes of
Anna Gregor-
DOSTOEVSKY
58
—and seriously a beauty to
evna
But you, an that
it
person, is
is
artist yourself,
her, I tell
know
you
!).
excellently well
possible to look exactly like a plain
and yet to be very lovely. Anna Gregorevna She
extremely keen on your being godfather.
you and Anna Ivanovna very much and respects you boundlessly. loves
You are too much of a prophet you prophesy that now that I have new cares I shall become an :
egoist,
was
and
this,
unfortunately (since anything else
impossible),
has come true.
Imagine
:
all
My month I have not written a single line God, how am I treating Katkov, my promises, my
this
!
my obligations I was incredibly because of my confession that I might view of my wife's confinement, the
words of honour, glad when,
be late in
!
Russky Viestnik announced at the end of Part of
my
novel, that the continuation
in the April, not in the
even for getting
it
I
!),
am
and not a
writing to
would follow
March number.
But, alas
!
ready for the April number
now
only twenty days remain
hind
I
single line
Katkov
is
(I
am
awfully be-
To-morrow
written.
to apologise,
—but
they
make a fur coat out of my promises. And yet I must manage to have it ready for the April number, although the time is so short. And meancan't
while, apart
regards
from
all
the
rest, all
my
money) depends on them.
existence (as
In truth a
LETTERS TO desperate position
and
nights on anxieties,
end,
I
do
59
the whole
:
in extraordinary fears, troubles
And
anxieties.
MAIKOV
But what can
!
month has passed
A. N.
I
have not slept
not only on
but because
for
whole
of
moral
account
could not help myself.
I
And with epilepsy it is awful. My nerves are upset now to the last degree. March here was disgustingly bad, in
—with snow and
Petersburg.
frost,
almost as bad as
Anna Gregorevna was
upset physically (don't for the world
Nicolayevna, for she will imagine
terribly
tell
Anna
God knows what.
Simply that Anya could not recover for a long time,
and added to She has
little
the baby
Anya
is
this,
milk.
she nurses the child herself).
We
also use the bottle.
very healthy (touch wood
beginning to go out for walks.
is
!).
It is
Still
And now
the third day of wonderful sunny weather and the first
shoots of green.
I
can hardly recover yet
Then there 's the awful trouble, money. They have sent us 300 roubles. This, owing to the exchange, is 1025 francs. But we have
from
all
this.
—
almost nothing
left.
Expenses have increased, we
had to pay our former debts, to redeem the pawned things,
and exactly three weeks from now great
expenses are imminent on account of our having to
move
into other
rooms (they are turning us out
of these because of the baby's crying), and, besides, certain
payments must be made,
—terrible!
And
DOSTOEVSKY
60
we have at least
beginning from to-day, to exist for
also,
two months before we can hope to
any more money from the Russky and when
am
I
But
Viestnik.
can get nothing from the R.V. until livered Part II,
receive
I
I
have de-
going to write
it ?
took
me
Again perhaps in 18 days, the time
it
to write the instalment published in the January
number
Your
?
very good. trouble you,
money was
of the
disposition
And though it is too bad of me to do send me the remaining 25 roubles The
here, to Geneva, if possible at once.
treme of need note in a lost,
I
50,
letter, register it, so
and send
am
—Simply
(N.B.
!
to
it
my
last ex-
put a 25-rouble
that
it
shall not
address.)
very glad that you handed over to Pasha
and not 25
roubles.
That
is
good.
I
awfully glad that he has got employment.
dear friend, look him up,
When
be
if
only
am
My
now and then
!
him that, having learnt from you that you have given him 25 roubles on credit, I have already repaid you. But I want isn't Pasha going to write me anyto know this thing and congratulate me about Sonia ? Others have congratulated me you, Strahov, the Moscow I write to
him, I shall
tell
:
:
people, Petersburg friends of
but Pasha
him
—
lately,
I sent
not only have
but
I
him about
Anna Gregorevna
I received
have had no reply to the six
;
nothing from letter
weeks ago, addressed to you
LETTERS TO you receive it
(did
On
it).
I
all
61
Somehow you did not mention
?
extremely important
point,
this
MAIKOV
A. N.
After
:
do not know whether he was in Moscow or
Did he go to Katkov ? It is very important Remember, I sent Katkov a long for me to know. I must letter of apology, solely on that account not
?
!
Can't you get to
know.
my dear friend, Fiodorovna
I
know
for the love of Christ
have
from
her
!)
me
on
Moreover,
important question about their the landlord.
quite disgustingly rude
As regards
my
will
.
.
(Emily
to
the
previous
my
extremely
flat
even me.
It surprises
.
but nothing, no
;
me no answer
occasion, she sent
!
it,
solemnly notified that
officially,
a daughter has been born to reply
the truth about
and Alonkin Indeed
it is
!
and
your other advice,
all
I
have always been of exactly the same opinion
my friend, my (perhaps my only one
myself. friend
no, I
!),
my
—why do you con-
charge on her deathbed
him
desert
?
must help him, moreover,
house
!
!
How
(You yourself didn't advise
indeed for over ten years I
And
and devoted
—
me.
no, I
sincere
me so good and generous ? No, my friend, am not so good as all that, and this troubles And Pasha poor Marie Dmitrievna gave him
sider
into
But,
could I it.)
No,
him sincerely brought him up in my I love
;
He is like a son to me.
We lived together.
own
resources so young,
to leave
him
to his
DOSTOEVSKY
62
and
alone,
—how can
however poor he
at his age,
Now
him
be, help
a great lazybones
is
it).
may
I
do
I possibly
him
was perhaps even worse
it,
—
I
leave a
now
will
that he
is
am awfully, And
him do some work.
let
embrace and
—
True,
remember
To
And
all,
I myself,
his heart
in his later development.
awfully glad of I
(I
he should be supported.
now employed and works for himself, you
must.
I
but in truth
;
good and pleasant impression on help
After
it ?
kiss as a brother for
having
gone to Rasin and secured the post for him there.
... As for Emily Fiodorovna,
there again
brother Misha
And
is
concerned.
indeed you do
—
know what he was to me all my first conscious moments No, you
not
!
Fedya
who
is
is
my
godson, moreover he
he
is
it is
a young
possible, I
man
;
from
yourself,
my
dear friend,
my
know
don't
!
a young man,
And
in
must help at times
everything ought not to
—
too hard).
And
why do you make
your-
be thrown on his shoulders,
self
is
life,
earning his bread by hard work.
his case, if only (for
my dead
it is
out to be so practical and egotistical
:
didn't
you lend me 200 roubles and didn't you lose nearly 2000 roubles by my brother Misha's death and the failure of the review Yet I should not have !
broached these subjects.
At any
your advice perfectly correct. there
's
rate, I consider
—And
a very appropriate proverb
as for myself, :
'
Don't boast
LETTERS TO when going
have been harping on
And how can
on.
And
to war.'
MAIKOV
A. N.
my
63
say this because
I
and so
obligation to help
what
I tell
I
going to happen
is
to myself?
However has become
ugly,
Petersburg
would
mental
God
my
If
?
be
it
me
to permit
fits
I
am
is
my
for instance,
memory.
you write about Russia, and
perfectly true that
it
—what
me
as part of the
all
.
.
very happy.
not worth while
is
only the whole that should
.
especially
paying attention to various particular cases
impetus and aim, and
my
positively losing
your mood (rose-coloured), makes It
to return to
occur here so often,
like there ?
faculties,
All that
abroad
you know that at times I of what will happen to my health
pleases
it
living
to me, do
think with fear
when
however beastly
:
it is
be considered,
the rest
is
its
bound to come
tremendous regeneration which
is
taking place under the present great Sovereign.
My
friend,
do,
and you have at
ing,
you
really look at things exactly as I last expressed
what
I
was say-
saying aloud three years ago, at the time I was
editing the review
namely of the
:
;
but
it
was not understood,
that our constitution
Monarch
the Monarch.
for the people
is
the mutual love
and of the people
for
This principle of the Russian State,
the principle of love not of strife (which I believe
was first discovered by the Slavophils),
is
the greatest
!
DOSTOEVSKY
64 of
an idea on which much
all ideas,
we
This idea
shall proclaim to
about
all
wretched, uprooted
clever
was sure to end they can't
They
like that.
be reborn.
What
assistance.
is
ones,
alas
will die like that,
Turgenev, now!)
—
there
education
(Classical
Our
it.
(Take
But the newest generation look.
built.
Europe, which does
not understand anything at tribe of
be
will
it is
might
we have
be
Katkov's Lyceum
of
to
great
While
?)
here abroad, with regard to Russia I have finally
become
1
sTconiple'te moliarcmst.
(lone anything in Russia, it
is
If
any one has
obviously the Tsar
(But not on this account only, but simply
alone.
because he
is
the Tsar, beloved
people, beloved for himself
by the Russian
and because he
is
the
With us the people have given and give their love to every Tsar, and only in him do they finally believe. To the people it is a mystery, a priesthood, an anointment.) Our Westerners Tsar.
understand nothing about this selves
;
on basing themselves on
they pride themfacts,
and they
overlook the primary, the greatest fact of our history.
I like
your idea of the pan-Slav
signifi-
have
cance of Peter the Great.
It is the first I
heard of this idea and
a perfectly true one.
But there
:
I
it is
read the Golos here.
Terribly dis-
tressing facts are at times described in
it.
For
instance, about the chaotic state of our railways
LETTERS TO
A. N.
MAIKOV
newly constructed ones), about
(the
65 the
affairs in
Zemstvos, about the awful condition of the colonies.
The dreadful misfortune
that
is
we
still
have so
men of executive capacity. Talkers there are, but men who do things you can count them on few
—
your
Of course
fingers.
I
'm not referring to ad-
ministrators in high positions, but simply to officials of
all
kinds in general, a whole host of
who
needed, and
for the juries,
are not there.
whom
is
For the courts,
perhaps there are plenty of men.
But what about the railways
?
And
the other
new
It is a terrible conflict of
public services ?
men and new demands with
the old order.
not speak of inspiring them with an idea
I
do
free-
:
we have in plenty, but Russian men are but few. The chief thing the self-realisation of the Russian man in oneself that is what is needed. And how greatly publicity helps the Tsar and thinkers
— —
all
Russians,
—even
Westerners.
I
soon
railways
the hostile publicity of the
long (the
for
!
Why
is
to
have
political
Smolensk-Kiev railway
soon as possible), and also possible
us
new guns
:
as
as soon as
Napoleon increasing
his
army,
and thus running the risk of making himself unpopular with his people, at such a critical moment ?
The
devil
Europe.
Awkward,
knows why. But it won't end well for (I 'm deeply convinced of this somehow.) if
we
get
mixed up E
in
it.
If
they would
DOSTOEVSKY
66
Nor
only wait a couple of years. alone. ing,
is it
Apart from Napoleon the future
and we must be prepared
its last legs
Austria
;
in
is
for
it.
much
is
Napoleon threaten-
Turkey
;
there
proletariat, in its is
on
too abnormal a
form no
state (I only analyse the elements, but
judgment)
is
damned problem of the acute stage, in the West (which the
is
not even mentioned in the politics of the day
and, lastly, chiefly, Napoleon indifferent health.
He
won't
is
an old man
!),
in
As long
live long.
more failures, and become still more loathsome
as he lives he will be involved in
the Buonapartes will to the French,
—what
will
happen then
For
?
this
contingency Russia must prepare herself without fail
and without delay
;
for it
may come
to pass
very soon.
How
glad I
am
that the Heir Apparent has
revealed himself to Russia in such a good and
noble manner, and that Russia in
him and her love
testifies
her hopes
for him, as to a Father.
God
grant that our Alexander live happily for another forty years.
He
alone has done for Russia almost
more than all his predecessors taken together. And the most important thing is that he is so much
now the mainstay of the whole on it alone all regeneration Russian movement Oh, my friend, how I should love to is based. come back, how sickening my life is here A bad loved.
This
is
;
!
; ! !
LETTERS TO And, above
life.
my
all,
MAIKOV
A. N.
67
work does not go
right.
how
If only I could finish the novel satisfactorily,
good
would be
it
This
!
is
the beginning of
Anna Gregorevna does not
whole future.
nauseated.
And even
I
is
had acquaintances
if I
;
I don't think I
my
should go to them, I have completely lost ings,
—and yet my work does not come
o'clock every
day
feel
happy but I go nowhere and see no one.
homesick, and sincerely says she
am
my
I leave
bear-
At five two hours
off.
the house for
and go to the cafe to read Russian newspapers I
know no one here, and I 'm glad of it. meet our
to
ones.
clever
Poor
Rubbish, puffed up with self-love
some
By
!
we talked
for ten
mockingly, far
I
up,
Sh
met Herzen
I
.
.
.
and then parted.
in the street
No,
how
I
terribly
shan't go.
backward
and they understand nothing
how
Loath-
!
minutes in a hostile-polite tone,
behind the times,
they are, puffed
chance
It is horrible
Insignificant
!
!
!
terribly
puffed
!
And
up they are
read here greedily the announcements in the
papers about the appearance of the numbers of the reviews and the are the titles like
and
lists
of contents.
of contents of publications
lists
the Otechestvennya Zapiski
of flags, that
is
them anything,
true wait.
!
How strange
My
!
Yes, rags instead
dear friend, don't give
And the question as to where
to publish your things seems to worry you.
Don't
DOSTOEVSKY
68
my
be worried,
friend.
I
am
writing hastily now,
or I would have a good talk with you. idea for you
;
whole
and now
letter,
but
have an
I
exposition would require a
its
have no time.
I
I will write
This idea I conceived apropos your
soon.
And
Alexeyevna.'
laugh
I will
!
believe me,
expound
But
novel nor poem.
Sophia
serious,
do not
to you.
it
it is
it is
*
It is neither
so deeply needed,
so necessary, and so original and
new and
it is
of such
an urgent, Russian tendency, that you yourself will
be surprised
It is a pity I
to you.
not do
it
Through
in friendly talk.
it
become famous, and bring
expound the programme must do it in a letter and
I shall
!
it is
out as a book, after having previously
enormously.
— So
The book should
you have
lation of the Apocalypse ? it
you might
important that you should
published a few fragments.
given
it
up.
Certainly
it
finished
And
I
your trans-
thought you had
cannot possibly escape
the ecclesiastical censorship, not possibly
you have translated course It
it will
made me happy.
as possible
(he forgot I shall
My You
;
!)
but
;
if
perfectly accurately, then of
I received
pass.
sell
I
a letter from Strahov.
want to answer him
as soon
but as he did not give his address I shall
ask you to dear friend,
can't believe
answer him through you.
And
him have the letter. do write to me more frequently.
let
what your
letters
mean
to
me
!
LETTERS TO To-day
is
A. N.
already the third of April of the
and the 25th a single
line written
—Wholly your P.S. — For the (if
wrote to you
end of Part
line, ?
Anya
and embrace you.
love of God,
me
tell
everything
only you do hear) about The Idiot.
The
!
and / have not a
F. Dostoevsky.
must, must, must
God
style,
and we both greet Anna Ivanovna.
greets you,
of
new
Lord, what shall I do
!
Well, good-bye, I kiss
you hear
69
the last day (absolutely the last)
is
for the delivery of the novel,
not
MAIKOV
know without
finale of
—
is
fail
Part II
For the love
!
—about
I still believe in
which
Though
!
the perfect fidelity of the character
of Nastasya Filipovna.
By
the way,
many
things at the end of Part I are taken from certain characters
are
stance, General Ivolgin
your opinion
is
I
the same as that published at the
And I relied on it so much
I.
I
simply portraits,
and Kolya.
little
life,
and
—for
in-
But perhaps
quite true.
VI To A. N. Maikov Florence,
May~^,
1869.
2i(th
What
a long, long time I have refrained from
replying to your good sincere words,
only friend
!
But you
are right;
my
good and
for of all those
DOSTOEVSKY
70
whom
have happened to meet and to
I
for the last forty-eight years,
man
I consider as a
have met, during
all
after
my
live
you and you alone
Of
heart.
all
my
in the
same
intellectual conclusions
same. friend.
was
I
although
and
Even our
think the ardour of our hearts
Do you remember summer and
ago (as far as
I
our
in
begun to be strangely
Judge, for instance, from this
in the
do not
and those derived from our
experience have of late
and
(I
I,
cordial intercourse, are almost chums.
similar,
I
society, yet in heart, in
our cherished convictions
in
soul,
You and
dead brother).
we do not mix
those
these forty-eight years, I have
hardly one, hardly a single one like you
speak of
with
fact,
is
my
the
dear
last year, I believe it
I believe exactly a
year
remember, before the summer
you a letter (to which I received no answer from you for three or four months at holidays), I wrote
;
that point our correspondence was interrupted,
and when
it
started again in the autumn,
to write about completely different things
where we had stopped that
letter, at
in the
we began and forgot
summer).
the end, I wrote you,
Well, in
full
of serious
and profound rapture, of a new idea that had occurred to me, strictly for you, for your use.
(The idea occurred by
itself,
as something inde-
pendent and as a complete whole
;
but as
not possibly regard myself as the person
I could
who ought
LETTEIIS TO A. N. to realise that idea,
wished to destine
me for
born in
it
MAIKOV
71
naturally destined
I
So perhaps
for you.
it,
was
it
have already
you, indeed, as I
or
said,
or rather indissolubly connected with your image,
you had answered me immediately the summer, I would have sent you a com-
as a poet.)
then, in
If
prehensive explanation of the idea, with tails
I
;
But
I think it is as well that
you did not reply then.
it
then in this
now) that a
(I
—might
Judge
my
:
idea con-
say only a few words about
'11
of legends, ballads, songs,
series
poems, romances
little
de-
had then thought out what to write to you
to the last line.
sisted
full
—
call
them what you
like
be composed in attractive, fascinating
verses, in
such verses as can be learnt by heart
without the least
effort,
—which
is
always the case
and beautiful verses
with profound
;
here
the
essence and even the metre depend on the soul of
the poet,
and they come suddenly, completely
ready in his soul, even independently of himself.
...
I
view,
'II
make a long
makes
stone, a
digression
appearance
its
like
;
and that
the poet, as creator and maker his creation.
If
you
the creator, but
the
God
my
a virgin precious
diamond, completely ready in the poet's
soul, in all its essence
is
a poem, in
:
living
like, it is
life,
and
;
is
the
the
first
first
act of
part of
not even he
the mighty essence of
real,
who life,
concentrating his power
DOSTOEVSKY
72
in the diversity of creation here
and
there,
and most
often in the great heart and in the great poet, so
that
if
the poet himself
is
ought to agree that he
not the creator (and one
is
not, especially you, a
master and poet yourself; for indeed the creation
comes suddenly out of the poet's soul
far too
pletely, far too definitely, far too finished) if
the poet himself
rate his soul
com-
—
well,
not the creator, then at any
is
that very same mine, which begets
is
diamonds and without which they cannot be found
Then follows the poet's second act less profound and mysterious, but that in which the
anywhere.
poet
is
concerned as
artist,
—the business of cutting
and polishing the diamond which he has obtained. Here the poet
is
almost a jeweller.
Now,
in this
of legends in verse (in thinking of those
series
legends I thought at times of your poem, Clermont Cathedral) should be depicted from the very outset
—with
love and with our thought,
Russian conception, those
points being distinguished in
which at certain times and it
were concentrated
all
of
suddenly, in
all-revealing
with a
—the whole of Russian history,
moments and
it,
—and
and manifested
itself,
complete wholeness.
Such
itself
its
in certain places it as
moments can be found, throughout
the ages, ten at least, perhaps even rather more.
Well now, to a legend,
to
seize those points all
and to
tell
them
in
and sundry, but not as a simple
;
LETTERS TO chronicle, no, strict
MAIKOV
A. N.
73
but as a sincere poem, even without
adherence to the facts (but with extraordinary
clarity)
;
and to
to seize the chief point
relate it
what idea the poem was begotten, with what love and pain it was brought to light. But without egoism, without words from one-
men can
so that
self,
see out of
but naively, as naively as possible, with love for
Russia streaming forth as from a living spring,
—and nothing
Imagine to yourself that in the
else.
third or fourth legend (I
composed them
all in
mind then and went on composing them long wards)
I
Mahomet
my
after-
took the capture of Constantinople by II (and this
tarily as a legend
came
directly
from Russian
and without design
;
and involun-
by
history,
itself
afterwards I wondered, at
or con—without hesitation, scious thought— had occurred to me to connect
the
way
reflection,
it
the capture of Constantinople with Russian history,
without the faintest doubt).
To
relate all that
catastrophe in a naive and concise account
The
!
Turks closely investing Tsargrad (Constantinople)
dawn
the last night before the assault at
Emperor walking in the Palace. (' The King pacing with long .
.
;
the last
.
strides.')
The prayer before the image of Our Lady prayer
;
the assault
;
the fight
;
command
the
the Sultan with
a bloody sword entering Constantinople. Sultan's
;
the body of the last
At the Emperor
;
DOSTOEVSKY
74
searched for and found
among
a heap of the slain
and recognised by the eagles embroidered on boots
;
his
Saint Sophia, the trembling Patriarch, the
;
last Mass, the Sultan stairs into the
on
his horse dashing
middle of the Church
Having reached the middle he stops
up the
(historique).
his horse in
confusion, looks round musingly, anxiously, and utters the words
Allah
!
:
'
Here
is
the house of prayer for
Whereupon the ikons and the Communion
'
table are thrown out, the altar
mosque buried the
is
destroyed, a
erected, the corpse of the
and the
;
is
Kingdom
last of the Palaeologi
Emperor
is
appears in
of Russia with a double-headed eagle
dowry the Russian wedding Ivan III in his wooden hut, instead of a palace, and into this wooden hut passes the great ideal of the panOrthodox significance of Russia, and there is laid the first stone of the future hegemony of the East
for her
;
;
there the circle of Russia's future destinies
tended
there
;
is
laid
down
is
ex-
the idea not only of a
new world, which is renew Christianity by the pan-Slav,
great state, but of a whole
destined to
pan-Orthodox idea and to introduce a new idea to mankind.
Then comes the
disintegration of the
when the
West, a disintegration which
will
Pope
and thereby begets
distorts
Christ
finally
occur
atheism in the defiled humanity of the West.
Nor
is
this idea concerned
with that epoch alone
;
LETTERS TO I
had another
A. N.
idea, along
MAIKOV
75
with the picture of the
—
wooden hut and of the wise Prince cherishing a grand and profound ideal, of the Metropolitan, in poor clothes, sitting with the Prince, and of Fomin'
ishna,'
in Russia.
gladly settled
we
another ballad, of the 15th
— Suddenly,
in
pass to a description of the end
and of the beginning of the 16th century
in Europe, Italy, the
Papacy, art in the churches
and Raphael, the worship of Apollo Belvedere, the rumours
first
the
of
Reformation,
America, gold, Spain and England,
Luther,
—a whole vivid
picture, parallel to all the preceding tures,
of
Russian pic-
—but with hints of the future of that picture,
of future science, of atheism, of the rights of man. realised in the
Western way, and not in ours,
which serve as the source of
my
In
ardent musings
I
all
also
that
is
and
—
all
will be.
thought that the
legend ought not to end with Peter the Great, for instance, fine
poem
whom
a specially fine utterance and
needed,
—a legend based on a bold and
on is
frank point of view, on our point of view. I would go as far as Biron and Katherine and even further,
—
I
would go as
far as the liberation of the peasants
and up to the wanderings of the aristocrats all over Europe with their last paper rouble notes, and their ladies copulating
with the Borghesans, up to the
preaching of atheism by seminary students, up to the appearance of omni-human citizens of the world,
DOSTOEVSKY
76
up
to the Russian Counts
who
write criticisms and
The Poles would have to occupy much space. Then I would finish with imaginary pictures of the future of Russia after two centuries, and alongside with her of the eclipsed, stories, etc. etc.
:
—
and brutalised Europe, with her
lacerated,
Here I would not stop
tion.
You strictly
consider
and
for all this
me
certainly
.
.
mad,
have written so much
For
when
I
in a letter
;
But
I
one can't say any-
have become excited.
read in your letter that you were
writing those ballads, I was struck with wonder I
.
ought to be spoken of personally and not
thing intelligibly. see,
any imagination.
moment
chiefly because I
written about.
You
at this
at
civilisa-
wondered how
it is
:
that to us, separated for so
same idea, of the same poem, has occurred ? I was made happy by this and then I began to think Do we understand this properly, in the same way ? You see, my idea is that the ballads could become long, the
:
a
great
national
work and
would
contribute
mightily to the regeneration of the consciousness
Why, Apollon Nicolayevich, every schoolboy will know and learn these poems by heart. of the Russian.
But having and
learnt a
attitude,
poem, he
and as
abide in his soul
will also learn the idea
this attitude is true, it will
all his life
long.
and poems are comparatively
Since the verses short,
the whole
reading world of Russia will read them, as they
LETTERS TO
A. N.
MAIKOV
77
now many-
read your Clermont Cathedral, which even
—
know by heart. And therefore it is not only a poem and a literary work, it is science, it is preach-
—
an heroic
ing, it is
to write to idea, I
act.
When
you and urge you to
thought to myself
:
so that he will understand
last
work on that shall I tell it him
set to
How me
completely
suddenly, a year later, you yourself
and
with the same idea
year I wanted
?
—And
become inspired
find it necessary to write
it
!
But one thing, one thing is needed, without fail the poems must have an extraordinary poetic charm, they must carry the reader away, carry him away without fail, carry him away to the point of being involuntarily It
means, then, the idea
is
true
!
:
learnt
haps
by
all
friend
!
remember, that per-
now was only a and that only now you
your poetical career up
preface, only will
My
heart.
an
introduction,
till
have the power to utter the new word, your new
word
!
And
therefore look at the matter
more
more deeply, and with more enthusiasm. And above all, simplicity and naivete And re-
seriously,
—
member
this too
!
:
old Russian metre.
write in rhymes, and not in the
Do not laugh
!
It is important.
Rhyme now is simplicity, and the old Russian metre is academism. Not a single poem in unrhymed verse is learnt by heart. The people no longer compose songs in the old metre, but compose in rhymes. there are to be
If
no rhymes (and no ballad metre),
DOSTOEVSKY
78
—really you
me
but
;
'11
ruin the thing.
You may
you the truth
The crude truth
I tell
About Yermak say anything
In
my
!
you certainly know better than
;
!
[the conqueror of Siberia] I can't
notion, there
is
at
first
I.
the Cossack dare-
vagabondage and brigandage.
devilry,
laugh at
Then
is
shown the man-genius under a sheep-skin coat he divines the magnitude of his work and its future ;
significance
;
but only when
made a favourable There
start
and
his is
whole work has
running smoothly.
born a Russian feeling, an orthodox feeling
is
of being one with the Russian root (and
be a direct
feeling,
it
may even
something of a nostalgia), and
thence comes his embassy and homage to the great
Russian King
who completely
expresses, in the
popular conception, the Russian people. (N.B. chief
and completest expression of that conception
reached
its full,
when, to I
am
—The
ultimate development, do you
my thinking ?
In our century.
know
Certainly
speaking of the people, and not of putrefied
seminarists and aristocrats.)
But enough of this now. I only believe this that you and I agree in ideas, and I am glad of it. Please send me something of what you have written, and if possible, send me a good deal. I shall not :
misuse
it.
You
yourself can see that
me to the point of agitation. You will ask why didn't :
I write to
it
interests
you
for so
— LETTERS TO But
long ?
but were
;
further, then there
But
my
I
should
I
am
nostalgia fall
with
ill
is
I
would be a great deal to
were by myself,
It is a
good thing that
Anna Gregorevna, who
as
you know
is
These expectations
(We have Anna Gregorevna's
mother staying with us now, and is
tell.
if I
such, that
of anguish.
us both.
state this
Chiefly
and to explain
to speak
again expecting to be confined. agitate
79
silent for so long, that I find
have been
even to answer the question.
it difficult
nostalgia
I
MAIKOV
A. N.
necessary.)
It
Anna's present
in
was a great disappoint-
ment to me to have to remain in Florence, when a month ago we had decided to move to Dresden. It ended in All this happened for lack of money.
my
promising a story
to
the
Zarya.
[Strahov] (who
My is
be a very short one
(it will
dear
Nicolay
x )
Nicolayevich
perhaps cross with
me now)
arranged that affair (he gave 125 roubles to Marie
Gregorevna Svatkovsky to pay interest (60 roubles),
and the remaining 65 roubles he divided between
Pasha (25 roubles) and Emily Fiodorovna (40 roubles)
;
and besides he promised to send
Now
on receiving the money by that date
for the
by a
means of moving to Dresden. little
by 1
here,
definite date).
to Florence, 175 roubles I relied
me
contretemps.
But there was a
Instead of sending the
registered post, the
Zarya sent
The Eternal Husband, published
in Nos. 1
it
and 2
money
through an of
Zarya> 1870.
DOSTOEVSKY
80
agency, and I received
(Because it
it
was not posted,
altogether
find
me
at
;
all
for the
Thus, for a fortnight,
send
In Dresden
off
;
it is
I shall
work without lifting But generally there 's The heat in Florence
a suffocating city, burning
The nerves of all of us are on particularly bad for my wife. We hot.
the present
moment (and
the smallest, tiniest I
am
little
edge,
—which
are crowded at
room, facing the market.
and now because of the
heat and the overcrowding I can't even
for being feel like
is
en attendant) in
all this
sick of this Florence,
to work.
By
a novel to the Russky
a mass of troubles and worries. getting awful
I sent
the Russky Viestnik.
my head from the grindstone. is
failed to
to take us to Dresden.
relief to
I shall
Viestnik. 1
agency might have
we spent some more money, and
we had not enough a request for
late.
almost missed getting
I
in Florence.)
expecting money,
January
ten or twelve days
it
sit
down
On the whole, terrible nostalgia, the worse everything here makes me in Europe ;
a beast.
I
have decided at
all costs
to
return to Petersburg next spring (when I finish the novel), I
—even
if
they put
do not mention
me
in the debtors' prison.
spiritual interests
;
but even
material interests suffer here, abroad. for instance, this circumstance
:
my
Imagine,
no matter how,
1 The novel is The Possessed, which, however, did not begin to appear in the Russky Viestnik until January 1871,
LETTERS TO my
works
and
fourth, is,
I shall
I
dise.
(all
not argue now)
Why
not publish
now, and chiefly
What
one special reason. ago
anyhow good merchan-
is
for certain that a second edition will
just the time
's
—
did I do
I
it
then
want
?
to for
Six weeks
?
gave Marie Gregorevna Svatkovsky the follow-
I
ing commission seller
:
to call on A. F.
and publisher] (with a
Basunov [book-
letter of introduction
from me) and to give him this message undertake to bring out The Idiot ready by next winter, price
81
The Idiot (whatever he
fifth edition.
know
MAIKOV
of them) have gone into a third,
be sold out in a year. It
A. N.
—2000 roubles
(I
if
he took
?
it
Won't he (It would be up now.) The :
even thought of letting him
he paid the money down).
The
have
it
legal
and formal aspects of the agreement need not
for 1500, if
postpone matters
:
and
for I could send a formal
duly certified authorisation from here.
asked
I
Marie Gregorevna just to ask Basunov, without specially urging him, to say yes or no,
know
here.
quite
aware how
hitherto
—then it
If the
and what
it is all
my
is
mind.
is
selling
merchandise they
right, I don't
me
no (although he
books have been
sort of
let
are),
publish myself when I come back and I shan't be the
loser
by
it.
It
seems that
a difficult one, was in
answer
and
it ?
my
I shall
commission was not
It could
have been done
two minutes, by two words with Basunov. F
What
BOSTOEVSKY
82 then
now six weeks and
It is
?
I
have not heard a
word from Marie Gregorevna. Yet I asked her to do this (the first request in my life) simply because she herself eagerly offered to do any commissions for me in Petersburg, when she was in Switzerland
am
solely because I
thing
A
!
my
Thus
year.
last
do without, have been did
I or
not
I
tell
And not
abroad.
number of
great
obviously
interests
left
you that
things,
suffer,
only this one
which
cannot
I
behind in Russia I
had a certain
Did
!
literary
idea (a novel, a parable on atheism), compared with
which
my
all
previous literary career has been
a preface merely, and to which
negligible,
going to devote I
cannot write
it
must be
absolutely can't write
it.
And what worries
.
.
my here
subsequent ;
utterly
impossible
ovna
It
!
to me.
me
may
What were spared me
I
they
Apollon
!
his quarrels
be nonsense
:
me about
with Emily Fiodor-
but
it is
important
Yet Emily Fiodorovna has not written
the other day
what
I
a mass of
!
a word about Pasha, but she sent
notions.
;
.
Nicolayevich, for the love of God, write to
Pasha and about
But
life ?
Without Russia
in Russia.
a mass of troubles
If only
!
all
am
I
full of
reproaches.
me
a letter
They have queer
True, they are poor, but I can do only
I can.
.
.
.
Listen, Apollon Nicolayevich, I
have a favour to ask you.
If
you can
—do
it,
if
;
LETTERS TO not
—refuse to do
it.
my
request
his
I
shop and to ask him
The
to publish
Idiot,
:
Is
's
about that
call
on him at
It
he or
is
he not disposed
me
and to give
not great
is
beseech you to
83
God don't
for the love of
a delicate one.
is
same Basunov.
And
Yet the trouble
trouble yourself.
but
MAIKOV
A. N.
2000 roubles
With Alexander Fiodorovich Basunov, as perhaps you know, you may talk frankly. Moreover, you are to make no efforts, and particularly don't try any special coax-
for it?
don't want to take
(I
—only—in a arose — Basunov
ing,
friendly likes
less.)
—
way
if
a conversation
asking advice
—say a —don't
good
But above all show any particular eagerness. Having learnt what he says write to me. That 's all I ask. I 'm sure, I 'm sure you won't refuse my request
word
The
for
Idiot.
—
(it 's
a very important thing to me, in spite of the
fact that I
he says not
is
do not wish to reduce the price
no,'
lose, I
there I
4
'11
—well,
that
publish
it
and
myself, or I
wait).
'11
I
was going
Won't she be offended by asking you and passing her over ? At the same
to write to
my
this
her promise secrecy, although
informed her at the same time that
you about
But
It is this.
affair.
had commissioned Marie Gregorevna to do
made
if
as he pleases, I shall
one delicate point in the
very thing, and I
's
;
time,
why
it.
should she be offended
?
Especially as
she knows that. you were to hear about
it
from me.
:
DOSTOEVSKY
84
And
besides
the time to me.
—she
hasn't replied to me, although
and the business
passing,
is
important
is
would only write to say that she did
If she
not want to undertake the commission, then at
my
least
hands would not be tied
no word from all
right
were to
I
;
At
her.
mean,
it
all
but
events I think
I 've it 's
wouldn't be a bad idea
on Basunov,
call
;
for instance,
quite
if
And
?
you
and ask him
whether he had received any proposal from about publishing The Idiot
had
then,
if
me you
thought the conversation was taking a good turn,
you spoke to him about the terms.
if
this
is
yevich
my !
Well now,
earnest request to you, Apollon Nicola-
If
you can, do
it,
I
beseech you.
ask you to conclude the business
(it
I
do not
cannot be
concluded, for an agreement and a power of attorney are necessary), but only to begin
know about scold
it, if
only a
and reproach me
line.
it,
and to
let
me
Only please do not
for troubling
and worrying
—
you constantly. I consider it necessary, though, to tell you that one of these days I am going to write to Marie Gregorevna and to ask her to proceed no further in the matter with Basunov, and to consider I
my
request as never having been made.
should have written this to her, even
if I
had not
But the best you would take
intended to ask you about Basunov. of
all,
the best of
all
—would be
if
the trouble to see Marie Gregorevna herself and
LETTERS TO
A. N.
MAIKOV
85
Has she done anything in my But I am or has she forgotten about it ? trouble you it means too much running
simply ask her business, afraid to
:
;
about for you.
hope to leave
I still
Dresden again. Will
for I
;
me
;
remain in
if I
have already written about
But
this is
it
to
an extreme
do hope to leave soon for
I really
Dresden, and therefore (I shall
me in Dresden
to Florence,
the Dresden post-office. supposition
soon and go to
Letters addressed to
be forwarded to
Florence
this place
if
you wish to write
be eagerly expecting a
letter),
write to
me me
at the poste restante, Dresden.
In truth
we have
move
to
to Dresden for
urgent reasons, and chiefly because familiar to us,
Gregorevna hopes to
it is
the place
is
a city
we even where Anna
and comparatively cheap
have friends there, and
will
it
many
;
realise her expectations
(it
be towards the beginning of September). Anna
Gregorevna thanks you deeply for your good words she often remembers you and feels homesick.
I
;
am
very glad that her present occupation will to some extent
dispel
her homesickness.
Good-bye,
my
have written three sheets, and what have
friend.
I
I told
you
?
Nothing.
We
have been separated
we have lost touch with one another on many questions. Some
too long, and because of the separation
idea of
all
that
is
taking place in Petersburg reaches
;
DOSTOEVSKY
86
me.
I
have the Russky Viestnik, Zarya, and
the Golos which
taken in by the
is
I read
local library.
How do you like Danilevsky's Russia and Europe ? In my opinion the book is important in the extreme but I am afraid it has not received enough attention in the reviews.
I consider
work of the
best
in raptures
regard
it
a
year.
now
;
little
Averkiev's Comedy the
At the
first
reading I was
after the second I 've
more
cautiously.
hand firmly and embrace you. your
begun to
I press
—Wholly
your
and ever
F. Dostoevsky.
VII
To A. N. Maikov Dresden, ^th August, 18G9. I
am
absolutely delighted
shall certainly write letter,
my
dearest
(But
Nicolayevich.
by your opinion and
without waiting for your long
and precious friend Apollon remember,
remember,
man, that you promised me a long Firstly, I
my
letter
thank you for your thought about
interests.
dear
soon
!)
me and
1 .
.
.
Next year (even if I have to go to the debtors' prison) I must return to Russia. Yes, things have
now taken such
a turn that
it 's
better for
1 The letter then enters into details ahout Postoevsky's aunt which are omitted here,
me
a will
to
sit
made by
LETTERS TO
MAIKOV
A. N.
87
the debtors' prison in Russia than to remain
in
My
abroad.
and
fits,
health
can bear
I
is
kinds of trouble
all
were to remain here a year longer, prised
if I
write
I
were able to write anything
well,
it
my
quite good, leaving aside
but write
at
it
all
of touch with Russia.
I feel it.
also longs for Russia, I
can see
—
;
but
if I
should be sur;
don't
I
mean
got so out
I 've
Anna Gregorevna Besides, the loss
it.
of one child (a child such as I have never seen, so strong,
beautiful,
feeling) fall in
was due
so
solely to the fact that
with the foreign
babies.
we
If
both shall
fall
lose the
and
of understanding
full
way
we could not
of feeding
one which
is
and rearing
we
expected,
Anna Gregorevna
into real despair.
expects her confinement in three weeks at the latest. 1
I
am
Her
terribly afraid for her health.
first
confinement she bore courageously.
it is
a completely different thing
:
she
This time is
seedy
all
the time, and besides she feels nervous and anxious she
's
seriously afraid of dying in childbirth
remembers the pains of the fears
first
(when she
childbirth).
and anxieties are truly dangerous
very anxious.
The second 14,
child,
18G9/
I
am
By the way my wife greets you and :
your wife affectionately.
September
Such
in natures
which are not timid and weak, and therefore
1
;
become impressionable and, added to this, she 's
Lubov
She remembers you often
or Aimee,
was born at Presden, on
DOSTOEVSKY
88
and passionately, she thanks you for your congratulaon my novel, and we decided, eight months ago,
tions
to ask
you to stand godfather
Nicolayevich, do not refuse
Nicolayevna,
In general
an awful
lot of troubles
—
for the
is
for the
will
but
happen
;
know better than you how you spend summer, and I knew beforehand that you would I
me
before the autumn.
lines of information
a reproach.
It
Yes
'
or
4
No
'
putting on you,
the business
;
Yet there was
expect to receive two
I did
from you.
I
don't
;
I did
my
and
it
—simply
yes
'
or
*
no,'
been interesting selling the
it
as
;
a matter of
not even dare dream of
dear man, the whole burden of
wouldn't have been decent on
part to trouble you in such a way. i
mean
was with regard to Basunov and
the publication of The Idiot,
the
since I wrote
Ideas I have of some
later ?
one point about which
my
months
eight
need Russia.
I
not write to
4
Russky Viestnik
I shall certainly start writing in a fever
Of course the
sit
Zarya [The Eternal Husband],
[The Possessed]. ... It
but what
Anna
nevertheless I have to
;
and then begin a long thing anything.
to be
is
whom you know, —my wife's mother.) I am having a very worrying time and
down to write
;
our great fixed
it is
;
(The godmother as before
desire.
sort
Pray, Apollon
again.
Still,
just
with Basunov's views, would have
though
I
am
work now. Later on
—
not very keen on it
may perhaps suit
LETTERS TO me
better
A. N.
—and apart from
MAIKOV
this, in
have other aims and intentions
may,
I
any for,
;
89
now come what case, I
have decided to return to Russia next year.
One more
my
favour,
word about Pasha
I
!
dear friend
am
in anguish
thinking and pondering over him. his salary
—
!
1
a
and torment,
know he has
only he continues his work
if
me
Write
but
;
I
At the present spare but in a month
should like to help him awfully.
moment I haven't a penny to or five weeks I shall send
which, owing to
more than
Then
I 've
my
story to the Zarya,
length, will, I believe, fetch
its
had
I shall again
;
advance from the Zarya.
in
be able to give Pasha a small
sum (a little is better than nothing). God knows how much I shall need money myself by that time. The Dostoevskys have probably received some money and will not need help from me for some time.
Write to
Write to
me
promised long letter reaches
me
also
about that,
my dear friend.
about yourself.
letter.
I
Write
me
the
think by the time this
Petersburg you will have returned
from the country. I press
your hand firmly,
you know, at times
I
it is
your wife.
have an idea that we have
touch with one another
and that
I greet
much more than we
Do lost
think,
already difficult to communicate our
ideas fully in letters.
—Wholly and ever your F,
Dostoevsky,
DOSTOEVSKY
90
VIII
To A. N. Maikov Dresden, Jf£ 21st
Your
prised me, I
my dear and much-esteemed Apollon
letter,
Nicolayevich,
—
have been
—a
which delighted and
letter
I 've left
unanswered
down to some troublesome work, finish it at all costs. And therefore
didn't even read anything
newspapers,
is
all
;
so that I
am
;
work, stories
I
beforehand.
There
it
it
more disgusting to me than
literary
impossible,
the writing of novels and
strictly,
is
first place,
what
I
have come to
it is
will
it
fully in
I
As
for the
a
when
it is
punish you twice
In
letter is quite
be punished enough
are inclined to read the novel,
Then why should
!
not worth explaining.
to express
and you
You wrote
—there
to
nothing
mean
—that
me
which draws is
idea of the novel,
the
months
but speaking generally
in the world
I shall
for another six
sick of
of course something in it
I 've
only the beginning of the novel
have to write day and night
write
that time (except
Russky Viestnik [The Possessed] and
at least
but
letters,
The work which
of course).
taken so long over
is
now because
till
not only failed to answer several
for the
sur-
sitting
and wished to I
October, 1870.
if
you
published.
?
a great deal about St. Nicholas
—the
— LETTERS TO He
Miracle-Worker. St.
Nicholas
not desert
will
91
because
us,
the Russian spirit and stands for
is
We are no longer children,
Russian unity. I,
MAIKOV
A. N.
much-esteemed Apollon Nicolayevich
for instance, this fact
:
that in case,
you and we know,
;
—not only of
a Russian disaster, but in case merely of Russian
—the most un-Russian —a Radical—a Petersburg
part of Russia,
troubles,
official,
even they become Russians, begin to Russians, although they
mitting
Last winter
it.
may
or a student feel
themselves
be ashamed of ad-
happened to read a
I
serious admission in a leading article in the Golos
that
4
we almost
at the success of the Allied
No,
of our own.' far as that
my
War
arms and at the defeat
Radicalism did not go so
at that time I
;
Crimean
rejoiced during the
—
was
serving
still
my
time in the galleys and did not rejoice at the success of the Allies
but together with
;
unhappy ones
x
and
my
comrades, the
their soldier-guards, I felt
my-
self
a Russian, I wished success to Russian arms
and,
—although
I still retained a strong leaven of
scabby Russian Liberalism, preached by dung-beetle Bielinsky and the rest, sider myself inconsistent, in myself.
when
—
.
.
.
like the
I
did not con-
I felt
the Russian
True, the facts showed that the disease
which had attacked cultured Russians was much 1 The convicts and exiles in Siberia are called the people.
'
unhappy ones by '
DOSTOEVSKY
92
more
violent than
we
ourselves had imagined, and
that the matter had not ended with the Bielinskys,
Krayevskys,
But then came the miracle testiThe devils had entered into the
etc.
by St. Luke. man and their name was fied
Him
legion,
and they asked
Suffer us to enter into the swine,
:
The
suffered them.
and He
devils entered into the swine,
and the whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea and were drowned. When the people
came out out of
to see
whom
what was done they found the man,
the devils were departed, sitting at
the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and
who saw
them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed. Exactly the same has happened with us in Russia. The devils went out of the Russian and entered into a those
herd of swine, viches, etc. will
told
it
—into the Nechayevs, Serno-Solovio-
[terrorists].
These are drowned and
be drowned, and the healed man, from
the devils had been cast out, of Jesus.
So
is
sitting at the feet
ought to happen.
it
whom
Russia has
spewed out the abomination on which she has been surfeited, and certainly nothing Russian was left in those spewed-out scoundrels.
my
dear friend
:
And
observe
he who loses his people and
nationality, loses also the belief of his fathers,
God.
Well,
if
the theme of
you want to know,
my
this,
novel.
—this
It is called
is
and
precisely
The Devils
LETTERS TO The Possessed
[called
and
lation],
it is
A. N.
MAIKOV
93
in the existing English trans-
a description of
how
these devils
Beyond all doubt I being more of a poet than an shall write it badly artist I have always taken themes beyond my entered into a herd of swine. ;
But
powers.
who
since not one of all the critics
have passed judgment on
me
has denied
me
a
certain talent, then in this long novel too there are likely to
that
be passages that are not so bad.
's all.
And clever
in Petersburg there
still
seem to be many
people who, although they are horrified
the scoundrels into still
Now
whom
go on dreaming
how
by
the swine have entered, fine it
was during the
liberal-humane times of Bielinsky,
who
still
think
that the enlightenment of that time should be
brought back.
Now,
this idea
can be seen even
in the
newest nationalist converts,
fellows
do not give in
:
etc.
The
old
the Plescheyevs, Annenkovs,
Turgenevs, and whole journals like the Viestnik
Europa are of this school.
They go on giving
prizes
books
in girls' schools, distributing to the girls
like
the works of Bielinsky, in which he bewails the fact that Tatyana remained faithful to her husband.
No,
it
won't be uprooted for a long time, and there-
fore, it
seems to me, we have nothing to fear from
external political commotions, such as, for instance,
a European war on behalf of the Slavs
;
although
DOSTOEVSKY
94
we are alone, and they are all of them together. The present position allows us two or three years of certain peace shall we realise our position ? Shall we prepare ? Shall we build enough railways and fortresses ? Shall we get another million rounds of ammunition ? Shall we it is
strange
:
—
on the border
firmly
settle
territories,
and
will
reforms be introduced into the poll-tax and the recruiting for the
army
These are the things that
?
are needed, and the rest, that unity,
—
all this exists
be so strong,
and
sacredness that even
the Russian
will endure,
and
spirit, it will
have such wholeness and
will
it
is,
we
are impotent to fathom
the whole depth of that force, to say nothing of foreigners
power
;
and
—my idea
is
that nine-tenths of our
consists just in the fact that foreigners
do
not understand and never will understand the depth
Oh, how clever they are
and power of our unity. I
have been assiduously reading
years
all
their
What
for the last three
the political papers, that
portant of them.
own
affairs
!
!
is,
the most im-
How remarkably well they know How they can foretell events !
a knack they have of hitting the nail exactly
on the head
!
(Compare them with our
papers, with their imitative rubbish,
—with
all
political
imitation
the exception perhaps of the Moscowskya
Viedomosti.)
What
touch on Russia,
then
—than
?
No
sooner
do they
they start muttering the
!
LETTERS TO knows what,
devil
MAIKOV
A. N.
a feverish
like
man
95
dark
in the
know the star Sirius more thoroughly than they know Russia. And this very thing, for a time, is our power. And the other power will be our own belief in our individuality, in the sacredness of our destiny. The whole In Europe I think they
destiny of Russia
from
lies
which
the East,
in
will
Orthodoxy, in
the light
suddenly shine forth to
Western humanity, which has become blinded and
The cause
has lost Christ.
of the whole misfortune
of Europe, everything, everything without exception,
and
has been that they gained the Church of lost Christ,
and then they decided that they
would do without Christ.
Conceive now,
my
even in such superior Russians
friend, that
Rome
instance, the author of Russia
and Europe,
not met with this idea about Russia
—
dear
as, for
I
have
this idea of
And
her exclusive Orthodox mission to mankind. if
this is so,
—then
it is
really early as yet to
demand
independent thought from us.
But
I
have gone too far into the wood, and
on the fourth page already. to work, I
am
my
livering
too
I live
I
—and suffer because of
evna too
is
to do.
ought to return in the spring
still
I
no money,
—not
;
so that I
in de-
have broken
promises,
depressed
am
somehow, try
much behind everywhere
work, everywhere
I
my
Anna Gregordo not know what it.
;
—but
I
have
only not enough to pay
my
;
DOSTOEVSKY
96 debts, but not
enough even to get back home.
have few acquaintances
I
many
here, yet there are as
Russians in Dresden as there are Englishmen.
Rubbishy people, these Russians speaking, I mean. there
is
about
My
.
.
among them
And,
.
my
generally
are,
God, what trash
And why do they wander
!
? little girl is
healthy, well-nourished, weaned,
she begins to understand well and even to speak
but she
a very nervous child, so that
is
for her, although she
spected friend,
when you
why do you
you know.
And he is lous
on
give
me
am
afraid
greatly re-
so few details
write about Pasha, about such an event
as his marriage if
My
healthy.
is
I
?
I
For the love of
me
have had no news from Pasha.
Of course,
dear to me.
my
Christ, tell
it
would be
ridicu-
part, at this distance, after a separa-
tion of three years, to claim to have an influence on his decisions.
;
but he
character.
and If
me
it
is
sad.
I
who married when he was
Misha,
Pasha
Still
is
have a cousin,
still
younger than
a very intelligent boy, a boy of
But Pasha
is
different
—in
character,
in the smallest matter of self-discipline. will
make
greets
you.
you can write anything to me, you very,
Luba
very
kisses you.
—Wholly your
grateful.
My
wife
Good-bye, keep well and happy. F. Dostoevsky.
DOSTOEVSKY BY HIS WIFE ANNA GREGOREVNA DOSTOEVSKY
REMINISCENCES OF
G
F.
M.
:
REMINISCENCES Anna Gregorevna Dostoevsky,
nee Snitkin,
had been
She finished her training 's secretary at a time Dostoevsky became and in 1866, when he was hastily finishing The Gambler. During the whole of October 1866, she wrote to his dictation. They were married on February 15, 1867, in a style which gave much satisfaction to the bride. She
trained as a shorthand writer.
describes the scene in her Reminiscences, in a passage as yet unpublished 1
Fiodor Mihailovich arranged things well
:
the
church was lighted brightly, a splendid choir sang, there was a crowd of beautifully dressed guests
but
all this I
me
learnt only later, from
;
what had been
up to nearly half-way through the were in a mist, I crossed myself mechanically and my answers to the priest's questions were scarcely audible. I did not even notice which of us was the first to step on to the
told to
ceremony
pink
cushion
silk
was the
for
;
I felt as if I
first
;
—
I think that
for I
Fiodor Mihailovich
have given way to him
all
my
It was only after the Communion that head became clear, and that I began to pray ardently. Afterwards every one told me that during the wedding ceremony I was terribly
life
long.
my
pale.
.' .
.
The couple months
later,
left Russia, originally for
Dresden, two
on April 14, 1867, intending to remain 99
DOSTOEVSKY
100
away
months.
for only three or four
Circumstances,
however, some of which are sufficiently indicated
in
the letters to Maikov, delayed the return until the
At
spring of 1871.
and very homesick,
March
18, 1871, to
that time Dostoevsky was very as
may be
ill
seen from his letter of
N. N. Strahov
:
have been ill for some time, and above all I have felt homesick after my epileptic fit. When I have not had a fit for a long time, and then it suddenly breaks out, then I feel an unusual nosIt drives me to despair. talgia, a moral one. Formerly this depression used to last about three days after the fit, and now it lasts seven or eight days ; but all the time I have been in Dresden my fits have been less frequent than anywhere else. '
I
Secondly, there
is the
longing for work.
I
am
worn out with the slowness of my work.
almost
must go
I
to Russia, although I have got quite unaccustomed
But, after
to the Petersburg climate.
happens, return J must.
come
off,
.
.
.
My
not know.
difficulty.
But
At whatever
I
cost I
think
What it is
whatever
writing does not
Nicolay Nicolayevich, or
with terrible
all,
it is
produced
—
means I do need for Russia.
all this
my
must return to Russia.
.' .
.
In his letter of February 4, 1872, to S. D. Yanovsky, six months after his return to Russia, he writes : *
I
spent
four
years
abroad
—in
Switzerland,
Germany, and Italy, and got terribly sick of it in the end. With horror I began to notice that I was behind Russia ; I read three papers, and but there was a something spoke with Russians which as it were I did not understand. I had to falling
;
'
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE come back and
see with
my own
101
Well, I
eyes.
Ve
returned, and found nothing particularly puzzling in a couple of
again
But
own
I shall
understand everything
!
Dostoevsky desired to return to Russia for his was still more anxious to do so on account In a letter to A. N. Maikov, Dostoevsky wife. if
sake, he
of his writes *
months
;
:
to remain in
Dresden
for
another year
possible, quite out of the question.
just killing
It
Anna Gregorevna with
which she has no control, since hers
is
im-
would mean
despair, over is
a genuine
case of home-sickness.'
was something more, perhaps, than home-sickness for Madame Dostoevsky 's existence was one of incessant work, incessant anxiety. The following pages show some of her troubles but it should further be remembered that during the last fourteen years of Dostoevsky 's life, the most intense and productive years of his creative activity, Anna Gregorevna was not only his wife and true friend, but also, as the It
;
;
—
—
Reminiscences indicate, his assistant, shorthand writer, publisher, financial adviser,
and business manager.
The Reminiscences of Madame Dostoevsky, for the year 1871-1872, are taken from three of her notebooks found in the Poushkin Department of the Russian
Academy
of Sciences in Petersburg.
OUR RETURN TO RUSSIA Our return to Petersburg, for over four years,
on July
8,
From
after
IN 1871
an absence abroad
took place on a hot summer day,
1871.
Warsaw
the
cathedral of
had taken
Holy
place.
station
we drove past the
Trinity, in
which our wedding
Both Fiodor Mihailovich and
myself crossed ourselves, and seeing us do this our little
baby daughter [Lubov]
the cross. '
I
also
made
the sign of
remember Fiodor Mihailovich saying
Well, Anechka,
we have
lived happily these four
years abroad, despite the fact that at times
has been hard.
foresee a
is life
Everything
to give us ? I
What
in a mist before us difficulties,
we stand on our own
God's help only do I rely
hand ?
is
!
'
life
in Petersburg going
good many troubles,
worries before
:
—
*
Why
feet.
!
and
On
worry before-
remember answering him. Let us rely on God's mercy. The chief thing now is that our long-cherished dream has been realised, and we are
'
I
again
in
Petersburg,
again
in
our mother
country.' 103
;
DOSTOEVSKY
104
Various feelings agitated us both. vailed a feeling of boundless joy. early youth
had dreamt about
was so happy in going
there,
I,
me
pre-
who from my
in Europe,
and
for the last
two
life
had
In
years of our stay there not only grown cold to foreign countries, I
Everything
abroad
customs, manners
but
had come to hate them almost.
I
hostile.
—
language,
religion,
people,
—seemed to me not only foreign,
missed Russian black bread, deep
snow, sledges, the sound of Russian church in a word, everything that I
to from
my
childhood.
have been accustomed
saw that Fiodor Mihailo-
I
vich worked without sparing himself; that
bells
and
I
saw
now and then he received large sums of money
but, as a considerable part of
;
had to be given to
it
our relations, and interest had also to be paid on the articles I lost
we had pawned when we
left for
abroad,
hope of being able to save any considerable
amount
to
pay over to our
to Petersburg, to prevent at the outset,
creditors,
on our return
them from worrying us
and to get time to look round and
what we could do to improve our entangled cumstances. returning
I perfectly
home and by
I
It also
cir-
understood that only by acting in person, and not
through intermediaries, could we affairs.
see
seemed to
me
settle
our financial
that in Petersburg
might find some work for myself, as stenographer,
or translator, and thus be able to bring in a certain
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE thought that
also
contribution.
I
house, in the
Kostromsky
my
mother's
which was
Street,
tended for me, would pass into
my
105
hands.
case our liberation from our debts
in-
In that
would proceed
meant to sell the house immediately, to pay the most pressing debts, and to discharge the rest by instalments from the money received for Dostoevsky's novels. That is why I more
much wished
so
And
to go back to Russia.
yet
kinds of obstacles to our return cropped up
all
constantly,
we had not sufficient money Russia and to make our own home.
and
to go back to
A
I
successfully.
finally,
sum happened to be due to us and yet we could not manage to go home. This was due partly to the fact that we anticipated in the very large
;
near future an addition to the family, partly to the fact that our
baby was too young to take to Russia
the winter.
in
There were never - ending
culties of all sorts in the
way
diffi-
of our return, and at
came to the firm conviction that if we did not away from Germany, we should be doomed to
last I
get
remain
'
emigres against our
so intolerable that
I
will.'
This idea was
agreed in anticipation to
impending misery and misfortune of every kind, provided only they happened at home. I
experienced in
ness
meant, and
enemy
to
my own I
would
case
In a word,
what home-sick-
not wish
meet with that misfortune.
my
worst
I did
my
'
DOSTOEVSKY
106
my
best to hide from Fiodor Mihailovich sickness
my
and
depression
be concealed from bility of saving
was a great self
missed Russia very
And
The
impossi-
the misery of living abroad
Fiodor Mihailovich him-
grief to him.
so deeply.
but could anything
;
his penetration ?
me from
home-
much
he always loved her
:
he was haunted by a
besides
tormenting idea that by living abroad so long he
would
forget
Russian
life
her,
would
and Russian
understand
to
cease
In other
actualities.
words, he feared that he would himself
fall
a victim
to the thing with which he had once reproached
Turgenev.
'
You
can't
know
from the news-
life
papers alone,' he would say to me.
*
A
writer
should not leave his country for a long time, he should live one
And Fiodor
life
with her
;
otherwise he
is lost
!
Mihailovich was alarmed lest such a
long absence might have a bad effect on his literary talent,
career
And
might ruin him.
was everything
well as his only
life,
his vocation, as
One overwhelming joy when
means of making a
can therefore imagine favourable
in his
truly his literary
his
enabled
circumstances
living.
us
to
return
home. This time I
we
did not allow the consideration that
expected an addition to the family in the very
near
future
to
us
stop
Dostoevsky was born
in
[Fiodor
Fiodorovich
July 1871, a week after
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE the return].
But our
feelings of joy
also with apprehension as to
our
out
We
affairs.
107
were mingled
how we could straighten
owed
about
twenty-five
thousand roubles, and our whole fortune, on the
day of our arrival, consisted of sixty roubles in cash and two trunks bought abroad. In one of these were Fiodor Mihailovich's clothes, his manuscripts
and notebooks children's.
in the other
;
When
how much
think
I
think back on
spiritual
needed to begin a new
On
our arrival
it
two days.
I
in such circumstances.
at the Commercial
Konyushenna
To
now,
Street,
and stayed
stay on there was inadvis-
view of the coming addition to the family,
able, in
and
life
all
it
energy and power was
we stopped
Hotel, in the Great there for
—my things and the
we moved Ekaterininsky Prospekt, where we
did not suit our
to a house in the
means
either
;
so
floor.
We
chose that neighbourhood in order that our
little
took two furnished rooms on the fourth
girl
might spend the hot days of July and August
in the
Yussupov Park, which was quite
close at
hand.
During the very
first
Mihailovich's relations
received
them
all
days of our arrival Fiodor
came
to see us,
very cordially.
last four years the position of
and we
During these
Emily Fiodorovna
Dostoevsky had changed for the better
:
her elder
DOSTOEVSKY
108
son, Fiodor Mihailovich (the
'
junior,' as
our
rela-
him from my husband, Fiodor Mihailovich senior '), had given many
tions called him, to distinguish '
well-paid music lessons
work
Mihailovich, had had
Ekaterina
her second son, Mihail
;
Mihailovna,
bank her daughter, had some kind of
in a
;
also
Consequently the family had lived
occupation.
Moreover, Emily Fiodorovna
quite comfortably.
had during that time become accustomed to the idea that Fiodor Mihailovich, having his
own
family
to keep, could assist her only in exceptional circum-
only one 4
who
'
he called Fiodor Mihailovich,
make
married
*
was
to keep not only him, but also his family.
But him too to
the
could not rid himself of the idea that
his father,' as
obliged
Isayev was
Pavel Alexandrovich
stances.
I received kindly,
because
the acquaintance of his wife,
only
April
in
of
Nadezhda Mihailovna Isayev
that at
I
happened
whom he had
year.
I
first sight,
liked
and, in
we became She was a good-looking woman,
spite of the slight difference in our ages,
friends at once.
not
tall,
very modest, and not stupid
could not possibly understand
why
so that I
;
she had decided
to choose for her life-companion such an impossible
man
as Pavel Alexandrovich Isayev.
cerely sorry for her I
foresaw that her
;
life
for,
knowing
I
was
sin-
his character,
was not going to be happy.
Eight days after our arrival in Petersburg, on
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE
109
July 16, at 9 o'clock in the morning took place the expected event Fiodor.
birth of our elder
son
I
began to recover, we had our boy bap-
his
godfather being Apollon Nicolayevich
When tised,
—the
1
Maikov, who acted in the same capacity to our
For
two daughters.
his
godmother Fiodor Mihailo-
vich chose our daughter Lyubochka,
who was not
yet two years old.
At the end of August, Fiodor Mihailovich went
sum of money, not a very big sum, but enough to make it possible for us to move from the furnished rooms to a flat. The chief problem was our lack of furniture, which we had to get before taking the flat. The idea occurred to me of going to the off to
Moscow and brought back a
certain
Apraxin market and of asking the dealers there they would agree to
sell
if
us furniture for monthly
payments of 25 roubles, the furniture to be considered the property of the dealer until the whole
sum was
paid.
to these terms 1
On
dealer there,
and
let
Lubimov, agreed
us have at once goods to
may add I felt ill up to July 15th. Fiodor who prayed the whole day and night for the happy issue
this subject I
Mihailovich,
my
One
me
:
afterwards that during his prayer he decided if it were only ten minutes before midnight, to call him Vladimir, in honour of St. Vladimir, who is commemorated on July 15th, and not Fiodor as we had intended. But our son was born on July 16th, and was called Fiodor, the name so dear to me. of
that
if
labour, told
a son was born,
"
DOSTOEVSKY
110
the value of 400 roubles. things they were
The
!
But, Heavens, what
furniture
was new
but
;
was made of birch or pine and, not to speak of its absurd style, it came from such a bad market, it
became unglued and fell to pieces. In the end we had to throw it away and to replace it by new stuff. But even for that furniture I was grateful. It enabled us to that after three years of use
have our own
flat
;
was unthinkable, the
it
rooms
for living in furnished
close proximity of tiny babies
preventing Fiodor Mihailovich from either sleeping or working.
Having arranged the matter of furniture I began looking for a flat, and in this Isayev offered his assistance. That very evening he announced that he had found an excellent
—eight
rooms
flat
the very low rent of 100 roubles per month. don't need such a large at
all large,'
flat,'
answered Isayev.
I said. *
You
'
will
We
It isn't
have a
drawing-room, study, bedroom, and nursery shall
—at
4
have a drawing-room, study, bedroom
;
we
;
and
we shall share between us.' Do you suppose that we are to live together ? Why not ? I told Nadya that when " my father came back we should all live together.' This time
the dining-room
'
'
'
had to talk to him seriously and to convince him that circumstances had changed and that / would I
in no event agree to our living together.
As
usual,
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE
111
became impertinent and threatened to complain to Fiodor Mihailovich. But I refused to Isayev
had not spent four years of independent
I
listen.
for nothing,
life
and when Isayev turned to Fiodor
had decided must
Mihailovich, he received the answer that he left
everything to
hold good.
me
forgive I
took
a
me and whatever
I
For quite a long time Isayev could not for upsetting the plans flat
in
Serpuhov
he had formed.
Street,
from Mme.
Archangelsky, and signed the agreement in
name
my own
so as to relieve Fiodor Mihailovich of the
necessity of negotiating with the landlady,
the
house-porter, etc.
The
flat
consisted of four rooms
:
a study
(in
which Fiodor Mihailovich slept on a divan), a drawing-room, a dining-room, and a nursery in
which
I also slept.
In arranging the house I com-
forted myself with the thought that I should not
have to buy many household things and clothes
;
we left Russia our things had been disamong various people for safe-keeping.
for before
tributed
And
soon after I recovered from
my illness,
I
began
to busy myself with getting these things together.
But here unpleasant
came one after the other. It began in this way. I went off to my mother's house, in which an old maid called Olga surprises
Vasilievna had been living for
was an extremely honest woman
many ;
years.
and to her
She safe-
DOSTOEVSKY
112
my
keeping
mother, three years previously, just
before she went abroad to
pay us a short
had entrusted various household tress it
samovars,
effects,
To
copper utensils, glass and china.
my
great dis-
turned out that a few months previously
Olga Vasilievna had died, that as she was a
woman
visit,
single
a country cousin had turned up and buried
and that the magistrate had ordered that
her,
all
the effects found in the house should be sold in order to defray the expenses which the cousin
had incurred on the lodgers in the house,
who knew that Olga Vasilievna
was only taking care of our said
'
told
she
things.
knew nothing about
who had
There were people,
funeral.
that,'
But the cousin but
if
she were
entrusted Olga with the goods and
what they were, she would return them. And thus she took away all our things with her to the country. I
wrote to her, to Torzhok, but received from her
only a pair of malachite ear-rings and a tea-caddy,
which she admitted had not belonged to her aunt.
As to the other
we should
late
things, she suggested that
bring an action against her in court for
their recovery.
Of
course, I brought
The other unpleasant
action.
was the history of
surprise
my china and glass, which I
no
my sister Marie may say that my
charged
Gregorevna to keep for me.
I
was a great connoisseur and expert in china. He loved to go round the antique shops and to father
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE buy beautiful
things.
After
beautiful old cups of Vieux-Saxe
to me,
and
also
some old
death
his
118 several
and Sevres came All these
cut-glass.
things were kept in a special cupboard, and I felt sure that they were safe.
When my
pened.
sister
But
what hap-
this is
returned from her
summer
holiday in the country, and was setting her house-
hold things in order, she told the parlourmaid to
wash the things and
included,
in
the
my
cupboards,
specially asked her to
things
be careful with
my things
as they did not belong to her.
And then
the maid,
whom my
for
sister
had scolded
some-
thing and threatened to sack, deliberately, out of spite, in
order to pay
my
sister out, in
the presence
chambermaid and cook, threw the whole huge tray on the floor, with such force that everyof the
thing was smashed to smithereens, and not a single thing could be glued together.
made
it
up
to
me by
and other crockery
;
Certainly,
sending
me
little
on them, and also the tea-glass with a painted on
it
that every one
would invariably try to remove alive.
back. us
all
And
I
sister
a tea-service
but even now
with regret the cups with the
my
I
remember
shepherdesses fly,
so vividly
who drank from
it
was would pay a good deal to get them it,
imagining
it
The impressions of childhood remain with our life long. It was just my luck that the
maid's spite should have been vented on these
DOSTOEVSKY
114
things of mine, and not on those of
had given her the proverb I
was
4
There
scolding.
my is
sister
who
truth in the
Misfortunes never come singly.'
:
also greatly distressed
by another
surprise.
During the whole four years of our stay abroad Fiodor Mihailovich used to send Praskovya Petrovna (the
mother of Vanya, the natural son of Fiodor
Mihailovich's
brother
— Mihail
Mihailovich Dos-
money to pay the interest on the which we had pawned on leaving Russia
toevsky) things
my
(Fiodor Mihailovich's fur coat and
fur cloak),
and we congratulated ourselves that we should only have to redeem the things and not to spend
much money on buying warm
—mine
and Fiodor's
whom
had asked to bring us the pawn-
our sorrow Petrovna,
Imagine
clothes.
I
brokers' receipts,
came
to us
—when
and told us with
in her eyes a story (perhaps false) of
been paying the interest
all
Praskovya
how
tears
she had
the time, but had for-
gotten to pay the last instalment, and that our things were
now lost. She
things back
never
;
fulfilled.
but
all
True,
cried,
promised to get the
these were
we owe
empty promises,
her thanks for having
returned to us the pawnbrokers' receipts for the gold and silver things
we pawned.
had to lie there pledged for another we managed to redeem them.
When we
left in
These things
five years before
1867 for abroad, for three months
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE we moved
only,
115
certain articles of furniture (the
bed, a large chest of drawers filled with cushions
and blankets, Fiodor Mihailovich's library, etc.) to Emily Fiodorovna, in whose flat Isayev at that There were also stored the old
time was settled.
icons of the Saviour
and Our Lady
which had been presented to
When
was arranging the
I
my
fetch
He
icons.
how
I married.
asked Isayev to
brought them to
told a
had had a dozen
had robbed him, how
home he found
once when he returned
me—but
Thereupon he
his landlady (he
landladies in four years)
silver
me when
flat I
without the silver frames. story of
in silver frames,
that the
frames were missing, what steps he took for
As to
their recovery, the proceedings in court.
the furniture, cushions, blankets, he said that he
had taken them
for his
money he had been also sold all
;
and as to the
selling
one book after another.
books presented to Fiodor Mihailo-
with autographs and dedications by their
vich,
When
authors.
the
family
he candidly confessed that as he had no
library,
He
own
declared that
thing ally ?
:
'
we
turned
Why
hadn't
As
we were
if
loss of
round
on
me and
ourselves were to blame for every-
strong, lazy fellow
The
expressed regret at the loss of
Isayev
library
4
I
we
sent
him money punctu-
obliged to keep a robust,
!
Fiodor Mihailovich's library
we
felt
DOSTOEVSKY
116
particularly keenly.
remember how, when we
I
Fiodor Mihailovich longed for his
lived abroad,
books, and I comforted him with the assurance
that the library was perfectly safe and that he
would have
now came
it
back on
—irreparable
the loss
And
his return to Russia.
to us
for our
:
up to the death
financial circumstances, right
of
Fiodor Mihailovich, were such that we never had
means to acquire a decent
And
library again.
Fiodor Mihailovich was justly proud of his old library,
on which he had spent large sums of money
every year.
To judge from
the
bills
the bookseller, the library contained
works
;
for instance, it
the Old Believers. for a
mere song.
market,
I
was
And
of Basunov
many
serious
rich in the literature of
had been
all this
sacrificed
Later on, in the Alexandrovsky
chanced to find one of the books sold by
Isayev which had belonged to
me
;
a book which
had been given to me as a prize when I passed from one class to another in the Maryinsky Gymnasium for Girls.
In the book remained the
the inscription setting forth the to
whom
name
the book had been given.
fly-leaf,
with
of the person
Of course
I
bought the book back.
by which we had, accidents, to pay for the
These are the kinds of through most incredible
losses
four years spent abroad.
Yet not
all
the surprises were unpleasant.
There
;
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE came
to light one circumstance which gave
117
me great
In the winter of 1871 I happened to pay a visit to my cousin, Dr. M. N. Snitkin. In the spring of that year he had married Ekaterina
joy.
Ippolitovna, the sister of Mme. Saint-Hilaire.
When
she heard about our misfortunes with regard to our things, Ekaterina Ippolitovna said to
heard from
my
sister
me
:
'
I
Ve
Sasha (Alexandra Ippolitovna
Saint-Hilaire) that at the top of her house there
was a basket of papers belonging to your husband.* I began to question her, and it turned out that about three years before Fiodor Mihailovich junior had 4
asked
Mme.
'
Saint-Hilaire's permission to leave with
her, for a short time, a wicker
his uncle's papers.
He
basket containing
himself had disappeared
but the basket remained with them. sent for the basket.
laundry-basket, packed
Next day
;
I
And
there arrived a large
full
with papers and note-
books, not locked but tied with a thin string.
My
ecstasy can be imagined when, examining
the contents of the basket, I found several note-
books by Fiodor Mihailovich, several books of
memoranda relating to the conduct of the reviews Vremya and Epocha, left by Mihail Mihailovich and a mass of most varied correspondence. These recovered papers more than once served us a good turn in our subsequent life, when it was necessary to prove or refute certain facts in the life of Fiodor
DOSTOEVSKY
118
Mihailovich which had been
As
1867. ture,
appeared
it
later, Isayev,
When
ovna's house, he did not
4
junior,'
safe-keeping with friends. it.
before
on our depar-
letters
to do with
over to her son, Fiodor
forgot about
me
the basket there, but as she
left
know what
to
and notebooks he moved from Emily Fiodor-
took that basket of
to his rooms.
unknown
And
it,
she handed
who
placed
it
it for
then every one
had occurred to me that Fiodor
It
Mihailovich might have notebooks and manuscripts of an earlier period
—for instance, of the period when
he wrote his Insulted and Injured or The House of the Dead. And it seemed to me another basket
must be in existence, a basket also taken by Isayev, and from him passed through several hands, now lying in somebody of papers and manuscripts
else's attic,
forgotten
began to look after I could
it.
not discover
by everybody until the mice But in spite of all my efforts
it.
The Beginning of the Struggle with the Creditors In September 1871 a newspaper announced to the public Dostoevsky's return from abroad, and
thereby rendered us no good service.
Our creditors,
hitherto silent, at once presented themselves, de-
manding payment.
The
first,
and a very formid-
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE was G. Hinterlach.
able one,
owed him nothing
119
Fiodor Mihailovich
personally, nor
was
it
a debt
contracted during the run of the reviews.
a debt of the late Mihail Mihailovich's,
It
was
my husband's
when he was in the tobacco trade.
brother, contracted
[This tobacco business ceased to exist in 1861.]
In order to stimulate the sale of his firm's tobacco, Mihail Dostoevsky advertised in the papers that
every box of cigars of a certain kind contained a prize,
—a pair of and
penknife,
so
customers, and at
But
cess.
a razor, a needle-case, a
scissors,
These
on.
first
attracted
the scheme was a great suc-
as the choice of prizes
customers soon began to of boxes
prizes
fall off
had to be stopped.
was
limited, the
and the despatch
The
prizes consisted
exclusively of metal articles which Mihail Dostoevsky
bought from the wholesale dealer G. Hinterlach (Nevsky, opposite the Gostiny Dvor, in the courtyard).
The
latter sold
and on
bills
at a high rate of interest.
him the goods on
subscription to the review fully,
Vremya went
credit
When
the
off success-
Mihail Dostoevsky paid Hinterlach in
full,
having always considered him the most exacting of his creditors. his
death
his wife
had at
(in
And
three or four days before
July 1864) Mihail Dostoevsky told
and Fiodor Mihailovich with joy that he last settled
sucker Hinterlach.'
everything with
And when on
'
that blood-
the death of
DOSTOEVSKY
120
Mihail Dostoevsky
all his affairs
devolved on Fiodor
Mihailovich, and against his will he had to take
over the
liabilities
of the review Vremya,
—Mme.
Hinterlach came to
him and said that Mihail Dostoevsky owed her about two thousand roubles. Fiodor Mihailovich remembered what his brother had said about his having paid his debt to Hinterand informed Mme. Hinterlach of this. But she said that this was a separate debt, and that she had given the amount to Mihail Dostoevsky without lach,
having received any acknowledgment from him.
Mme.
Hinterlach
implored
Fiodor
Mihailovich
pay her the 2000 roubles or to give her a she assured him that if she failed to get a her husband would make it very unpleasant
either to bill
;
bill,
She
for her.
cried, fell
on her knees before Fiodor
Mihailovich, went into hysterics. vich,
who always
believed
her,
in
first bill
1867, but the second
bill,
arrival.
He
for
honesty,
bills,
of 1000
had been paid before amounting with four
years' interest to 1300 roubles,
Hinterlach
human
and gave her two
The
roubles each.
believed
Fiodor Mihailo-
was presented by
payment immediately
after
our
sent a threatening letter, and Fiodor
Mihailovich went to him to ask for a postponement till
the
New Year
(1872),
when he was
to receive
money for his novels. Fiodor Mihailovich returned home in utter despair. Hinterlach declared that
— REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE
121
he was not going to wait any longer and decided
our movables, and
to attach all
if
the latter were
not sufficient to cover the debt, he would put
Fiodor
Fiodor Mihailovich in the debtors' prison. Mihailovich said to him in
'
:
'm
If I
sitting in prison,
one room together with other people, away from
my
family,
shall I
how
be able to work
shall I
be able to pay you
possibility of
working
?
if 4
'
?
How
you deprive me of the Oh, you are a famous
Fund
will get
you out immediately,' said Hinterlach.
Fiodor
author, and I reckon the Literary
Mihailovich,
who had no
particular respect for the
Committee of the Literary Fund as constituted at that time, expressed his doubt about getting any
body and declared that even him such assistance, he would
assistance from that if
they offered
;
rather go to prison than accept
Fiodor Mihailovich and
In the evening
it.
I discussed
the matter for
a long time, and decided to propose to Hinterlach the following
new arrangement
:
to
pay him
50 roubles down, and monthly instalments of 25 roubles,
and have half of the debt discharged
coming year.
With that
offer
Fiodor Mihailovich
paid Hinterlach a second
visit,
utterly
a
After
disgusted.
Hinterlach had said to him gifted author,
small
and
I
want to
and came home
long :
in the
conversation,
Now, you are a show you that I, a '
German shopkeeper, can put a famous Russian
DOSTOEVSKY
122
author in the debtors' prison, and be sure, to do
it.' *
I
behaviour to
we were
was revolted by
my
in the
dear husband
;
I
mean
this impertinent
but
I realised that
hands of a scoundrel and had no
means of getting rid of him. Foreseeing that Hinterlach would not stop at mere threats, I decided to try to arrange the matter myself, and
without saying a single word to Fiodor Mihailovich
my
about bidden
intention (he would certainly have forI
it),
went
me arrogantly and said on the will
received
Either you put the money
table, or in a week's
time your movables
be attached and sold by auction, and your
husband I
*
:
He
Hinterlach.
off to
settled in "Tarasov's
answered
coolly, that
our
House."
flat
'
2
To
this
had been taken
by me, and not by Fiodor Mihailovich, and was registered in my name (and I had done this to prevent my husband from being troubled with household worries, negotiations with the landlady and house-porter, etc.)
allow ture, I
my
and therefore
;
things to be attached.
had bought
furniture dealer,
not be attached.
it
on credit and
it all
He
Mihailovich's clothes
As
I
should not to the furni-
until I paid the
belonged to him, and could could attach a few of Fiodor
;
but these would fetch too
1 It must be said that after their victory in the Franco-Prussian war all Germans living abroad became extremely arrogant and tried to show the superiority of their nation over other nations. 2 The debtors' prison was so called in the vernacular.
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE small a
sum
lease of the flat
and a copy of
lach's threat
about the debtors' prison,
he
if
I
my
As to Hinter-
agreement with the furniture dealer.
him that
As proof
to be worth the trouble.
showed him the
123
I said to
and Fiodor Mihailovich
fulfilled it
were compelled to go to prison,
if it
were only for
my
word of honour, Herr Hinterlach, that I shall go down on my knees and pray my husband to remain in prison up to the time when the date of your bill has expired. 1 I shall take rooms myself close to the prison, I and the children will visit him daily, and I shall help a few days,
him
in his
'
Then
you
I give
Certainly, if he stays in prison
work.
with others in one room, difficult to
my
husband
will find it
work, but with God's help he will get
accustomed to
it
and
will
work.
But
as for you,
Herr Hinterlach, you won't get a brass farthing,
and besides you tenance."
be as
a
I say,
I give
be obliged to pay his " main-
you
and you
your obstinacy.'
my
will
my
will
1
it will
all
be cruelly punished for
Hinterlach began to talk about
husband's ingratitude, and said he had waited
a long time for his money.
me
word that
;
I
This finally revolted
was beside myself, and said
4 :
No,
it is
you
The imprisonment of a debtor extinguished the debt. For a sum would have to sit in prison, if I remember right,
of 1300 roubles one
either nine or fourteen months.
A
2 creditor at that time had to pay in a certain sum of money to the debtors' prison monthly to feed and keep his debtor, and this
was called 'maintenance.'
DOSTOEVSKY
124
who
should be grateful to
given a
husband
for having
to your wife for a debt which had
bill
perhaps
my
been
paid
She had had no
already.
my
acknowledgment from Mihail Dostoevsky, and
husband was under no obligation to make himself responsible for the sum.
giving a
Fiodor Mihailovich,
to your wife, acted out of generosity,
bill
out of pity
your wife cried and said that
for
;
you would curse and reproach her your cruelty
But don't think that go unpunished. If you dare to
will
you threaten to
make
very best to
do, I
it
in the
on
my
part will do
things unpleasant for you
shall describe the affair
publish
eternally, if she
from him.
failed to get a bill
act as
in
Syn
with
all
my :
I
the details and
Let every one see
Otechestva.
what the so-called " honest Germans " are capable People will recognise you under an invented
of.
name, and shall
if
you take proceedings against me,
prove that
I
have written the truth
;
I
there are
witnesses in whose presence your wife implored
Fiodor Mihailovich to give her the In a word, picking
my
I
was beside myself and spoke without
words, just to give vent to
powering anger against the man.
more than once of
my
bill.'
in
my
anger, this time
the
German was
him
in the
life I it
And
my
over-
although
have been the victim
was of
frightened of
real service to
my
me
:
threat to expose
newspapers and, after thinking for some
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE me what
time, he asked
same terms
my
in detail
'
The very
husband asked you to grant yester'Well, give the money, then,' said
day,' I said.
Hinterlach.
wanted.
I
125
I
asked him to put
on paper and sign them
down our terms
;
for I
was afraid
that he might take back his words, and begin tor-
A
menting us again. turned
home with
complete conqueror,
the document in
I re-
my pocket,
and
with the knowledge that thereby for some time at least I
my
my
had secured
dear husband's peace and
own.
But before creditors
I tell
about our struggle with our
and the incredible
efforts
(lasting for another ten years,
of
my
dear husband) which
attempt to pay
off
and
difficulties
almost until the death
we encountered
in the
our debts, I want to say a few
words about how those debts, which tormented us both so much, had mounted up.
Only a very small part of them (two or three thousand roubles) had been contracted by Fiodor Mihailovich himself for his personal needs.
Partly
they were debts incurred by Mihail Dostoevsky in connection with his tobacco business,
mentioned above.
But
in
which
I
the main they were
debts contracted for the running of the reviews
Vremya and Epocha, which were published by Fiodor Mihailovich's brother, Mihail Mihailovich.
DOSTOEVSKY
126
In 1864 Mihail Mihailovich died, after a short of three days only.
was
left
without any means.
Mihailovich,
who had been
children, considered
and as
debts,
His family (a wife and four
accustomed to
children),
little
it
illness
his
it
live
comfortably,
And
then Fiodor
a widower with no
left
duty to pay
his brother's
were to clear his brother's memory
from reproach, and also to support
With these noble
his
family.
objects Fiodor Mihailovich de-
cided to sacrifice his talent (by changing
it
into
small coin), his powers, and his time, and to take
on
his shoulders the load of a business completely
unfamiliar to him (the publication and running of
the review Epocha).
Having become
editor of the
paper, Fiodor Mihailovich had inevitably to take
over the
liabilities
of the review, namely, the debts
to the paper manufacturers, to the printers, binders,
who
as well as those due to the authors their
works in the review.
Fiodor Mihailovich
might possibly have been able to intentions, if caution
published
realise his noble
and even a
slight business
capacity had formed elements of his character.
But these
qualities
altogether.
On
honesty.
lacked
the contrary, he had the com-
pletest trust in people
human
Mihailovich
Fiodor
and a
When
from eye-witnesses of the
sincere conviction of
later
on
I
heard stories
financial obligations
which
Fiodor Mihailovich had incurred, and learnt from
;
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE many
old letters the details of
127
such instances, I
was astounded at the utterly childish unpractically of my dear husband. Every one, who had no conscience and was not too lazy, deceived him and dragged money or bills out of him. During Fiodor Mihailovich had no
his brother's lifetime
connection with the business side of the Vremya,
and was ignorant of the exact
But
Mihail Mihailovich.
financial status of
death people
his
after
began coming to Fiodor Mihailovich, some, perfect strangers to him, declaring that the deceased owed In most cases they did
them such and such sums.
not present to Fiodor Mihailovich any proofs of the
and Fiodor Mihailovich,
correctness of their claims,
who
believed in
human
honesty, did not even think
of asking for proofs or of
He would all
just
only will
I
merely say
now
;
but
if
1 :
you
ask you not to
their
any money at
1 haven't
can give you a
like, I
bill
demand payment soon
pay you as soon as
bills,
documentary evidence.
I can.'
;
I
People took the
promised to wait and, of course, did not keep promises,
but presented the
mediate payment. ness of which I
I shall cite
happened to verify from documents.
Vremya.
vich asking for
for im-
one case, the correct-
There was one insignificant writer B. stories in the
bills
money
had not been paid
for.
He came to for
some
He
who
published
Fiodor Mihailo-
stories of his
which
put the amount owing
DOSTOEVSKY
128
him at 250 roubles. As usual, Fiodor Mihailovich had no money (the subscription money had to
been received by Mihail Mihailovich, and the further subscription ceased),
moved,
money went
and he
offered
thanked
to the family of the de-
him a
Fiodor
B. was deeply
bill.
Mihailovich
earnestly,
promised to wait until things improved, and asked for
an undated
bill,
so as not to be obliged to take
proceedings, as he would be
if
the date were fixed.
Imagine
Fiodor Mihailovich agreed.
his astonish-
ment when, in two or three weeks' time, the bill was presented for payment, and attachment of his property was threatened. Fiodor Mihailovich went to B. for an explanation.
indignation over the see,
my
affair,
landlady pressed
threatened to turn
me
B. expressed extreme
and said
me
:
Reduced to
flat.
extremity, I decided to give her your it.
I
am
having placed you in such a situation
As a
the matter,' etc. etc.
Don't you
hard for money and
out of the
promised not to present
'
bill,
and she
in despair at ;
result, in
I will
arrange
order to save
our property from attachment, Fiodor Mihailovich
had to bill.
raise
About
'seventies, I
money
at
heavy
eight
or
nine
interest to
years
pay that
later,
in
the
had on one occasion to go through a
mass of documents, papers, and notebooks kept by Fiodor Mihailovich. Among the notebooks were also
books of memoranda relating to the Vremya.
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE Imagine
my surprise and indignation, when
I
129
found
same sum of money which had already been paid him by Mihail Mihailovich, and also a note signed by B. in which he acknowledged the receipt of an advance of 60 roubles on B.'s receipt for this very
account of a story which he undertook to write. I
showed
all
these documents to Fiodor Mihailo-
His reply was
vich.
:
'
not have thought
I could
What
he was capable of deceiving me. be brought to by necessity In
my opinion
a
man may
' !
a considerable part of the financial
obligations shouldered
of a similar nature.
by Fiodor Mihailovich were
In this
way
a debt of about
twenty thousand roubles had accumulated and, with the ever-growing interest, twenty-five
in
paying
off this debt.
It
life
all
the
we were engaged
all
our debts were
and that we could begin to breathe
off,
last
was only one year before
Fiodor Mihailovich's death that paid
and
thousand roubles,
thirteen years of our married
amounted to
it
freely
without fear of being tortured, threatened, attacked, etc.
Moreover, for the payment of these, partly
fictitious
beyond
debts, Fiodor Mihailovich
his powers, to
work
had to work
hurriedly, sometimes
running the risk of spoiling an imaginative work,
and
terribly
he was doing.
tormented by the thought of what Fiodor Mihailovich, myself, and
all
our family had to deny ourselves not only pleasure I
DOSTOEVSKY
130
We
and comfort, but our most urgent needs.
had
work hard during the whole time of our married life, concentrating all our thoughts on getting to
How much happier, comfortably my poor husband
quit of the tormenting debts.
and more
easily
and
could have lived these fourteen years, and I too, if
hung over us the worry of we had had money, Fiodor Mihailovich
there had not always
debt.
If
would not have been compelled to
offer his
work
to editors, but could have waited until they came to
him and
with
all
offered to
buy
well-to-do writers
Pisemsky,
etc.
Had
:
need
hurriedly, as he
case
Turgenev, Ostrovsky,
he not had those debts and
the resulting cares that oppressed his Mihailovich
was the
his novels, as
not
spirit,
have written
was compelled to
Fiodor
his
do.
He
works could
have gone carefully through them, polishing them, before letting
them appear
in print
;
and one can
imagine
how much they would have
beauty.
Indeed, until the very end of his
gained in life
Fiodor Mihailovich had not written a single novel
with which he was of this
satisfied himself
was our debts
;
and the cause
!
And when I think of my life, there always arises I can understand the moral in me a bitter feeling. satisfaction
when you pay your own
debts.
You
remember that once some one helped you out of a tight corner, helped you in an anxious moment,
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE
131
and you are delighted at the possibility of paying
them back with feeling arises in
But quite a different heart when I have to pay
gratitude.
my
other people's debts, the debts of
have never known 1864,
—and
above
extorted from
joyful
my
I often
tences.
my
—Mihail
life
I
Dostoevsky died in debts,
fictitious
all,
man whom
a
on
bills
dear husband under false pre-
thought how far happier and more
would have been
those eternal troubles
:
had not had
if I
where to get by such and
sum of money, where pawn this or that thing,
such a date such and such a
what amount to
and
for
how
to arrange so that Fiodor Mihailovich should
not get to
know about a
visit
from
this threatening
creditor, or should not discover that I
Truly
that article.
my
was darkened by
life
these affairs and worries, on
wasted,
my
my nerves
them
my
youth was
were shattered for ever. I think that at least half of these
and therefore half of our
miseries, could
have
been spared Fiodor Mihailovich and his family,
amongst
all
health suffered because of them, and
And when debts,
had pawned
his friends
if
and acquaintances there had
been found one or two good men,
who would have
cared to advise Fiodor Mihailovich in these practical
him,
matters which were so totally unfamiliar to it
has always seemed to
(and, to tell the truth, cruel)
me
inconceivable
—that Fiodor Mihailo-
DOSTOEVSKY
132
vich's friends (nomina sunt odiosa
1
knowing
),
his
purely childish unpractically, his extreme trustfulness,
his
ill-health
and complete
insecurity,
could allow him to act in person and alone in this
up the
business of clearing
liabilities
of the review
after the death of Mihail Dostoevsky.
the
friends
•
'
Could not
foresee that Fiodor Mihailovich, so
unpractical and so trustful, was in this case bound to
make
Could not
irreparable mistakes ?
my dear
'
have formed among them-
selves a group to help
him to investigate the business,
husband's
'
friends
to settle the claims and to
debt
I
?
am
been formed, at
many claims would
'
friends
not have appeared
would have had to be submitted No, among Fiodor Mihailo-
to a proper control. vich's
proofs of each
convinced that had such a group
as they
all,
demand
'
and
man was found who
'
admirers
'
not a single good
cared to sacrifice his time and
power and thereby to render him a true
friendly
Of course they were all sorry for Fiodor Mihailovich, and sympathised with his impossible words, but all their sympathy was position service.
'
;
words, words.' It 1
may
friends
'
perhaps be said that Fiodor Mihailovich's
were poets, novelists,
critics,
and what
could they have understood of practical matters 1
Anna Gregorevna has
greatest friends
— N.
?
evidently in view Dostoevsky's twc N. Strahov and A. N. Maikov.— Tr,
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE Could they have given him practical advice surely they were not 'sixties),
133
But
?
raw youths at that time (the
and they managed
their
own
affairs
superbly. It will
perhaps be said that Fiodor Mihailovich
wanted to be independent, and would not have
welcomed such assistance from an absolutely
this is is
false idea.
his friends.
But
The proof of
this
the readiness and the complete confidence with
which he transferred
all his
business affairs into
hands, and listened to and adopted
all
my
my
advice,
although at the outset he naturally could not
me an experienced business person. But trusted me and just as profoundly did he trust
consider
he his
;
friends
also,
and certainly would not have
refused their assistance
had
it
been offered to him.
Yes, this has always astonished
could explain to myself these
my
and in
'
me and
friendly
'
I
never
relations,
soul there has always remained a bitter
and resentment against
feeling of dissatisfaction
those
*
friends
'
of
my
dear husband.
II
SUPPLEMENT ave already mentioned that when our creditors learnt of our arrival from the papers, they just threw themselves on us.
From
their point of view
DOSTOEVSKY
134 they were right
for they
;
had been waiting a
But what
time and wanted to get their money. could
we
at once
do, if
My
?
we had no means
ately in order to
for
pay
me, and of
off
selling it
my
for
;
brother's marriage,
In November 1871 also
abroad.
away
to
Rome
my
hand over the houses, concerning
it,
to
sister,
who
mother,
ill
May
with typhus in 1872.
1,
intended
We
had
tc
thu.
1
And in the spring
the spring.
a terrible calamity befell us fell
my mother's
as well as all the account}
my till
Marie
in the spring, tc
return to Russia in January 1872. willy-nilly to wait
remained
whole winter
for the
She had promised, on her return
mother, on
still
Gregorevna Svatkovsky, who managed house, went
immedi-
our more pressing creditors,
could not be realised at once
my
of satisfying them
hope of obtaining the house which
had been intended
account of
long
all
:
my
Rome and
After her death
it
sister Mari<
died there
oi
transpired tha
Marie had transferred her power of attorney
fo
management of my mother's houses to he husband and the latter, in his turn, had trans ferred it to a person who was unworthy of th
the
;
trust.
In the course of three or four years
gentleman, having pocketed
all
the income derive
from the houses, did not consider
pay the
rates or the taxes.
were accumulated, and
my
thi
it
Thus
necessary
t
large arreai
mother's houses wei
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE To our
ordered to be sold by public auction.
we had no means
misfortune,
to
135 great
pay the arrears
and thus to save the houses from the enforced sale. Yet we reckoned that the houses would fetch a good
price,
my
and that
mother would
receive,
on the houses, a consider-
after paying the debts
able sum, part of which she
would give
me
instead
But something completely unexpected happened. The gentleman who managed the houses entered into fictitious agreements with persons he had suborned, to whom of the
house intended for me.
he alleged he had
maximum
let
the houses on lease, for the
by
period allowed
had received the rent due
law, ten years,
is
to
This
for all that period.
transaction transpired only at the auction
obvious that no one was to be found
;
and
and
it
who wanted
buy houses from which no income was to be
derived for ten years.
bought our houses
And then
the scoundrel
amount of the arrears due to the Government and the comparatively small sum of debts resting on the property (about for the
ten thousand roubles),
—thus
having managed to
acquire for 12,000 roubles three houses
and two
large annexes, the value of
less
40,000 roubles.
It
penny was left to
than
turned out in the end that not a
my mother,
myself, or
my brother.
we could have taken proceedings; but to do this money was needed, and we had
Certainly, in order
which was not
DOSTOEVSKY
136
And besides, we had to deal with a clever swindler who managed to arrange things correctly from the legal point of view so we should hardly have won the case. Besides, by taking legal action, we should have had to involve also my sister's none.
;
husband, and this would have ended in a quarrel,
and we should have been deprived of the bility of seeing
of
whom we
sister's
four orphan-children,
Having weighed
were very fond.
the possibilities, ings,
my
possi-
we decided not
all
to take proceed-
and to reconcile ourselves to the
loss of the
But how hard it was for me to bear the blasting of this, the most solid of my hopes of improving our difficult situation But the utter hopelessness of this affair only became clear to me houses.
!
finally
a couple of years later
for at first I
;
cherished the hope of receiving a certain
still
sum
of
money and thus paying our most urgent debts. At first I allowed the creditors to carry on negotiations with Fiodor Mihailovich, who insisted on it. But the results of those negotiations were disappointing
the creditors were impudent to him,
:
threatened to distrain on our household things
and to put him
in the debtors' prison.
After such
negotiations Fiodor Mihailovich would be driven to despair,
would pace
ruffle his hair
on
his
room
for hours,
would
his forehead (his habitual gesture
in great agitation),
and repeat
:
'
Well,
what
are
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE we
do now
to
often follow a
?
'
And
the next day there would
of epilepsy.
fit
was
I
terribly sorry
without telling him,
for Fiodor Mihailovieh and, I
137
decided not to allow the creditors to see him, but
to take all this annoying business
on myself
The servant was ordered once and opening the door to a asleep,' or
4
caller, to
the master
is
please speak to the lady
the morning
me
come
to
were
bill
till
12.'
?
all,
when
the master
'
is
not at home, so will you
She
What
always at home in
is
strange types used to
during those days
brokers
say
for
alone.
!
In most cases they
who bought bills for a mere nothing
and demanded payment
in full, all sorts of civil
servants' widows, landladies of furnished rooms, retired
they prison
them.
officials,
Certainly,
solicitors.
threatened distraint and the
all
but
;
low-down
My
employed
I
debtors'
had already learnt how to talk to
chief
argument was the same as
owe you name, and the
in dealing with Hinterlach
nothing personally, the
flat is in
my
I
'
:
I
furniture belongs to the furniture-dealer.
Fiodor
Mihailovieh has nothing but his wearing apparel,
which
I
suggest
you should
distrain
regards the debtors' prison, I assured
on.'
As
them that
Fiodor Mihailovieh would readily go there, since there he would be able to work.
they would receive nothing.
wanted to
settle
But If,
matters amicably,
in that case
however, they I
promised to
138
DOSTOEVSKY
.
pay by instalments, at such and such a date, on such and such a month, so much money, and of this they might be assured. I gave my word for it, and now I could pay so much. The creditors, seeing the futility of their threats, would agree, and
we would
me
sign a separate agreement which gave
the certainty that so long as I kept
my
word,
Fiodor Mihailovich's peace would not be disturbed
:
he would not be called before the magistrates, threatened, talked impudently to, etc.
found
terribly difficult I
it
But how
pay the promised
to
sums at the appointed dates What artifices I had to employ, to borrow money from relations, !
pawn our
to
things
We
!
and our family primary able to
we
fulfil
my
had to deny ourselves
necessities in order to be
obligations.
Indeed, the
received was never regular.
It
money
depended
alto-
gether on the success of the work, and with us, as
the saying goes,
was
it
4
either plenty or nothing.'
We
had to run into arrears for the flat, to take credit from the grocer's shop, to pawn things, and
when we happened
to receive
money
(400 or 500
roubles at a time), usually on the day after the
money (Fiodor Mihailovich always money to me) there remained 25 or
receipt of the
gave
all
the
30 roubles only.
My
rule was,
on receipt of the
money, to redeem the things from the pawnbrokers (I
had pledged things to the amount of 400
roubles),
:
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE so as not to
firstly,
139
pay interest, which was enormous
then, sometimes 5 per cent, per month ; and, secondly, in order that the
pawnbroker's shop
that I was capable of redeeming so should keep
them
know
should
*
my
things and
Besides this, I had a
safe.
certain moral satisfaction in the knowledge that
the things, of which I was so fond
from Fiodor Mihailovich,
my mother,
were again in the house,
if
The
visits of
presents
(all
and brother)
only for a short while.
my
the creditors, and
negotiations
with them, at times did not pass unnoticed by
He would
dear husband.
ask me,
and on what business, and seeing him, he would reproach
tell
for
my
plaints letters.
him
me
who had
my
But how could
I
called,
reluctance to
for
my
not being quite frank with him.
on such occasions he
my
reserve,
His com-
also expressed in his
be perfectly frank with
in these material difficulties of
mine
For
!
the sake of his health and of his work, on which
our whole existence depended, he needed peace worries upset leptic
fits,
him
terribly
and provoked
his epi-
which prevented him from working.
was a kind of
[a
word missing in
the
It
MS.].
Moreover, when he occasionally learnt what unpleasant things I had to suffer, Fiodor Mihailovich
began to grieve over the fact that he had given 1
At that time there did not exist monts-de-piete, or societies for money on movables, but there were pawnbrokers' shops,
lending
mostly kept by Jews.
DOSTOEVSKY
140
me
a
so full of cares
life
and
sincere desire to be frank with
after
all,
to conceal from
this
And, with
again agitated and distressed him.
my
And
distress.
him
—
him assiduously
all
had,
I
every-
thing that might upset him, even at the risk of
being reproached for
How
of candour.
reproaches
my
so-called reserve
bitterly
I
felt
and lack
those unjust
Yes, I had to endure a hard, a ter-
!
ribly hard life in the material sense during the
twelve or thirteen years of our married
life
;
for
only in the year before Fiodor Mihailovich's death
were
our debts paid, and I was able to put by
all
small sums for the rainy day. I
remember with great
bitterness of heart
how
unceremoniously certain relations of Fiodor Mihailo-
money from our pocket for their However small our means, Fiodor
vich's dragged
own
needs.
Mihailovich did not consider
it
possible to refuse
assistance to his brother Nicolay Mihailovich, or
to his stepson Pavel Alexandrovich Isayev, and in
urgent cases also to his other relations.
Apart from 4
a fixed monthly allowance (50 or 60 roubles), brother
Kolya
'
received every time he paid us a visit
five roubles
;
and what bitterness
I felt
when
he,
perhaps not without interested motives, increased his visits
under various pretexts
:
to congratulate
the children on their birthdays, to inquire after the health of every one of our family, and so on.
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE It
was not miserliness that was responsible
bitterness,
141 for this
but the painful consciousness that there
were only twenty roubles in the house at the
Yet Fiodor Mihailovich would
moment. and say
Kolya
when on the
;
'
Anechka, give
*
:
payment due
to
me
following
some one, and
five
call
me
roubles for
day there was a
if I
could keep the
should not have to go again to the
five roubles, I
pawnbroker's shop.
But
'
brother Kolya
'
was a
pleasant and appealing person, and although at
him for his repeated visits, I was always fond of him and valued his delicacy. The man who particularly irritated me was Pavel times I was angry with
Alexandrovich Isayev.
He
did not ask, he de-
manded, and was perfectly convinced that he had a right to demand. vich received a large
without
fail
Every time Fiodor Mihailo-
sum
money he gave Isayev amount for his family.
of
a considerable
But Isayev very often had extra needs, and on these occasions he went straight for relief to Fiodor Mihailovich, although he knew perfectly well how hard our
He would
was.
life
come, and this
is
roughly the conversation which would take place.
He
:
'
Well,
must see him,
how I
am
is
papa ?
in urgent
How is
his health ?
I
need of forty roubles.'
know we have not yet received money from Katkov we have no money at all. To-day I had to pawn my I
:
'
Pavel Alexandrovich, you
;
DOSTOEVSKY
142
brooch for twenty-five roubles.'
show him the
I
pawnbroker's ticket.
He 1
'
:
4
But
:
pawn something else.' have already pawned everything, and
Well, I
here are the proofs.'
He I
:
He
•
:
But
Buy
'
'
:
must have the money for
I
when we
it
I can't
get the money.'
postpone getting
it.'
But I have no money.' That is no business of mine He I
this.'
•
:
'
:
And
—get
it.'
then I would begin persuading, coaxing
Isayev to ask Fiodor Mihailovich not for 40 roubles,
which
I
had not
might be
much
left
got,
with
satisfied
me me
five in
any
case.
Isayev after
me
a great favour by being
with a smaller amount than he had origin-
asked
for.
Then
my
to his study and say
15 roubles, Pasha asks
give the
money with an
that, if Isayev
dear husband would :
'
call
Please, Anechka, give
me
for
it.'
And
I
would
unfriendly feeling, knowing
had not extorted
this
amount, we
could have lived for three days in peace, and I
I
coaxing would compromise, and consider
that he was doing
ally
but for 15 roubles, so that
now
had to go again to-morrow to the pawnbroker
and to pawn something else. All these are painful recollections, and I cannot forget how much distress that
asked
rude
why
I
man caused me.
Perhaps
it
may
be
did not resolutely protest against his
;
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE But
rudeness.
to
make such a
143
protest I should
have had to quarrel with Isayev and his family whereas
had taken a sincere
I
was sorry
liking to his wife
knew
Besides, I
for her.
Fiodor Mihailovich's character
:
and
this trait in
sympa-
his good,
who were wronged. In case Isayev might have moved Fiodor
thetic attitude to all
of a quarrel
Mihailovich to pity, and presented himself as un-
And
justly treated
by me.
just because he
was good, would undoubtedly have
believed
him and considered him an unhappy man
to be pitied this
Fiodor Mihailovich,
and helped.
I
had had experience of
once already when on one occasion
quarrel
with
Isayev.
complained of
me
The
latter
I
had a
immediately
to Fiodor Mihailovich, repre-
sented the whole thing in a distorted light and
reminded Fiodor Mihailovich of the request which his,
Isayev's,
Pasha.'
asked
me
It '
mother had made to him
ended in
this,
'
to love
that Fiodor Mihailovich
not to wrong Pasha, since although he
was light-minded, yet he was a pleasant man, and was very fond of us all.' To safeguard Fiodor Mihailovich's peace I preferred to suffer myself
and to deny myself everything, provided peace was preserved in our family.
I
go back to the winter of 1871-1872, the
winter after our return from abroad,
I
first
must say
DOSTOEVSKY
144
that, in spite of the worries caused us creditors, I
remember that winter with real
by our pleasure.
The mere fact that we were again in our own country, amongst Russians and everything Russian, gave me unusual happiness.
Fiodor Mihailovich, too, was
with his return to Russia and with the
satisfied
possibility of
ing Russian
meeting his friends again, and observ-
life,
with which he
In addition
touch.
to meeting
Nicolayevich Maikov, with friends since their youth,
favourite
companion,
I.
again Apollon
whom
he had been
and N. N. Strahov,
—Fiodor
—through Vladislavlev, —of many
the acquaintance,
M.
himself out of
felt
Mihailovich
made
his visits to his relation
stance, V. V. Grigoriev.
scholars, as for in-
He also made the acquaint-
ance of Prince V. P. Meschersky, of T.
and of the whole
circle
that used
I.
Filippov,
to meet at
Meschersky's dinners on Wednesdays. believe,
his
There,
I
he also met, and later became friends with
K. P. Pobiedonoszev, and tinued right
down
this
friendship
to Fiodor's death.
I
con-
remember
that during that winter N. Y. Danilevsky also came to Petersburg.
him
in his
who had known Fourierist, and who
Fiodor Mihailovich
young days
greatly valued his
as a
book Russia and Europe, wished
Having met him at Strahov's, Fiodor Mihailovich asked him to lunch at our house where many interesting and clever
to renew the old friendship.
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE
145
The conversation went on
people assembled.
till
late in the evening.
That
same
permission
Mihailovich's
have
to
Fiodor
asked
Tretiakov
winter
portrait
his
painted for the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow. this
purpose the
artist
For
Perov arrived from Moscow.
Fiodor Mihailovich was
certainly
flattered,
the
more so that Perov turned out to be an extremely Before setting to work nice and simple man. Perov visited us daily for a week, and found Fiodor Mihailovich in various moods. discussed matters with him,
catch and to vich's
embody
He
talked to him,
and was thus able to
in the portrait
Fiodor Mihailo-
most characteristic expression, namely, the
one Fiodor had when absorbed in his creative work. I
may
say that Perov managed to convey in the
moment of creation.' That exnoticed many times in Fiodor's face
portrait Fiodor' s
pression I
when
I
'
happened to enter
watch him
*
his study.
I
used to
looking into himself,' and to leave the
room without saying a word. Afterwards I would learn that Fiodor was so absorbed in his thoughts that he had not noticed did not believe I
my
entering the room, and
had been
there.
Perov was a
man, and Fiodor loved talking to him. I became friends with him and was always
clever also
present at the sittings. into society.
I
That winter
myself nursed
my
I did
not go
elder son Fedya,
DOSTuEVSKY
146
and
I
fact I
could not well leave him alone for long.
was so busy with the
for Fiodor
winter
In
children, with working
and with the house, that that happy
passed
and with
spring of 1872,
which
misfortunes,
There came the
a dream.
like
a whole series of
it
behind
left
unforgettable
consequences.
Fiodor Mihailovich's
fits
of jealousy very
much
The most exasperatjealousy had no grounds
grieved and tormented me. ing thing was that his
whatsoever
;
yet
its
manifestations placed
times in an absurd position.
such
case.
I
have
I shall describe
mentioned
already
dreamt of earning money by
my
An
thus of assisting the family.
my
me
at
one
that
I
shorthand and
occasion of using
knowledge unexpectedly presented
itself.
In
1872 a conference of farmers was to take place in the city of Novo-Alexandria or Lomzha, and a shorthand-writer was needed for the conference. I
was informed of
this
by
my
brother, a former
student of the Petrovsky Agricultural School,
continued to take an interest in farming. the
choice
of a
permission of
my
Since
shorthand-writer depended
Professor Shafranov,
I
who on
wrote to him, with the
husband.
Fiodor Mihailovich
always maintained that in looking after the children
and the house and in assisting him in his work, I was doing quite enough for the family but knowing ;
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE
my (as
money by
ardent desire to earn some
means he hesitated to oppose me,
me
he admitted to
already have been
147 other
in the expectation
later) that
the post would
Professor Shafranov re-
filled.
recommend me and com-
plied that he agreed to
True, they were not very
municated the terms.
tempting, and the greater part of the
money would
have been spent on the journey and on
my
stay in
was not so much the money that mattered as the start I had made in getting work. If I did this work successfully, I
Alexandria.
But to me
relying
could,
it
on Professor Shafranov's recom-
mendation, get more.
Fiodor Mihailovich had no
serious objections to the journey
had promised to come to
;
for
my
mother
with us during
live
my
absence and to look after the children and the
Fiodor Mihailovich himself had no work
house. for
me
at that time
;
he was busy re-shaping the
plan of his novel The Possessed.
My
intended
journey obviously did not please him, and he tried to find various pretexts for
could place,
I,
a young
giving
especially a Polish place ?
come
it
up.
How
woman, go by myself to a strange
live there, etc. etc. ?
to
my
My
brother,
How
would
who used
I
often
to see me, suggested that in order to re-
solve his doubts, Fiodor
and
I
should go to see him
the following evening, and promised to invite a friend of his (whose
name
I
do not remember now,
DOSTOEVSKY
148
but
ended with
it
4
kyants
or
'
'
1
idse,'
who had
been several times in Alexandria and who was
We
going to the conference.
also
decided to do
so.
Next day Fiodor Mihailovich and myself went off to see my brother; and Fiodor Mihailovich, who had not been troubled by his epileptic fits for a long time, was in an excellent mood. We were having a quiet talk when suddenly there rushed in, almost at a run, a young man of about twentythree, tall, with curly hair, with unusually protrud-
ing eyes and red 4
recognised as
and seeing
his
lips,
the type that
is
everywhere Entering
disgustingly handsome.' c
god
'
he became so confused that
he hardly bowed to Fiodor or to the hostess, but
gave
all his
attention to
me
(evidently,
creature like himself), seized
shook
it
my
an earthly
hand, kissed
it,
vigorously several times, saying in his
was extremely delighted that was going to the conference and that he was eager
lisping voice, that he I
to be of service to me. as comic, fusion.
and
But
I
put
this
it
His exaltation struck
down
to his shyness
me
and con-
was not Fiodor Mihailovich's
had never seen that 'kyants' before, but knew of him by He was a nice, not particularly clever, Caucasian youth, whom his friends, on account of his passionate temper and impetuHe was much hurt by that nickosity, called 'the wild Asiatic' name, and to prove that he was a European, he created to himself in each art a 'god.' In music his 'god' was Wagner; in painting, Ryepin and in literature, Dostoevsky. Hearing that he was going to make Dostoevsky's acquaintance and might render him a service, the youth was in a state of perfect bliss. 1
I
report.
;
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE way
of looking at
Although he himself rarely
it.
kissed the hands of ladies
cance to
at
it
and attached no
he was always displeased
all,
149
signifiif
one applied this form of politeness to myself. the young man's attitude irritated
My
brother,
who
some
And
him extremely.
noticed that Fiodor Mihailovich's
mood had changed (and his fluctuations from one mood into another were very rapid), hastened to start a business-like conversation
ference
but the youth was
;
my
replied neither to
about the con-
still
confused and
brother's questions nor to
those of Fiodor Mihailovich, but addressed himself
To
exclusively to me. difficult
:
we reached Alexandria ? the young
replied that I
willing to
Was it a many changes
question
journey and would there be
of train before
man
my
was not to worry, that he was
come with me
there,
and that
if I liked,
he would travel in the same car as myself.
would
certainly declined his offer, saying that I
manage
it
myself.
all
To Fiodor
I
Mihailovich's
question whether there was a hotel there and would it
be a suitable place for a young
the young man, his
c
god,'
still
woman
to stop at,
without venturing to look at
and addressing me, exclaimed
Anna Gregorevna hotel with her
;
wishes, I could stop at
—although
I
4
:
But if the same
meant to stay with a
friend.' 4
Anya, do you hear, Anya
?
The young man
DOSTOEVSKY
150
agrees to stop at the is
ex-cel-lent
! '
same
But
hotel with you.
this
Fiodor Mihailovieh cried out in
his full voice,
and struck the table with
strength of his
fist.
The
the
all
glass of tea that stood
on
the table went flying on the floor and was smashed to smithereens
;
the hostess rushed to support the
lamp that shook from the blow, and Fiodor Mihailovieh jumped up, rushed to the hall, threw his overcoat on and disappeared. I rushed after him, crying
'
:
come here
what
Fedya, '
;
's
some time, and when
man
I
and as
;
Fedya,
?
my
cloak, but it took
came out of the gate
I
saw
in the distance running in the opposite
direction to our usual
run
matter
but there was not a trace of him.
Instantly I went to put on
a
the
I
walk home.
had young legs, in
So
had to
I
minutes
five
I over-
took Fiodor Mihailovieh, who by that time was out of breath and could not run as quickly.
him
several times
and asked him to stop
refused to hear me.
him
;
I
At
last I
I hailed ;
but he
managed to overtake
ran in front of him, seized with both
hands the
skirts of his overcoat that
over his shoulders, and exclaimed
Where
my
he had thrown
:
'
Fedya, you
you running? This Wait, put your arms into is not our way home. the sleeves. You must not walk like that, you '11 catch a cold.' My voice and agitated appearance are going
had an
mad.
effect
are
on Fiodor Mihailovieh
;
he stopped
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE
151
and put on the coat with my assistance I buttoned it up, took his arm, and led him in the opposite ;
direction. I
Fiodor Mihailovich, although he did
all
told him, yet preserved a troubled expression.
my
I lost
temper and said
'
:
Well, you have been
You
think I managed to in love with "the wild Asiatic " in a couple of
jealous, haven't fall
you
?
we were going
minutes, and he with me, and
were we not
elope,
of
yourself
my
?
!
'
.
.
.
to
Now you ought to be ashamed And
began
I
remonstrating
how much he offended me by his jealousy. Why, haven't we been married for six years ? Don't you know how I love you and value our family happiness ? And
with
poor husband, explaining '
you are capable of being jealous of the first fellow I meet and of placing me in a ridiculous position,
As
etc'
etc.,
my
reproaches went on, Fiodor
Mihailovich tried to apologise and to justify him-
and promised never to be jealous of me. But I took no notice of all this. In a word, I got from him all the amends that an infuriated wife could
self,
'
But
get.
I
could not be cross for long with
dear husband.
felt
more
down
quickly,
and
terribly sorry for Fiodor Mihailovich,
the
so that I
himself in a
my
my
Having got into a temper and said
sorts of absurdities, I cooled
all
I
'
fit
knew that he could not of jealousy.
restrain
Seeing the change in
mood, he began laughing at himself, inquired
DOSTOEVSKY
152
how many
things he had spoilt to-night at
my
and whether he hadn't incidentally given my rapturous admirer a hiding. It ended in our making peace on our way home, and as it was a brother's,
we walked
wonderful evening
all
the way.
The
incident did not pass without his buying Turkish
Delight and smoked sturgeon. 1
It
was a long way,
and with our
it
took us an hour
and a
calls at
the shops,
On coming home,
half.
found
I
my
brother
Poor Ivan Gregorevich, seeing our had imagined God knows what he rushed
there.
;
flight,
off to
and was astonished at finding neither myself
us,
nor
Fiodor
Mihailovich
at
home.
Before
our
he passed a whole hour in dark thoughts
arrival
and how surprised he was when he saw us arrive home in the most amicable mood. We treated him to tea and sturgeon and and presentiments
;
;
there was
much
laughter.
To my
question
how
he
explained our strange flight to the young man, Ivan
Gregorevich answered " the matter, I said :
it
yourself
The
?
"
1
!
story ended happily
When
my
little differences
in the wrong, but did not
—a
pound
asked what was Can't you see
'
had to give up
I
When he Damn you '
:
;
but I understood that
journey.
Certainly I could
arose between us, and Fiodor felt himself
want
of Turkish
to apologise,
he would bring me a
Delight or smoked sturgeon (my favourite), or both articles together, in proportion to the offence. I called this 'the olive branch,' and threatened to quarrel with him more often, so as to get these good things the oftener. present
REMINISCENCES BY HIS WIFE
153
have persuaded Fiodor Mihailovich, and he would
have
let
me
go
;
but then he would have begun to
get agitated, he would not have held out, but
have rushed after
me
to Alexandria.
It
would would
have resulted only in a scandal, and in the waste of
money, of which we had so
Thus ended shorthand.
my
little.
attempt to earn a living by
DOSTOEVSKY'S LETTERS TO HIS WIFE (ON THE POUSHKIN CELEBRATION OF 1880 IN MOSCOW) F.
M.
(Just published in the original,
from
the hitherto un-
published materials in the Russian State Archives, by the
Department of
the Central Archives,
Moscow, 1922)
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE INTRODUCTION BY
N.
BELCHIKOV
Dostoevsky's letters to his wife on the Poushkin Cele-
Moscow, when he, on behalf of Society, delivered his famous 1 speech of June 8, 1880, are published from the originals, found amongst Dostoevsky's letters to his wife. The Department of the Central Archives took
bration of 1880 in
the
Slav
Charitable
these letters from the State safes, together with other
documents and materials relating to the works of Dostoevsky, in November 1921.2 F.
M. Dostoevsky's
letters to
Anna Gregorevna were
kept by her in a buckram wallet which contained eleven medium-sized packets.
Those on the Poushkin
Celebration were in a special packet (the eleventh), on
the front of which a
list
is
inscribed in his wife's handwriting
of them and their dates.
In his wife's
own Notebook
hundred and numbered pages), entitled by her, Explanations of domestic affairs and instructions by (one
eighty -seven 1
1
Dostoevsky's speech on Poushkin is contained in Pages from the Journal of an Author, by F. M. Dostoevsky, translated by S. S. Koteliansky and J. Middleton Murry, published by Maunsel & Co., Dublin. 2 An English translation of some of this material has recently appeared, published by the Hogarth Press, entitled Stavrogin's
Confession.
157
.
DOSTOEVSKY
158
Anna Gregorevna Dostoevsky in case of my death or of a serious illness March 1902, and for the years
—
following
de
ma
'
(on the binding of which
mort ou une maladie grave
'),
is
written,
'
en cas
she expresses on
pp. 23-24, relating to The Letters of the late Fiodor Mihailovich Dostoevsky to me from 1867-1880/ the '
Dostoevsky 's letters to me, as being of great literary and public interest, may be published after my death in a review or in book form. ... If they cannot be published as a whole, then those relating to the Poushkin Celebration should following
wish
'
:
be chosen.' Anna Gregorevna defined the significance of these letters absolutely correctly. In them is a clear picture of those days when men of different views gathered together round Poushkin's statue to give voice to their sincere opinion of those ideals for which Poushkin stood.
Dostoevsky reveals the struggle of the two irreconcilable tendencies of the social ideas and ideals of that period, and he points out his part in it and the significance of his
active aries.
own
utterance.
and impatient party
On May
We
see, too, the
spirit of his
contempor-
28-29, 1880, he writes to his wife
:
Remain here I must and I have decided to remain. The chief point is that I am needed here not only by the " Lovers of Russian Literature," but by our whole party, by our whole idea, for which we have been *
.
fighting these thirty years.
For the
hostile
.
party
(Turgenev, Kovalevsky, and nearly the whole University) is quite
determined to
belittle Poushkin's signifi-
cance as the representative of the Russian nation, and
thereby to deny the very nation
itself.'
And
further,
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE explaining 1
why
159
his presence is absolutely necessary
we have
Against them, on our side,
:
only Ivan Sergue-
yevich Aksakov (Yuriev and the rest have no weight),
but Ivan Aksakov has grown rather out of date and Moscow is rather bored by him. Myself, however,
Moscow has not heard nor
seen,
that the people are interested.
and
My
this
can't run
I
;
me
alone
voice will have
weight, and thus our side will triumph.
have been fighting for
in
it is
All
my
life I
away from the
When Katkov, who on the whole field of battle now. " You mustn't go away, is not a Slavophil, says to me :
you can't go away," then, certainly, stay
Nobody thought, of
I
must.'
course, of belittling Poushkin's
It was a false deduction of Dostoevsky's, due to his party bias and his belief that the real truth was only on the lips and in the consciousness of the men of his group. Without having yet seen Turgenev, or the other Westerners, Dostoevsky already held fast
significance.
to that idea.
Indeed,
further anticipating this
still
difference of opinion, he wrote the following to K. P.
Pobiedonoszev on
Moscow
'
:
I
am
May
19> 1880, before
obliged to go to
unveiling of the Poushkin memorial. as I
had foreseen, that
I
am
he
Moscow
And it
left
for
for the
turns out,
going not for pleasure, but
perhaps even for immediate unpleasantness.
For the point at issue involves my most cherished and fundamental convictions. While still in Petersburg I heard that in Moscow there is a certain clique which is trying to proscribe opinions contrary to
the Anniversary, and that
it
its
own
at
fears certain reactionary
words.'
P. Bartenev preserved the following curious touch in his Reminiscences (Russky Arlchiv, 1891, vol.
ii.
p. 97,
DOSTOEVSKY
160
Although Dostoevsky's speech was not known to any one before he delivered it, yet at one of the sittings of the Preparations Committee it was nearly decided not to allow Dostoevsky to read anything at the Poushkin Commemoration. Several members of the Committee insisted on his non-admittance, saying that Dostoevsky had insulted Turgenev at a public note)
:
'
dinner in Petersburg, by asking the latter point-blank
and so loud that
could hear, what he wanted from
all
our students, thereby putting the famous friend of the
young generation in an awkward and embarrassing position. But this time the majority of the members of the Committee did not permit this ostracism. The discussions, however, were fiery/ Dostoevsky, in his letter to his wife of June 5, refers to the friction
among the
parties, as
in his view, threatened trouble.
'
something that,
Ostrovsky, the local
Jupiter, came up to me. Turgenev, very amiable, ran up. The other liberal groups, amongst them Plesche-
yev and even the lame Yazykov, bear themselves with You are a reserve and almost haughtily, as if to say reactionary, but we are radicals. And, generally, complete dissension is already begun. I am afraid that all these different tendencies existing side by side for so many days may end in a fight/ Behind the struggle between these social groups and :
their tendencies
we
discern the desire of the ambitious
Dostoevsky for his own success. In his letter of May If my speech at the solemn opening 27-28 he writes then in Moscow (and therefore in all successful, is Russia) I shall henceforth be more famous as a writer, I mean famous in the sense in which Turgenev and :
'
Tolstoy have already
won greatness/
;
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
161
Dostoevsky's speech had an extraordinary success. It was applauded equally by Aksakov, considered the leader of the Slavophils,
and by Turgenev, the head of
the Westerners.
Ivan Sergueyevich Aksakov in a letter to his wife (June 14, 1880), on the Moscow celebrations, thus sums
up
his
On
impression of Dostoevsky's fiery eloquence
:
Dostoevsky was to read (thus had we divided it between ourselves, knowing the but seeing his nervous similarity of our ideals) He agitation I proposed that he should read first. read, read masterfully, such a superb original thing, comprehending the national question still more widely and deeply than my article, and not merely in the form of a logical exposition, but in real and living images, with the art of a novelist the impression was indeed overwhelming. I have never seen anything like it. 1
the next day, June
8,
;
;
It
gripped everybody both the public and
who
5
all
of us
on the platform, even, to a certain extent, (They cannot bear one another.) DostoevHe completely sky's success is a genuine portent. Turgenev all and his disciples. Hitherto overshadowed Turgenev has been the idol of the younger generation in all his public speeches there were subtle allusions of a vague radical kind, which created a furore. He has always subtly flattered the young and the very day before, speaking of Poushkin, he praised Bielinsky, and gave us to understand that he also was very fond of Nekrasov, etc. But Dostoevsky went straight and defiantly to the point he maintained that Bielinsky understood nothing of Tatyana [the heroine of Poushkin's Eugene Oniegin] put his finger straight on Socialism gave the young a whole sermon " humble L sat
Turgenev.
;
:
;
;
:
DOSTOEVSKY
162
proud man, cease to be a wanderer in foreign lands, seek the truth in thyself, not outward truth," etc. Tatyana, whom Bielinsky (and all the new generation after him) called " a moral embryo " because she fulfilled her duty of faithfulness, Dostoevsky, on the contrary, exalted and he put directly to the public the moral question : " Can personal happiness be " created out of the unhappiness of another ? It was indeed remarkable how the young men, of whom there were perhaps a thousand in the hall, took that speech. They all went into such raptures that one young man rushed up to Dostoevsky on the platform, and fell into a nervous swoon. There were present girl-students from Gerye's school (an extreme Westerner), who only last year were wild about Turgenev. At the meeting they produced a laurel crown, from Heaven knows where, and presented it, amid universal applause, to Dostoevsky, for which they wil probably have to pay dearly. One must remember, too, that Dostoevsky has the thyself,
;
1
*
reputation of a " mystic," not a positivist, but a believer
even mentioned Christ. In a word, the triumph of our tendency in the person of Dostoevskj was complete, and all the speeches of the men of tht The so-called " forties " appeared mere rubbish. excitement was so great that a long adjournment wa: here he
necessary/
(Russky Arkhiv, 1891, vol.
Dostoevsky himself, of the ecstasy aroused its
great effect
'
:
still
by
ii.
his fiery speech, believed
It is a great victory for
the twenty-five years of delusions. ...
a most complete June 8.)
pp. 96-97.)
under the fresh impressioi
victory
' !
(Letter
ii
our idea ove
A to
complete his
wife
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
163
In a letter written to Countess S. A. Tolstoy (the
Alexey K. Tolstoy, the poet), on June IS, 1880, the day after his return from Moscow, Dostoevsky wife of
relates similar curious details concerning the impression
Would you believe produced by his inspired speech after my speech crowds of people in the audience it wept, and embraced one another and vowed to one another henceforth to be better men. This was not a '
:
.
.
.
single case
—
I
heard a number of accounts from persons
even perfectly unknown to me, who crowded closely me and spoke to me in frenzied tones (literally)
round
my speech had made on them. Two " For came up to me and one of them said greybeards twenty years we have been enemies and for twenty after your years we have done harm to one another speech, we have now become reconciled, and have come to tell you." They were perfect strangers to me. There were many such declarations, and I was so overwhelmed and exhausted that I myself was as ready to fall down in a swoon, just like the student whom his friends had at that moment brought to me and who of the impression
:
;
through ecstasy .
.
.
fell
before
me
on the
floor in
a swoon.
And what a lot of women came to me to the Loskut-
naya Hotel (some did not give their names) with the sole object of pressing and kissing my hands, when left
alone with me.'
(Viestnik Europa,
No.
1,
1908, pp.
215-18.)
Indeed, there was genuine ecstasy
;
there was a
wave of impulse, and on the immediate wave men of various faiths came together all were seized by one feeling the wise Turgenev, the well-balanced Annenkov, the calm Aksakov. But, of course, there was no complete reconciliation, no meeting of roads, no fusion '
'
:
—
DOSTOEVSKY
164
Victory there was, but a temporary one
of ideas. It
was impossible to fuse together the social and idea
currents, so different in their essence, represented
Turgenev and Dostoevsky, and the unprecedente< days of unanimous rapture were short-lived. Th< Viestnik Europa was right in not trusting too much t< this elated
mood
of reconciliation
when
it
the occasion of Dostoevsky 's speech that
declared '
01
the signi
was estimated not so much in th< with an ecstati< feeling of worship, which corresponded to the mood the moment. Dostoevsky even said that Poushkii was a prophet, and his poetry the transformation ficance of Poushkin
spirit of
calm
historical criticism, as
—
the future of Russia,
when the Russian people
wil
announce the truth to all mankind. With us, as w< know, all public infatuations take the form of seizures which pass quickly away, leaving behind them at time a remarkably weak impression/ All fused together but did not really unite, in the seizure of enthusiasm fo the mighty and profound speech of Dostoevsky, wh< manifested a width of outlook never attained by Tur genev. Dostoevsky 's speech, as Aksakov said, was ai event/ but it was not the cement which could bin» '
life
together.
The Liberal
Press, immediately
the speech wa
and only a mont it critically Dostoevsky himself had to undergo a feeling disappointment with his contemporaries. While th raptures were still sounding, the Viestnik Europa cease to share the general exultation and coldly observed We think that Dostoevsky 's statement of the futur published, regarded
;
later
1
or even the present superiority of the Russian peopl
over
all
the rest of the world, has, to begin with, th
:
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE lefect
;
it is
165
an example, and by no means a new one, of
The attitude of the Otechemore severe. In that journal
lational self-glorification.'
was still jleb Ivanovich Uspensky, giving a hasty account of his mpressions of the Poushkin Celebration, wrote Immediately after the speech M. Dostoevsky was ewarded not only with ovations, but with adoration/ It is difficult to md he concluded his article thus inderstand one who in himself reconciles such contralictions, and it will not be surprising if his speech, when t appears in the press and is carefully read, produces i quite different impression.' And so it happened. tvennya Zapiski
'
:
Jspensky himself, after reading the published speech, mswered it more resolutely in an article in the Otechetivennya
Zapiski
entitled
'
On
the next day.'
*
In
M. Dostoevsky 's words, the connection between the wanderer " and the people is indissoluble his purely lational traits are indubitable everything in him is '
;
;
national,
everything
is
historically inevitable, according
Now, basing myself on these assertions, I reported Dostoevsky 's speech, as it was published in my Letter from Moscow, rejoicing not at the universal bird in the hand " which M. Dostoevsky to law.
11
promises
to
the Russian people in the future, but
phenomena of Russian fife be cleared up in a human sense,
only at this, that certain are beginning to
being measured in " the scale of mankind," not with maliciousness, as
it
certain carefulness
has been in the past, but with a which has been lacking hitherto.
But M. Dostoevsky, as
it
turns out, had a different
design. '
From the passages of
his speech
which
I quoted,
the reader could already get an occasional glimpse of
"
DOSTOEVSKY
166 u
omni " hare. 1 Here and there, as if unintentionally, the word " perhaps " is stuck in ; here and there is thrust, also as though accidentally, in the same breath, " for ever " and " for a long time." Such hare the
make it possible for the author gradually to turn Poushkin's " fantastic work " into the most ordinary
leaps all
doctrine of complete stagnation.
by
hillock to hillock,
by
Little
little,
hare reaches an impassable copse, in which his
no longer seen.
At
from
leaps and bounds, the " omni tail is
this point it appeared, for the
reader somewhat imperceptibly, that Aleko [a Poushkin character], who, as
we know, is a
purely national type,
is expelled by the people because he is not national. In the same way the national type of wanderer, Oniegin, is
by Tatyana
dismissed
out somehow that traits are
negative
"
for the
same reason.
It turns
these human-wanderer-national
all
traits.
One more
leap,
and the
transformed into " a blade of
"
omni-human man is by the wind," into a visionary uprooted from the soil. " Humble thyself" cries the threatengrass borne
ing voice
does
—" happiness
this
all
mean
" universal bird in the
?
—
is
not beyond the seas."
What hand "
What
remains then of the
?
There remains Tatyana, the key and solution of all the " fantastic work." It turns out that Tatyana is the very prophetic character for which all the commotion began. She is prophetic for this reason. Having driven away the " omni-human " Oniegin because he was uprooted from the soil, she lets herselJ be devoured by the old General (since she cannot build her personal happiness on the unhappiness of another) '
1
for
The reference
is
to the claim of
'
omni-human
Poushkin by Doatoeveky in his speech.
'
significance mad<
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE although she
still
sacrifices herself.
sacrifice is
alas
not voluntary
To be hired
is
Admirable
loves the wanderer.
But
it
!
" I
:
167
now appears
am given unto
that her
another
It turns out that her
to be sold.
she
:
" !
mother
forced her to marry the old boy, and the old boy,
married to a young
him
who
girl,
did not want to marry
—the old boy could not help knowing — it
in the speech an " honest
is
called
The speech does not
man."
say what the mother is like. Probably she, too, is a sort of " omni-human." Behold to what a homily of
and stupid and coarse sacrifice the author has been driven by his abundance of hare-leap
forced
ideas.'
The
was still more severe. The most surprising thing in Dostoevsky 's speech is that, having taken " his audience off its guard by this " omni-humanity and universality of the Russians, having obtained ovations for this conjuring trick which was not seen through at first, Dostoevsky most crudely and bitterly jeered at this " omni-human " Russian. We do not think that Dostoevsky can deny that he created a furore chiefly because it was extremely gratifying to his
Slovo
'
audience to
ideal
know
that they bear in their hearts the
and omni-humanity,
of universality
special
and
arrogating
exclusively
tremendous, which It is
In our view, neither the
specific essence.
public nor Dostoevsky
is
need much praise to
their
as
themselves
inherent in
all
for this
a
;
quality
for
so
European peoples.
unjust and extremely egotistical, just as egotistical,
as, for instance,
the denial of the rights of
peasants during the time of serfdom.
man
to the
The serf-owning
landlords either completely deprived their peasants
of
many human
qualities,
or
diminished
those
DOSTOEVSKY
168
it
And Dostoevsky
the utmost limit.
qualities to
(so
appeared) teaches Russian society to think other people, as our landowners thought of
at
of
first
their
peasants.
actually appears, however, that
It
Dostoevsky was sneering at the Russian aspirations to .'
universality.
.
.
Even Leontiev, the Conservative, lished in
with a long ( 1
article,
'
Dostoevsky 's speech its
calls
himself
'
published in the Varshavsky Dnievnik
July- August 1880).
but
he
as
On Universal Love/ pubbook form, replied to Dostoevsky 's speech
in the preface to his article
In
is
a
my opinion/ wrote
Leontiev,
fiery, inspired, red-hot
foundations are utterly false, for
it is
speech,
illegitimate
to confound so rashly and crudely as Dostoevsky did,
the
objective love of the poet, the love of a fine taste that needs variety, many-sidedness, an antithesis and even a tragical struggle, with moral love, with the feeling of
mercy and the aspiration towards
universal,
monotonous
meekness.'
main theses Dostoevsky 's speech was most criticised by the famous Petersburg professor Gradovsky (1841-89), jurist and publicist, a In
its
substantially
member
of the staff of the Golos, in his article
and Reality
'
(Golos,
June
25, 1880).
'
Dream
In a serious and
interesting article he controverts Dostoevsky 's theses,
and
gives, in contrast to Dostoevsky, a
interpretation of the type of
'
comprehensive wanderer/ created by
the social conditions. 1
'
Above all it seems to us unproved/ wrote Gradovsky, that the " wanderers " have dissociated themselves
from the very being of the Russian people, that they have ceased to be Russians. Up till now the bounds of the their negation have not been in the least defined ;
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
169
been indicated. And defined we have no right to pronounce a
object of their negation has not until this
is
final verdict.
have we the right to define them as " proud men," and to see the cause of their estrangement in 1
Still less
the Holy Ghost. Dostoevsky has expressed the " holy of holies " of convictions, that which is at once both the strength
this sinning against 1
his
and the weakness of the author of The Brothers Karamazov. In his words is contained a great religious ideal, a mighty preaching of personal morality, but there is not a hint even of social ideals/ Gradovsky's criticisms were acute and irresistible. They made such a strong impression on Dostoevsky that he wrote his Answer to Gradovsky,' concerning which he writes to Pouzykovich on July 18, from Staraya Roussa On May 20 I went to Moscow for the Poushkin Celebration suddenly came the death of the Empress. The Celebration was continually postponed until June 6. In Moscow I had not even the time to sleep, I was so continuously busy and surrounded by new people. Then came the Celebration and then, '
'
:
—
—
I returned to Staraya Roussa. immediately sat down to the Karamazovs, wrote three folios, sent them off, and without having any rest, wrote straight off a whole number of The Journal of an Author (containing my speech), so as to
literally
There
exhausted,
I
it separately, as the only number (of The Journal of an Author) for this year. In it are also my answers to my critics, above all to Gradovsky. A new and unexpected turn showed itself in our society at the Poushkin anniversary (after my speech). But they have thrown themselves at it to diminish it and destroy
publish
DOSTOEVSKY
170
because of their fear of the new
it,
mood which they
call
mood
reactionary.
It
necessary to re-establish things and
an
have written
I
exasperating, so purposely severing
article, so
connection with
them that now they
the Seven Councils.
will curse
my return
from Moscow
written altogether literally six printed
am done for and almost ill
by
'
folios.
all
me
Thus,' Dostoevsky concludes,
the single month after I
in society, a
has become
I
'
in in
have
Now
(Moskovsky Sbornik, edited
Sharapov, Moscow, 1887). day before this, on July 17, Dostoevsky wrote to Elena Alexandrovna Stakenschneider the following S.
A
lines 1
:
On June 111
Moscow
returned from
to Roussa,
tired, but I sat down to the Karamazovs immediately and wrote in one gulp three folios. After sending this off, I began to read all that had been
terribly
me
written about
and
my Moscow
speech in the
then, as was busy — had read nothing of working— and decided to reply to Gradovsky, that
papers
I
I
it till
I
not so
much
profession
is,
to Gradovsky, as to publish our complete
offaith
all
over Russia
:
for the
momentous
and grand, the utterly new turn in the life of our society which showed itself at the Poushkin anniversary, has been maliciously erased and mutilated. In the Press, especially the Petersburg Press, they have become literally frightened of the utterly new thing, unlike anything that has been before, which declared itself in Moscow. For it means that society does not want only to sneer at Russia, only to spit on her it means that society persistently desires something different. The Westerners need to erase it all, to destroy, to sneer, to distort, and to reassure every one. ;
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
171
There was nothing new in it ; it was only the usual complacency after a good Moscow dinner. We fed famously. While still in Moscow I decided, after having published my speech in the Moscowskya Viedo-
number of the only number for this
bring out in Petersburg one single
mosti, to
—
The Journal of an Author year and to publish in it my speech and a short preface which occurred to me literally at the very moment
—
when
I
stood on the platform, immediately after
my
Annenkov also, together with Aksakov and others, rushed up to embrace me and, pressing my hands, told me over and over again that I had
speech, and Turgenev and
work of genius.
written a
Alas
!
are they thinking the
? The thought of how they are taking now the raptures are over, forms the theme of my preface. The preface and speech I sent off to Petersburg to the printers, and I already had the proofs when I suddenly made up my mind to write a new chapter
same of it now it,
for
The Journal, a profession of
Gradovsky.
and put I 've
It
my
sent
whole soul in
it off
Arkhiv, vol.
ran into two
iii.
to
folios
it,
Moscow
addressed to
faith, ;
I
have written
it
and to-day, only to-day,
to the printers.'
(Russky
pp. 307-8, 1891.)
Dostoevsky made
still
more
bitter confession con-
cerning contemporary criticisms of his speech in a
O. F. Miller (August 26, 1880) have got it from nearly all our Press for
letter to I
Moscow
:
though
'
You see how
my speech in
committed a theft, fraud, or forgery in a bank. Even on Yukhanzev (a notorious swindler of the time) they did not pour such filth as they 've poured on me.' (Dostoevski's Biography, etc., :
it 's
as
Petersburg, 1883, p. 343.)
I 'd
F. M.
DOSTOEVSKY'S LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
ANNA GREGOREVNA DOSTOEVSKY (During
May
on
and June, 1888, from Moscow, Poushkin Anniversary.)
the
Moscow, May 23-24, 1880.
My
dearest friend Anya, you can't imagine
how
the news of the death of the Empress ups^t me.
Peace to her
soul,
pray for her.
heard about
I
from the passengers in the train just after we Novgorod.
it
left
The thought struck me immediately
that the Poushkin festivities might not take place. I
even thought of returning home from Tchudov,
but gave up the idea because I
kept thinking
4
If there are
I could
not decide.
no celebrations, then
the memorial could be unveiled without celebrations,
with just literary meetings and speeches.'
Only on the 23rd when Viedomosti as
we
left
I
bought the Moscowskya,
Tver, I read the announcement
of Governor-General Dolgorouky, that the Sovereign
had ordered the postponement of the unveiling of the memorial to another date. 172
I
thus arrived at
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
173
Moscow without any object whatsoever.
think
I
of leaving on Tuesday the 28th at 9 o'clock in the
morning.
then
Till
of the opportunity get to
I shall, at least, avail
now
am
that I
know something.
in
I shall also
myself
Moscow and see Lubimov
and have a talk with him about the whole idea, also Katkov. I shall go the round of the booksellers, If only I
etc.
can manage
also learn all the ins intrigues.
I
it all
and outs of these
parted with
;
was a hot day. and
I
was
arrived at
At the
tired
literary
Anna Nicolayevna
we kissed each promised to come back if it
Tchudov
I shall, at last,
!
She
other cordially. is
at
in
all possible.
Literally I did not sleep a
wink
and completely done up when
Moscow about 10
o'clock
It
I
(Moscow time).
station Yuriev, Lavrov, all the editorial
and contributors of the Russkaya Mysl, Nicolay Aksakov, Barsov, and a dozen others staff
were waiting to welcome me. to one another.
We were introduced
Immediately they asked
me
to
come to Lavrov for a specially arranged supper. But I was so worn out by the journey, so unwashed,
my
linen, etc., so dirty
that I refused.
To-morrow,
the 24th, at 2 o'clock, I shall go to see Yuriev.
Lavrov said that the best and most comfortable hotel in
Moscow was the
'
Loskutnaya
"
(on the
Tverskoy, close to the Square, close to the Church of
Our Lady of
Iversk),
and he instantly rushed
I
DOSTOEVSKY
174
away and brought back with him a
driver saying
he was a cabman, but
he was a cab-
I don't believe
man, but an expensive coachman or perhaps his own. When he put me down at the hotel, he refused any money, but I forced 70 kopecks on him. The ' Loskutnaya is full up, but they found a '
room
me
for
furnished
at three roubles per day, very decently
but
;
windows face the court and a
its
wall, so that I think it will be
foresee that I deliver
Thus,
my It
it.
my
would be strange to publish
now one
It is
tell
I shall
now.
itself for
the
o'clock in the morning.
you
all
children.
a great deal,
Lilya and Fedya.
and
it
hard to be without you three, without
you and the dear I kiss
—
speech cannot be published before
journey will not pay for
time being. It is very
dark to-morrow.
first
you, and then
Give them a big kiss from
them that
I love
them
awfully.
me
Probably
not have time to get anything from the
booksellers, for they will hardly settle accounts in
two days. Good-bye letter
for
now.
from you.
I don't think
I
wonder
you can answer
want to be
if I shall
it
this letter, however,
before the 29th, and on the
in Roussa.
If
you yourself have
thought of writing to Elena Pavlovna, splendid.
If
have a
Write care of Elena Pavlovna.
as I should not get
29th
I
it
would be
any misfortune happens (which God
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE me
forbid) wire to
to the
'
Loskutnaya,' on the
Tverskoy, F. M. Dostoevsky.
Once again
I
embrace
you many times.
all
175
My room
is
No. 82.
the three of you and kiss
—Your
F.
Dostoevsky.
II
Loskutnaya, on the Tverskoy, Moscow, Sunday, May 25, 1880.
My dear friend Anya,
yesterday morning Lavrov,
N. Aksakov, and a lecturer of the University called Zveriev, arrived
on an
official visit
;
they came to
The same morning
present their respects.
to return visits to all three.
I
had
took a long time
It
A
After that I went to Yurie v.
driving about.
rapturous reception with embraces.
I learned that
they wanted to petition that the unveiling of the
memorial should be put off to the autumn, in October instead of
June or July, as the authorities seem
inclined to suggest escamote, for
no one
From Yuriev
I
but then the opening
;
will
acter
could not get any sensible account
new
;
shape.
he
is
a chaotic man,
[Repetilov
—a
char-
from Griboyedov's play Sorrow through In-
telligence.]
Yet he
is
by no means a
trigues there certainly were.)
way,
be
come.
of the progress of the affair
Repetilov in a
will
my
article,
I
fool.
(In-
mentioned, by the
and suddenly Yuriev said to me
:
DOSTOEVSKY
176 4
I
didn't ask for your speech
(that
'
for his
is,
remember that in his letters he did ask for it. The point is that Repetilov is sly he does not want to take the speech now and pay for it. In the autumn, you give it us in the autumn to nobody else but us. We are the first to ask you, you see, and by that time you will have polished it more carefully.' (As much as to say Yet
magazine).
I
:
'
;
that he knows exactly
now.)
It
's
it is
not carefully polished
true I immediately stopped talking
about the speech and promised but only in a general way. awfully.
—Then
I
Katkov
at home.
:
I
I
I disliked the business
After that
went
off to
was
visits,
then
the booksellers.
They give me something on Monday. However,
I
am
leaving on
try to find out their
new
on Aksakov.
He
I called
—
;
found neither Katkov nor Lubimov
(Kashkins) have moved.
will.
autumn,
went to Madame Novikov
received very graciously. to
for the
it
all
promised to
wonder
if
they
Monday and
shall
I
addresses. is
The two
still
Afterwards
in town,
did not find him at home, but in the bank.
coming home, I
After
I dined.
drove to Katkov
:
I
this, at
but
I
Then,
seven o'clock
found both Katkov and
Lubimov, was received very, very
cordially,
and
I
Lubimov about the delivery of the Karamazovs. They insist very strongly on having (When I come back I shall have to it in June.
talked with
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE work
Afterwards
like the devil.)
I
177
mentioned the
speech,
and Katkov pleaded with me to
have
that
it,
Yuriev,
I
is,
for the
autumn.
Mysi
him
Being furious with
So that now, should
almost promised.
the Russkaya
let
want the speech,
them pay through the nose
for
it,
I
or
'11
it
make
goes to
(The speech by that time can be made
Katkov. longer.)
From Katkov's (where
I
upset a cup of tea over
myself) I went to Varya.
found her
I
in,
and
was about ten already we drove with her to Elena Pavlovna. Varya had just had a although
letter
it
from brother Andrey (concerning the
nobility) to
be handed over to me.
Elena Pavlovna, as
letter.
moved
it
I
titles
of
took the
turned out,
had
up keeping apartments. We went to the new house to pay her a visit and found there Masha and Nina Ivanov (with
to another house
whom
Khmyrov. days to wife
The Ivanovs
it
up),
Khmyrov
is
also going, as his
delivered in
Lavrov
:
they invite
to dinner is
We
Coming home, I found a person by N. Aksakov and
about an hour.
sat there letter,
and
are going in a couple of
staying there with Vera Mihailovna.
is
dinner
she has given
Elena Pavlovna has made
Dorovoye,'
*
;
and
will
me on the 25th (that is, to-day) call for me at 5 o'clock. The
given by the contributors of the Russkaya
Mysl, but others will be present as well.
I think
:
DOSTOEVSKY
178
there will be between fifteen to thirty guests, from
Yurie v's hints (when dinner in
my
is
visit,
that
is,
probably be in a restaurant.
young Moscow authors ardently long
(All these
make my
acquaintance.)
It
now
is
is,
evening jacket
what to put on
Now
?
this
have not asked Katkov
is
for
—a
to
two
after
My
In two hours they will come here.
only trouble
I
it will
;
Apparently the
my
being given to celebrate
honour
o'clock.
saw him).
I
frock-coat or
the whole bulletin.
money, but
I told
Lubimov that I might need some in the summer. Lubimov answered that he would give it me the moment I asked for it. To-morrow I shall go the round of the booksellers. Elena Pavlovna to see to be at Mashenka's,
if
I
there
'11
is
have to
who begged me
leaving for Roussa, but don't yet
Yuriev roared chat, a chat
'
all
you very much, and don't think
I shall
On
etc.
my
Many
I kiss
write to
I
am
'
—Your
afraid
must have
a
the whole, I miss 1
you again unless some Good-bye
you a great deal and the
kisses to Lilya
very much.
know whether
nerves are not right.
thing very special happens. darling.
am
I
me do much work
the while that he
with me,
;
to come, etc.
or afternoon train.
that to-morrow they won't let
on
a letter from you
on Tuesday, the 27th,
After to-morrow,
by the morning
call
and Fedya.
for
now
children
I love
you
F. Dostoevsky.
al
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE P.S.
My
—(May
25,
o'clock
2
the
in
179 afternoon.)
dear Anya, I have broken open yesterday's
envelope so as to send a postscript.
This morning
Ivan Sergueyevich Aksakov came to
me
to beg
me
most insistently to remain here for the celebrations, since they will take place, according to everybody,
He
before the 5th.
away, that
I
says that I ought not to go
have no
right to, that I
on Moscow, and above
fluence
all
have an
in-
on the students
and the younger generation as a whole
that
;
my
going off will injure the triumph of our convictions
had heard the draft
that yesterday at dinner he of I
my
;
speech and that convinced him finally that
must speak, and so on, and so on.
hand, he said to
me
On
the other
that as delegate of the Slav
Charitable Society I could not very well go away, since all delegates
remain waiting here, in view of
He left, and immediately after came Yuriev (with whom I am dining to-day), and said the same. Prince the
rumour that the ceremony
Dolgorouky
left
coming
is
off.
to-day (the 25th) for Petersburg,
and promised to send a telegram from Petersburg stating
the exact day of the unveiling of the
memorial.
The telegram
is
Wednesday, the 28th, but
what
morrow.
This
and wait
for the telegram
opening, and
if
is
I
expected not later than it
may
decided
the opening
:
also
come
to-
to remain here
about the day of the is
really fixed
between
DOSTOEVSKY
180 the
first
and
But
if it
be postponed, then
of June, then I shall remain.
fifth
on the 28th or 29th,
The
principal thing
about Zolotariov.
—
this is
is
I
'11
what
leave for Roussa I said to Yuriev.
that I can't find out anything
Yuriev promised to find out
to-day and to come to
me
with news of him.
Then
in spite of being a delegate of the Slav Charitable
Society I could go away, having charged Zolotariov to be present at the
ceremony
(By the way,
alone.
wreaths for the memorial are being charged to the delegates'
own
roubles
[Here four lines are struck
!)
account, and a wreath costs 50
Yuriev began bothering
me
Then
my
about publishing
Finally I told him
speech in the Russkaya Mysl. frankly exactly
out.]
how matters
stood, namely, that»
had almost promised it to Katkov. He was he apologised, mainterribly excited and grieved tained that I had not understood him right, that I
;
had resulted
it
let
in a misunderstanding
drop a hint that
I
am paid
for
and when
;
my
I
work, he said
that Lavrov had instructed him to pay anything I
might ask,
i.e.
even 400 or 500 roubles.
at this point I told Yuriev that I
promised the
article to
Katkov.
view was to ask him to put to
make up
off
It
had
What
I
was
almost
had
in
the Karamazovs, and
for this, instead of the Karamazovs,
he would have the speech on Poushkin.
But now, j
if I let
the Russkaya Mysl have
my
speech,
it will
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE look as
am
if I
181
trying to get a postponement from
Katkov with the express object of
availing myself
work
of that postponement in order to
for his
enemy Yuriev. (Imagine, now, what a position But it is Yuriev himself who is to blame.) I am in Katkov will be offended. True, Katkov won't !
pay, for instance, 400 roubles
mazovs that he he
may
is
for the
(it is
giving 300 roubles
Kara-
for the speech
;
not give 300 roubles), so that the one or
two hundred more from Yuriev would cover
my
the unveiling of the memorial.
In
staying here
till
a word, there
's
a mass of worries and
How it will all end I don't
know, but
meanwhile to remain here if
the unveiling of the
till
I
difficulties.
have decided
the 28th.
memorial
is
So that, not
fixed
before the 5th, I shall return to Roussa on the
29th or 30th, having arranged to publish
(But try to write to
somewhere. I
again repeat
single line
my
request.)
from you
?
Do
me
Am
I
my speech
immediately
write without fail to the
addresses which I told you of yesterday in letter (the
you
;
not to have a
one with the postscript).
my
Telegraph,
if
like.
me
number of people called on him to-day to abuse him why had he concealed yesterday's dinner from them ? Four students even came to him to ask for a place at Yuriev told
that a
:
the dinner.
Among
the others were Suhomlinov
DOSTOEVSKY
182
who
is
them.
here now, Gatzuk, Viskovatov, and more of I
now.
'm
off to
you
I kiss
the booksellers.
all
once again.
Good-bye
for
—Your F. Dostoevsky.
Yuriev has already got Ivan Aksakov's speech
on Poushkin. vague the
That
is
probably
why
they were so
But having the dinner what I was saying
day before yesterday.
heard yesterday at
about Poushkin he probably decided that
my
Turgenev has
also
article,
too, is indispensable.
written an article on Poushkin.
Ill Loskutnaya, on the Tverskoy (Room No. 33),
Moscow, May 26-26, 1880.
My (I
dear friend Anya, here
am
one more
letter
writing after one o'clock in the morning).
Perhaps you still
is
my
return (for
I
intend leaving on Tuesday the 27th), but
I
write to
will receive it after
you in any
event, for
circumstances are
shaping so that I shall perhaps have to remain here
But to begin at the beginTo-day, the 25th, at 5 o'clock, Lavrov anc ning. Nicolay Aksakov called on me and took me in theii
for
some time
own
longer.
carriage to the Hermitage restaurant.
were in frock-coats and
I
The}
too went in a frock-coat
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE although the dinner, as expressly
my
in
authors, professors,
of
them
it
183
turned out, was given
At
honour.
and men of
Hermitage
the
letters,
twenty-two
altogether, already awaited us.
The
first
who received me most ceremoniously, was that many people had done their utmost
thing Yuriev, said
to be present at the dinner,
poned
for
and
if it
had been post-
one day only, hundreds of guests would
But
have come.
it
had been arranged too
hastily,
and now they are afraid that, when the many others
come to hear about bitter
for
present
it,
their reproaches will be
not having been asked. professors
four
of the
There were
University,
one
director of a public school, Polivanov (a friend of
the Poushkin family), Ivan Sergueyevich Aksakov,
Moscow
Nicolay Aksakov, Nicolay Rubinstein (the one), etc., etc.
The dinner was arranged
ordinarily sumptuously.
was engaged
(at
A
no small
extra-
whole reception room
The dinner was that afterwards two
cost).
on such a luxurious scale
hundred magnificent and expensive cigars appeared
They order these
with the coffee and liqueurs. things differently in Petersburg osiotr
turtle
a yard long, a yard soup,
asparagus,
strawberries,
ice-cream,
wines and champagne. rising
rivers
!
long
Dried sturgeon, stewed
quails,
of
most
sterlet,
wonderful exquisite
Six speeches (the speakers
from their chairs) were made to me, some
!
DOSTOEVSKY
184
very
long
They were by Yurie v, both
ones.
Aksakovs, three of the professors and Nicolay
At dinner two congratulatory telegrams were received, one of them from a most respected professor who had been called away suddenly from Moscow. They spoke of my great Rubinstein.
'
an
significance as
artist
and
as a publicist
with
'
universal sympathy,'
After that, an
as a Russian.
number of toasts were given, at which all got up and came to me to touch glasses. Further details when we meet. All were in a state of rapture. I answered them all with a speech which went off very well and produced a great effect, by managing to switch on to Poushkin. This made a infinite
great impression.
Now
for a
business
:
Literature
most
and most awkward
intolerable
a deputation from the '
called to-day
'
Lovers of Russian
on Prince Dolgorouky,
and he declared that the opening of the memorial would take place between the
Yet he did not they are
all
fix
first
and
fifth
of June.
Now, of course,
a definite date.
in raptures, as the authors
and certain
delegations will not disperse, and although there will
be no music and no theatrical performances,
there will be meetings of the Literature,'
Society of Lovers of
speeches and dinners.
announced that there was
4
I
But when
I
was going away on the 27th,
an absolute storm
4 :
We
shan't let
;
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE you
!
is
on the Unveiling Com-
Memorial),
Yuriev and Aksakov
Polivanov (who
'
of the
mittee
Moscow was buying and all those who bought
declared aloud that for the sittings, (for
')
several times)
Lovers of Russian Litera-
:
Will Dostoevsky speak ?
as they could not tell at
going to speak, at the
they *
'
Moscow
us, if
first
which meeting
or at the second,
I
was
—then
began taking tickets for both meetings.
all
All
tickets
asked when they took them (and sent to
inquire
And
tickets
all
the meetings of the
ture
185
will
be offended and indignant with
you go away now,' they said to me.
I
made
must write the Karamazovs (and the part for the June No.) they began in
the excuse that I deliver all
;
seriousness to shout about sending a deputation
Katkov to ask him to postpone the date. I began saying that you and the children would be
to
anxious
if I
were to remain here for so long, and
then (perfectly seriously) they not only proposed sending you a telegram, but also a deputation to
Staraya Roussa to ask you I
if I
may
answered that to-morrow, that
26th, I I
'11
am
is,
remain here.
Monday
the
decide. sitting
here in terrible perplexity
and
uneasiness.
On
the one hand, there
solidation of
my
influence not in Petersburg alone,
is
the con-
but also in Moscow, which matters a great deal on the other, there is this being away from you,
DOSTOEVSKY
186 the
difficulties
about the Karamazovs (the writing
and delivery on the appointed date to Katkov's magazine), the
my
'
Word
published,
'
expense, etc.
on Poushkin
where
now
will
certainly be
appear
to
it
is
on Saturday, to Katkov.
it,
case the
Lovers of Russian Literature
will
be saddened.
will
be angry.
without
fail, if
I
If I give it to
am
still
I
almost
And
in this
?
promised '
although
Finally,
'
and Yuriev
them, Katkov
away
thinking of going
not on the 27th, then on the 28th
or 29th, as soon as Dolgorouky sends a notification
Perhaps, I shall
of the exact date of the opening.
have to wait until that notification the other hand,
all
arrives.
On
that Dolgorouky has said as yet
has been his personal opinion
he has not yet got
;
the definite date from Petersburg.
think he
(I
going to Petersburg himself for a few days.)
suppose I remained
till
June
5th,
is
So
and then there
suddenly came an order to postpone everything till
the 10th or 15th, should I
here
To-morrow
?
still
have to wait
I shall tell Yuriev, that I
am
going on the 27th, that only in the case of definite
and
At any
serious circumstances I shall remain.
rate, I
am
in awful perplexity
now.
After dinner
I called at
Elena Pavlovna's but found nothing
from you.
Certainly
from Roussa, but
morrow
?
it
is
still
early for letters
shall I really receive
With Elena Pavlovna
I
none
drove
off
totc
I
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE Mashenka Ivanov and with Rubinstein
she was in raptures.
;
soon as you receive this
without
fail
send on the
had dined
told her that I
rate, as
even
:
187
letter,
if I leave,
At any
answer
letter,
Elena Pavlovna
without opening
So answer immediately, without
is
:
will
to Roussa.
it,
Elena Pav-
fail.
lovna's absolutely exact address
me
'
Ostozhenka,
borough of Voskresenye, in the house of Mme. Dmitrevsky, to be given to F. M. Dostoevsky.' Should you want to telegraph, send either to Elena Pavlovna,
or
on the Tverskoy, (Your
letters
—
me, Hotel Loskutnaya,
to
direct
am
I
you had
certain
to
receive
it.
better address to Elena
Pavlovna.) I
was
elected a
member
of Russian Literature
'
of the
as far
but the late secretary, notify
me
apologise.
dear one.
about the I
Society of Lovers
'
back as a year ago,
Bezsonov, neglected to
which they now
election, for
hold you firmly in
I kiss the children.
ominous dreams at night.
I
my
arms,
my
have strange and
—Wholly your F. Dostoevsky.
P.S.
—
I
think after
and leave on the 27th. be able to publish
put
all I shall
my
my
True enough, speech then, for
have the value of a speech, This must be thought out.
it will
foot
down
I shall
not
it will
not
only be an
article.
DOSTOEVSKY
188
[On
margin
the
is the following.]
I
made
a good
speech. I tell
embrace you once again.
them about
their
Kiss the children,
Daddy.
IV Loskutnaya,
Room
33,
Moscow, May 27, 1880, 3
My
When and Lavrov saw me
Any a, more
dear friend
p.m.
arrived in Moscow, Yuriev
news.
I
to
the Loskutnaya, and I engaged there a room,
The next morning young man, apparently
No. 32, at three roubles per day. the manager of the hotel (a
an educated man) came to
me and
voice proposed that I should
move
room
moved
my I
in.
to No. 33, the
As No. 33 was incomparably
opposite.
better than
in a gentle
No. 32,
agreed and
I instantly
only wondered to myself,
how
it
was
that such a nice room should go for the same price, three roubles
about the there,
I
roubles.
;
but since the manager said nothing
price,
but simply asked
concluded then that
it
am
registered
No. 33. does the
to
also
move
in
was three
Yesterday, the 26th, I dined at Yuriev's,
and Yuriev suddenly said that I
me
I
as
in the
staying in the
Town
Loskutnaya,
was surprised and asked him
Town
Hall
know
?
'
'
Hall
:
'
How
But you are staying
;
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE there at the expense of the replied.
up
lifted
I
my
Town
Hall,'
voice at that
than accept accommodation from the
Hall
;
and Poushkin's nephew Pavlischev are
children
staying at our hotel,
the City
;
of
all
sidered a scandal like
at the expense of
myself among
from the City
I shall
When
them and
that the City
;
decided that even
well.
them
that by refusing to accept the hospitality
of the City, I will offend
as
Town
that even Poushkin's
the expense of the City,
last I
Yuriev
;
the visitors are staying at the hotels at
all
men
Yuriev
do otherwise
replied resolutely that I could not
that
189
I
its
if I
is
it will
be con-
proud to count
At
guests, etc. etc.
did accept
my
lodging
on no account accept board
returned home, the manager
came in again to ask me Was I satisfied ? Did I want anything ? Was it quiet ? All this with the most obsequious politeness. I instantly asked him Is it true that I am staying at the expense :
:
'
of the City of
board
?
'
—
'
All
not want to only the
— Precisely — And my — But do board as
Moscow ? '
!
Town
your
—
'
'
so.'
'
well.'
'
I
'
In that case you will offend not
Hall, but the whole City of
Moscow.
—
The City is proud to have such guests, etc' Any a, what shall I do now ? I can't refuse to accept it there will be rumours about it it will become an ;
anecdote, a scandal, as though I had refused the hospitality of the
whole City of Moscow,
etc.
Then
— DOSTOEVSKY
190
Lavrov and Yuriev,
in the evening I asked
they were surprised at that I shall offend
remember So
my
Moscow, that people
all
must accept
how
tality entire.
But,
Now
deliberately
shall
all this will
restaurant so as to reduce
Town
that the
And
Hall.
will
that there will be gossip about
it,
sible, seeing
and simply say
scruples
I see positively that I
I
—and
their hospi-
me
worry
!
go out to dine at a
my
bill will
bill
as
much
it
as pos-
be presented to the
I 've already twice
about the coffee and sent
it.
complained
back to have
it
boiled
thicker.
In the restaurant they will say
how he
plays the gentleman at other people's
:
See
expense.
Twice
I 've
when the
bill is
presented to the Mansion House,
they
will
say
:
See,
asked in the
office for
how he enjoyed
even got his stamps at our expense strain
on me, but certain items
have put to arranged.
Moscow (N.B.
my
account.
As a
I shan't
result,
himself It is
!
;
He
a great
I will certainly
I believe this
however long
might be I
stay in
have very great expenses.
—Yesterday
sellers) Soloviov,
!
stamps
received from (the book-
I
from Kishkin and from Priesnov
you yourself will see the accounts when I come home. From the Central Shop and from the Morosovs I have not received 170 roubles altogether
;
anything yet.)
Yesterday
at
four
o'clock
in
the
afternoon
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
191
(definitely) that the unveiling
Dolgorouky stated
would take place on the 4th June
of the memorial
and that Petersburg urgently desired
A
it.
final
telegram from Dolgorouky as to the exact day of unveiling
the
every one
is
will
arrive
to-morrow,
only
but
firmly convinced that the opening will
be on the 4th, and besides, letters to this effect
have also been received from Petersburg. tions (a multitude)
from various towns and organisa-
tions are waiting here is
I
and not going away.
the greatest excitement.
let '11
me
go away.
I
stay for certain
Then
the 4th.
I
Delega-
'11
They
positively won't
have decided now if
There
:
I believe
the opening takes place on
leave for Roussa, and on the
This morning
8th or 9th I shall be with you.
Grigorovich called on me, also Yuriev
;
they began
crying that
my going away will be considered by all
Moscow
as
an affectation
prised
all
shall
;
;
every one will be sur-
Moscow keeps on
be present
;
about the whole
that people will circulate stories affair.
It will
so lacking in patriotism that I
my
inquiring whether I
be said that
I
was
would not put aside
personal business for a higher object.
For
in
the rehabilitation of the significance of Poushkin
every one pressing the
all
over Russia sees a means for ex-
new change of convictions, of mentality,
of tendencies.
Two
things stand in
hindrance and torment
my
soul
:
my way
the
first is
as a
the
:
DOSTOEVSKY
192
Russky Viestnik and the obligation which I acknowledged a month ago to deliver the Karamazovs for the
what
June number.
come home on the 10th, do in some ten days ? Four If I
be able to
shall I
days ago Lubimov said that a further postponement, in
till
July, depended on Markevich
some part of his
but
if
mine could be postponed
he does not, they can't do
from Markevich June.
novel,
will
am
Thus, I
he sent
if
;
An
it.
;
answer
not come before the 10th of
in the
dark and anxious.
had
I
thought of writing the Karamazovs here, but because of the continuous bustle, visits and invitations,
it is
The second reason which
tor-
almost impossible.
ments
me
is
my
longing to be with you
not had a single line from you up
till
I
:
have
now, and we
had agreed that you would write care of Elena Pavlovna What is the matter with you, tell me !
for the love of
you
well, safe ?
had written till
God
!
Why
don't you write
Are the children well
telling
me
?
Are
If
you
?
whether to wait here or not
the unveiling I should be easy about
it.
You
must have seen in the papers that the Empress was dead. Why didn't you write then, foreseeing that I must certainly be in a difficult position. Every day, and yesterday in the rain, I 've had a very long drive to Elena Pavlovna's to inquire Aren't there any letters fare
is
one rouble.
Do
?
There and back the cab
write, write without
fail.
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE I believe I shall decide to
But
certain.
If only I could
what
wise
Yesterday,
shall I
do
198
remain here for
be sure of the date, otherthey postpone
if
by a most pressing
it
invitation, I
again
?
was at
Lavrov, the pub-
an evening party at Lavrov's.
and the backer of the Russkaya Mysl, is my passionate, frenzied admirer, who has been feeding
lisher
on
my
works for
many
on
himself
is
a
His two brothers deal
very rich retired merchant. in grain,
He
years now.
but he has got out of the business and lives
his capital.
He
is
thirty-three years old, a
most
sympathetic and sincere man, devoted to art and poetry.
men
At the evening party about
of letters
fifteen local
and authors were present, a few
from Petersburg.
My
aroused enthusiasm.
also
appearance there yesterday I
did not intend remaining
to supper, but, seeing that I should mortally offend all
The supper was
of them, I remained.
like
a
grand dinner, luxuriously served, with champagne. After supper, per hundred.
champagne and
itself,
soup,
cigars,
all
the luxuries, the
the reception room
Lavrov himself contributed.)
about four in the morning. told
me
visiting
roubles
modest one, not more
than 3 roubles a head, but turtle
—75
(The dinner the other day was a
subscription dinner, a very
flowers,
cigars
that Turgenev,
Leo Tolstoy,
I
came home
To-day Grigorovich
who has come back from
is
ill,
N
and that Tolstoy
is
DOSTOEVSKY
194
almost deranged, and perhaps gone completely
off
Annenkov too has returned what will our meeting be like ? Yuriev came here for my his head.
1
;
article just
me
now, imploring
to the Russkaya Mysi.
fail
(he sent a message).
no news.
Any a,
to give
Zolotariov
And you
I receive
me
Have you had
all
till
now
You, Anya, love to
day.
I
How
little
word from them
are the
little !
have written every
Do
ask,
yourself don't miss
you.
me
ones
at
?
It is
I love
all,
and
now,
for
my
darling, I kiss
I kiss the children
new happens,
I
?
I miss s
not easy, almosl
Good
you ever so much
bless them.
shall write
If anything
to-morrow.
—Wholl}
F. Dostoevsky.
your P.S.
and
you
Only to hear
another fortnight of being away from you.
bye
coming
for the love of Christ, write to
Up
letters ?
is
Only from you alone
at the addresses I gave you.
my
without
it
—In our
hotel, besides myself, three other
are also staying at the expense of the Mansioi
House two professors from Kazan and Warsaw and Pavlischev, Poushkin's own nephew. :
1
A reference to
the abandonment of artistic work by Tolstoy an and philosophical problems. Tolstoy
his absorption in religious
Critique of Dogmatic Theology appeared in 1880, and his Brit Exposition of the Gospels in 1881.
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
Loskutnaya,
Room
195
No. 33,
Moscow, May 27-28, 2 a.m.
My
dear friend Anya, at
received from
you
And
the 24th.
of the 27th
!
last,
this evening,
five lines, in pencil, written
this I received only
How
I
on
on the evening
long a letter takes
!
I
was
awfully glad, but also saddened, for there were
only five lines, and they began with Mihailovich.'
more next time.
from
my
letter
;
it
Dear Fiodor
mind I hope to reYou know now everything
Well, never
ceive
4
seems
!
I shall certainly
have to
remain here for the unveiling of the memorial.
In
was at Katkov's. I told him everything (he had already heard from others about how Moscow was waiting for me) and he said firmly To-morrow there will be a I must not go away. the evening I
1
'
;
telegram from Dolgorouky and the day of the
opening will be definitely settled. says the 4th. 4th, I
'11
If the
But every one
opening takes place on the
leave probably on the 8th
(if
not on the
7th even), and on the 9th I shall be in Roussa. called
I
on Katkov with the object of obtaining a
postponement of the Karamazovs number.
He
listened to
me
till
the July
very amiably (and
was altogether very friendly and obliging, as he ;ver
had been, to
me
before),
but he said nothing
DOSTOEVSKY
196 definite
about the postponement.
Markevich, that
next
is,
instalment
about
my
All depends on
on whether he sends
of his
novel.
I
in the
Katkov
told
acquaintance with the high personage
at Countess Mengden's
and then at K.
was pleasantly surprised
;
his
K.'s.
expression
He com-
pletely changed.
This time treated
me
to the hall
did not upset the tea, for which he
I
He saw me down
to expensive cigars.
and thereby surprised the whole
who were watching
us from the other room, for
Katkov never comes down with any on the whole the
office,
affair
one.
I
think
with the Russky Viestnik
somehow be arranged. I did not say a single word about the article on Poushkin. Perhaps
will
they
'11
give
it
forget about
it,
to Yuriev, from
more money.
I
so that I shall be able to
whom
I
dream even of
am
certain to get
moment down to the
finding a
of time here before the 8th to
sit
Karamazovs, so as to be ready for any emergency,
but
it
is
hardly possible.
solemn opening therefore in
all
is
—If
my
speech at the
a success, then in Moscow (and
Russia) I shall henceforth be more
famous as a writer. (I mean, famous in the sense in which Turgenev and Tolstoy have already won greatness.
Goncharov, for instance,
who
moves out of Petersburg, although he here, yet it is only vaguely and coldly.)
known But how
is
—
never
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE can
manage
I
ones
little
twelve whole days
am
and
How
sad
time
all
afraid of anything,
if
are
me
instantly.
carefully), address all
by yourselves ? Are you you worried about any-
By
me
I
your
way
the
oftener,
(read this
me
letters direct to
Moscow, F. M. Dostoevsky,
I lose
?
in the
Loskutnaya Hotel, on the Tverskoy,
future to the
for
children,
anything should happen (which God forbid)
telegraph
should
for
Did Grandma return
For the love of God, write
thing?
and
and dream of the
the while. all
an easy thing,
Is it
?
I sit
?
you there
are
you and without the
to live without
all this
197
Room
Why
No. 33.
have to go every evening to Elena Pavlovna letters ?
First, it is
time, so that
if I
a long
way
secondly,
;
happened to want to do
something (the Karamazovs),
should have no
I
must have tired them out. To-day I drove on there from Katkov I received your letter and found there the I vano vs Mashenka time at
Also
all.
I
;
.
Here
played Beethoven very well. half showers,
Mashenka
morrow to here.
is '
and
it
is
fairly
windy and
fresh.
going with Natasha the day after to-
Dorovoye,' and Ninochka
Ninochka
is
untamed and
can't get anything out of her
were ashamed. lovna.
half sun,
it is
All of
them
;
Well, good-bye for now.
written everything I
wanted
to.
remaining
taciturn
it 's
live
is
as
;
you
though she
near Elena PavI believe I
If there
is
have some-
DOSTOEVSKY
198
new to-morrow,
thing
day
I shall write
As
after to-morrow.
for
if
;
Leo Tolstoy, Katkov gone quite
also declared that people say he has his
Polyana take
came
down all
the
;
my
Anna
my
me
Good-bye
Hug
Gregorevna.'
to.
hotel now, you
letters addressed
for
now,
the
I kiss
little
you
ones as
them Daddy F. Dostoevsky.
and warmly as you can,
you
per-
having dinner there
no case change
without hesitation send
tightly
told
may
I
not a single letter of yours will go wrong,
I shall in
dear
But
at the Loskutnaya.
charge for
to the Loskutnaya. 4
bill
In the Loskutnaya they are polite to
every day.
and as
I shall
interesting.
to the conclusion the Loskutnaya
a degree
would
dined at the Moscow Tavern on purpose
I
haps after
may
would be very
it
visit
But
than two days altogether.
not go, although
to keep
my
off
Yasnaya
to go to
there and back including
;
less
To-day
me
Yurie v urged
head.
not then the
—Wholly your
tell
Elena Pavlovna's children are with her and they are charming.
VI Loskutnaya,
Room
S3,
Moscow, May 28-29, 2 a.m.
My
dear Anya, the only news
is
that a telegram
came from Dolgorouky to-day saying the of the memorial
is
on the 4th.
This
is
unveiling
now
settled.
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE So that
can leave Moscow on the 8th or even on
I
the 7th, and of course I
remain here
The
'
and
I must,
chief point
by the
199
is
I
'11
have decided to remain.
am
that I
But
try to hurry.
needed here not only
Lovers of Russian Literature,' but by our
whole party, by our whole idea, for which we have
For the
been fighting these thirty years.
hostile
party (Turgenev, Kovalevsky, and almost the whole University)
quite determined to belittle Poush-
is
significance,
kin's
as
the
of the
representative
Russian nation, and thereby to deny the very nation
Against them, on our
itself.
side,
we have
only Ivan Sergueyevich Aksakov (Yuriev and the rest
But Ivan Aksakov has grown out of date and Moscow is a bit bored by Myself, however, Moscow has not heard or
have no weight).
rather
him.
and
seen,
it
interested.
is
My
in
me
voice will have weight, and thus
our side will triumph. fighting for this
of battle now.
whole
is
alone that the people are
;
All
I can't
When
my
have been
I
life
run away from the
field
even Katkov, who on the
not a Slavophil, says to
me
:
'
You must
not go away, you can't go away,' then, certainly, stay I must.
This morning, at twelve o'clock, still
asleep,
I
was
Yuriev arrived with that telegram.
began to dress while he was there. at that
when
moment two
ladies
I
Suddenly just
were announced.
I
DOSTOEVSKY
200
was not dressed and sent to inquire who they were.
The waiter returned with a Ilyin wished to ask
my
all
*s
for
and to publish such a book for children. an idea We ought to have thought of it !
and published such a
ourselves long ago
book
little
Such a book would certainly
children.
for
permission to select from
works passages which were suitable
children,
There
my
Mme.
note, that a
and perhaps give us a
profit of
her a present of 2000 roubles
2000 roubles.
Make
—what impertinence
Yuriev immediately went down (since himself in his thoughtless
sell
it
way who had
!
was he directed
her to me) to say that I could not possibly agree,
and that
I
couldn't receive her.
and suddenly Varvara Mihailovna
He went
out,
arrived,
and
no sooner had she entered when Viskovatov appeared. Seeing that I had visitors Varvara immediately ran away. Yuriev came back and explained that the other lady visitor was on her
own
she did not give her name, but only said
;
that she had come to express her boundless respect, admiration, gratitude for
by
my
her.
I
my
that I had given her
She went away
works, etc.
asked
all
visitors to tea,
;
I did
not see
when suddenly
in
came Grigorovich. They all sat for a couple of hours, and when Yuriev and Viskovatov left, Grigorovich remained without any thought of going.
He began
telling
me
various stories of
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE things that
had happened
in the last thirty years,
He
recollecting the past, etc.
half of
it
but
;
it
was
201
made up Then when it
certainly
interesting.
was past four he declared that he was not going to part with
me and began
dine together.
We
Tavern, where
we dined
the while.
all
turned up.
we should the Moscow
begging that
went again to at our leisure,
and he talked
Suddenly Averkiev and
his
wife
Averkiev sat down at our table, and
Donna Anna declared that she would call on me (much I want to see her !). It turned out that near us were dining Poushkin's relations, his two nephews, Pavlischev and Poushkin, and some one else. Pavlischev also came up and declared that he too would call on me.
In a word, here as in
Petersburg they won't let
me alone. After dinner me to drive with him to
Grigorovich began asking the park left
'
is
Pavlovna
letter, I
home
for
your
letter.
I refused,
But there was
only met the Ivanovs there.
going to-morrow.
my
but
him, walked home, and in ten minutes drove
to Elena
no
for a breath of fresh air,'
to have tea
I sat till
Mashenka
eleven and returned
and write to you.
This
is
all
news.
The worst of it is that letters take three or four days. As I wrote to you that I was coming home, you of course won't write to me, expecting me on the 28th and now the time it will take before my ;
;
DOSTOEVSKY
202
yesterday and of to-day about
letter of
decision reaches
you
am
I
!
my
you
afraid
new
will
be
wondering what has happened and be uneasy.
The only bad thing is that I shall perhaps have no letters from you for two days, and I am pining for you. I am sad here in Ah, Anya, what a spite of guests and dinners.
But
can't be helped.
it
you could not have arranged (of course, it was out of the question) to have come with me They say that even Maikov has changed his mind pity that
!
and I
will
come
here.
There
will
be a
lot of fuss
have to present myself at the Town Hall as a
delegate (I don't
know when yet),
in order to receive
my admission card for the ceremony.
The windows
of the houses that surround the square are being let at
50 roubles a window.
They
are also building
wooden stands for the public at an equally enormous I am afraid too of its being a rainy day and price. I
may
catch a cold.
I
am
not going to speak at
the dinner on the opening day. of the
am
c
At the meeting
Lovers of Russian Literature,'
to speak on the second day.
I believe, I
Besides that,
instead of a theatrical performance they think of
having certain works of Poushkin read by well-
known authors (Turgenev, selecting a passage.
the
scene
of
the
myself, Yurie v), each
[They have asked Monk-Chronicler
Godounov), and also the
'
Miser's
me
to read
Boris
(from
Monologue
'
(from
!
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE and myself death
poem on Poushkin's
each read a
will
Viskovatov
Besides, Yuriev,
the Poor Knight).]
203
Yuriev Guber's, Viskovatov Lermontov's,
;
myself Tyuchev's.
The time anything.
and people keep me from doing
passes,
Up
at the Central
till
now
I
have not called
Shop or at the Morosovs.
been to Chayev's yet should also like to
must
I
;
make
call
money
for I
have not
on Varya
I
;
the acquaintance of the
church dignitaries, Nicolay Yaponsky and the local vicar Alexey, very interesting well, I
ing while I
With
am
are
I
am
afraid
on the opening day and of cough-
impatience
Oh,
my
long to see
you cross
I
reading.
terrible
from you.
don't sleep
I
have nothing but nightmares.
of catching a cold
how
men.
I
keep expecting a note
God, how are the children,
them
Are you
!
It is difficult
?
happy, or
without you.
To-morrow
good-bye for now.
well,
I shall
Well,
not go to
Elena Pavlovna's, she herself promised to send
any
letter if it
comes.
bless the little ones.
I
hug you
—If
Loskutnaya.
warmly,
I
—Wholly your F.
P.S.
all
me
anything
Address
letters arrive safely ?
Dostoevsky.
happens, telegraph to letters there, too.
Bad luck
if
any get
the
Do my lost
!
DOSTOEVSKY
204
VII
Room
Loskutnaya,
33,
Moscow, May 30, 1880. 1
will
am
writing to you now, although the letter
not go away
There
is
to-morrow,
till
almost no news.
my
Only that
a lot of bother and various
official
dear Anya.
am
I
in for
ceremonies
have to present myself at the Town Hall, obtain
I
admission cards, find out where to stand and at the ceremony, etc.
—they
come
yet,
hat on
I
:
is
really
in a frock-coat only
may
catch a cold.
morning the Averkievs came kin's nephews, Pavlischev
I
those wreaths
The Town Hall
but he
sit
is
Stupid
coming, and
put the whole ceremony of the unveiling on
to his shoulders
me
all,
—30 roubles for the two.
Zolotariov has not '11
And above
say I must have two.
arranging for them
I
:
also, to
make my
in to see
Yesterday
me
and Poushkin,
acquaintance.
drove to Yuriev (about
and with no
all
;
Poush-
called on
After that
these cards and cere-
him at home. I dined at home, and after dinner in came Viskovatov, who declared his love for me, and asked, why I did not love him ? etc. Still he was more possible than I 've known him before. (By the way, he told me that Sabourov (Minister of Education), a relation monies), but did not find
of
his,
had read certain passages of the Karamazovs
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE and
literally
wept
205
At nine
for ecstasy.
o'clock
drove to Yuriev, but again did not find him.
we
Visko-
Anna Nicolayevna and suggested we should call
vatov suddenly remembered that Englehardt was here
We
on her.
took a cab and arrived at ten o'clock
She was already
at Dusseau's Hotel.
in bed,
but
was very glad, and we sat for an hour, talking of the beautiful and the sublime.
the celebration, but to meet
now she
is
not well
morning when
Aksakov me.
called
I
;
She
some
is
not here for
relatives.
she has a swollen
leg.
But This
was asleep Ivan Sergueyevich
on me, but told them not to wake
After this I drove to Polivanov (Director of
the Secondary School and the Secretary of the
He
Society).
explained to
me
all
the steps I must
take at the Mansion House, and about the admission cards,
me.
He
and despatched a young man to help
introduced
me
A
to his family.
whole
company of teachers and pupils gathered round and we went (in the same building) to look at the Poushkin portraits and things which are at present at the school.
After that, having
come home,
found a note from Grigorovich, inviting at Tiestov's at six.
Meanwhile
I sat
At 8 o'clock letter.
down
I shall
(Yesterday,
After that, I
'11
I
wonder whether to write
you
me
I
to dine
I shall go.
my
bulletin.
go to Elena Pavlovna for your the
29th,
go home and
sit
I
received
down
to
one.)
my speech,
DOSTOEVSKY
206
which must be polished up.
A
on the whole
wonderful.
All the
am
the only
the weather
;
people here are in their
own homes
In the evening
visitor.
is
horrid existence
I
;
I shall write
more.
May
At
Tiestov's restaurant I found no Grigorovich,
so I returned
home and
to Elena Pavlovna children told
me
By my
you. will
be a
letter
that
;
After that I drove
dined.
she was not at home, but her
there had been no letter from
reckoning perhaps to-morrow there
from you
and two together
my
30-31, 1 a.m.
I
Putting two
for certain.
now understand
that from
all
came to the conclusion was coming on the 28th. But you must by
previous letters you I
now have
received the letters in which I hesitated
whether to return or not, and therefore there should be an answer now.
The
trouble was that
how failed to make all this
clear before I
we some-
went away.
For you could have written in any case, even reckoning that I was coming back, care of Elena Pavlovna, so as not to leave yourself and the children.
me
in the dark about
I also
imagine that on
the 2nd I shall have a letter from you sent direct to the Loskutnaya.
Your
Elena Pavlovna, that
is,
letters
addressed care of
your previous
might have sent without any
fear, for
letters
you
even had
I
gone away, nobody would have opened them, and
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE them back
she would have sent it
to Roussa.
But
letters to the
would be better to address your
Loskutnaya, so that
207
don't have to go to Elena
I
Pavlovna's because the great to-do begins immediately (from the 2nd).
I shall
have to get up
I shall not day long have the time even to keep on going to Elena
early
and bustle about
Pavlovna.
Also
shall
I
bulletins to you, as I
have no time at receives guests silk hats,
all
;
detailed
writing
stop
have done
till
now
:
I shall
On the 3rd the Mansion House
all.
there will be speeches, frock-coats,
;
white
ties.
veiling dinner at the
And then Town Hall
the mornings of the 5th
there ;
is
after
the un-
which on
and 6th there
will
be
meetings, and in the evenings literary readings.
Also on the 2nd there will be an evening meeting
Lovers of Literature,' when
of the
'
settled
who
shall
it
will
speak and at what time.
be I
believe I shall
have to speak on the second day,
on the 6th.
have been to Morosov and to the
I
Central Shop. roubles,
From Morosov
I got altogether
and at the Central, although they told
you had written to them to remit
me
14
me
50 roubles,
they ask for a postponement until the 6th or 7th.
As on the
7th, moreover, I shall
farewell visits,
may
and there
is
have to make
a number of them, I
be able to leave only on the 8th, and shall
you know by which
train.
But
I shall
let
try to leave
DOSTOEVSKY
208
on the 8th told
me
on Varya.
I called
for certain.
She
a great deal about her grandchildren and
asked my advice.
She is a sensible and good woman.
In the evening I managed to have just a glance at
How
the MS.
much
very I
I
;
them
don't hear their sweet voices.
And
keep on wondering
you
my kiss
you
oh, the
I
!
:
?
anything has happened to
if I
embrace you and the children, and
Karamazovs !
for now,
received only a line from you
And
a great deal.
all
precious time affair
if
ones
me without fail. Good-bye
Ah,
darling.
to-morrow
little
anything should happen (which God
If
all ?
forbid), wire to
I
I miss
are the
the Karamazovs,
Ah, what a throwing away of
!
Still
I
am now
absorbed in
this
they (the Westerners) have a strong party.
embrace you again and again.
—Your F. Dostoevsky.
Yesterday afternoon the gold link in
was broken
;
the one I had repaired.
remained in the sleeve of I
my
shirt,
must have dropped somewhere
my
cuff
Half of
it
and the other
in the street.
VIII Loskutnaya, Room 33, Moscow, May 81, 1880, 1 a.m.
My
dear
Any a,
I
thought of not writing to you
to-day, for I have almost nothing to write about.
;
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE But
209
your note (of the 29th),
as I 've at last received
and as days are certainly coming when in the bustle I shall
not be able to write you anything, or at best
a couple of lines, I have decided to write now.
am
so very glad that
the
little
had
ones and for you
rolled
away from
miss you.
my
wait
you are
It
my
it
—Aksakov
muddled
And
now.
my
in
(I
head
all
if
my
anxiety
name)
me
if I
shall
in,
me
have time
the directions for the
have to inquire who
called
on
me
to-day and sat for
to get up.
When
I
my
hotel,
awoke, he came
stayed precisely three minutes, and did not
even
sit
down
:
admiration for he expressed oldish
that
he called to declare his deep respect,
my
it all
talent, his devotion, gratitude
ardently and went away.
man, with a most sympathetic
came Lopatin, the young man
had charged to look after Hall,
1
Gogol's
have forgotten and
a long time in the reading-room of waiting for
still
A certain mathematician
where from Yuriev.
forget his
glad for
promised
besides, I
celebrations, so that I shall lives
am
heart, although I
autograph, 1 although I wonder to get
as
it is
;
I
;
annoying that Grandma won't
is
arrival.
well
all
I
and to give
Gogol's letter of
personal archives.
September
3,
1880.
me
all
my
face.
An After
whom Polivanov
tickets for the
Town
necessary information, etc.
March 1841, to Aksakov, is among Dostoeveky's was forwarded to Dostoevsky by Aksakov on
It •
DOSTOEVSKY
210
We entered into a conversation and, to tny pleasant surprise,
I
man, very
my own
found him an extraordinarily clever
intelligent,
extremely decent, and sharing
convictions to an extreme degree.
In a
After that came
word, a most pleasant meeting.
Grigorovich, and lied and gossiped a great deal.
They
seem to be preparing themselves
really
to
say something spiteful at the sittings and dinners. Grigorovich
is
also a delegate
from the Literary
The other three are Turgenev, Gayevsky, Krayevsky. Each received 150 roubles from the
Fund.
Fund
:
Only our Slav Society
for their expenses.
voted nothing, nor could
it
have done
vich complains that 150 roubles deed, shall
money
is
so.
too
Grigoro-
little.
In-
goes so fast here that although
have to pay
I
at the hotel, yet I shall
little
have spent a great deal cabmen, tobacco, special expenses, buying of wreaths, etc. Apropos, the :
two
obligatory wreaths are prepared
by the Town
Hall at 30 roubles for the two from each delegate.
If Zolotariov does
not come, then I
shall
buy cuff-links. Then I went to I dined at the Moscow Tavern. Elena Pavlovna and got your note. Her Manya is a most lovely girl of twenty, and I noticed there certainly have to pay.
I
must
also
a young doctor as their guest, who was very intrigued by her. After that together with Visko-
vatov we went to Anna Englehardt, who
is
still
— LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
211
home with her bad leg, and there we met her doctor, who says that the illness is pretty Then we serious if it be even slightly neglected. walked home with Viskovatov. In the morning
sitting at
two thunderstorms and a downpour,
there were
and now the night
wonderful.
is
How am
adventures for the time being. to read
the
my
same
speech
Aksakov
?
as mine.
literally in
It
our ideas.
is
sad
—How
These are
we
if
Poor
and
Knight,
coincide so
Pimen and
quarrels.
Well,
Anya.
Kiss the
of me.
Remember me
is
she,
not.
It is interesting
?
meeting with Annenkov.
Will he indeed hold out his like
hand
to
Anna Nicolayevna. How
on Katkov.
the
little
ones.
[The
first
word
playing cards with her. here.
Mine was
?
Farewell,
I
—Wholly your F.
I bless
should not
ones warmly, remind them
call
closely.
I
good-bye for now, darling
little
ought to
embrace you
P.S.
?
has she had a good journey
I
important)
(most
also
my
and imagine
was
shall I read at the
Tyuchev on Poushkin's death to try
my
going
said that his
evening literary recitals the scene of the
I
all
Dostoevsky.
is struck out]
near Auntie
how can he think
of coming
DOSTOEVSKY
212
IX Loskutnaya, Room 33, Moscow, June 2-3, 1880, 2 A.M.
My
dearest lovely friend Anyechka, yesterday
evening letter
I
went
off to
Elena Pavlovna for your
but received none
letters arrived at the
and to-day your two
;
Loskutnaya, one at 4 o'clock In a
in the afternoon, the other in the evening.
word, letters addressed to the Loskutnaya apparently reach here quicker than
Pavlovna.
sent to Elena
if
Kiss the children hard for their lovely
messages at the end and buy them some sweets, without
fail.
Do you
hear,
Any a
prescribe sweets for children.
—Even doctors
?
—As to your remark
that I do not love you much, I say I
it is sillyssimo.
think only of you and the children.
you
in
my
again here.
dreams.
—There
has been a hubbub
now
it is definitely
that the opening will be on the 6th.
I
I see
Yesterday the Celebration was again
suddenly postponed, but are prepared
And
by the Town Hall
need two, which
tariov has not
I shall order
come
yet.
The
stated
The wreaths
at 8 roubles each.
to-morrow. train
Zolo-
from Peters-
burg with various delegates for the Celebration is
arriving here only the
day
after to-morrow.
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE Now
to proceed
:
two days ago
213
in the evening
was a consultation at Turgenev's of nearly participants in the Celebration (I was excluded),
there all
as to
what
precisely should be read,
bration should be arranged, etc.
met
at Turgenev's as
vich told I
me
I
how
the Cele-
was told they
though by chance. comfort me.
this as if to
GrigoroCertainly,
myself would not have gone to Turgenev without
a formal invitation from
whom I haven't blabbed to me four days Yuriev
to
be
a
gathering
me
thereupon told
at
him
but the noodle
seen for four days now,
ago that there was going
Viskovatov
Turgenev's.
that already three days ago he
had received an invitation. passed over.
;
(Of course
it is
Thus
I
was simply
not Yuriev,
doing of Turgenev and Kovalevsky
;
it is
the
Yuriev has
only remained out of sight, and probably that
why he does not show day morning,
I
himself.)
And then
is
yester-
was no sooner awake than enter
Grigorovich and Viskovatov to inform
me
that the
programme of the Celebration and of the evening readings had been fixed at Turgenev's. According to them there is to be music and a recital of the
full
Poor Knight by the actor Samarin of the Poor Knight has been
me, also the reading of the
Poushkin (and read).
it
was
just
;
the reading
taken away from
poem on the death the poem I wanted
of to
Instead of this I have been appointed to
DOSTOEVSKY
214
poem The
read Poushkin's
Prophet.
I shall
ably not refuse to read The Prophet, but I
not been
why have
Then Grigorovich was requested to come to-morrow
officially
declared that I
prob-
informed
?
to the Hall of the Noblemen's Assembly (close to
where everything
here), (It I
means then
am
told to
my
will
be
finally arranged.
now
opinion was not asked, and
come
Assembly
to the Noblemen's
to
a general rehearsal; with the public present, and
above
with the pupils of the secondary schools
all
(free admission), as
the rehearsal
may
them
so that they too
in a
most awkward position
hear.
to read the
poems
Thus
I
am placed
they have settled
:
things without me, never asked
hand
arranged for
is
my
allotted to
consent before-
me, and yet
I
can't help being at the rehearsal and reading to
the young.
It will
be said
want to read to the young.
how
to appear to-morrow
coat like the public, or in
bad way yesterday. I
called
I
Dostoevsky did not
Finally, I :
am
at a loss
whether in a frock-
full dress.
dined alone
I ;
was
in a very
in the evening
on Anna Nicolayevna (Englehardt)
doctor was there (he even).
:
I sat for half
back with
me
to
my
is
;
her
her friend, related to her
an hour, and they both walked hotel.
This morning Grigoro-
vich and Viskovatov called again, and Grigorovich
was very pressing that we three should dine together at the Hermitage, and then spend the even-
It
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE ing in
and
They went away, Katkov, whom I had not called on
the Hermitage park.
drove to
I
215
There
for three days.
had just had a
letter
I
chanced on Lubimov, who
from Markevich promising to
send in his novel for the June number I
may be
thing. just
easy on that score.
an
received
Chairman of the Literature
(of
'
official 4
a very good
It is
At Katkov's there was news letter
So that
!
he had only
:
from Yuriev, as
Society of Lovers of Russian
which Society Katkov has been a
member from times immemorial). him that the invitation card
Yuriev informed
for the celebrations
had been sent to the Moscowskya Viedomosti by mistake, and that the Council of the Society for
the arrangement of the celebrations had revoked the invitation, as contrary to the resolution of the
must be considered The style of the letter
Council, so that the invitation
been issued.
as not having
was most dry and rude.
Grigorovich assured
had been made to sign
that Yuriev
Kovalevsky,
but
of
course
also
it,
chiefly
me by
by Turgenev. Even without
Katkov was evidently irritated. this I would not have gone,' he said to me, as he showed me the letter. He wants to publish it as '
it
stands
quite odious,
no right at
and had
I
the
in
Viedomosti.
This
and the important thing
all
to act like that.
not been so
It is
much involved
is is
certainly
they had
abominable,
in the Celebra-
— DOSTOEVSKY
216 tion,
would perhaps break
I
with them. the whole
—
I will
my
connection
speak sharply to Yuriev about
Then
affair.
off
I
asked Katkov
who was
the best dentist here, and he mentioned Adelheim at the Kuzvetsky Most, saying that I should
Adelheim that
My
he,
me
Katkov, had sent
tell
to him.
down completely and hangs on a thread. I drove up to Adelheim and he put in a new one for five roubles. From him I plate has broken
little
went home, and together with Grigorovich and Viskovatov drove to the Hermitage, where we dined for a rouble each. Then the rain be^an.
When
it
stopped for a
little,
we went out and
the
three of us got into a single cab and drove to the
On
Hermitage park. ing.
We
our
way
there
it
began
rain-
arrived at the park soaked through and
asked for tea in the restaurant.
We
bought one-
rouble tickets with admission to the Hermitage
The
Theatre.
rain kept on.
sorts of fibs, then
we went
Grigorovich told
all
into the theatre, to the
the opera Paul
was on, theatre, orchestra, singers, none of them bad, only the music is bad (in Paris it was performed several hundreds of times). Charming scenery for Act III. Without waiting for the end, we came second act
:
et
Virginie
—
out and each went home.
found your second agitates
me
letter.
extremely.
At the Loskutnaya
I
To-morrow's rehearsal
Grigorovich has promised
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE to call for
217
me, so that we can go there together.
I
got rather wet.
a
chill in
my
On my
journey here
arm, and
left
caught
I
rather aches.
it still
Yesterday morning I called on the bishops Alexey
and on Nicolay (Yaponsky). to
make
their acquaintance.
an hour I
;
I
was very pleased
I sat
there for about
a countess was announced, and I
left.
They
said
had a heart-to-heart talk with both.
my
had done them great honour and given them happiness. They had read my works.
that
visit
who
So they appreciate
me
blessed
write
A
my
you to-morrow,
good kiss for the
yevna
my
He
ardently.
Good-bye for now,
I love
you very much.
To Anna
ones.
little
Host.
the
If I can, I shall
darling.
too.
me
gave
lowest bow, and kiss her
besides for me.
Alexey
stands for God.
Nicola-
little
hand
—Wholly without division your F. Dostoevsky.
(Postscript
My
taken.
on
the first page)
:
But you
are mis-
dreams are very bad ones.
Listen
:
you keep on writing about the application to the nobility.
Firstly,
above
this
all,
even
when we meet. I
know
I
'11
I shall explain it all to
do
it
Here no applications it,
I
have no time,
could, I
matter must be done from Peters-
burg, through people.
burg.
if I
am
without
fail in
will serve
firmly convinced.
you
Peters-
any purpose
:
— ;
DOSTOEVSKY
218 (Postscript
on
the second page)
on Ivan
I called
:
—
Aksakov he is away in his country house. Chayev is also in the country. I shall go to Muraviov if I find time. Once more wholly yours, loving you.
X Loskutnaya,
Moscow, June
My
lovely
darling Anyechka,
received a dear grateful to
Room
33,
3-4, Tuesday, 2 a.m.
to-day I again
from you, and
little letter
am
you that you do not forget your Fedichka.
Since your letters began coming frequently
do
feel
very
I really
more peaceful and happier about you.
I
am also glad because of the children. This morning Lopatin came to me and brought the programme of the dates and ceremonies. to order the wreaths at the
Zolotariov
is
is
gave him 17 roubles
Town Hall (two wreaths).
not here yet.
certain barrister Soloviov
He
I
After this
and introduced
came a himself.
a learned man, and came only to speak about
mystical religious problems (a
new
craze.)
After
that came Grigorovich and Viskovatov, and then Yuriev.
We
letter to
Katkov and scolded him
I
all
attacked Yuriev terribly for his awfully.
Then
lunched with Grigorovich and Viskovatov in the
Moscow Tavern and
there
of the actor Samarin
;
he was
all
made
the acquaintance
the old fellow
is
sixty-four
the while making speeches to me.
He
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE will
act
the Poushkin
at
(He took
The Moscow Tavern
is
look at
me
away from me.)
always very crowded, and
every one knows, every one knows
:
Samarin told many
am.
I
artistic life of
we drove of the final
it
seldom that people do not turn round and
is
who
the Poor
Celebration
Knight, in costume.
it
219
'
Moscow.
stories
about the
Then, straight from lunch,
to the general meeting of the committee
Lovers of Literature
programme
'
for the settling of the
of the morning sittings
evening festivities.
and the
Turgenev, Kovalevsky, Chayev,
Grot, Bartenev, Yuriev, Polivanov, Kalachov,
others were there. to our
common
Everything has been settled
Turgenev was rather
satisfaction.
and Kovalevsky
nice to me,
and
(a large fat carcass
and enemy of our way of thinking) gazed at
am
fixedly all the time.
I
day of the morning
sessions,
to read
me
on the second
June
the evening festivity of the 6th I
8th,
and at
am
to read
(music has been allowed) the Pimen scene (from
Many
Poushkin's Boris Godounov.) nearly others. recite
all.
are to read,
Turgenev, Grigorovich, Pisemsky, and
On three
the second evening, the 8th, I shall
poems
by Poushkin
(the
second
part of the Western Slavs, and the She- Bear), and in the finale, at the conclusion of the festivity, I shall
read
Poushkin's
Prophet,— a,
awfully difficult to read aloud
;
little
poem
they have purposely
— DOSTOEVSKY
220
me
put I
in the finale in order to produce
wonder if
Sharp at ten
I shall ?
I
an
effect
returned
home
and found two cards from Souvorin saying that he will come at 10. The two cards were a mistake (they had stuck together), and as I thought from
the second that he had already called and found
me
out, I drove to his hotel, the Slavianky
him and
(not far from here), and I found
He was
at tea.
Literature
'
The
awfully pleased.
•
have put him on the black
articles just as
they have Katkov.
Bazaar his wife
Lovers of
list
for his
He was
not
even given an admission card for the morning sessions.
I
had one card (Varya's), which she had
refused,
and
He
pay them
will
I offered it to
too was here.
ment
for
—At
He
off later.
delighted.
said that Burenin
we made an appointArmoury at one o'clock
Chayev's
to-morrow at the
in the afternoon,
He was
him.
where he
will
show us everything.
Grigorovich and Viskovatov also wished to come.
But
I
wonder
if
they
will.
They went away
after
nine straight from the session to the Hermitage
and
insisted
but
I
that
tremendously that
went to Souvorin.
we were
When
Souvorin heard
to take
him and
his wife
and afterwards suggested that we should
dine together at the wife,
should come, too,
going to-morrow to the Armoury
Chamber he asked me there,
I
myself,
Moscow Tavern, he and
Grigorovich
all
his
and Viskovatov, and
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE then drive to the Hermitage.
The
for ad-
reading for the
of the
rehearsal
pupils of the schools has been abandoned.
to-morrow, the 5th, the are to appear at the I
am
Town
afraid I shall not
To-morrow
a
;
so
10th I leave
—at
I
all
Petersburg
of
On
'11
pay
the 8th
my
what hour
delegates
visits,
will
I
Now, that on the 11th, and vorin
is
and on the
write later.
my
me
many
times for
kiss the little ones
how
and
my
much
—
I
to arrange
Anka.
Sou-
it.
do not
Wait
you a much and much. I
bless them.
you have dreams, and that
And
I positively
I
I kiss
You
write that
do not love you.
keep on having very bad dreams, nightmares
every night about your being unfaithful to
with others. I kiss
me
at the reading.
warmly embrace you,
great
precious, so expect
speech.
to give it to or
he hears
I
my
Polonsky
this I believe is for certain.
asking for
know who till
is all,
be
all will
Maikov telegraphed that he was coming. too.
delegates
have time to write to you.
trainful
on the 9th
;
After
Hall in frock-coats, and
arrive at our Loskutnaya.
over
begin
trials
be
will certainly
where one pays
at the evening sessions,
mission.
He, poor thing,
He
seems to be tied to his wife.
221
God knows
it
you a thousand times.
torments
me
me
terribly.
—Wholly your F. Dostoevsky.
Kiss the children.
DOSTOEVSKY
222
XI Loskutnaya,
Moscow, June
My
8 p.m.
of June 3rd and hasten to write
little letter
you quickly as much as
my
No,
33,
lovely Anyutka, I have just received your
lovely
to
Room
5, 1880,
darling, don't ask
I shall
now
have time
for.
for long letters, for
there will hardly be time just to write you letters at
Literally, the
all.
whole time, every minute,
will
now be occupied, and even
that won't be enough
for
what
—that
alone
is
for
taking place here,
To begin
letters.
Yesterday morning myself,
at
's
certain, let
the
beginning.
Souvorin,
wife,
his
Burenin and Grigorovich were in the Kremlin, in the Armoury, where things
we examined
all
the ancient
Chayev, the inspector of the Armoury,
;
showed them to
After that
us.
we went
to the
Having looked at everything, we went to Tiestov's for a snack and remained to lunch. After that I called for a short while on Anna Nicolayevna Englehardt and had to buy a few things in the shops. Then, as agreed, we went to the Hermitage Park. The Souvorins, GrigoroPatriarch's sacristy.
vich, I
and the
met nearly
arrived
rest all
were already there. the delegates
from Petersburg.
came up
to
me
;
I
can't
All
In the park
who have
recently
kinds of persons
remember them
all.
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
223
Gayevsky, Lentovsky, the singer Melnikov and I sat all
others.
the time at tea with the Souvorins
and Burenin, and now and then with Grigorovich,
who kept on coming and going away. And suddenly a rumour spread that the Celebration had The rumour was spread by been postponed. o'clock,
and
He was not at home, assured me that it was
but
Melnikov. Yuriev.
and he it
was 11
It
to prepare myself for It
my
found
a
2 o'clock the
son
I
began
shall
I
Imagine,
job.
stiff
and from 8 in the morning
At
his
(And so
nonsense.
the unveiling of the memorial will be
feet.
off to
reading on the evening
Any a,
is,
I
Having come home
turned out to be.)
of the 6th.
drove
I
ceremony
on the 6th, be on
will
my
be over,
and the Solemn Service at the University begins.
my
upon
(No,
word,
shan't go on.)
I
After that
dinner at the Mansion House, and the very same day, at
9
o'clock
in
the
evening,
crammed with food and
tired,
exhausted,
drink, 1 have to read the
monologue of the Chronicler (from Boris Godounov)
—a
most
difficult
thing to read aloud, requiring
calmness and control of the subject. not
yet
starts
sat this
ready.
with
till
Moreover, the
me—the most
morning after 9 o'clock
who has
evening
I
am
almost
inconvenient position.
4 o'clock in the morning,
Zolotariov
I feel I
I
and unexpectedly
was awakened by
at last arrived.
I slept alto-
224
DOSTOEVSKY
gether 5J hours. Kornilov, after
After him
came Fiodor Petrovich
them Lopatin with the wreaths
(the wreaths cost 14, not 17 roubles, but without
The
ribbons). to-do, I
to
ribbons,
as
well
handed over to Zolotariov.
pay the 14 roubles
to-morrow's
as
So
for the wreaths myself.
True,
much o'clock we
Zolotariov will have to pay just as
At 2
rest of the accessories.
to the Mansion House.
have
I shall
for the set
off
All delegations (there are
a hundred delegations) presented themselves to Prince Oldenburgsky, the chaos
fuss,
—
I
etc.
The ceremonial,
don't describe
;
it
is
the
too im-
saw and spoke even with
possible to describe.
I
Poushkin's daughter.
Ostrovsky, the local Jupiter,
came up to me. Turgenev, very amiable, ran up. The other liberal groups, amongst them Plescheyev and even the lame Yazykov, bear themselves with You reserve and almost haughtily, as if to say :
are
reactionary,
a
but we are radicals.
And,
generally, complete dissension has already begun. I
am
afraid
that
these different tendencies
all
by side for so many days may end in The history of Katkov's exclusion from
existing side
a
fight.
came home and dined
many people terribly. at home in the hope
receiving a
from you and answering
the Celebration revolts
little
letter
you, then to go through Pirnen and afterwards to prepare
my
shirt
my
I
oi
speech,
and frock-coat
foi
;
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE and then go to bed
to-morrow,
Gaydebourov came
225
earlier.
and suddenly after Maikov, and then Viskovatov. Maikov came Moscow) to read having a
his
round.
sniff
in,
He
poems.
I talked to
but sent them off soon.
am
I
But him (to
is all
right, nice
them
for a while,
finishing these lines.
Zolotariov does not come, and the wreaths are
not finished.
This morning I was at Varya's.
To-morrow
day long
all
until night I shall
be busy.
After to-morrow there will be the session of the 4
Lovers of Literature,' but I
and
that session, for
am
not reading at
after that there will be a dinner
500 guests with speeches, and perhaps a free
fight.
Then on the morning
speech at the session of the
of the 8th there
'
my
is
Lovers of Literature,'
and in the evening, at the second festivity of the 4
Lovers
'
among
I
others
poems of Poushkin, and
You is
I
am
reading
finishing with
write that I ought to leave
The Prophet.
on the
8th,
only on the 9th that I shall be paying '11
this
my
but
only
if I
is
then.
It is
am
and
not detained for one more day,
But
you know much better for me to leave by the than by the morning train, for in the
quite possible.
1 p.m. train,
it
visits.
leave on the 10th and arrive on the 11th,
which
first
several
I
'11
let
case I shall miss only one night's sleep, but in
the second I shan't sleep
two
nights, for the night
before leaving I shan't sleep or I
p
'11
get
up at
6.
DOSTOEVSKY
226
my own triumphs I shan't have to my day is on the 8th, and on the 6th
Letters about write, since
am
I
Think
only reading Pimen.
speech will have to be published.
over, the
it
Although there
are three claimants, Yuriev
is
and Katkov
might perhaps become
after his affair
again drawing back,
completely indifferent to the whole business of the ceremony, and Souvorin, for
Then
not repeat his request. Therefore
one day
it is
my
time at
am sit
all
up
all
—Good-bye
little
letter ?
to write letters
for a long time.
for
going
now,
Even
I
is
what can no time, no
;
minute
this
And
I
shall I
I
have to
have
my
—warmly, the and bless them. — Wholly
embrace you warmly
F. Dostoevsky.
I don't
want to write of
words, but in deeds.
it 's
!
And when
your
All
letter
But now there
ones I kiss terrifically
deeds
is
There are of course a thousand things
exhausted and worn out.
sleep out ?
She
good-byes.
one can't manage to write in a one say in a
be back
on Varya and
I called
to her daughter in the country. darling.
may
Recently I received 18 roubles 75
late.
seem to have said
my
may
would be bad.
it
quite possible that I
kopecks from Alexandrov. I
know,
all I
love, for love is not in
And when
They are long overdue. the same I '11 try to find time
shall I get tc
?
onlv a few
lines.
to write you,
il
;
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
227
XII Room
Loskutnaya,
Moscow, June
33, 7, 1880,
Midnight.
My lovely dearest darling Anya,
I write in
a hurry.
The unveiling of the memorial took place yesterday,
how then can
would not describe This
is
hours,
Even twenty pages
I describe it ? it,
the third night.
—to-night
and I
I haven't
have slept for only
be the same.
will
a minute.
was the dinner with speeches.
1
five
Then there
Then the reading
with music at the evening literary festivity at the
Noblemen's Assembly.
I read the scene of
Pimen.
In spite of the impossible choice (for surely one
cannot shout Pimen across a whole hall) and the
had to read in the worst sounding hall, they say that it went off superbly, but that I was
fact that I
not very
audible.
they would not
let
me
was received excellently begin for a long time
;
they
and
after the reading they called
three times.
But Turgenev, who read
kept applauding
me out
I
;
1 On June 6th, the Moscow City Society gave a luncheon in the Hall of the Nobility to the delegations which had arrived for the unveiling of the Poushkin memorial. On the evening of the same day the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature gave a literary and musical soiree, at which Turgenev read Poushkin's poem The Cloud. '
'
On June 7th, the inaugural session of the ' Society of Lovers of Russian Literature took place, after which a subscription dinner, organised by the Society, was held. '
DOSTOEVSKY
228
was
shockingly,
called
out more often than
I.
Behind the scenes (a huge place in darkness)
I
who began
noticed about a hundred young people,
a frenzied shouting each time Turgenev appeared. It
immediately occurred to
me
that they must be
And
a claque put there by Kovalevsky.
To-day at the morning
turned out.
it
sitting be-
cause of that claque Ivan Aksakov refused to his
so
make
speech after Turgenev (in which the latter
underrated Poushkin, taking away from him the
name
me
of national poet), and he explained to
that the claqueurs were arranged beforehand and
placed there by Kovalevsky students and
all
(all
of
them
are his
Westerners), in order to proclaim
Turgenev as the head of their school of thought,
and to humiliate
us, in case
we go
Nevertheless, the reception given to
against them.
me
yesterday
was most wonderful, although only the pubUc the chairs applauded.
Besides, crowds
of
in
men
and women kept on coming to me behind the scenes to press hall,
my
hand.
In the interval I crossed the
and a multitude of people, youths, greybeards,
women, threw themselves our prophet,
Karamazovs.
9
we
at me, saying
are better
(In a word, I
men
:
'
You
are
after reading the
became convinced that
the Karamazovs have a colossal significance.)
To-
day, coming out from the morning session, at which I
did not speak, the same thing happened.
On
the
—a LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
229
and at the cloak-room, men, women, and all of people detained me. At the dinner in the
staircase sorts
evening two ladies brought
them
I recognised
me
Some
flowers.
by their names
of
—Mme. Tretiakov,
Mme. Golokhvastov, Mme. Moshnin, and others. I '11 pay a visit to Mme. Tretiakov the day after to-morrow. (She is the wife of the Tretiakov who To-day was the second one, a couple of hundred
has a picture gallery.) dinner
— the
literary
The young generation met me
people.
arrival, hailed
speeches
dinner I
—and
many
at
me, paid court to me, made frenzied before the dinner.
all this still
speeches were
made and
At
toasts given.
did not want to speak, but towards the end of the
dinner forced
many people jumped up from the table and me to speak. I said only a few words,
and there was a roar of enthusiasm,
literally
After that in the next hall they sat round
dense crowd
—and
got up to go
still
in
there),
a roar.
me—
much and ardently (at But when at half-past nine
spoke
the coffee and cigars). I
my
home
(two-thirds of the guests were
they shouted out
'
Hurrah
' !
to me,
which even those who did not sympathise had
to take part involuntarily.
crowd poured with
me down
overcoats, with no hats on,
After that,
the
stairs,
came out
all
that
and without
into the street
me into my cab. And suddenly they threw themselves on me to kiss my hands. Not one, but and put
!
230
DOSTOEVSKY
scores of people,
and not students only, but grey-
No, Turgenev has only claqueurs, but
beards.
Maikov was there
people have true enthusiasm.
and witnessed
all this
;
my
he must have been surprised.
Several people (strangers to me) said in a whisper
that for to-morrow, at the morning sitting, a real
row was prepared morrow, the 8th,
morning
I
my
is
my
read
me and
for
Aksakov.
day
really fateful
speech,
and
in the
:
in the evening I
The
read twice, The She-Bear and The Prophet.
Wish
Prophet I intend to read well.
There
is
Town
Yesterday at the tured to
make a
effect, at least is
too.
here.
Hall lunch Katkov ven-
long speech and did produce an
on a part of the
Kovalevsky
public.
my name among
Annenkov
tried to
You
turned away.
see,
Anya,
my
speech
is
On
the 9th I
am
paying
visits,
up
my mind
to.
definitely
who
I
to me, but I
have written to
not yet finally revised.
and
for the future.
and get
I
have
must now
my
speech
effect it will
have stayed here a long time, spent a all this I
must make
I
I shall give
Everything depends on the
of money, but in
Turgenev
others.
make up
you, although
is
me
outwardly very amiable to me, and in one toast
he mentioned
I
for
commotion and excitement
great
To-
fair
make.
amount
laid a foundation
correct
my
speech,
my linen ready for to-morrow. —To-morrow
my important debut. Am afraid
I shall
not have
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE enough
sleep.
I
am
afraid of having a
pay
Central Shop will not
Good-bye
now,
for
my
and
shall arrive
Be ready. you. Your
—
I
I
'11
—The
embrace you, do
I
probably leave on the
on the night of the 11th.
embrace you
eternal
fit.
in spite of everything.
darling.
kiss the little ones.
10th,
231
all
warmly and
bless
and invariable F. Dostoevsky.
This letter will probably be the
last.
XIII Room
Loskutnaya,
Moscow, June
My
8, 1880,
33,
8
p.bi.
dear Anya, to-day I sent you yesterday's
letter of the 7th,
also these
few
but
lines,
now
I can't help
although I
out morally and physically.
am
sending you
awfully tired
So perhaps you
will
receive this letter together with the preceding one.
This morning was the reading of 4
The
Lovers.'
my
was packed.
hall
speech at the
No, Anya, no,
you can never present to yourself nor imagine the effect
it
produced
What
!
are
my
Petersburg
1 At the second special session on June 8th of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature. Dostoevsky's speech appeared neither in the Russkaya My si, nor in the Russky Viestnik (with whose editors, Yuriev and Katkov, Dostoevsky, as we have seen, had been negotiating), but in the daily Moscowskya Viedomosti, No. 162, 1880. It was republished in the sole number of The Journal of an '
'
Author
for 1880.
:
DOSTOEVSKY
282 successes? this
Nothing, nothing at
When
!
plause,
and
not
me
let
them to
I
came out, the
compared to
all,
thundered ap-
hall
for a long, very long time, they
speak.
let
me
bowed, made gestures, asking
I
read
—nothing
raptures,
enthusiasm
mazovs).
At
(all
was of any
avail
because of the Kara-
began reading
last I
would
I
:
was
inter-
rupted positively at each page, and at moments at each phrase, by a thunder of applause. loudly, with
fire.
All that I wrote about
was received with enthusiasm.
(This
is
I read
Tatyana a great
victory for our idea over the twenty-five years of delusions
!)
When
at the end I proclaimed the
universal union of people, the hall in hysterics,
and when
you about the strangers
—
I
cannot
tell
about the wail of ecstasy
roar,
among the
I finished,
was as though
:
public cried, wept, embraced
one another, and swore
one another
to
to be better,
from henceforth, but to love. The order of the session was upset all rushed to not to hate one another
;
me
—grand of State, students —
to the platform
taries
ladies, students, Secre-
all
embraced, kissed me.
members of our Society who were on the platform embraced me and kissed me, and all, literally all, cried for ecstasy. The calls for me lasted half an hour they waved their handkerchiefs suddenly, for instance, two old men, All the
;
;
strangers to me, stopped
me
:
'
We
have been
I
— LETTERS TO HIS WIFE
233
enemies for twenty years, we have not spoken to
now we have embraced and made you who have reconciled us. You are
one another, and peace.
our
It is
you
saint,
prophet
whom
had put
I
in a
me
Annenkov ran up
to press
shoulder.
a genius
You
to embrace
!
my
me
speech,
with tears.
hand and kiss my you are more than
my
are a genius,
Ivan Aksakov
they both said to me.
'
Prophet,
'
'
good word in
threw himself at
'
!
Turgenev, about
the crowd shouted.
'
!
prophet
our
are
ran up to the platform and declared to the public that
my
event
!
speech
A
is
not a mere speech, but a political
cloud had been hiding the horizon, and
now Dostoevsky's words, it
like the sun,
away, have shed their light upon
moment
have driven
all.
From
this
begins true brotherhood, and there will 4
be no more misunderstanding.
Yes, yes
!
'
they
and embraced again, and wept again. The sitting was closed. I tried to escape behind the scenes, but everybody forced their way in there all
cried,
from the
hall,
hands, would not let in.
One
They kissed my The students rushed
mostly women.
me
be.
of them, in tears,
fell
down
before
me on
Combell and
the floor in hysterics and lost consciousness. plete,
completest victory
!
Yuriev rang
his
announced that the 'Society of Lovers of Russian Literature
'
me
honorary
member.
Again wailing and shouting.
After an
unanimously
elected
— DOSTOEVSKY
234
interval almost of an hour the session All the other speakers
was resumed.
had a mind not to read.
Aksakov got up and declared that he would not read his speech since all had been said and all had been solved by the great word of our genius Dostoevsky. However, we all made him speak. The reading went on, and meanwhile a conspiracy was arranged. I was worn out and wanted to go home, but they forced
me
In that one
to stay.
hour they managed to get a sumptuous laurel crown, a yard and a half across, and at the end of the sitting a number of ladies (over a hundred)
stormed the platform and crowned the whole hall with the wreath Russia, of cried
;
whom you
spoke so
:
From women of All much good
:
!
'
me on behalf of the City of Moscow.
—Admit, Anya, that for this on
it
was worth staying
this is a pledge for the future, a pledge for
even
everything, should I I received
your
letter
die.
—When
In an hour's time I literary festivity.
morrow
—
visits.
leaving.
On
'11
I
came home,
about the new-born
but you write so unfeelingly about
am
in sight of
Tretyakov, the Lord
enthusiasm again.
Mayor, thanked
me
'
go
I shall
off to
my
foal,
staying on.
read at the second
read The Prophet.
To-
After to-morrow, on the 10th I
the 11th I shall be at home,
unless anything very important detains me.
speech must be placed, but to
whom
The
shall I give
— !
LETTERS TO HIS WIFE They
are
all
Good-bye
for
now,
it ?
tearing
it
between them. Terrible
my dear,
one.
I kiss
your little feet.
I kiss
them,
—bless them.
you
My
all.
shake.
Yours
head
Good-bye all
is
for
and wholly
235
desirable I
and precious
embrace the children,
I kiss the foal.
queer,
my
now, for a
I bless
hands and feet little
while.
F. Dostoevsky.
:
DOSTOEVSKY AND POBIEDONOSZEV SOME LETTERS
;
DOSTOEVSKY AND POBIEDONOSZEV Dostoevsky's acquaintance with Pobiedonoszev, during the last ten years of his
life
(1871-1881),
is
an episode
of great interest in the social history of that time,
and
of importance in the history of Dostoevsky's life as
man and
author.
Up till now no light has been thrown
upon it. Dostoevsky met Pobiedonoszev in the winter of 1871-1872 at the house of Prince Meschersky, the The editor of the reactionary paper Grazhdanin. acquaintance continued and developed, and in the year 1873 (when Dostoevsky was editor of the Grazhdanin) it
ripened into friendship.
Of the
first
moment
of
Dostoevsky wrote to his wife (on June came yesterday to the office Pobiedonoszev 26, 1873) of the Grazhdanin. He waited for me, but I was out so he left a note asking me to call on him after 8 o'clock. I called last night and sat with him till about midnight.
their friendship, :
'
He talked all the time, told me a great deal, and pressed me to go and see him again to-day. He said that I was to let him know if I did not feel well enough, and he would come to me instead. He wrapped me up in a rug, and although the maid ran to the hall to let me
he himself saw me down three dark flights of with a candle in his hands, to the porch. What would Vladislavlev say if he had seen it ? He read out,
stairs,
Crime and Punishment for the first
when he was
time in his
life.
It
Wight, was recommended to in the Isle of
239
DOSTOEVSKY
240
him by a certain person, an admirer of mine already too well known to you [probably the Tsarevitch], whom he escorted to England. Consequently things aren't But please don't talk about it.' The description of the meeting and of the unexpectedly cordial and attentive reception from the omnipotent Pobiedonoszev shows that Dostoevsky was at his house for the first time, and was affected by Pobiedonoszev 's attitude to him. From the first Pobiedonoszev had a warm regard for him. In a letter to Aksakov on January SO, 1881, Pobiedonoszev wrote The time when he edited the Grazhdanin brought us close together. At that time, in sympathy for his desperate position, I worked with him the whole summer, and we became very friendly.' Their friendship grew, and they used to meet regularly on Saturday so very bad.
:
'
evenings.
Staraya Roussa, May
19, 1879.
Dear and much respected Konstantin Petrovich, although to-day will
is
only the 19th of May,
my letter
not reach you earlier than the 21st, and there-
you on your birthday.
fore I hasten to congratulate I
remember, by the way, that exactly a year ago
I
came
you
to
me
this
very day in the morning, and
it
was only a fortnight or three weeks ago, or at most a month so impossibly seems to
that
it
—
quickly time passes
have now been here a
I
!
month alone with my family and have seen hardly any one. The weather has been fine on the whole, the bird-berry tree and apple tree shed their blossom long ago here, and the lilac sat
is
in full bloom.
and worked, but have not done much
I ;
have
I sent
however, half the book (2J folios) [part of The Brothers Karamazov] for the May number of the
off,
Russky Viestnik, but proofs,
and
The point
I
is
I
am
sitting waiting for the
do not know what is going to happen. that this book of the novel
minating one.
It is entitled
the theme of the book
is
Q
:
*
is
the cul-
Pro and Contra,' and
denial of
God and the
DOSTOEVSKY
242
The denial now is
refutation of this denial.
and sent
off,
but the refutation
will
finished
only come in
The denial I described just myself and realised it strongest, that
the June number.
as
I felt it
is,
just as
it is
now taking place in our Russia in
nearly
the whole upper stratum of society, and above
with the young generation.
I
mean, the
scientific
and philosophical refutation of the existence
God has been given socialists of
up,
to-day (as
it
it
no longer occupies at
their
instead,
;
of all
occupied them throughout
the whole of the last century and the
the present one)
all
men
first
half of
are denying with
all
might and main the divine creation, the world
God and its meaning. These which modern civilisation finds
of
flatter
are the only things utter nonsense.
I
myself with the hope that even in such an
abstract
theme
have not betrayed realism.
I
The
refutation of this (not a direct, not a face to face
appear in the
refutation) will
dying old monk.
—Many
last
word of the
have reproached
critics
me because I generally choose for my novels themes that are not right, are not real, and so on.
the contrary,
know nothing more
these themes.
.
.
real
I,
on
than just
.
I sent it off all right,
and yet
I
have a presenti-
ment that for some reason they may suddenly decide not to publish it in the Russky Viestnik. But enough of that. One goes on talking of one's worries. I
LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV
243
read the newspapers here and understand nothing.
They simply write of nothing. read in the Novoye
Only yesterday
I
Vremya about the order of the
Minister of Education that teachers should refute socialism in class (and therefore should enter into discussions
with the pupils
dangerous that
When officer
I
it
is
was about the
arrived here the talk
Dubrovin of the
local
Vilmanstrand regiment
They say he pretended mad-
up to the very
rope, although
it
might not
mad
have been pretence, for he was incontestably without
it.
so
passes understanding.
(who was hanged). ness
The idea
?).
But when one begins to judge from
an example before one's eyes, one
is
for the
hun-
dredth time struck with two facts which with us in
Russia are unchangeable.
Thus
:
consider only
the regiment in which
Dubrovin was, and, on the
other hand, himself.
One
sees such a difference
between them that they appear as beings from different planets
;
and yet Dubrovin
and
lived
acted in the firm belief that every one, the whole
regiment, would suddenly
become
like himself,
and
would be occupied only by that which concerned him.
On
the other hand,
they are mad.
we say immediately
Yet those madmen have
logic, their doctrine, their esse, their
God
:
their
even, and
they are planted in them as firm as firm can be. This
is left
out of consideration.
Nonsense, people
DOSTOEVSKY
244 say. it is
It is
not like anything they know, therefore
nonsense.
It is culture
we have not
got, dear
Konstantin Petrovich (the culture which
everywhere
it is
And
since
not there because of the
was torn out by the man does not live by bread alone,
Peter the Great.
nihilist,
root.
and
else),
exists
It
man
our poor, uncultured
involuntarily invents
something most fantastical, most absurd, and most (For
anything.
unlike
absolutely
although
European
everything from
yet even this he has remade so that
taken
has
he
socialism,
it is
unlike
anything.)
Now
Konstantin Petrovich,
what
I did
my
I 've written
I press
life.
I
dear
you exactly
!
sincere wish for all that
long, long
see,
But there 's nothing your hand closely and send
not want to write
to be done.
you
and
written four pages,
I 've
am
receive these words of
pleased
is
now
best,
and
that you
mine and that you
for will
will read
them. If you write
support
my
you to heal
May God what
me even a single line, you will greatly
spirit.
my
In the winter too I came to
spirit.
send you peace of mind
to wish a
man more than
—
I
know
not
this in these days
of ours.
My deep bow to your much respected wife. —Your absolutely devoted servant,
F.
Dostoevsky.
— LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV
245
II
Bad-Ems, August 9-21, 1879.
Much
respected Konstantin Petrovich, I have
not replied up
me
dressed to
till
now
to your superb letter ad-
to Staraya Roussa, for I thought to
you personally, if only for one minute, on my way to Ems I went to your house (by the Finnish see
;
church) but did not find you, though the porter
me
came there frequently. I was very sorry, for from you I always hear a living and strengthening word, and it was just support I needed. I went to Ems perfectly ill. My angina told
that you
pectoris got so
much worse
in
Staraya Roussa
because of the bad weather during the whole summer, that I was
Added
ill
not only in body, but also in
to this,
my
spirit.
hard work on the Karamazovs,
and, finally, the painful effect of contemplating
what
going on, and the
is
'
Mad House
'
of the
Russian Press and intellectuals. I
have been here now three weeks taking the
cure,
and
I
wonder what
present exchange,
which
(it
may
my
will
come of it
journey cost
at the
700 roubles,
turn out) might very, very well
have been saved for the family. continuously think that I well, in
me
for,
;
a year Or two
I lie
will, clearly,
—and what
is
here and
die soon
going to happen
DOSTOEVSKY
246 to the three true, here I
A
narrow
am
generally in the most
defile,
but which
golden heads after
little
me ?
It
's
gloomy mood.
rather picturesque as a landscape,
have been
visiting for four
summers
now, and in which I hate each stone, for
it is diffi-
I
how much
cult even to imagine
have suffered here during present visit
is
thousands of
my
the most awful
all sorts
of
:
riff-raff
home-sickness I visits.
The
a crowd of
many
four
from
all
Europe
(Russians there are few, and those only the utterly unfamiliar ones from the Russian borders) into a narrow space
crammed
no one to exchange a single word with, and above all it is all strange, all ;
—
completely strange
have to go on five
of
is
unbearable.
And
up to our September,
I
i.e.
And mark you literally half When in Berlin, on my way, :
are Jews.
Pouzykovich that,
I observed to
many, Berlin at any
And
this
like this
whole weeks.
them
—
in
my
view, Ger-
was becoming Judaised. the Moscowskya Viedomosti an
here I read in
rate,
extract from a pamphlet, which has just appeared in
Germany, Where
answer by a Jew to that
the
Germany was becoming Judaised
spects.
'
and there is
Jew here? It a German who dared to is
There is
a
is
;
an
write
in all re-
no Jew,' the pamphlet
German everywhere
no Jew, there
for, it alleges,
is
is
but
if
says,
there
everywhere a Jewish influence,
the Jewish spirit and nationality are
;
LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV
247
higher than the German, and they have indeed inculcated
Germany
in
right
my view
Thus,
realism, etc. etc.
of speculative
spirit
the
turned out to be
the Germans and Jews themselves testify
;
But apart from the speculative realism which is rushing upon us also, you can't believe the dishonesty of everything here, in commerce to
it.
The present-day German trader not only deceives the foreigner (this would yet
at
any
rate.
be pardonable), but he
complained of
it
was
here, I
When
him.
literally robs
I
with a laugh,
told,
that the Germans also were treated in the same Well, never
way.
down
mind
!
When
I
came here
I
my
work again and, at last, the day before yesterday I sent off to Moscow the August quota (of the Karamazovs). It will appear on August 31. It is the sixth book of the novel and (N.B. Biographical is called A Russian Monk. data of the life of old Zosima and a few of
instantly sat
to
—
his
precepts.)
although
I
I expect
myself
know
abuse from the
that I have not accom-
plished even a tenth part of
what
I
yet pay attention to this fragment,
and dear Konstantin Petrovich,
much
like to
for a few,
my
work.
the novel
it
much
respected
I
wrote this book
the culminating point of
Apropos, this year :
wanted to do,
for I should very
know your opinion.
and consider
critics
I
shall
not
finish
the third and last part will remain for
j
DOSTOEVSKY
248
next year.
work
—And now
I
am
again to
here.
In Berlin I met Pouzykovich. be helped by some one in three days' time he
number out at
;
he gave
He will probably me his word that
would bring out the promised
of the Grazhdanin in Berlin, but he has not
brought
is
down
sitting
it
all.
out yet. I
he
I don't think
have observed one
bring
'11
trait in
him
it
he
:
You know, him, but now
a lazybones and incapable of work.
up
till
recently I took an interest in
he has driven
me
into despair.
throws the blame on others. written a whole letter, and forgive me,
much
Petrovich.
Your
wrote
me
all
And
he constantly
But now
have
I
about myself.
Do
respected and dear Konstantin prisoners (Saghalien
about them) tortured
and
all
my whole soul
;
you it is
too intimate to me, in spite of the twenty-five years'
But about this in a personal talk. And now till the desired, happy meeting. Wholly your F. Dostoevsky. and ever devoted to you,
distance.
—
Ill
Bad-Ems, August 24, 1879.
Much vich,
I
respected and worthiest Konstantin Petroreceived your two letters here and
am
deeply grateful to you for them, particularly for the
first
one in which you speak of
my
spiritual
LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV You
state.
and
sick in soul,
and utter against
will.
I
However,
I
'11
?
ask you this See,
finish it
:
can
what
is
a
the unbearable facts which are taking
letter ?) all I
am
you yourself
point out in your second letter (and
;
I
have become depressed
one remain quiet in our time
place
But
Sitting here, in sad
diffident.
solitariness,
my
and your
are perfectly, deeply right,
thoughts have only strengthened me.
249
am now
busy with the novel (and
only next year
!),
and yet
I
am
I shall
tormented
with the desire to continue The Journal of an Author, for there
is,
indeed I have, something to
—and just as you would wish—without barren,
say
behind-scenes polemics, but with a firm and fearless
And
word.
every one now, those even
What
something to say, are afraid. Positively
afraid of ?
European
ideas
'
—of a ghost.
of science
who have are
they
The commonl
and enlightenment
stand despotically over every one, and no one dares to speak.
understand too well
I
greeting the students as the
last articles,
gentsia, 4
why Gradovsky's intelli-
had such a tremendous success with our
The fact of the matter is that he the whole remedy for all the present-day
Europeans.'
sees
horrors of our unsettledness in that very Europe, in
Europe alone.
My
literary position (I never
spoke to you about this) I consider almost pheno-
menal
:
as a
man steadily writing
against European
DOSTOEVSKY
250 principles,
who has compromised
with The Possessed, that obscurantism
—how
Europeanisers, their critics,
is
by his reaction and man, apart from all
is,
that
their
himself for ever
reviews,
their
yet acknowledged by our young
by that very unsettled
generation,
newspapers,
nihilism-ridden
young generation, etc. ? This has been expressed to me by them, from many places, in individual declarations and by whole bodies of them. They have already declared that from me alone they expect a sincere and sympathetic word, and that
myself alone they consider as their leading
writer.
These declarations of the young generation are
known
to the literary workers, to the bandits of
the pen and the sharpers of the Press, and they are
very
much impressed by
they
let
me
like dogs,
fusedly
write freely
will
come of
—Lord,
how would
They would devour me, afraid, and wonder con-
!
but they are
what
Otherwise,
it.
it all.
how
Here
I
read the
stupid,
how abomin-
ably lazy and stagnantly petrified.
Believe me,
nasty rag Golos,
my
anger at times
is
transformed into positive
laughter, for instance in reading the articles of
the schoolboy thinker, E. Markov, on the question.
It is sheer stupidity, the utter
of stupidity. vich's paper.
You
woman
nakedness
say you did not like Pouzyko-
Yes, indeed
possible to speak to that
;
but
it
is
quite im-
man, quite impossible
to
:
LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV advise him. he all,
is
Above
so touchily self-confident.
he cares only about the circulation
;
251
as to all
the rest he does things with an extraordinarily easy conscience.
Your opinion
what you read from
of
me much
the Karamazovs flattered
(concerning
the power and energy of the work), but
once the most necessary question
you put at
that for the
:
time being I have not given a reply_to_all ^ those atheistic
That
my
is
propositions,
just the point,
whole uneasiness
intended
but the reply
my
and
Book VI, The Russian Monk,
reply to all this negative side
August 31. will it
And is,
it will
For
I
had
to be as a
appear on
therefore I fear on its account
be a sufficient reply
the answer
;
urgent.
whole trouble and
about that.
is
is
The more
?
—
so because
indeed, not a direct one, not an .
answer to the propositions expressed before
(in
The Great Inquisitor and elsewhere) point by point, but an indirect one.
In
my
reply
is
represented
something directly opposite to the world-conception expressed in the earlier book,
represented not point
an
by
And
but again
it is
point, but, so to say, in
what worries me, that is, shall I be understood and shall I achieve even a particle of my aim. Added to this are still the demands of art I needed to represent artistic picture.
that
's
just
:
a modest character life is full
and a majestic one, whereas
of comicality and
is
grand only in
its
252 inner sense, so
demands of of
my
DOSTOEVSKY that against my will,
because of the
was compelled in the life-history monk to touch also on some rather frjvnlnng art, I
Then
side s, so as not to inj ure the artistic realism.
there are the monk's precepts, at which people will just shout that they are absurd, for they are too ecstatic
day
;
certainly, they are absurd in the every-
but in the other, the inner sense,
sense,
Anyhow,
they are right. should very
much
value and respect
my
it
have your opinion,
I see I
on you
(I
1
or
don't
time, I can't settle beforehand), I
may
find
you
in,
for I
have talked too much
in Petersburg (hastening to Staraya
family), I shall call
I
wrote the book
I
On September
work.
think
worry much, and
I
very much.
But
with great love.
about
like to
I
and see you
and if
2, I shall
Roussa to
know if I
at
am
be
my
what lucky
only for a short
Good-bye, kindest and sincerely respected
while.
Konstantin Petrovich,
may God
grant you
many
—there can be no better wish in our
years to live
time, for such
then a
what
silly
will
and
men
as
you must
sinful idea flashes across
happen to Russia,
Mohicans, die
?
live.
if
Now and my mind
:
we, the last of the
True, I instantly smile at myself.
Yet nevertheless we must live and work untiringly. And are not you a worker ? Apropos Pouzykovich having heard from me the content of your :
letter concerning the dispatch of the prisoners to
LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV Saghalien, pressed
me
to let
Of course
Grazhdanin.
I
253
be published in the
it
did not let him have
—Wholly your
F.
it.
Dostoevsky.
IV Staraya Roussa, May
19, 1880.
Deeply esteemed Konstantin Petrovich, as in past years, so once again I cannot miss the 21st
without wishing you, sincerely and from heart, all that
is
best, all that
on your birthday. above
May God
I
!
send
my
whole
for yourself
grant you health
and then supreme success
all,
labours
you wish
my
in
your new
message to your old
flat
and
hope that the post-office knows your new address. Before
my
week ago) fail
departure from Petersburg (exactly a I intended to
come
to see
you
in order to take leave of
summer, and to ask your parting for a particular reason, I
very
the bustle and anxieties of otherwise,
come
and
I could
to go to
Moscow
But
needed.
departure decided
not get to you.
to Roussa here for rest
whole
for the
blessing, which,
much
my
you without
and peace
for the unveiling of the
I did :
I
not
have
Poushkin
memorial, as a delegate of the Slav Charitable Society. I
am
And
it
turns out, as I had foreseen, that
going not for pleasure, but perhaps even for
immediate unpleasantness. involves
my
For the point at issue
most cherished and fundamental con-
DOSTOEVSKY
254
While
victions.
Moscow
there
proscribe
is
still
in Petersburg I heard that in
a certain clique which
opinions
contrary to
anniversary, and that
it
•
own
at
the
fears certain reactionary
words which might be said by of the
its
trying to
is
others at the meetings
Lovers of Russian Literature,'
who have
taken upon themselves the whole arrangement of
But
the anniversary. Yuriev,
in fact I
was invited by and the
the President of the Society,
Society itself (from their
speak at the opening.
official notice) is
going to
The papers even have
already published rumours about certain intrigues. I
have prepared
in the I
my
most extreme
speech on Poushkin precisely spirit of
convictions (ours,
Therefore I anticipate some
venture to say).
kind of attack.
my
But
not be disconcerted
I will
must serve my work and The professors are payshall speak without fear. ing court to Turgenev, who is becoming definitely a personal enemy of mine. (In the Viestnik Europa he let out some petty scandal about me and
am
not afraid.
I
concerning a certain happening, which never hap-
But
pened, thirty-five years ago.)
and
glorify
I trouble is
Verochka
I cannot.
you with small-talk
?
praise Poushkin
There,
why
But the
should
real point
not the small-talk, but a public matter and a
great one too, since Poushkin expresses precisely
that idea, which
we
all
(a tiny
group as yet) serve.
LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV And is
must be pointed out and expressed that what is hateful to them [the Westerners].
this
just
:
Well, perhaps they will simply not allow
speak
255
my
mind.
me
In that case I shall publish
to
my
speech.
firmly
I
press
your
Konstantin Petrovich.
down shall
On my
return I shall
to finish the Karamazovs.
be in labour.
this labour.
But
I
All the
From next year onward Then
I shall
I
you
will
The Journal of again turn to you (as I I
ardently
not refuse me.
my
ardent
—Your most humble servant, F.
My wife congratulates you I
I love
fail
Meanwhile accept the assurance of devotion.
I
have already
have done before) for advice which, believe,
sit
summer
do not grumble,
decided I shall renew without
an Author.
esteemed
deeply
hand,
Dostoevsky.
and scolds me because
have forgotten to mention her.
V Staraya Roussa, July
25, 1880.
Kindest and deeply esteemed Konstantin Petro-
you gladdened me very much by your letter, and still more by your promise not to forget vich,
me
in the future.
I finally
decided not to go to
;
DOSTOEVSKV
256
Ems
:
I
have too much work to do.
Because
of
the chaos in the spring I neglected the Karamazovs,
and now
have made up
I
my
mind
to finish
them
away from Staraya Roussa, and theredown to them day and night. Now about
before I go fore I sit
—
your commission
:
Father Roumyanzev
is
my
old
and true
friend,
the worthiest of the worthiest priests I ever knew. It
is
in his house that
lives.
The family
burg, rents a
the
of a certain M. Rot, of Peters-
flat in
summer season
your Father Alexey Nadiozhin
;
the house of
M. Rot
is
Roumyanzev
for
a Louga landowner,
and proprietor of several houses in Petersburg however, he is ruined now. Alexey is a friend of the Rots and lives, although apart from the family, on the top
in the attic, but, it
seems to me, he
simply hangs on for the time being to the Rots
—though
he gives lessons to the numerous Rot
him once before at Father Roumyanzev's, but only had a glimpse of him. On receiving your letter I immediately went to children.
I
saw
Roumyanzev, at 5 o'clock in the afternoon (quite close to me), and communicated to him in secret your commission, having made him promise not Routo say a single word to Father Alexey.
myanzev and Father Alexey, although they are acquainted (they live in the same house), are not very much so. By my wish, Roumyanzev immedi-
LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV
257
who was walking
ately invited Father Alexey,
in
was ready on the table. Father Alexey, although he kept on refusing, at last came in, and I spent with him a whole hour,
the garden, to tea which
him about your commission. observation and conclusion
saying nothing to This
is
He
my
is
:
forty-seven, bald, black-haired, sprinkled
His face
with grey. flushed.
He
is
But positively
rather fine looking, but
is
evidently of a strong constitution.
He
ill.
is
resigning his priesthood
because of the absolute impossibility to officiate
by reason of and himself he
His
our conversation.
but, luckily, familiar to
same
illness in
also
have a brother
the
same
illness
me
is
a strange one,
is
me, for
I
myself suffered
the years 1847, alive)
precisely.
priest,
several times during
illness
(still
irrevocable,
remain a
will never agree to
as he himself declared to
of the
This
his ill-health.
Its
who
'8,
and
suffers
chief cause
most violent abdominal plethora of blood. in certain cases the fits of this illness bring
derangement, of the soul.
'9.
A man
I
from is
a
But
on moral
gets infected
with an unbounded suspicion and at last imagines himself to suffer from ously treated chief cause
all diseases,
by doctors and
is this,
and
is
continu-
treats himself.
The
that haemorrhoids in this stage
on the nerves and upset them almost to the point of psychical fits. Father Alexey has now
react
R
DOSTOEVSKY
258
been convinced for a few years that because of haemorrhoids he
Last year
brain.
suffering
is
Easter matins,' he said,
my
legs felt paralysed, I
also
from anaemia of the
consented to
I
and
have to
I got so
at vespers but could not finish.
officiated
if I
officiate at the
weak that could not stand. Once I
'
Since then I have ceased to
that
his
I believe
officiate.
were told now that to-morrow
officiate, I
should not sleep
I should
night, but
all
tremble, and certainly I should not be able to walk to the Church, but would faint.' at
any
is visible,
very great conscientiousness in
rate, a
devotion to his sacraments.)
(There
and to the administration
office*
He
his
formerly was a domestic priest
of Voyekov's, then inspector of a charitable
Nevsky Lavra Monastery
stitution in the
many
eight
lessons,
finished the week,
at
home
hours
weekly.
and Sunday came,
I
he gave
; 4
—
it is
a great delight
When would
Now
!
spends the whole time undergoing cures
'
;
I
sit
loves to talk I
much
pansive on other topics
sly,
he
:
is
as ex-
also, for evidently
he has
he brings down everything
immediately to the subject of his
and not
;
of his diseases and with en-
do not know whether he
no other topics now
he
he drinks
here some water specially prepared for him
artless
in-
lying on the couch the whole day and
reading a book
thusiasm.
of
illness.
He
is
although he hardly has any
— LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV great need of spiritual
communion with people he is somewhat suspicious, ;
in spite of his artlessness
I believe
not only with regard to his diseases. he
The appearance
a perfectly honest man.
is
259
Of true convictions, far removed from Lutheranism, he looks upon Orthodox
of indubitable honesty.
Russians of our educated society quite correctly. Conscientiousness he has, but has he ardour for
work
spiritual
he
is
not afraid
:
'
By
man
himself alone, a
He
poor/ he said to me. his
Of the future
do not know.
I
?
request for assistance
is
is
not
rather hurt that on
was decided to pay
it
him 48 roubles per annum, or to pay for him the hospital, in case he goes there before he cured.
he said give
'
;
have spent on cures
I '
me
criticises,
final trait
I
only 48 roubles
he does :
it
without any great
He
well-arranged. is
if
ever he
spite.
The
if
only a single one, but
loves to be alone, loves to read
a bit of a maniac, but he does not
avoid company. I
now they
he seems to be rather fond of comfort,
he loves a separate room,
a book, he
Though,
'
is
had saved,'
all I
did not trouble any one, and !
in
That
is all I
managed
to observe.
send you a hasty photograph without retouching.
But the chief and
final
observation
he would not
for anything in the world continue being a priest.
He
has a rather independent
self-seeking, intriguing
—
air, is
all this is
not insinuating, completely lack-
DOSTOEVSKY
260
His motto
ing in him.
is
rather
Leave me
'
:
alone.'
Now,
to conclude about myself
Karamazovs,
am
I
besides the
:
bringing out shortly, in Peters-
number of The Journal of an Author, the only number for this year. In it is my speech in burg, one
Moscow, a preface to and,
it is
written in Staraya Roussa,
a reply to
finally,
Gradovsky.
it,
But
it is
my
chiefly
critics,
not a reply to the
critics,
my profession de foi for the whole future.
now I express myself definitively and I call things
by
their names.
stones will be cast at me.
the matter
now
;
it
will
In
it
undisguisedly,
I think, all
I
to
manner
won't go further
come out
in
oi
into
the very
beginning of August, on the 5th or even
earlier.
but I would very much ask you, deeply respected friend, tell
not to disdain to read The Journal and
me
your opinion.
me.
fateful to
What
is
From next year
written there
I intend to
to is
renew
The Journal of an Author, and now I appear such as I wish to be in the renewed Journal. I
watch your valuable activity from the* news-
papers.
Your superb speech
to the schoolgirls
read in the Moscowskya Viedomosti.
God grant you too much. lead. I
health.
One must not
Indeed, the chief thing
is
Above
I
all,
tire oneseli
to give the
And a lead is organised only by a long action.
remember too
well your words in the spring.
LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV Sod
bless you.
—Embracing you and affectionately
—
I
Fiodor Dostoevsky.
Your
ievoted to you. P.S.
261
do not know your address
address
I
!
simply to the Grand Procurator of the Holy
this
Synod
—perhaps
reach you.
it will
VI Staraya Koussa, August
16, 1880.
Deeply esteemed and kindest Konstantin Petrovich, I
thank you from
splendid,
deed, for
my whole soul for your good,
enheartening I,
as a
ment of those
letter.
Enheartening, in-
man, always need the encourage-
in
whom
whose under-
I believe,
Every
standing and convictions I deeply respect.
time
—
I
write something and send
I
am
what
I
Not that
as in a fever.
for publication
it
not believe in
I did
myself had written, but always the question
torments
me
how
:
will it
be taken
?
Will people
want to understand the essence of the matter
Would that I
it
not rather result in bad than in good
made public
more so that certain
?
I
my
am
intimate convictions
The
?
always compelled to express
thoughts only in the basic idea, which
always greatly needs a further development and argumentation.
—
is
positively
And
my
was not mistaken
the opinion of
support
!
It
men
means
in everything, it
like
you
then,
means,
I
I
was
:
DOSTOEVSKY
262
understood by those whose
understanding
impartial judgment I value, and, therefore,
and
my
labour was not in vain. I
you frankly
tell
Karamazovs,
am
I
This last part,
so original
feel, is
now
:
I
finishing the
myself see and
and unlike what others
write,
that I positively do not expect the approval of our critics
the public, the readers
;
matter
:
they always supported me.
deeply grateful to you to
what
—that
will
is
a different
I
should be
you give your attention be published in the August number if
now being printed), and then in the September number where the fourth
of the Russky Viestnik (which
and
Karamazovs ends.
last part of the
September book
will
cutors and advocates
is
be a
—
trial,
In the
our crown-prose-
all this will
be shown in a
The Journal of an Author I decided to bring out in the coming year without particular
light.
The present, only number for this year,' has had an indubitable success with the public in three days up to 3000 copies sold in Petersburg alone, and I brought out altogether 4200 copies. '
fail.
I
think
My I
I shall
wife told
thank you
have to publish a second
me how
kindly you had received her.
for sending
Leontiev after
all is
edition.
me the Varshavsky Dnievnik,
a bit of a
—did you notice
heretic
Anyhow, of this I shall talk to you in person, when I come to Petersburg at the end of Sep-
it ?
— LETTERS TO POBIEDONOSZEV tember
;
—Accept,
there
's
much
263
of interest in his opinions.
deeply respected Konstantin Petrovich,
the assurance not only of
but also of
good which
my I
my
sincerest feelings,
profound, great hope for
expect,
every one, from your
the
and not only myself, but
new
adherent and admirer
all
Your Dostoevsky.
splendid activity. F.
LETTERS TO ALEX-
POBIEDONOSZEV'S
ANDER
that time Tsarevitch) on the Occasion op Dostoevsky's Death III (at
January 29, 1881.
Last night F. M. Dostoevsky passed away.
was a close friend to me, and no more.
But
his
death
is
it is
He
sad that he
a great loss to Russia too.
is
In
—he alone almost—was an
the circle of writers he
ardent preacher of the fundamental principles of religion,
nationhood, love of the country.
unhappy younger generation, gone astray
like
Our sheep
without a shepherd, cherished a belief in him, and
was very great and beneficent. Many unhappy young people turned to him as to a confessor, personally and in writing. There is no his influence
—
—
one now to replace him.
He was His family
poor and is
in need.
left
I
Loris-Melikov, and asking
nothing except books.
am
writing
him
now
to Count
to petition the Tsar
and to ask that the Sovereign would please to take an
interest. 264
POBIEDONOSZEV'S LETTERS
265
Your Highness support this applicaYou knew and valued the deceased
Will not tion ?
Dostoevsky from his works, which
will for ever
remain a memorial of the great Russian talent.
II February
1,
1881.
M. Dostoevsky was buried to-day in the Nevsky Lavra Monastery. It is very sad that he F.
is
no more.
loss
Eternal
very keenly
hour,
:
I
memory
to him.
had arranged
for
I feel his
him a quiet
on Saturdays after vespers, and he often
came to me, and we spoke much and long
after
midnight.
Yesterday he was to bring out the of his Journal,
and he had
it
first
number
quite ready
;
and
In case
it
number has not yet reached Your
Highness, I enclose
it
herewith.
yesterday, on the
appeared.
splendid pages
day of
his funeral the
—from the very
There are
in it
first.
K. POBIEDONOSZEV. [As a result of Pobiedonoszev's application a pension of 2000 roubles was granted to Dostoevsky's
widow.]
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX Aksakov, Ivan Sergueyevich (1823-1886), the three volumes of whose autobiography, Years of Child-
A Russian Schoolboy, and A Russian Gentleman, have been translated into English by J. D. Duff.
hood,
Aksakov,
Nicolay
Petrovich
(1848-1909),
doctor
of
philosophy, writer on theological and philosophical
and poet
questions, \
;
Secretary (1878-1880) of the
Society of Lovers of Russian Literature.'
Annenkov,
Pavel
critic, first
Vassilevich
(1812-1887),
literary
editor of Poushkin's Complete Works,
and friend of Turgenev. Averkiev, Dmitrii Vassilevich (1836-1905), author and playwright. Barsov, Elpidifor Vassilevich (1837-1919)> ethnologist
and
collector
archaeologist,
member
of the
'
of
old
Society of Lovers
manuscripts, of Russian
Literature/ and librarian (in 1880) of the Tchertkov
Town
Library.
Bartenev, Piotr Ivanovich (1829-1912), publisher of the Russky Arkhiv ; a Poushkin scholar.
A. (1828-1898), librarian of Moscow University, Secretary of the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature,' and professor of Slavonic languages at Kharkov University.
Bezsonov,
P.
'
269
!
DOSTOEVSKY
270 Bielinsky,
Vissarion
Gregorevitch,
Dostoevsky, at the request of K. '
My
Reminiscences
of
critic. I.
In
1867
Bibikov, wrote
Bielinsky/
Dostoevsky
and expressed his regret as follows I was foolish enough to undertake that article. As soon as I started I saw at once that there was no possibility of making a decent job of it (for I wanted to write everything). Ten printed sheets of a novel would have been easier for me to write than those two sheets. The result was that I wrote that damnable article, on an average calculation, about Jive times, and then crossed out everything, and what was left I re-made anew. At last I managed to produce an article, but so trashy, that it nauseates me. What masses of most valuable facts I was compelled to strike out As was to be expected, there remained only all the trashy and mediocre stuff. An abomination found
it difficult
to write that article '
:
—
'
!
(See Biography, Part n. p. 178.)
Burenin, Victor Petrovich literary critic of the
(6.
1841), poet
and journalist,
Novoye Vremya.
Ghayev, N. A. (1824-1914), playwright ; President (1878-1884) of the Society of Lovers of Russian '
Literature/
Danilevsky, Nicolay Yakolevich (1822-1885), author of the famous book Russia and Europe. (On December
Dostoevsky wrote to Maikov from had a letter from Strahov ; much I was delighted by the news about literary news. Danilevsky 's article " Europe and Russia," which Strahov describes as a capital thing. I own to you that since that very year 1849 I have heard nothing 11 /23,
1868,
Florence
:
'
I also
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX of
Danilevsky
Maikov's
trial in
Dostoevsky's
since
[i.e.
271
and
connection with the Petrashevsky
But I have thought of him at times. I remembered what a desperate Fourierist he had been. And to turn from Fourierism to Russia, to become a Russian again and to learn to love one's That is how a big man can be soil and essence Turgenev has become a German inrecognised Group].
!
!
stead of a Russian writer,
—that
Nor
can be recognised.
is
how
a rotten
man
shall I ever believe the
words of the late Apollon Grigoryev, that Bielinsky would have ended by becoming a Slavophil. A man like Bielinsky would never have ended like that.
He was
only a scab
—and nothing
See Biography, Part
.
passages omitted there are
else.
.
.
.')
pp. 200-201.
now
(All the
restored from the
original letter.)
Dolgomostiev,
I.
G., contributor to
according to N. N. Strahov,
young man/ who died insane Dostoevsky's engineer.
brother,
Vremya and Epocha a noble and clever ;
'
in 1867.
Andrey
(1825-1897),
In 1828 the Dostoevskys were entered
in the third part of the Genealogical
Moscow
civil
Province, owing to the
Book of the
official
position of
their father, the regimental surgeon, Mihail
Andrey-
evich Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky, Emily Fiodorovna, the widow of Dostoevsky's brother, Mihail Mihailovich. Dostoevsky's children, Lilya and Fedya. Lilya (Lubov or Aimee) born in 1869, and Fedya (Fiodor) born in 1871.
;
DOSTOEVSKY
272
Dostoevsky's nieces,
daughters of his
Masha and Nina
Ivanov, the
Vera Mihailovna Ivanov. Masha was born in 1848 and Nina in 1857. sister,
Dostoevsky's elder brother, Mihail (1820-1864), was in 1861 the official editor and publisher of Vremya A Literary and Political Review
'), of which the unwas F. M. Dostoevsky. Its chief contributors were A. A. Grigoriev and N. N. Strahov. On May 24, 1863, Vremya was suppressed by the Government on account of N. N. Strahov's article,
official
editor
The Fatal
Question,' published in
No. 4. In 1864, in place of the suppressed Vremya, Mihail Dostoevsky began the publication of the review Epocha, which ceased to appear in 1865, after the '
second number, for lack of money to carry on. The Vremya had a fair number of subscribers, judged
by Russian standards of the time. In 1861 the number was 2300, and in 1862 it had increased to 4302.
Dostoevsky's niece, Natasha
daughter of his
sister,
(6.
1867), the youngest
Vera Mihailovna.
Dostoevsky, Nicolay Mihailovich, was the youngest brother of Fiodor.
(1,
Mihail
;
2,
Fiodor
;
3,
Audrey
4, Nicolay.)
Dostoevsky's (b.
sister,
Vary a
—or
Varvara Mihailovna
1822).
Dostoevsky's
sister,
Vera Mihailovna
(6.
1829), wife of
Dr. Alexander Pavlovich Ivanov (1813-1868). Eliseyev, G. S.,
member
of the editorial staff of the
Sovremennik and Otechestvennya ZapisJd.
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX Anna Nicolayevna
Englehardt,
273
(1835-1903), translator,
daughter of N. P. Makarov, the lexicographer, and the wife of A. N. Englehardt, publicist and model farmer.
Gatzuk, Alexey Alexeyevich (1832-1891), archaeologist, publisher of Gatzuk's Newspaper and Gatzuk's Calendar.
Gaydebourov, Pavel Alexandrovich (1841-1893), journalist, editor and publisher of the Nedyelya. Gayevsky, Victor Pavlovich (1826-1888), a Petersburg barrister, one of the founders of and chief workers a Poushkin scholar ; on the Literary Fund '
'
;
delegate from the Petersburg Branch of the Russian
Musical Society, from the Petersburg Conservatoire,
and from the Literary Fund to the Poushkin '
'
Celebration.
Golokhvastov, probably Olga Andreyevna, nee Andreyevsky, author, and wife of P. D. Golokhvastov,
author and social worker. Grigorovich, Dmitri Vassilevich (1822-1899)» novelist,
delegate of the
'
Literary
Fund
'
to the Poushkin
Celebration.
Grot,
Yakov
Karlovich
linguist, historian of
(1812-1893),
Academician,
Russian literature, and editor
of the works of 18th and 19th century Russian authors
;
member
of committee for the erection of
the memorial to Poushkin. Isayev, Pavel Alexandrovich, Dostoevsky's stepson, the
Marie Dmitrievna, by her first marriage. P. A. Isayev was a heavy cross in the life of the Dostoevskys Anna Gregorevna mentions
son of his
first
wife,
;
s
DOSTOEVSKY
274
him more than once
in her Reminiscences.
Lubov
Fiodorovna Dostoevsky , in her Reminiscences of her father, published last year in
Munich (and recently
translated into English and published in this country)
a new, curious, but improbable story of her father's first marriage tells
:
4
On her coming from Kuznetsk to Semipalatinsk, Marie Dmitrievna (Dostoevsky 's first wife) managed to arrange a cosy home which became the gatheringplace of the local intellectuals. Dostoevsky 's conjugal happiness continued even after his return to European Russia ; but it all turned out to be a phantom. His wife's health began to grow worse. He had to remove her from Petersburg to Tver. And here, with one foot in the grave, she made a terrible confession to her husband. She said that she had married him out of pure convenience, tempted by his literary fame and connections that the night before their wedding she had spent with her lover, a young, beautiful tutor, and that she continued her liaison with him during the whole of ;
her married
life.
He
always
—she
—followed
said
was only when she lost her good looks owing to consumption that he disappeared without leaving his address. Marie Dmitrievna declared to her husband that she not only did not love him, but that she just despised Dostoevsky left his wife him, as a former convict. .' and went off to Petersburg. The exactness of these data can be tested very easily by reference to Anna Gregorevna's Reminiscences, as well as to Dostoevsky 's letters. Dostoev-
her like her shadow, and
.
it
.
.
.
sky 's
first
.
marriage was, indeed, a
failure.
His
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX married
began stormily
life
jealousy
:
275
with scenes of mutual
but the very fact mentioned by Anna fulfilled the last wish
;
Gregorevna, that Dostoevsky of his
first
wife
'
to love Pasha
and
'
all his life
long
who caused him and unpleasantness, makes the
continued to help his stepson trouble,
worry
authenticity of the daughter's story about her father
rather doubtful.
The daughter's
assertion that her
and himself rushed off to Petersburg is refuted by Dostoevsky 's letter to his brother, Mihail Mihailovich, sent from Moscow on April 15, 1864, on the eve of her death. (Marie father left his dying wife in Tver
Dmitrievna Isayev-Dostoevsky died not in Tver, as Dostoevsky 's daughter writes, but in Moscow) Yesterday Marie Dmitrievna was seized with a blood gushed from her throat and positive fit began pouring over her bosom and choking her. We :
4
:
all
awaited the end.
We
were
all
round her.
She
took leave of every one, became reconciled to every one, and
made known
all
She sent
her requests.
greetings to your whole family and wished you a
She particularly wished Emily Fiodorlife. She expressed her desire to be reconciled to you. (You know, my friend, she was all her life convinced that you were her secret enemy.) She has passed a bad night. To-day, this moment, Alexander Pavlovich has said definitely, that she will die to-day. And there is no doubt of it.' In postscript F. M. Dostoevsky adds Marie Dmitrievna is dying peacefully, in sound mind. She blessed Pasha (P. A. Isayev) in his absence.' Nevertheless, that there was almost constant illfeeling towards Dostoevsky on the part of his steplong
life.
ovna a long
:
'
— DOSTOEVSKY
276
son and his sister-in-law it
that
is
manifest.
when the little Sonia died (May
So great was 16/28, 1868),
Dostoevsky asked that the news should be kept from them for a time, and wrote It seems to me that not only will none of them regret the death of my child, but perhaps the very opposite, and the '
:
mere thought of that exasperates me. What wrong has the poor child done them ? Let them hate me, let them laugh at me and at my love, that I don't mind/ (See Biography, Part n. p. 187. The phrases omitted there are here restored from the
original.)
Kalachov, Nicolay Vassilevich (1819-1885), historian, jurist, Senator and Keeper of the Moscow Archives of the Ministry of Justice. Kasatkin, Nicolay (Yaponsky) (1836-1912), Bishop of Reval, the head of the Russian Orthodox Mission in
Japan.
Katkov, Mihail Nikiforovich (1818-1887), reactionary publicist, editor of the monthly review Russky Viestnik and of the daily Moscorvskya Viedomosti.
Khmyrov, Dmitri Nicolay evich (b. 1847), teacher of mathematics, husband of Dostoevsky 's niece, Sophie Ivanov
(b.
1847).
K. K., probably the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich
Romanov.
Kornilov, Fiodor Petrovich (1809-1895),
State
Council,
director of the
State
Secretary
committee
Poushkin memorial.
;
member of the member and
for the erection of the
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX Kovalevsky,
Maxim Maximovich
277
(1851-1916), historian
of law, sociologist, professor at
Moscow
University
Law.
(1877-1887), held the chair of State
Krayevsky, Andrey Alexandrovich (1810-1889), journalist, publisher of the review Otechestvennya Zapiski
and of Golos
;
delegate from the Society of
the City of Petersburg, and from the
Fund
'
*
Literary
to the Poushkin Celebration.
Lavrov, Platonov, Suffragan Bishop Alexey (1829-1890),
Bishop of Mozhaysk, second Suffragan Bishop of
Moscow, subsequently Archbishop of Vilna and Lithuania.
Lavrov, Vukol Mihailovich (1852-1912), publisher and
brought out the monthly review Russkaya My si from 1880 onwards. (He is described by Dostoevsky, in his letter of May 27.) translator
;
Lento vsky, Mihail Valentino vich manager.
(d.
1906), theatrical
Lopatin, probably Lev Mihailovich Lopatin (1855-1920), subsequently professor at the Moscow University ; a philosopher with a tendency towards spiritualism.
Lubimov, Nicolay Alexeyevich (1800-1897), professor at Moscow University, physicist, also publicist and co-editor with Katkov of the Russky Viestnik. Maikov, Apollon Nicolayevich (1821-1897), poet and journalist, and friend of Dostoevsky. It is to Maikov and Strahov that most of the already known letters of Dostoevsky are addressed.
Marie Alexandrovna, the wife of Alexander II, died on
May
22, 1880.
DOSTOEVSKY
278
Markevich, Boleslav Mihailovich (1822-1884), novelist, who published in the Russky Viestnik for 1880, the second part of his trilogy, the novel entitled Crisis.
Melnikov, Ivan Alexandrovich singer, actor at the
(1831-1906), baritone
Maryinsky Theatre, Petersburg.
Mengden, Countess, probably Zinaida Nicolayevna, nee Bourtsev, the wife of Count Georgy Fiodorovich Mengden, Major-General, Brigade Commander of the 1st Horse Guards Division.
Merenberg, Nathalie Alexandrovna (1836-1913), Poushkin's daughter, morganatic wife of Prince Nicolas of Nassau. Novikov, Olga Alexeyevna (1840-1921), nie Kireyev, a Slavophil writer who wrote on Anglo-Russian relations
and signed her
of her
life
articles
. K.
She spent most
in England.
Oldenburgsky, Prince Piotr Georgevich (1812-1881), the Chairman of the committee for the erection of the Poushkin memorial. Ostrovsky, Alexander Nicolayevich (1825-1893), a prolific
and distinguished dramatist, only one of whose The Storm, has been translated into English
plays,
Constance Garnett), although several have appeared in French. (by
Pavlischev,
Lev Nicolayevich
(b.
1834), the son of Poush-
kin's sister, author of reminiscences of his uncle
;
had a post at the Chief Commissariat Board.
Of this Geneva priest Dostoevsky wrote From all the data to Maikov on August 19 1869 (mark you, not from guesses, but from facts) I know
Petrov, A. K.
'•
?
'
—
—
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX he is employed by the secret police/ Part p. 192.
279 Biography
t
.
Pisemsky, Alexey Feofilaktovich (1820-1881), novelist, several of whose works are to be read in French e.g.
Dans
le
Tourbillon
and Mille Ames.
Plescheyev, Alexey Nicolayevich, poet, delegate of the
paper Molva to the Poushkin Celebration. He was born in Kostroma on November 22, 1825, and, like Dostoevsky, was entered in the
lists
of the
Moscow
Both were condemned to death, but
Nobility.
instead of being executed were exiled and deprived
of their status of nobility.
In the Archives of the late
Moscow
Deputies'
Councils have been found documents relating to
the
of
exclusion
Moscow
Nobility.
Dostoevsky from the lists of (The Archives of the Moscow
Deputies' Council relating to the State-criminals
Plescheyev and Dostoevsky, No. 62, 1850. The hearing began on July 12, 1850. It was concluded
on September
1,
are of interest
:
1850.)
the
In this case two documents
first is
the copy of the instruc-
tion of the late Minister of the Interior (later the
Moscow
Civil
Governor) concerning the Gracious
Order of H.I. M. to deprive Plescheyev and Dostoevsky as State-criminals of all rights of status, with the statement of the nature of their crime and the measures taken for their punishment. The second
document of the Golizyn.
is
the accompanying report of the Chief
Moscow Province addressed
to
Prince
(Prince Golizyn (1800-1 873) was Marshal
of Nobility from 1848 to 1861 of the Zvenigorod District of the
Moscow
Province, and from 1859
DOSTOEVSKY
280
chief director of the Golizyn Hospital.
P. P. Novo-
Moscow from subsequently Governor of Ryazan.)
silzev (1797-1869), vice-Governor of
1831 to 1851 *
;
Ministry of the
Received on July 12.
Interior.
Chief of the
Moscow Government. Clerks* Office.
No. 11176. July 6, 1850.
Moscow.
Re
1
State-Criminals.
To His Excellency M. F. Golizyn,
Dear
Sir,
Prince Mihail Fiodorovich. The Copy of the Instruction issued by the Minister of the Interior, of June 15, under No. 254, with the declaration of the Gracious Order relating to the State-Criminals Plescheyev and Dostoevsky, I consider necessary to forward to Your Excellency, as supplementary to the report to the Marshal of Nobility of February 27, under No. 3708. Accept, Dear Sir, the assurance of my profound respect and devotion. N. Novosilzev.'
To the Moscow Civil Governor.
Ministry of the Interior.
Department of the Police Executive.
Branch II., Table 2. July 15, 1850, No. 254.
By my instruction of February 15th last, under No 102, Your Excellency will have been aware that the Ruling Senate, having heard the report of the Minister of War of December 23 of last year, together with the declaration of His Imperial Majesty's gracious confirmation concern-
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
281
ing the persons condemned by the Military Court, according to the Field Penal Code, for re State-Criminals. criminal designs against the Government, has instructed me, by the order of December 30th, independently of the order made about the publication of the abovementioned Gracious declaration in the Senate journal, to notify the same to those Chiefs of Provinces, in whose lists of the Nobility the names of the criminals in question are entered. Among those condemned are : the nobleman Alexey Plescheyev, holding no office, and the retired InspectorLieutenant Fiodor Dostoevsky, who have been sentenced by the Auditor-General to death by military execution, but His Majesty the Emperor on the 19th day of December 1849 was graciously pleased to order that Plescheyev, instead of being executed, shall, after having been deprived of all his rights of status, be enrolled for military service as private in the Orenburg battalions of the line ; and Dostoevsky, instead of being executed, shall, after having been deprived of all his rights of status, be deported to hard labour for four years in the fortresses, after which time he shall be
By
Gracious Order
:
enrolled as private in military service. Having established from the information collected by the Ministry in my charge that Plescheyev and Dostoevsky are entered in the lists of Noblemen of the
Moscow Province, I have the honour to inform Your Excellency of the same in order that the necessary steps may be taken in fulfilment of the above-mentioned Order of the Ruling Senate. The original is signed Minister of the Interior, Count Perovsky. :
Countersigned Attested
:
:
Vice-Director, V. Safonov.
Senior Assistant Director of the Office,
Rudnev.
DOSTOEVSKY
282
Lev Ivanovich
Polivanov,
(1838-1899),
educationist,
director of the Polivanov Secondary School, Secre-
tary (1878-1880) of the Literature,'
member
'
Society of Lovers of Russian
of the Unveiling Committee of
the Poushkin Memorial. Polonsky,
Yakov Petrovich
(1820-1898), poet.
Poushkin, Anatolii Lvovich, the poet's nephew, the son of his brother Lev. Rubinstein, Nicolay Gregorievich (1835-1898), director
of the
Moscow
Conservatoire.
Sabourov, Andrey Alexandrovich (1837-1916), Minister of Education (who succeeded D. A. Tolstoy). Saltykov, Mihail Efgrafovich (who used the
pseudonym
N. Schedrin), author of The Golovlevs, one of the greatest of Russian novels, which has been translated into French and American, but not yet into
Author
English.
also of
many
shorter tales and
fables difficult to render into another language
owing
to their whimsical allusiveness.
Samarin, Ivan Vassilevich (1817-1885), actor. Moscow Maly Theatre. Soloviov, F. G. (1834-1888),
Moscow
Of
the
barrister, delegate
to the Poushkin Celebration from the Council of Barristers.
Suhomlinov, Mihail Ivanovich (1828-1901), Academician, historian of literature.
Souvorin, Alexey Sergueyevich (1834-1912), journalist, editor
Vremya
and publisher of the daily paper Novoye ;
afterwards Tchehov's intimate friend.
:
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
288
Mayor of
Tretyakov, Serguey Mihailovich (1834-1892),
Moscow, brother of Pavel Tretyakov. Tretiakov,
Vera Mihailovna, nSe
M.
1899), the wife of P.
Mamontov
(1844-
Tretiakov, the founder of
the Tretiakov Picture Gallery in Moscow.
Turgenev, Ivan Serguey evich (1818-1883), had inspired Dostoevsky with a feeling of hostility almost from the outset of their literary careers.
According
to early letters of Dostoevsky 's there
had been at
first
them but resentment of manner provoked Dostoev-
kindness between
Turgenev 's
;
aristocratic
sky to almost passionate dislike and jealousy. This was not lessened by the fact of Turgenev's long residence
You
abroad and has
Dostoevsky
1869
write about Turgenev and
Turgenev has become
the Germans. living
'
:
March
In
abroad.
wrote to his niece
the Golos has pointed out to him.
I
am
of becoming Germanised because I hate
but
it is
my
last little
Russia
I
need
powers,
my
not afraid
all
without Russia
:
through which even
stale
lost all his talent,
Germans
I shall lose
last little talents/ etc.
Turgenev was the delegate of the Petersburg Literary Fund to the Poushkin Celebration. He arrived in Moscow from Petersburg on April 18, 1880, and the three weeks from the beginning of May till the 24th he spent on his estate, Spasskoye. On April 23, the Moscow authors and men of letters gave a dinner in the Hermitage Restaurant in honour of Turgenev. (See Peterburgskya Viedomosti, No. 117, 1880.) This is the dinner which Dostoevsky had in view when he wrote about the 1
'
—
—
'
professors paying court to Turgenev.'
—
:
DOSTOEVSKY
284
In Viestnik Europa for February 1880, we find Turgenev's letter to the editor, being a reply to one from M. Markevich in which the latter, under the
.
signature
of A Resident of another Town/ attacked
Turgenev '
playing up
'
letter to the
characterised *
Think
these
he had won in 1879, by to the younger generation. In his editor Turgenev retaliated and thus the A Resident of another Town from whose lips these calumnies,
for the applause
only
'
'
come From the lips of a his young days has earned the
accusations
man, who
since
!
reputation of a virtuoso in servility and " bootlicking," voluntary at first and finally involuntary/
(See Turgenevsty Sbornik, edited by A. F. Koni, 1921, Petersburg, p. 45 et seq.) Apart from this letter in
the Viestnik Europa there
is
nothing in any way
bearing on Dostoevsky that comes from Turgenev. Evidently, however, Dostoevsky 's suspicious nature
took the letter in question as aimed at himself and
which had
also ascribed all the allusions to a
'
taken place in his
years before.
is
life thirty-five
fact
'
It
to the hostility already mentioned that the caustic
—
remark in the letters (p. 160) to glorify Verochka must be ascribed. On January 17, 1879, Turgenev's comedy, A Month in the Country, written in 1850, was produced for the benefit of Marie Gavrilovna Savina (the most famous of Russian actresses), who scored a brilliant success in the part of Verochka. Towards the end of the 'seventies Savina's talent had fully developed, and Turgenev, when he saw for the first time on the stage what Savina had made of the character of Verochka (the character having been '
'
only slightly outlined in the play), looked fixedly in
BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX the
actress's
face
285
her dressing-room in the
in
Verochka ... So this is and exclaimed the Verochka that I wrote !!!...' On the day following the benefit, Savina was to read at a soiree, theatre,
:
'
!
organised for the benefit of the
'
Literary
Fund/
where Turgenev was also present, the dialogue between Count Lyubin and Darya Ivanovna Stupendyevna, from Turgenev's comedy, The Provincial. Dostoevsky too was there, and said to Savina that evening Every word of yours comes out as if it were ivory,' and added rather venomously, while this old boy (i.e. Turgenev) lisps.' The success of Verochka in the hands of Savina was lasting and much-talked-of. And Turgenev, in spite of his sixty-seven years, was violently infatuated by the actress. It is this infatuation at which Dostoevsky hints he never missed a chance of having a fling at Turgenev. (For the whole episode see Turgenev and Savina, by A. F. Koni, Petersburg, :
'
1
:
1918.)
Viskovatov, Pavel Alexandrovich
Dorpat (Yuriev)
University,
(6.
1842), professor at
held the
Chair of
Russian Literature, and was delegate of the University to
the Poushkin Celebration.
Yanovsky, Doctor S. D., an old friend of Dostoevsky 's (from 1845) and most devoted to him author of ;
Reminiscences of Dostoevsky. in 1897, at the age of 79-
Died
in Switzerland
Yazykov, Mihail Alexandrovich (1811-1885), friend of Turgenev, Ghief of the Novgorod Excise Board. Yuriev, Serguey Andreyevich (1821-1888), author, translator of Shakespeare
and of the Spanish playwrights
;
DOSTOEVSKY
286
President of the
Society of Lovers of Russian
'
Literature* (1878-1884); and editor (1880-1885) of
the monthly review Russkaya Mysl, published by
V.
M.
Lavrov.
Zolotariov,
I. F.,
one of the oldest members of the
Charitable Society 1
Society
'
*
;
'
Slav
the second delegate of the
to the Poushkin Celebration.
Zveriev, Nicolay Andreyevich (1850-191 1) } professor at
Moscow
University, held the Chair of History and
Philosophy of
Member
Law
;
subsequently Senator and
of the State Council.
/1
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