CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF DOSTOEVSKY’S LIFE
I. To his Father
II. To his Brother Michael
III. To his Brother Michael
IV. To his Brother Michael
V. To his Brother Michael
VI. To his Brother Michael
VII. To his Brother Michael
VIII. To his Brother Michael
IX. To his Brother Michael
X. To his Brother Michael
XI. To his Brother Michael
XII. To his Brother Michael
XIII. To his Brother Michael
XIV. To his Brother Michael
XV. To his Brother Michael
XVI. To his Brother Michael
XVII. To his Brother Michael
XVIII. To his Brother Michael
XIX. To his Brother Michael
XX. To his Brother Michael
XXI. To his Brother Michael
XXII. To Mme. N. D. Fonvisin
XXIII. To Mme. Maria Dmitryevna Issayev
XXIV. To Mme. Praskovya Yegorovna Annenkov
XXV. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
XXVI. To General E. I. Totleben
XXVII. To the Baron A. E. Vrangel
XXVIII. To his Brother Michael
XXIX. To his Brother Michael
XXX. To Frau Stackenschneider
XXXI. To Mme. V. D. Constantine
XXXII. To N. N. Strachov
XXXIII. To A. P. Milyukov
XXXIV. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
XXXV. To his Niece, Sofia Alexandrovna
XXXVI. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
XXXVII. To his Stepson, P. A. Issayev
XXXVIII. To his Sister Vera, and his Brother-in-Law Alexander Pavlovitch Ivanov
XXXIX. To his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna
XL. To his Stepson, P. A. Issayev
XLI. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
XLII. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
XLIII. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
XLIV. To his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna
XLV. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
XLVI. To his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna
XLVII. To Nikolay Nikolayevitch Strachov
XLVIII. To his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna
XLIX. To Nikolay Nikolayevitch Strachov
L. To his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna
LI. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
LII. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
LIII. To Nikolay Nikolayevitch Strachov
LIV. To Nikolay Nikolayevitch Strachov
LV. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
LVI. To his Sister Vera, and his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna
LVII. To Nikolay Nikolayevitch Strachov
LVIII. To his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna
LIX. To his Niece Sofia Alexandrovna
LX. To Nikolay Nikolayevitch Strachov
LXI. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
LXII. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
LXIII. To Apollon Nikolayevitch Maikov
LXIV. To Nikolay Nikolayevitch Strachov
LXV. To Nikolay Nikolayevitch Strachov
LXVI. To Mme. Ch. D. Altschevsky:
LXVII. To Vsevolod Solovyov
LXVIII. To Mlle. Gerassimov
LXIX. To A. P. N. —
LXX. To N. L. Osmidov
LXXI. To a Mother
LXXII. To a Group of Moscow Students
LXXIII. To Mlle. N. N.
LXXIV. To Frau E. A. Stackenschneider
LXXV. To N. L. Osmidov
LXXVI. To I. S. Aksakov
LXXVII. To Doctor A. F. Blagonravov
Recollections of Dostoevsky by his Friends
FROM THE REMINISCENCES OF D. V. GRIGOROVITCH
FROM THE REMINISCENCES OF A. P. MILYUKOV
FROM THE MEMORANDA OF P. K. MARTYANOV, AT THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD
FROM THE REMINISCENCES OF BARON ALEXANDER VRANGEL
FROM THE REMINISCENCES OF SOPHIE KOVALEVSKY 1866
Dostoevsky in the Judgment of his Contemporaries
I. R. P. Pobyedonoszev to I. S. Aksakov
II. I. S. Aksakov to R. P. Pobyedonoszev
III. TURGENEV ON DOSTOEVSKY
IV. LEO TOLSTOY ON DOSTOEVSKY
The original frontispiece
Letters of Fyodor Michailovitch Dostoevsky to his Family and Friends
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
IN the German translator’s (Herr Alexander Eliasberg (R. Piper and Go., Munich).) preface to this volume it is pointed out that a complete collection of Dostoevsky’s letters does not yet exist. “The first volume of the first collected edition of Dostoevsky’s works (St. Petersburg, 1873), contains only a selection, which is usually lacking in the later editions.” Herr Eliasberg goes on to tell us that “a series of letters which were to have been included in the present work was at the last moment withdrawn by the novelist’s widow; the corrected proofs of these are to be preserved in a sealed portfolio at the Dostoevsky Museum in Moscow.”
The present volume derives chiefly from the book by Tchechichin: “Dostoevsky in the Reminiscences of his Contemporaries, and in his Letters and Memoranda” (Moscow, 1912). The letters here numbered XXXVIII., XLIV., L., LVI., and LVIII. are lacking in Tchechichin’s book, and were taken from a Russian monthly journal, Rousskaya Starina. Those numbered XXXIX., XLVI., XLVIIL, and LIX., which are incompletely given by Tchechichin, are here given in full.
From Tchechichin’s work were also taken a number of notes, as well as the reminiscences of Dostoevsky by his contemporaries, which here form an Appendix.
The present text, therefore, while it contains much that is relatively “inedited,” yet cannot pretend to full completeness. On comparing it with a French translation of some of the letters, issued by the Société du Mercure de France in 1908, it is seen to be a good deal the more judiciously edited of the two — the German translator has pared away many repetitions, much irrelevant and uninteresting matter, while he has used material of the highest biographical value which the French editor either unaccountably omitted, or, it may be, had not at disposal. Of such are the letters enumerated above; and, more than all, the peculiarly interesting passage in Letter XXXIV., which relates Dostoevsky’s historic quarrel with Turgenev.
A word about the punctuation. It has been, so far as was thought at all feasible, left as Dostoevsky offered it. Like Byron, he “did not know a comma; at least, where to put one”, — or rather, in Dostoevsky’s case, where not to put one, for his lavish use of the less important and lucid sign is very remarkable. Here and there, this predilection has been departed from by me, but only when it too deeply obscured the sense; elsewhere, since even punctuation has its value for the student of character, Dostoevsky’s “system” is retained in all its chaotic originality.
E.C.M.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF DOSTOEVSKY’S LIFE
AFTER V. TCHECHICHIN
1821. “In the parish of St. Peter and Paul at Moscow was born on October 30 of the year 1821, in the dwelling-house of the Workhouse Hospital, to Staff-Physician Michail Andreyevitch Dostoevsky, a male child, who was named Fyodor. Baptised on November 4.”
1831. Dostoevsky’s parents purchase a country-house in the Tula Government, where the family henceforth spends the summer.
1834. Dostoevsky enters the boys’ school of L. J. Tchermak at Moscow.
1836. Great influence of the Literature-master upon the boys. Enthusiasm for Pushkin.
1837. On February 27, Maria Fyodorovna Dostoevsky, his mother, dies. Early in the year, Fyodor Dostoevsky goes with his elder brother Michael to Petersburg, and enters the Preparatory School of K. F. Kostomarov. In the autumn, he is admitted to the Principal College of Engineering.
183 7-43. Study at the College of Engineering.
1838. Summer in camp. Enthusiasm for Balzac, Hugo, E. — T. A. Hoffmann. In the autumn, failure in the examinations; is not promoted. In the winter, friendly relations with Schidlovsky and Berechetzky.
Interest in Schiller.
1839. Death of his father, Michail Andreyevitch Dostoevsky.
1840. November 29: Promotion to non-commissioned officer’s rank. December 27: To ensign’s.
1841. Dramatic efforts, “Maria Stuart” and “Boris Godounov.” (They have not come down to us.) August 5: Dostoevsky undergoes the examination for promotion to commissioned rank, and is promoted to be Field-Engineer’s Ensign, on the recommendation of the College of Engineering.
1842. Promotion to Lieutenant’s rank.
1843. August 12: Leaves the College. August 23: Obtains an appointment in the Department of Engineering.
1844. At the end of the preceding and in the beginning of this year, Dostoevsky is occupied in translating Balzac’s “Eugénie Grandet.” During the year he reads and translates works by George Sand and Sue.
Works at “Poor Folk.”
Project for a drama (Letter of September 30, 1844).
October 19: Dostoevsky is by Royal permission discharged with the rank of First-Lieutenant “on account of illness.”
December 17: He is struck off the lists of the Corps of Military Engineers.
1845. In the beginning of May, the novel “Poor Folk” is finished.
Nekrassov and Grigorovitch pay the midnight visit after reading “Poor Folk.”
Intercourse with Bielinsky. In the summer he goes, to his brother Michael at Reval.
November 15: Letter to his brother with news of his first successes in literary circles.
At the end of the year, plans for the satirical journal, Suboskal.
“Novel in Nine Letters.”
1846. January 15: Nekrassov’s Petersburg Almanac appears with Dostoevsky’s first book, “Poor Folk.”
Bielinsky’s article on “Poor Folk” in the Otetschestvennia Zapiski.
February 1: The story of “The Double” (“ Goliadkin”) appears in the Otetschestvennia Zapiski.
“The Whiskers that were Shaved Off” and the “Story of the Abolished Public Offices.” (Neither work has come down to us.)
“Mr. Prochartschin” (O. Z., No. 10).
In the summer, at Reval with his brother.
In the autumn, Dostoevsky thinks of issuing his collected tales in volume form.
At the end of the year come misunderstandings, and a breach with the editorial staff of the Sovremennik.
1847. The “Novel in Nine Letters” is published in the Sovremennik, and “The Mistress of the Inn” in the Otetschestvennia Zapiski.
“Poor Folk” appears in book form.
1848. The February Revolution in Paris.
Political groups, such as those around Petrachevsky, form in Petersburg. — .
“The Stranger-Woman” (O. Z., No. 1).
“A Weak Heart” (O. Z„ No. 2).
“Christmas and Wedding” (O. Z., No. 10).
“Bright Nights” (O. Z., No. 16).
1848. “The Jealous Husband” (O. Z., No. 12).
1849. “Netotchka Nesvanova” (O. Z., Nos. 1-2, 5-6).
In March, Dostoevsky reads aloud [a revolutionary letter from Bielinsky to Gogol at Petrachevsky’s rooms].
On April 23, Dostoevsky, together with other members of the Petrachevsky circle, is arrested, and imprisoned in the Petropaulovsky Fortress. [He was accused of “having taken part in conversations about the severity of the Censorship; of having read, at a meeting in March, 1849, — Bielinsky’s revolutionary letter to Gogol; of having again read it at Dourov’s rooms, and of having given it to Monbelli to copy; of having listened at Dourov’s to the reading of various articles; of having knowledge of the plan to establish a clandestine printing-press,” etc.]
December 19: Dostoevsky is condemned to degradation from military rank, and imprisonment.
December 22: Dostoevsky, and all the Petrachevsky group, hear read over them, first, the death-sentence, and then the commuted sentence of hard labour in the Siberian prisons.
December 24-25: On this night Dostoevsky is put in irons, and transported from Petersburg to Siberia.
1850. January 11: Arrival at Tobolsk. Meeting with the wives of the Decembrists.
January 17: Continues journey to Omsk.
1850-54. Serves his sentence in the prison at Omsk.
1854. February 15: Completion of sentence.
February 22: Letter to his brother with description of his life in the prison.
March 2: Dostoevsky is enrolled as private in the 7th Siberian Regiment of the Line.
In end of March, arrives at Semipalatinsk.
In May, writes his poem on the European incidents of 1854.
November 21: Baron Vrangel arrives at Semipalatinsk.
1855. February 19: The Tsar Alexander II. ascends the throne. Dostoevsky writes a poem on the death of Nicholas I. and the accession of Alexander II. (It has not come down to us.) He begins “The House of the Dead.”
1856. January 15: Promotion to non-commissioned rank.
March 24: Letter to General Totleben, requesting his intercession with the Tsar.
October 1: By Imperial command, he is promoted to be Ensign in the same battalion.
1854. February 6: Dostoevsky’s betrothal to the widowed Maria Dmitryevna Issayev takes place at Kusnezk.
April 18: Imperial minute to the Commander of the Siberian Army Corps to the effect that Dostoevsky and his legal heirs regain the ancient title of nobility, though the confiscated property is not to be restored. Dostoevsky first hears of this in May.
At the end of the year, Dostoevsky sends in a petition, on discharge, begging to be allowed to live in Moscow.
“The Little Hero” (O. Z„ No. 8).
1859. March 18: Discharged from military service with the rank of Lieutenant. Indication of the town of Tver as a suitable place of abode.
Uncle’s Dream” (Roussky Viestnik, No. 3).
July 2: Departure from Semipalatinsk.
Autumn in Tver. Petition to the Tsar, that he may be allowed to live freely in all the towns of the Empire. Work at “The House of the Dead.”
“Stepanchikovo Village” (0. Z„ Nos. 11-12).
At the end of November, permission to leave Tver. Leaves for Petersburg.
1860. Collected Edition of Works. Two volumes. Moscow: N. A. Osnovsky.
1861. Collaboration on the journal Vremya.
Publication of “Injury and Insult” in that journal and in book form.
1861-62. Publication of “The House of the Dead” (Vremya, 1861, Nos. 4, 9-11; and 1862, Nos. 1-3, 5, 12).
“A Silly Story” ( Vremya, No. 11).
1862. Two editions in book form of “The House of the Dead.”
June 7: Departure for abroad.
Stays in Paris, London (meeting with Herzen), and Geneva.
1863. “Winter Notes on Summer Impressions” (Vremya, Nos. 2-3).
In May, suppression of the Vremya, in consequence of an article by Strachov on the Polish Question.
During the summer, travel in foreign lands. Stay in Rome. Plan for “The Gambler.”
Wife’s illness during the winter.
1864 — 65. Direction of The Epoch, which took the place of the Vremya.
1864. March 24: Appears the first number of The Epoch. “From the Darkness of the Great City” (Epoch, Nos. 1-2 and 4).
1864. April 16: Death of his wife.
June 10: Death of his brother Michael.
December 25: Death of his friend and collaborator, Apollon Grigoryev.
1865. “An Unusual Occurrence” (Epoch, No. 2).
At the end of July, goes abroad. Begins the novel “Rodion Raskolnikov” (“Crime and Punishment “).
Autumn in Wiesbaden.
October: Visit to Baron Vrangel at Copenhagen.
November: Return to Russia. Sale of his author’s rights to the publisher Stellovsky.
1865 — 66. First Collected Edition, in three volumes. Petersburg: Stellovsky.
Publication of “Rodion Raskolnikov” (“Crime and Punishment”) in the Roussky
Viestnik (Nos. 1-2, 4, 6, 8, 11-12) and in book form.
Summer at Lublin, near Moscow.
End of the year, at work on “The Gambler.” Intercourse with the stenographer Anna Grigorevna Snitkin.
1867. February 15: Marriage to A. G. Snitkin.
1867-71. Life abroad.
1867. April 14: Goes abroad. Two months in Dresden. Article on Bielinsky (not preserved).
August 16: Letter to Apollon Maikov on the quarrel with Turgenev, and Dostoevsky’s losses at roulette.
Plan for the “Diary of a Writer.” (Letter to his niece of September 29.)
At the end of the year, begins “The Idiot.”
Third edition of “The House of the Dead second and third editions of “Crime and Punishment.”
1868. Publication of “The Idiot” in the Roussky Viestnik (Nos. 1, 2, 4-12) and in book form.
Summer in Switzerland and Italy, Idea of a novel on Atheism (prototype of “The Brothers Karamazov”). Letters about this to Maikov and his niece.
1869. Beginning of the year, in Florence. Connection with the new journal Sarya, and lively interest in Danilevsky’s essay on” Russia and Europe.”
1870. “The Permanent Husband” (Sarya, Nos. 1, 2). Beginning of “The Possessed.” Fourth edition of “Crime and Punishment.”
1871-72. Publication of “The Possessed” (Roussky Viestnik, 1871, Nos. 1-2, 4, 7, 9-12; and 1872, Nos. 11-12).
1871. July 8: Return from abroad to Petersburg.
1867. Project of a trip to the East.
“The Permanent Husband” in book form.
1868. Joins editorial staff of Grajdanin (The Citizen), and publishes the “Diary of a Writer” (first sixteen chapters) and his “ Survey of Foreign Occurrences.”
“The Possessed” in book form.
1869. At the end of March, arrest for infraction of the Censorship regulations.
Autumn and winter, at Staraya-Roussa. Second edition of “The Idiot.”
Beginning of the novel, “The Hobbledehoy.”
1870. “The Hobbledehoy” (Otetschestvennia Zapiski, Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 11, 12), and in book form.
Fourth edition of “The House of the Dead.”
Summer at Ems.
1876-77. “Diary of a Writer.”
1871. Summer at Ems.
Article (in the June number of the Diary) on the Balkan Question, and Dostoevsky’s political creed.
“The Hobbledehoy” in book form.
Complete Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky Page 677