The details of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s literary activities would merit an entire book. For fear of length, an extremely brief discussion is presented here, which despite its brevity will certainly throw some light on this Russian writer.
Two grand thinkers appear upon the stage of Russian literature in the final half of the 19th century, whose fame spreads in every corner of the world, passing far beyond the borders of Russia. We mean Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. There is great difference between the two in terms of psychology, character, life and style of writing. If there is any similarity in their thoughts, then that is that the goal of both is the quest for a path which leads Man to a higher moral life. In fact both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky adopted the same destination through different routes. The thoughts of both at a collective level present a clear picture of the Russian character.
The works of these two writers are so deeply related to their lives, and the reflection of their experiences and observations carries so much importance in their writings, that it is nearly impossible to understand their thoughts without studying their biographies.
Leo Tolstoy spent the days of his childhood in a very pleasant environment. His youth was spent in military activities. His family was very rich but even in childhood, this question took hold in his mind: ‘What is life and how should Man spend a good life?’ Therefore, the struggle of his conscience against wealth is a most important factor of his life.
Totally to the contrary, the life of Fyodor Dostoevsky was an assemblage of unending miseries and misfortunes. He was born in a poor home and was caught in the claws of poverty till the last breath. Since he had spent most of the days of his life in an impoverished environment, he was aware of the pains of the poor and their needs. He was arrested despite being innocent and had to remain captive for three years in the frozen plains of Siberia. These trials had a great effect on Dostoevsky’s mind and made him a depicter of the deepest psychology of human life. Tolstoy used to give charity, but on the contrary, Dostoevsky used to receive charity. Tolstoy wanted to live a simple life. Dostoevsky actually lived a very simple, poor but happy life. But the same feeling surged in the hearts of both. Both were desirous of reaching the kingdom of God.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was born 200 years ago last month on the 11th of November 1821 in an ordinary hospital of Moscow and in a family which was very wretched. Therefore he had to live a life of hardship till his last breath. After attaining education at school, he entered an engineering college. Though he was educated in mathematics and science, he intended to make writing his profession. During his education, he wrote a novella Poor Folk, which was seen with a glance of approval in literary circles. The eminent poet Nekrasov gave space to this literary novella in his literary journal.
In 1846, around the time of the rise of a revolutionary movement in Europe, a socialist circle was established in St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky became a member of this circle. But immediately this circle was declared illegal and all members of this organisation were sentenced to death. The prisoners included Dostoevsky too. At the last moment when all these youth were to be made a target of bullets, by the order of the Tsar a punishment of three years’ rigorous imprisonment was proposed for them instead of death. He has narrated this terrifying incident in one of his letters, which he had written to his brother while departing for Siberia:
“We kissed the cross and then we were dressed in shirts which were to be our shroud. Three of us were tied to the pillar of death. I was sixth in line. We were to be killed in threes. Therefore my turn was definitely in the second trio. Only a few moments remained in my life and death. At that time my heart was full of memory of you and your wife and children. My dear brother! In these last moments the memory of you and you alone was making me restless. Suddenly the soldiers (who were about to fire the bullets) were ordered to return and those three who were tied to the pillar were untied. Then the order of the tsar was read to us in which he had spared our lives. Now the death sentence has been changed to captivity of four years.”
One of the comrades of Dostoevsky could not bear the fright and went mad. Dostoevsky himself had a condition no less than insanity. The condition of these few moments has been mentioned tacitly by him in many novels. Actually, the philosophy of life of Dostoevsky and his feelings could never be those of a normal person after this terrible incident.
Dostoevsky spent four years imprisoned in Siberia. This life of jail has been narrated with great ‘ruthlessness’ in his work Crime and Punishment. In 1854 he returned to St. Petersburg and immediately wrote The Insulted and the Injured in a year. Then with the participation of his brother Mikhail he issued a journal Time. He published the conditions of his captivity under the title of The House of the Dead. Now he had become quite famous and his journal, too, had become beloved of everyone. Unfortunately, this journal was shut down in 1863 by order of the state. After this suppression, he took out another magazine with the name of Epoch. But this, too, was confiscated. Therefore, fed up with the demands of creditors, he escaped to Europe but then returned to Russia that same year and lightened the burden of his debt by writing Crime and Punishment. The last days of his life in St. Petersburg were happy. On the 9th of February 1881, he passed away.
In Dostoevsky’s first novel i.e. Poor Folk we see the source of the spring of thought which assumes the shape of a stormy sea afterwards. The plot of this story is very simple. An ordinary clerk gives his life and heart to a poor girl. This girl proves to be a celestial beam of light within the dark ambience of this miserable clerk. His love is so great that when this girl marries a rich youth, this incident does not create feelings of hatred and contempt in his heart at all. On the contrary he shows great sacrifice and affection. In this novel Dostoevsky has presented his ideal, that of sympathy with the oppressed and rebuked humans. This ideal has been described in all his novels.
The short story White Nights is sunk entirely in grief, though is quite exquisite from an artistic point of view. It is an attractive study of love in the dark atmosphere of St. Petersburg.
In the novel The House of the Dead, Dostoevsky has detailed the observations and experiences of his days in prison. This book holds an extremely high stature in Russian literature. In its pages, Dostoevsky searches for the light of God within the chests of criminals, penetrating the inner depths of the human soul. Notwithstanding the gruesome pictures of the life of prisoners full of miseries, this novel carries an aspect of hope.
Crime and Punishment is the tragic tale of poverty-afflicted people who are struggling to pass their life nonchalantly in the sorrowful atmosphere of a big city. Dostoevsky has narrated the psychology of these people with extreme sympathy. In this classic work, Dostoevsky keeps very important moral issues in sight.
A poor student Raskolnikov kills an aged woman who is a usurer, for the sake of his sister and mother. He thinks before committing the murder:
“If Napoleon can kill thousands of humans for the sake of giving practical shape to his idea, then can he not murder a useless and good-for-nothing woman living on interest for his mother and sister?”
Raskolnikov does not reflect further on this issue and murders that old woman. He thus establishes his own special moral philosophy like this by trampling human beliefs under his feet. The real crisis is created within his heart after murdering that woman; when he thinks that rather than crushing ‘a principle’, he has killed ‘a woman’. Then he comes to know that he has not been able to bring his real intention into action – and that committing a crime is easy but to make it into the foundation-stone of a new life is very difficult.
His hero’s words are these:
“Since I have not been successful in my goal, that is why I did not have the right to be the perpetrator of this crime. The people who advanced their life by shedding blood, they were superhuman personalities.”
After the murder, the second chapter of this spiritual story begins. So convinced was Raskolnikov of his reason that a feeling of any sort of regret or contemplation was not created in his heart. After all, if he did not consider himself a criminal, then in other words the standard of moral law or good-and-evil for the sake of which he had murdered the usurer old woman – and which he had thought to make the foundation-stone of his life – was actually synonymous with a ridiculous idea. In the war between the voice of reason and conscience, the latter was victorious. Therefore, Raskolnikov influenced by the reproach of his conscience, pleaded guilty and accepted the pains of prison cheerfully. The error of Raskolnikov’s principle is one aspect of Crime and Punishment. Its second aspect are those conditions of awareness and emotions which lay bare the depravities of Raskolnikov with every proof.
The Idiot, in addition to being an interesting portrait of the mental delirium of humankind in general, presents the character of a strange human. Prince Myshkin (the idiot), the hero of this novel, is an extremely innocent, soft-hearted and sensitive person who is an admirer of every living thing. From the angle of the artistry of life and human nature, this novel can be deemed as the best novel of Dostoevsky.
The Possessed or Devils is a novel of an extremely complicated plot, in which an attempt has been made to narrate the activities of revolutionary circles. Dostoevsky was convinced of the sacred missions of Russia meaning politics and religion. He eventually came to hate socialism, because he saw a moral materialism in it, as well as a lack of religious principles.
Kirillov (the hero of this novel) is the leader of a revolutionary party, the possessor of strong willpower and an impressive personality. He dreams about such a revolution “when there will be new life, new Man. In short, everything will be new[…]then they will be able to divide history into two parts.”
The members of this revolutionary party remain unsuccessful in their objectives in moral and material respects. This work of Dostoevsky has been written against the Russian ‘Nihilist’ philosophy of life and tacitly, against materialism in Europe. The Russian writer has reflected upon this problem from two angles. One is external and the second internal. One is related to ordinary culture and civilisation. The second is about the personal needs of awareness and human identity.
The final masterpiece of Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov is in incomplete form. It should be called only a half part of his story. In this novel, which is the most thick and voluminous of all his works, Dostoevsky has analyzed Russian life and character. Though the plot is seemingly simple, actually it is very complicated. Old Karamazov (a libertine) has three sons: Dmitri, Ivan and Alyosha. The first two sons possess the father’s libertinism but Alyosha is kind and resolute. The opening of this tale is a dispute over a girl between father and son. In this connection, old Karamazov is killed. So a murder case is heard in court. Within a crowd of debauched emotions, the pure soul of Alyosha appears, who follows the footsteps of his guru, Zosima. His goal is this: “Love every creation of God. Every particle of sand!”
Dostoevsky’s style of writing is very complex and tangled. A delirious condition is found in all his works. Russian critics state that he has murdered eloquence everywhere in his writings. There are very few literary qualities in the novels of Dostoevsky. The whole reason for this flaw is that in the presence of poverty, miseries and misfortunes he could not make his style of writing firm.
The novels of Dostoevsky are not mere fables. Actually, he made the art of novel-writing – which had always remained limited to providing mere interest – a messenger for truth by carrying it to the highest level. In doing this, one can say that Dostoevsky joined art and faith.
In addition to thick novels, Dostoevsky also wrote short stories. But these are in limited number.
Raza Naeem is a Pakistani social scientist, book critic and award-winning translator and dramatic reader based in Lahore, where he is also the President of the Progressive Writers Association. He is currently working on a book Sahir Ludhianvi’s Lahore, Lahore’s Sahir Ludhianvi, forthcoming in 2021. He can be reached at: razanaeem@hotmail.com
Two grand thinkers appear upon the stage of Russian literature in the final half of the 19th century, whose fame spreads in every corner of the world, passing far beyond the borders of Russia. We mean Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky. There is great difference between the two in terms of psychology, character, life and style of writing. If there is any similarity in their thoughts, then that is that the goal of both is the quest for a path which leads Man to a higher moral life. In fact both Tolstoy and Dostoevsky adopted the same destination through different routes. The thoughts of both at a collective level present a clear picture of the Russian character.
The works of these two writers are so deeply related to their lives, and the reflection of their experiences and observations carries so much importance in their writings, that it is nearly impossible to understand their thoughts without studying their biographies.
Leo Tolstoy spent the days of his childhood in a very pleasant environment. His youth was spent in military activities. His family was very rich but even in childhood, this question took hold in his mind: ‘What is life and how should Man spend a good life?’ Therefore, the struggle of his conscience against wealth is a most important factor of his life.
Totally to the contrary, the life of Fyodor Dostoevsky was an assemblage of unending miseries and misfortunes. He was born in a poor home and was caught in the claws of poverty till the last breath. Since he had spent most of the days of his life in an impoverished environment, he was aware of the pains of the poor and their needs. He was arrested despite being innocent and had to remain captive for three years in the frozen plains of Siberia. These trials had a great effect on Dostoevsky’s mind and made him a depicter of the deepest psychology of human life. Tolstoy used to give charity, but on the contrary, Dostoevsky used to receive charity. Tolstoy wanted to live a simple life. Dostoevsky actually lived a very simple, poor but happy life. But the same feeling surged in the hearts of both. Both were desirous of reaching the kingdom of God.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was born 200 years ago last month on the 11th of November 1821 in an ordinary hospital of Moscow and in a family which was very wretched. Therefore he had to live a life of hardship till his last breath. After attaining education at school, he entered an engineering college. Though he was educated in mathematics and science, he intended to make writing his profession. During his education, he wrote a novella Poor Folk, which was seen with a glance of approval in literary circles. The eminent poet Nekrasov gave space to this literary novella in his literary journal.
In 1846, around the time of the rise of a revolutionary movement in Europe, a socialist circle was established in St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky became a member of this circle. But immediately this circle was declared illegal and all members of this organisation were sentenced to death. The prisoners included Dostoevsky too. At the last moment when all these youth were to be made a target of bullets, by the order of the Tsar a punishment of three years’ rigorous imprisonment was proposed for them instead of death. He has narrated this terrifying incident in one of his letters, which he had written to his brother while departing for Siberia:
“We kissed the cross and then we were dressed in shirts which were to be our shroud. Three of us were tied to the pillar of death. I was sixth in line. We were to be killed in threes. Therefore my turn was definitely in the second trio. Only a few moments remained in my life and death. At that time my heart was full of memory of you and your wife and children. My dear brother! In these last moments the memory of you and you alone was making me restless. Suddenly the soldiers (who were about to fire the bullets) were ordered to return and those three who were tied to the pillar were untied. Then the order of the tsar was read to us in which he had spared our lives. Now the death sentence has been changed to captivity of four years.”
One of the comrades of Dostoevsky could not bear the fright and went mad. Dostoevsky himself had a condition no less than insanity. The condition of these few moments has been mentioned tacitly by him in many novels. Actually, the philosophy of life of Dostoevsky and his feelings could never be those of a normal person after this terrible incident.Dostoevsky spent four years imprisoned in Siberia. This life of jail has been narrated with great ‘ruthlessness’ in his work Crime and Punishment. In 1854 he returned to St. Petersburg and immediately wrote The Insulted and the Injured in a year. Then with the participation of his brother Mikhail he issued a journal Time. He published the conditions of his captivity under the title of The House of the Dead. Now he had become quite famous and his journal, too, had become beloved of everyone. Unfortunately, this journal was shut down in 1863 by order of the state. After this suppression, he took out another magazine with the name of Epoch. But this, too, was confiscated. Therefore, fed up with the demands of creditors, he escaped to Europe but then returned to Russia that same year and lightened the burden of his debt by writing Crime and Punishment. The last days of his life in St. Petersburg were happy. On the 9th of February 1881, he passed away.
Dostoevsky’s style of writing is very complex and tangled. A delirious condition is found in all his works. Russian critics state that he has murdered eloquence everywhere in his writing
In Dostoevsky’s first novel i.e. Poor Folk we see the source of the spring of thought which assumes the shape of a stormy sea afterwards. The plot of this story is very simple. An ordinary clerk gives his life and heart to a poor girl. This girl proves to be a celestial beam of light within the dark ambience of this miserable clerk. His love is so great that when this girl marries a rich youth, this incident does not create feelings of hatred and contempt in his heart at all. On the contrary he shows great sacrifice and affection. In this novel Dostoevsky has presented his ideal, that of sympathy with the oppressed and rebuked humans. This ideal has been described in all his novels.
The short story White Nights is sunk entirely in grief, though is quite exquisite from an artistic point of view. It is an attractive study of love in the dark atmosphere of St. Petersburg.In the novel The House of the Dead, Dostoevsky has detailed the observations and experiences of his days in prison. This book holds an extremely high stature in Russian literature. In its pages, Dostoevsky searches for the light of God within the chests of criminals, penetrating the inner depths of the human soul. Notwithstanding the gruesome pictures of the life of prisoners full of miseries, this novel carries an aspect of hope.
Crime and Punishment is the tragic tale of poverty-afflicted people who are struggling to pass their life nonchalantly in the sorrowful atmosphere of a big city. Dostoevsky has narrated the psychology of these people with extreme sympathy. In this classic work, Dostoevsky keeps very important moral issues in sight.
A poor student Raskolnikov kills an aged woman who is a usurer, for the sake of his sister and mother. He thinks before committing the murder:
“If Napoleon can kill thousands of humans for the sake of giving practical shape to his idea, then can he not murder a useless and good-for-nothing woman living on interest for his mother and sister?”
Raskolnikov does not reflect further on this issue and murders that old woman. He thus establishes his own special moral philosophy like this by trampling human beliefs under his feet. The real crisis is created within his heart after murdering that woman; when he thinks that rather than crushing ‘a principle’, he has killed ‘a woman’. Then he comes to know that he has not been able to bring his real intention into action – and that committing a crime is easy but to make it into the foundation-stone of a new life is very difficult.
His hero’s words are these:
“Since I have not been successful in my goal, that is why I did not have the right to be the perpetrator of this crime. The people who advanced their life by shedding blood, they were superhuman personalities.”
After the murder, the second chapter of this spiritual story begins. So convinced was Raskolnikov of his reason that a feeling of any sort of regret or contemplation was not created in his heart. After all, if he did not consider himself a criminal, then in other words the standard of moral law or good-and-evil for the sake of which he had murdered the usurer old woman – and which he had thought to make the foundation-stone of his life – was actually synonymous with a ridiculous idea. In the war between the voice of reason and conscience, the latter was victorious. Therefore, Raskolnikov influenced by the reproach of his conscience, pleaded guilty and accepted the pains of prison cheerfully. The error of Raskolnikov’s principle is one aspect of Crime and Punishment. Its second aspect are those conditions of awareness and emotions which lay bare the depravities of Raskolnikov with every proof.
One of the comrades of Dostoevsky could not bear the fright and went mad. Dostoevsky himself had a condition no less than insanity
The Idiot, in addition to being an interesting portrait of the mental delirium of humankind in general, presents the character of a strange human. Prince Myshkin (the idiot), the hero of this novel, is an extremely innocent, soft-hearted and sensitive person who is an admirer of every living thing. From the angle of the artistry of life and human nature, this novel can be deemed as the best novel of Dostoevsky.
The Possessed or Devils is a novel of an extremely complicated plot, in which an attempt has been made to narrate the activities of revolutionary circles. Dostoevsky was convinced of the sacred missions of Russia meaning politics and religion. He eventually came to hate socialism, because he saw a moral materialism in it, as well as a lack of religious principles.Kirillov (the hero of this novel) is the leader of a revolutionary party, the possessor of strong willpower and an impressive personality. He dreams about such a revolution “when there will be new life, new Man. In short, everything will be new[…]then they will be able to divide history into two parts.”
The members of this revolutionary party remain unsuccessful in their objectives in moral and material respects. This work of Dostoevsky has been written against the Russian ‘Nihilist’ philosophy of life and tacitly, against materialism in Europe. The Russian writer has reflected upon this problem from two angles. One is external and the second internal. One is related to ordinary culture and civilisation. The second is about the personal needs of awareness and human identity.
The final masterpiece of Dostoevsky The Brothers Karamazov is in incomplete form. It should be called only a half part of his story. In this novel, which is the most thick and voluminous of all his works, Dostoevsky has analyzed Russian life and character. Though the plot is seemingly simple, actually it is very complicated. Old Karamazov (a libertine) has three sons: Dmitri, Ivan and Alyosha. The first two sons possess the father’s libertinism but Alyosha is kind and resolute. The opening of this tale is a dispute over a girl between father and son. In this connection, old Karamazov is killed. So a murder case is heard in court. Within a crowd of debauched emotions, the pure soul of Alyosha appears, who follows the footsteps of his guru, Zosima. His goal is this: “Love every creation of God. Every particle of sand!”
Dostoevsky’s style of writing is very complex and tangled. A delirious condition is found in all his works. Russian critics state that he has murdered eloquence everywhere in his writings. There are very few literary qualities in the novels of Dostoevsky. The whole reason for this flaw is that in the presence of poverty, miseries and misfortunes he could not make his style of writing firm.The novels of Dostoevsky are not mere fables. Actually, he made the art of novel-writing – which had always remained limited to providing mere interest – a messenger for truth by carrying it to the highest level. In doing this, one can say that Dostoevsky joined art and faith.
In addition to thick novels, Dostoevsky also wrote short stories. But these are in limited number.
Raza Naeem is a Pakistani social scientist, book critic and award-winning translator and dramatic reader based in Lahore, where he is also the President of the Progressive Writers Association. He is currently working on a book Sahir Ludhianvi’s Lahore, Lahore’s Sahir Ludhianvi, forthcoming in 2021. He can be reached at: razanaeem@hotmail.com