Dostoevsky

1821: Fyodor Dostoevsky is born (the second of seven) to Mikhail and Maria Dostoevsky. His father was a doctor at Moscow’s Hospital for the Poor where the young Dostoevsky enjoyed spending time with the patients and hearing their stories.

1837: Dostoevsky’s mother dies of tuberculosis and Fyodor and his brother are sent to the Military Engineering Academy in St. Petersburg.

1839: Dostoevsky’s father dies. The truth behind his death is the cause of some debate; some believe he was murdered by his serfs, who drowned him in vodka; others say he died of natural causes and a neighbor invented the story of his murder so he could purchase the land inexpensively.

1842: Dostoevsky is made lieutenant and subsequently leaves the Engineering Academy.

1845: Dostoevsky’s first work, Poor Folk, is published in The Contemporary and is met with great acclaim. His works immediately following Poor Folk are met with mixed reviews.

1849: Dostoevsky is arrested and imprisoned for being a part of the liberal intellectual group, The Petrashevsky Circle. After being sentenced to death and enduring a mock execution, his sentence is commuted to four years of exile and hard labor at a Siberian prison camp.

1854: Dostoevsky is released from prison and is required to serve in the Siberian regiment. While stationed in Kazakhstan, he begins a relationship with Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, a married acquaintance.

1857: After her husband’s death, Fyodor and Maria are married.

1863: Dostoevsky travels to Europe on a gambling spree where he meets Apollinaria Suslova, who was supposedly the prototype for Dostoevsky’s proud female characters, such as Katerina Ivanova in both Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.

1864: Devastated by the death of his wife and brother, Dostoevsky becomes extremely depressed and accumulates massive gambling losses. One account says Crime and Punishment was completed in a rush because Dostoevsky was in need of a massive advance from his publisher after an unsuccessful gambling spree.

1866: Dostoevsky publishes Crime and Punishment and The Gambler.

1867: Motivated by both the desire to escape his creditors and to visit the casinos abroad, Dostoevsky visits western Europe and, while there, attempts to rekindle a romantic relationship with Suslova, who refuses his marriage proposal.

1867: Dostoevsky marries Anna Grigorevna Snitkina, a 20-year-old stenographer. The works that follow are often seen as his greatest, including The Idiot, The Possessed and The Brothers Karamazov.

1881: Dostoevsky dies on February 9, 1881.