Anna Dostoevskaya: biography, interesting facts and personal achievements. Dostoevskaya (Snitkina) Anna Grigorievna

Anya was born in St. Petersburg at the end of August 1846, on the day of memory of St. Alexander Nevsky. The girl’s father, Grigory Ivanovich, is a minor official, “extremely cheerful character, joker, joker, as they say, “the soul of society”” and mother, Anna Nikolaevna, “a woman of amazing beauty - tall, thin, slender, with amazingly regular facial features”* , managed to create a friendly, friendly atmosphere in the family. And this despite the fact that they lived with Grigory Ivanovich’s old mother and four of his brothers, one of whom was also married and had children. Anya never heard any quarrels or mutual claims between her relatives. “They lived amicably and hospitably in the old-fashioned way, so that on the birthdays and name days of family members, on Christmas and Holy Day, all close and distant relatives gathered with their grandmother in the morning and had fun until late at night.”*

In her youth, the girl made an uncompromising decision to go to a monastery. While vacationing in Pskov, she realized that best moment there will be no solution to implement it. Anya hit the road. She was only 13 years old. Needless to say, what the parents experienced when they heard about such an aspiration of their beloved daughter. They had to make a lot of effort to turn the foolish child. Only the news of her father’s serious illness (exaggerated, to put it mildly) forced her to submit and return to St. Petersburg.

From her mother, a Swede of Finnish origin, Anya inherited not only neatness, composure, a desire for order and determination, but also a deep faith in God.

Anna Nikolaevna Snitkina (née Miltopeus) was a Lutheran; her ancestors even included a Lutheran bishop. At the age of nineteen she became engaged to an officer who soon died during the Hungarian campaign. The girl's grief was extreme. She decided never to get married. “But the years passed, and little by little the bitterness of the loss softened,” her daughter wrote much later. “In the Russian society where my mother moved, there were women who liked to make matches (this was the custom of that time), and to one meeting, actually for her, they invited two young men who were looking for a bride. They liked my mother extremely, but when they asked her whether she liked the young people presented, she replied: “No, I liked the old man who talked and laughed all the time.” She was talking about my father."*

Grigory Ivanovich was 42 years old. Anna Nikolaevna is 29. They were introduced to each other. “...he really liked her, but since she spoke Russian poorly, and he spoke French poorly, the conversations between them did not last very long. When my mother’s words were conveyed to him, he was very interested in the attention of the beautiful young lady, and he began to intensively visit the house where he could meet her. It ended with them falling in love and deciding to get married.”*

But marriage with a loved one was possible for Anna Nikolaevna only if she accepted Orthodoxy. For the girl, the choice was not easy. She prayed for a long time in the hope of hearing an answer to the torment of her heart. And then one day she saw in a dream how she entered Orthodox church, kneels before the shroud and prays...

The answer was heard. And when the young couple arrived at the Simeon Church on Mokhovaya to perform the rite of anointing - oh, a miracle! - in front of Anna Nikolaevna was the same shroud and the same situation that she had seen in her dream!

Anna Nikolaevna entered life with joy Orthodox Church, confessed, received communion and raised her daughter in the faith. “She never repented of changing her religion, “otherwise,” she said, “I would feel far from my husband and children, and this would be difficult for me.”*

Profession: stenographer

Anya - Netochka, as her family called her - spoke with constant warmth about life under the wing of her parents. “I remember my childhood and youth with the most gratifying feeling: my father and mother loved us all very much and never punished us in vain. Life in the family was quiet, measured, calm, without quarrels, dramas or disasters.”*

Apart from the sudden “escape” to the monastery, Anya did not make her parents worry about herself. She was among the first students at St. Anne's School, graduated from the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium with a silver medal and entered Pedagogical Courses. My father’s serious illness made some adjustments: I had to give up teaching.

“...I, regretting leaving my dear patient alone for whole days, decided to leave the course for a while. Since dad suffered from insomnia, I spent hours reading Dickens novels to him and was very pleased if he was able to fall asleep a little while listening to my monotonous reading.”*

But her father literally insisted that Anya still get a profession and at least complete shorthand courses. It's already sunset own life Anna Grigorievna wrote: “my good father I definitely foresaw that thanks to shorthand I would find my happiness.”*

In 1866, Grigory Ivanovich reposed in the Lord. It was not easy for the orphaned Snitkin family. For Anya, this was the first misfortune in her life. “My grief was expressed violently: I cried a lot, spent whole days on Bolshaya Okhta, at the grave of the deceased, and could not come to terms with the heavy loss.”* By that time, the shorthand lectures had been interrupted for summer holidays, but teacher P.M. Olkhin, knowing about the difficult state of mind girls, suggested that she take up stenographic correspondence. “Twice a week I had to send him two or three pages of a certain book, written by me in shorthand. Olkhin returned the transcripts to me, correcting the errors he noticed. Thanks to this correspondence, which lasted for three summer months, I became very successful in shorthand.”* When lectures resumed, Anna already mastered the skill of shorthand so much that the teacher could recommend her for literary work.

Ask Dostoevsky

On a chilly November evening in 1866, everything was decided future life fragile girl - and not only her.

Olkhin offered Anna a shorthand job from the writer and handed her a piece of paper folded in four, on which was written: “Stolyarny Lane, corner of M. Meshchanskaya, Alonkin’s house, apt. No. 13, ask Dostoevsky.”

“The name of Dostoevsky was familiar to me from childhood: he was my father’s favorite writer. I myself admired his works and cried over “Notes from House of the Dead" The thought of not only meeting a talented writer, but also helping him in his work excited and delighted me extremely.”*

On the eve of the significant meeting, the girl barely managed to close her eyes.

“Out of joy and excitement, I didn’t sleep almost all night and kept imagining Dostoevsky. Considering him a contemporary of my father, I believed that he was already very old man. I pictured him as either a fat and bald old man, or tall and thin, but always stern and gloomy, as Olkhin found him. What I was most worried about was how I would talk to him. Dostoevsky seemed to me such a scientist, so smart that I trembled in advance for every word I said. I was also embarrassed by the thought that I did not firmly remember the names and patronymics of the heroes of his novels, but I was sure that he would certainly talk about them. Having never met outstanding writers in my circle, I imagined them as some special creatures with whom I should have spoken in a special way. Remembering those times, I see what a small child I was then, despite my twenty years.”*

Many years later, Anna Grigorievna will describe in detail all the circumstances of the first meeting and her feelings from it:

“At first glance, Dostoevsky seemed quite old to me. But as soon as he spoke, he immediately became younger, and I thought that he was unlikely to be more than thirty-five to seven years old. He was of average height and stood very erect. Light brown, even slightly reddish hair was heavily pomaded and carefully smoothed. But what struck me were his eyes; they were different: one was brown, in the other the pupil was dilated over the entire eye and the irises were imperceptible. This duality of the eyes gave the gaze a mysterious expression. Dostoevsky's face, pale and sickly, seemed extremely familiar to me, probably because I had seen his portraits before. He was dressed in a cloth jacket of blue color, rather second-hand, but in snow-white linen (collar and cuffs) (...) Almost from the first sentences, he declared that he had epilepsy and had a seizure the other day, and this frankness surprised me very much (...) Looking through what he had copied, Dostoevsky found, that I missed the point and put it unclearly solid sign, and sharply remarked to me about this. He was apparently irritated and could not collect his thoughts. Either he asked what my name was and immediately forgot, then he began to walk around the room and walked for a long time, as if forgetting about my presence. I sat motionless, afraid to disturb his thoughts...”*.

Anna Grigorievna left the writer broken. “I didn’t like him and left a bad impression. I thought that I was unlikely to get along with him at work, and my dreams of independence threatened to crumble into dust...”*.

That day, Anna visited Dostoevsky twice: the first time he was “decidedly unable to dictate,” so he asked the girl to “come to him today, at eight o’clock.” The second meeting went smoother. “I answered all the questions simply, seriously, almost sternly (...) I don’t think I even smiled once when talking to Fyodor Mikhailovich, and he really liked my seriousness. He admitted to me later that he was pleasantly surprised by my ability to control myself. He was used to meeting nihilists in society and seeing their treatment, which outraged him. Moreover, he was glad to find in me the complete opposite of the dominant type of young girls at that time.”* The conversation imperceptibly touched upon the Petrashevites and death penalty. Fyodor Mikhailovich plunged into memories.

“I remember,” he said, “how I stood on the Semenovsky parade ground among my condemned comrades and, seeing the preparations, I knew that I had only five minutes to live. But these minutes seemed to me like years, tens of years, so it seemed that I had a long time to live! They had already put death shirts on us and divided us into three; I was eighth in the third row. The first three were tied to posts. In two or three minutes both rows would have been shot, and then it would have been our turn. How I wanted to live, Lord my God! What a journey life seemed, how much good, how much good I could do! I remembered my whole past, not very good use of it, and I so wanted to experience everything again and live for a long, long time... Suddenly I heard the all clear, and I felt encouraged. My comrades were untied from the posts, brought back and a new sentence was read: I was sentenced to four years in prison. hard labor. I don't remember another one like this have a good day! I walked around my casemate in the Alekseevsky ravelin and sang, sang loudly, I was so glad of the life given to me! Then they allowed my brother to say goodbye to me before separation and on the eve of the Nativity of Christ he sent me to long journey. I keep the letter that I wrote to my late brother on the day the verdict was read; my nephew recently returned the letter to me.”*

“Execution” on Semenovsky parade ground. Drawing from Leonid Grossman’s book “Dostoevsky”

Anna Grigorievna was amazed: this “seems to be secretive and stern man“He poured out his soul to her, sharing his most intimate experiences. “This frankness on that first day of my acquaintance with him pleased me extremely and left a wonderful impression.”*

When this long day came to an end, Anna enthusiastically told her mother how frank and kind Dostoevsky was with her... and to herself she noted a difficult, depressing, never-before-experienced impression: “for the first time in my life I saw a smart, kind man, but unfortunate, as if abandoned by everyone, and a feeling of deep compassion and pity arose in my heart...”*.

“It’s good that you are not a man”

By the time of his meeting with Anna, Fyodor Mikhailovich was in an extremely difficult financial situation. He assumed the debts of his deceased older brother. The debts were promissory notes, and the creditors constantly threatened the writer to seize his property and put him in the debt department. In addition, Fyodor Mikhailovich was supported by a 21-year-old stepson and the family of his deceased brother. Help was needed and younger brother- Nikolai.

There was no way to reach an agreement with creditors. The writer fell into despair. At this time, a cunning and enterprising person– publisher F.T. Stellovsky. He offered three thousand for the publication of the complete works of Dostoevsky in three volumes. At the same time, Fyodor Mikhailovich was obliged to write for the same amount new novel on time - November 1, 1866. In case of failure to fulfill this obligation, Dostoevsky had to pay a penalty to the publisher, and the rights to all works became the property of Stellovsky. “Of course, the predator was counting on this,” Anna Grigorievna summarized in “Memoirs.”

In essence, Fyodor Mikhailovich had no choice. He agreed to the enslaving terms of the contract. The documents were drawn up, Stellovsky paid the money, but Dostoevsky did not receive a penny. The entire amount was transferred to creditors.

Fyodor Mikhailovich was engrossed in work on the novel Crime and Punishment, and when he finally remembered the contract, there was catastrophically little time to create a new full-fledged novel. The writer was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

When Anna Grigorievna first came to help Dostoevsky, there were twenty-six days left before the deadline for the novel “The Gambler.” The work existed only in rough notes and plans.

In such difficult circumstances in the person of Anna Grigorievna, Fyodor Mikhailovich first met active help: “friends and relatives sighed and groaned, lamented and sympathized, gave advice, but no one entered into his almost hopeless situation. Except for the girl, a recent graduate of shorthand courses, with virtually no work experience, who suddenly appeared at the door of his apartment”**.

“It’s good that you are not a man,” said Dostoevsky after their first brief acquaintance and “testing the pen.”

Because the man would probably drink. You won’t drink, will you?..”*.

So it began collaboration Fyodor Mikhailovich and Anna Grigorievna. And from that moment on, the young girl belonged less and less to herself every day, taking on her fragile shoulders the burden of sacrificial service...

“What would you answer me?”

In twenty-six days, the novel “The Player” was created. The almost impossible happened. The writer’s talent would hardly have played a decisive role if it had not been for a modest girl nearby, who selflessly rushed into battle for the writer’s prosperous future, and, as it turned out very soon, her own.

Anna Grigorievna came to Dostoevsky every day, wrote down the novel in shorthand, returning home, often at night, rewrote it in ordinary language and brought it to Fyodor Mikhailovich’s house. By October 30, 1866, the manuscript was ready.

The shock work was over, and Fyodor Mikhailovich returned to the last part and epilogue of Crime and Punishment. Of course, with the help of a stenographer (“I want to ask for your help, good Anna Grigorievna. It was so easy for me to work with you. I would like to continue dictating and I hope that you will not refuse to be my collaborator..."*).

When Anna Snitkina came to the writer on November 8, 1866 to negotiate a job, Dostoevsky started talking about a new novel. Main character- an elderly and sick artist who has experienced a lot, lost his family and friends - meets a girl. “Let’s call her Anya so as not to call her a heroine,” said the writer. - This name is good...”*. Half a century later, Anna Grigorievna recalled: “Put yourself in her place,” he said in a trembling voice. - Imagine that this artist is me, that I confessed my love to you and asked you to be my wife. Tell me, what would you answer me?” Fyodor Mikhailovich's face expressed such embarrassment, such heartache that I finally realized that this was not easy. literary conversation and that I would deal a terrible blow to his vanity and pride if I gave an evasive answer.

I looked at the excited face of Fyodor Mikhailovich, so dear to me, and said:
“I would answer you that I love you and will love you all my life!”*.

Anna Grigorievna modestly continues: “I will not convey those tender, full of love words that Fyodor Mikhailovich spoke to me in those unforgettable moments: they are sacred to me...”*.

The explanation took place. The offer was made, consent was received. And on February 15, 1867, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina and Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky got married. She is 20, he is 45. “God gave her to me,” the writer will later say more than once about his incomparable Anna.

“I loved Fyodor Mikhailovich boundlessly, but it was not physical love, not a passion that could exist among people of equal age. My love was purely cerebral, ideological. It was rather adoration, admiration for a person so talented and possessing such high spiritual qualities. It was a heart-stopping pity for a man who had suffered so much, who had never seen joy and happiness and was so abandoned by his loved ones.”*

Cheerful and serious, cheerful and keenly aware of other people’s pain, Anna entered the thorny path family life. Life with a genius.

"Days of Undeserved Happiness"

The young woman was forced to live under the same roof with Fyodor Mikhailovich’s stepson Pavel, spoiled and dishonest. Moreover, the “stepmother” was a year younger than the “junior”. He constantly complained to his stepfather about Anna Grigorievna, and when he was alone with her, he did not disdain any means to offend her more painfully. In front of his father’s eyes, Pasha was very thoughtful: he looked after Anna during dinners, picked up the napkins she dropped.

“This stepson of mine,” Fyodor Mikhailovich softly admitted, “is a kind, honest boy; but, unfortunately, with an amazing character: he positively promised himself, from childhood, to do nothing, not having the slightest fortune and at the same time having the most ridiculous concepts about life.”*

And with other relatives it was no easier. They behaved arrogantly towards Dostoevskaya. As soon as Fyodor Mikhailovich received an advance for the book, out of nowhere, his brother’s widow Emilia Feodorovna, or his younger unemployed brother Nikolai, appeared, or Pavel had “urgent” needs - for example, the need to buy a new coat to replace the old one that had gone out of fashion. The writer could not refuse help to anyone...

Another inevitability was Dostoevsky's illness. Anna knew about her from the first day they met, but she hoped that Fyodor Mikhailovich, being under her close supervision and care, would be healed. One day, when the couple were visiting, another seizure occurred:

“Fyodor Mikhailovich was extremely animated and was telling my sister something interesting. Suddenly he interrupted his speech mid-sentence, turned pale, stood up from the sofa and began to lean towards me. I looked in amazement at his changed face. But suddenly a terrible, inhuman scream, or rather a scream, was heard, and Fyodor Mikhailovich began to lean forward.<…>Subsequently, I heard this “inhuman” cry dozens of times, common in an epileptic at the beginning of an attack. And this scream always shocked and frightened me.<…>Here for the first time I saw what a terrible disease Fyodor Mikhailovich was suffering from. Hearing his screams and moans that did not stop for hours, seeing his face distorted with suffering, completely unlike him, his insanely fixed eyes, not at all understanding his incoherent speech, I was almost convinced that my dear, beloved husband was going crazy, and what horror I brought This thought hits me!”*.

Anna Grigorievna confessed to the writer and critic A.A. Izmailov: “...I remember the days of our life together as about days of great, undeserved happiness. But sometimes I redeemed him with great suffering. Terrible disease Fyodor Mikhailovich threatened to destroy all our well-being any day... This disease, as you know, can neither be prevented nor cured. All I could do was unbutton his collar and take his head in my hands. But to see your beloved face, blue, distorted, with engorged veins, to realize that he was suffering and you could not help him in any way - this was such suffering with which, obviously, I had to atone for my happiness of being close to him ... "*.

Dostoevskaya could not help but remember - with quiet sadness - parents' house, quiet family comfort, devoid of adversity and shock.

When it became completely unbearable, Anna asked herself: “Why doesn’t he, the “great heart expert,” see how hard my life is?”*.

Gradually, exhausted Anna comes to the conclusion that a change of scenery is the only possibility of salvation. The husband didn't mind. And Dostoevskaya set about organizing the trip with all her energy. Due to lack of finances (her husband's relatives with their urgent needs miraculously appeared every time the writer received even the most meager fee), Anna Grigorievna had to pawn her dowry. But she did not regret anything - after all, a happy family life was at stake. And on April 14, 1867, the couple went abroad.

Roulette and wedding ring

“We went abroad for three months, and returned to Russia after more than four years,” recalled Anna Grigorievna. – During this time, many joyful events happened in our lives, and I will forever thank God for strengthening me in my decision to go abroad. There a new beginning began for Fyodor Mikhailovich and me, happy life and our mutual friendship and love strengthened, which continued until the death of my husband.”*

Dostoevskaya started notebook, in which she wrote down the story of their journey day by day. “This is how the diary of Dostoevsky’s wife arose - a unique phenomenon in memoir literature and an indispensable source for everyone involved in the biography of the writer.”***. “At first I wrote down only my travel impressions and described our daily life, - recalls Anna Grigorievna. - But little by little I wanted to write down everything that so interested and captivated me in my dear husband: his thoughts, his conversations, his opinions about music, literature, etc.”*.

In addition to the joys, the journey also brought many difficult moments. Here Fyodor Mikhailovich’s painful passion for playing roulette, which he became interested in back in 1862, during his first trip abroad, was revealed. The couple's already thin wallet was emptied instantly. “A simple everyday motive - to win “capital” in order to pay off creditors, to live without need for several years, and most importantly - to finally get the opportunity to calmly work on your works - at the gambling table lost its original meaning. Impetuous, passionate, impetuous Dostoevsky gives himself over to unbridled excitement. Playing roulette becomes an end in itself.”***.

The depth of humility with which Anna Grigorievna endured this “illness” of her husband is amazing, and yet in excitement he pawned literally everything, even... wedding ring and her earrings.

“I realized,” Dostoevskaya recalled, “that this is not a simple “weakness of will,” but an all-consuming passion for a person, something spontaneous, against which even a strong character cannot fight. We must come to terms with this, look at it as a disease for which there are no remedies.”*

Anna Grigorievna, with her humble love, created a miracle: her husband was cured of passion. The last time he played was in 1871, before returning to Russia, in Wiesbaden. On April 28, 1871, Dostoevsky writes to his wife from Wiesbaden to Dresden: “A great thing has happened to me, the vile fantasy that tormented me for almost 10 years has disappeared. For ten years (or, better yet, since the death of my brother, when I was suddenly overwhelmed by debt), I kept dreaming of winning. I dreamed seriously, passionately. Now it's all over! This was quite the last time. Do you believe, Anya, that my hands are now untied; I was bound by the game, and now I will think about business and not dream about the game all night long, as happened in the past. And therefore, things will go better and faster, and God will bless you! Anya, keep your heart for me, don’t hate me and don’t stop loving me. Now that I am so renewed, let’s go together and I will make you happy!”*.

The writer kept his oath.

Gradually, the spouses grew inextricably with each other, becoming, according to the word of the Lord, “one flesh.” In his letters, Fyodor Mikhailovich often repeated that he felt “glued” to his family and could not tolerate even a short separation.

Flowers for my dear daughter

During the journey, the happiness of waiting and the birth of the first child happened, which brought the spouses together. Anna Grigorievna recalled: “Fyodor Mikhailovich turned out to be the most tender father: he was certainly present when the girl was bathed and helped me, he himself wrapped her in a pique blanket and pinned it with safety pins, carried and rocked her in his arms and, abandoning his studies, hurried to her, a little as soon as he heard her voice (...) he sat for hours by her bed, now singing songs to her, now talking to her, and when she was in her third month, he was sure that Sonechka would recognize him, and this is what he wrote to A.N. Maykov dated May 18, 1868: “This small, three-month-old creature, so poor, so tiny - for me there was already a face and a character. She began to know me, love me and smiled when I approached. When I sang songs to her in my funny voice, she loved to listen to them. She didn't cry or wince when I kissed her; she stopped crying when I approached”*.

Is it possible to describe the grief of the parents when, after a short illness, their three-month-old baby Sonya died? “I am unable to describe the despair that took possession of us when we saw our dear daughter dead,” Dostoevskaya recalled. “Deeply shocked and saddened by her death, I was terribly afraid for my unfortunate husband: his despair was violent, he sobbed and cried like a woman.” Misfortune brought them even closer. “Every day my husband and I went to her grave, carried flowers and cried.”*

Their second child, a girl named Lyuba, was born abroad. The happy father wrote to the critic Strakhov: “Oh, why aren’t you married, and why don’t you have a child, dear Nikolai Nikolaevich. I swear to you that this is three-quarters of life’s happiness, but the rest is only one quarter.”*

Quiet family happiness, it seemed, was now firmly established under their roof in Dresden. The catastrophic lack of money was covered by love, complete mutual understanding and optimism.

Fyodor Mikhailovich jokingly complained:

We have been living in poverty for two years,
The only clear thing we have is our conscience.
And we are waiting for money from Katkov
For a failed story.

Anna Grigorievna chided him in response:

You took money from Katkov,
I promised an essay.
You are the last capital
I whistled at the roulette.

But life outside the homeland gradually became more and more painful. The last money was used to buy tickets, and the family went to Russia.

Main way

On July 8, 1871, the Dostoevskys arrived in St. Petersburg. Soon the couple had an heir, Fedor.

Creditors quickly found out about the writer’s return to St. Petersburg and had serious intentions to darken the life of the Dostoevskys. But Anna Grigorievna decided to take this matter into her own hands. Unknown to her husband, she managed to meet the most impatient and agree with them on the waiting time.

This was no longer the modest Netochka who stepped onto the threshold of Dostoevsky’s apartment four years ago. “From a timid, shy girl, I developed into a woman with decisive character, which could no longer be frightened by the struggle with everyday adversities, or rather, with debts that reached twenty-five thousand by the time we returned to St. Petersburg”*.

In an effort to improve the family’s financial situation, Anna Grigorievna decided to publish her own novel “Demons.” Let us note that at that time there were no precedents for a writer to self-publish his work and earn any real profit from it.

The tireless Dostoevskaya delved into the matter down to the smallest detail, and as a result, “Demons” were sold out instantly and extremely profitably. From that moment on, Anna Grigorievna’s main activity became the publication of her husband’s books... Finally, a little more freedom in the means, one could breathe easy.

In 1875, a second son, Alexey, appeared in the family. Thunder among clear skies A happy family life broke out three years later - beloved Alyoshenka died from an epileptic fit.

Fyodor Mikhailovich was heartbroken, because the cause of the boy’s death was his father’s illness, which was transmitted to the child. The very first attack of epilepsy turned out to be fatal for Alyosha. For the sake of other children, for the sake of her husband, Anna initially restrained her suffering and even insisted on Dostoevsky’s trip - together with the philosopher Solovyov - to Optina Pustyn. But there was no strength to withstand the stress of grief.

“I was so lost, so sad and crying that no one recognized me,” she wrote many years later. “My usual cheerfulness disappeared, as well as my usual energy, in its place was apathy. I became cold towards everything: towards the household, business and even towards my own children.”* This is how her returning husband found her. Now, spiritually consoled, he began to save his beloved.

In Optina Pustyn, Fyodor Mikhailovich twice met alone with Elder Ambrose, who conveyed his blessing and words of consolation to Anna Grigorievna.

Upon returning from Optina, Dostoevsky began writing The Brothers Karamazov. Work, coupled with Anna Grigorievna’s care, helped me return to life. In the mouth of his hero, Elder Zosima, Fyodor Mikhailovich put the very words that Father Ambrose conveyed to Anna: “Rachel cries for her children and cannot be consoled, because they are not there, and such a limit has been set for you, mothers, on earth. And don’t be comforted, and you don’t need to be comforted, don’t be comforted and cry, just every time you cry, remember unswervingly that your son is the only one from the angels of God - from there he looks at you and sees you, and rejoices at your tears, and He points to them to the Lord God. And for a long time you will continue to experience this great maternal cry, but in the end it will turn into quiet joy for you, and your bitter tears will be only tears of quiet tenderness and heartfelt cleansing, saving you from sins.”

Dostoevsky worked towards the creation of this novel all his life. In it the writer poses fundamental problems human existence: about the meaning of life of each person and all human history, about spiritual and moral principles existence of people, about faith and unbelief.

The novel was completed in November 1880 and was dedicated to Anna Grigorievna.

The Lord determined their life together to be 14 years. Fyodor Mikhailovich created all his great novels and “The Diary of a Writer,” that is, significantly more than half of what he wrote in his entire life, during these years. “The Gambler”, “Crime and Punishment”, “Idiot”, “Demons”, “Teenager”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “The Diary of a Writer” with the famous Pushkin speech passed through the hands of Anna Grigorievna, a stenographer and copyist. Its significance in the life and posthumous fate of the writer cannot be overestimated.

**********************

At the beginning of her Memoirs, Anna Grigorievna wrote how much important points her lives are connected with the Alexander Nevsky Lavra: the wedding of her parents, baptism, infancy spent in a house belonging to the Lavra... Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was buried at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. She also dreamed of being buried next to him.

“Walking behind the coffin of Fyodor Mikhailovich, I swore an oath to live for our children, vowed to devote the rest of my life, as much as I could, to glorifying the memory of my unforgettable husband and spreading his noble ideas.”*

Anna Grigorievna was 35 years old.

She kept her promise. Dostoevskaya published seven times full meeting her husband’s works, created his museum, and opened a school named after him.

It’s amazing how much humility, kindness, and most importantly – love – there was in this woman. In one of her letters, she addressed her husband: “I am such an ordinary woman, the golden mean, with petty whims and demands... And suddenly the most generous, noble, pure, honest, holy man loves me!”*.

After the death of Fyodor Mikhailovich, Anna Grigorievna lived for another 37 years. She never married again.

Anna Dostoevskaya confessed to L.P. Grossman, the writer’s biographer: “I do not live in the twentieth century, I stayed in the 70s of the nineteenth century. My people are the friends of Fyodor Mikhailovich, my society is the circle of departed people close to Dostoevsky. I live with them. Everyone who works on studying the life or works of Dostoevsky seems like a dear person to me.”***.

“I gave myself to Fyodor Mikhailovich when I was 20 years old. Now I’m over 70, and I still belong only to him with every thought, every action.”*

In the memorial album of S.S. Prokofiev, the future author of the opera “The Gambler,” where the owner asked that all recordings be dedicated only to the sun, in January 1917 Anna Grigorievna wrote: “The sun of my life is Feodor Dostoevsky”***.

They weren't ideal people. From the correspondence of the spouses it is clear that there were quarrels, bewilderments, and outbursts of jealousy between them. But their history once again proves: the Lord, who sanctified the sacrament of marriage with his first miracle in Cana of Galilee and sanctifies it every time when two people stand before the altar with martyr’s crowns over their heads, the Lord, for the humble joint enduring of suffering and shocks, will not fail to send down that precious gift, without which a person is only “a ringing brass or a sounding cymbal.”

Anna Grigorievna wrote: “Feelings must be handled with care so that they do not break. There is nothing more valuable in life than love. You should forgive more - look for guilt in yourself and smooth out the roughness in yourself.”*

Fyodor Mikhailovich echoes through the mouth of his elder Zosima: “Brothers, love is a teacher, but you need to be able to acquire it, because it is difficult to acquire, expensively bought, through long work and over a long period of time, because you must love not just for a moment, but for the whole term. But by chance, anyone can fall in love, and even a villain can fall in love.”

IN Last year During her earthly life in war-torn Crimea, Anna Grigorievna was seriously ill and starved.

Anna Dostoevskaya died on June 22, 1918 in Yalta and was buried in the city’s Polikurovsky cemetery.

Half a century later, in 1968, her ashes were transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra and buried next to her husband’s grave.

On Dostoevsky’s tombstone, on the right side, a modest inscription appeared:

“Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya. 1846-1918".

If it was already on the site, then I apologize.
Traditionally, if the smartlab gods wish, they will move it to offtopic)))

From the letters of F.M. Dostoevsky and the memoirs of the writer’s wife
F. M. Dostoevsky – A. G. Dostoevsky

... Hello, my Angel, Anya... And here is a game that I couldn’t tear myself away from. You can imagine how excited I was. Just imagine: I started playing in the morning and by lunchtime I had lost 16 imperials. There were only 12 and a few thalers left. I went after lunch in order to be more prudent and, thank God, I won back all 16 lost and, on top of that, won 100 guilders. Or he could have won 300, because they were already in his hands, but he took a chance and lost it. Here is my observation, Anya, final: if you are prudent, that is, be like marble, cold and inhumanly careful, then you will certainly, without any doubt, win as much as you want. But you need to play for a long time, for many days, being content with little if you are unlucky, and not rushing forcefully at a chance. There is one here...: he has been playing for several days now, with terrible composure and calculation, inhuman (they showed him to me), and the bank is already beginning to be afraid of him: he rake in money and takes away at least 1000 guilders every day. “In a word, I’ll try to use superhuman effort to be more reasonable, but, on the other hand, I can’t possibly stay here for several days.” Without any exaggeration, Anya: everything is already so disgusting to me, that is, terrible, that I would run away on my own...

... Meanwhile, this making money for nothing, as here (not quite for nothing: you pay with flour), has something irritating and stupefying, but when you think about what money is needed for, when you think about debts and about those who need it besides me, then you feel that you can’t leave. But I can imagine my torment if I lose and do nothing: accept so much dirty tricks for nothing and leave even poorer than I came...

... Yesterday was a very bad day for me. I lost too much (relatively speaking). What to do: don’t play with my nerves, my angel. I played for ten hours and ended up losing. It was very bad throughout the day, but I also benefited when happiness changed - I’ll tell you everything when I arrive. Now for the remaining ones (very little, just a drop) I want to make the last test today...

...I will use my last efforts. You see: my efforts succeed every time, as long as I have composure and the calculation to follow my system; but as soon as I start winning, I immediately start taking risks, I can’t control myself; Well, today's last test will say something. Hurry up...

P.S. I don’t write down the details of how much I won and how much I lost; I'll tell you everything when we meet. In a word, it’s bad for now...
F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

...Can you believe it: yesterday I lost everything, every last penny, every last guilder, and so I decided to write to you as soon as possible so that you would send me money to leave. But I remembered the watch and went to the watchmaker to sell it or pawn it. Here it’s all terribly commonplace, that is, in gambling city. There are entire shops selling gold and silver items that sell just that. Imagine how vile these Germans are: he bought a watch from me, with a chain (it cost me 125 rubles at the lowest price) and gave me only 65 guilders for it, that is, 43 thalers, that is, almost 2.5 times less. But I sold it on the condition that he would give me one week’s time and that if I came to buy it back within a week, he would give it back to me, of course with interest. And just imagine, I still got my money back with this money and today I’ll go buy the watch back. Then I will have 16 Friedrichsdor left. I made up for them by breaking myself yesterday and resolutely not letting myself get carried away. This gives me some hope. But I'm afraid, I'm afraid. Today will say something...
F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

... My dear angel, yesterday I experienced terrible torment: I’m going to the post office after finishing a letter to you, and suddenly they answer me that there is no letter from you. My legs gave way...

... I walked around the garden for an hour, trembling all over; Finally, I went to roulette and lost everything. My hands were shaking, my thoughts were lost, and even when I lost I was almost somehow glad, I said: let it be, let it be. Finally, having completely lost (and it didn’t even strike me at that moment), I walked for two hours in the park, God knows where I went; I understood all my helplessness; I decided that if tomorrow, that is, today, there is no letter from you, then I will go to you immediately. And with what? Then I returned and went to pawn my watch again...

... I almost lost the mortgage on the watch, in total I now have twenty-five florins, but I need to pay at the hotel, I need to pay for the trip...

...Listen: the game is over, I want to return as soon as possible; Send me immediately, as soon as you receive this letter, twenty (20) imperials. Immediately, on the same day, at the same minute, if possible. Don't waste any time. This is my greatest request...

...And most importantly, hurry to send it. Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow they will submit a bill at the hotel, and if there is no more money from you, you have to go to the owner to apologize, he will probably go to the police: save me from this torment, that is, send me out quickly...

... For God's sake, give the banker the address more precisely, Hombourg, not Hambourg, write the address on paper. I'll be looking forward to it. Once I receive it, I’ll come right away...

P.S. For God's sake, hurry up with the money. I just wish I could get out of here as quickly as possible! Address the money poste restante. I tortured you, my angel!..

An entry about this letter was preserved in the diary of Dostoevsky’s wife: “... I was already prepared for the contents of the letter, namely, that everything had been lost and that money needed to be sent, so it did not surprise me at all. But I was very glad and happy that Fedya loved me so much that he was so scared when he didn’t receive my letter.” (A.G. Dostoevskaya. Memoirs).

F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

... Forgive me, my angel, but I will go into some details about my enterprise, about this game, so that you can understand what’s going on. Approaching the gambling table twenty times now, I have made the experience that if you play coolly, calmly and with calculation, then there is no possibility of losing! I swear to you, there is not even a possibility! There is a blind chance, but I have a calculation, therefore, I have a chance against them. But what usually happened? I usually started with forty guilders, took them out of my pocket, sat down and bet them one or two guilders. After a quarter of an hour, I usually (always) won twice. This is where I should stop and leave, at least until the evening, in order to calm my excited nerves (besides, I made the remark (true) that I can be calm and cool while playing for no more than half an hour at a time). But I only left to smoke a cigarette and immediately ran back to the game. Why did I do this, probably almost knowing that I couldn’t stand it, that is, I would lose? And for the fact that every day, getting up in the morning, I decided to myself that this was my last day in Homburg, that I would leave tomorrow, and therefore, I could not wait at the roulette wheel. I hurried as quickly as possible, with all my might, to win as much as possible, all at once in one day (because I had to go tomorrow), I lost my cool, my nerves got irritated, I took risks, I got angry, I bet without calculation, which was lost, and I lost (because whoever plays without calculation, just in case, is a madman)...

... having sent you letters asking you to send money, I went to the gambling hall; I only had twenty guilders left in my pocket (just in case), and I took a chance on ten guilders. I made an almost supernatural effort to be calm and calculating for an entire hour, and I ended up winning thirty gold friedrichsdors, that is, 300 guilders. I was so happy and so scared, I wanted madly to finish it all today, to win at least twice more and get out of here immediately, that without allowing myself to rest and come to my senses, I rushed to the roulette wheel, started betting gold and that’s it, I lost everything, until the last penny, that is, there are only two guilders left for tobacco...

Playing little by little, every day, there is no possibility of not winning, that’s true, that’s true, I had twenty experiences, and now, knowing this for sure, I leave Homburg with a loss; and I also know that if I could have given myself just four more days, then in those four days I would probably have won everything back. But of course I won’t play!..
F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

... Anya, dear, my friend, my wife, forgive me, don’t call me a scoundrel! I committed a crime, I lost everything you sent me, everything, everything down to the last kreuzer, I received it yesterday and lost it yesterday! Anya, how I will look at you now, what will you say about me now! One thing, and only one thing, terrifies me: what will you say, what will you think about me? Your judgment alone is scary to me! Can you, will you respect me now! What is love without respect! After all, our entire marriage was shaken by this. Oh, my friend, don’t blame me completely!..... Given our already bad circumstances, I spent too much on this trip to Homburg and lost too 1000 francs, up to 350 rubles! It is a crime!..

Why make excuses now? Now come quickly to you. Send me money for departure as soon as possible, at least it’s the last one. I can’t stay here anymore, I don’t want to sit here. To you, to you quickly, to hug you...

... Ten imperials, that is, 90-something guilders, just to pay and get there. Today is Friday, I will receive it on Sunday and on the same day in Frankfurt, and there I will take the Schnellzug from you on Monday.

My angel, don’t ever think that I’ll lose these too. Don't insult me ​​to such an extent! Don't think so low of me. After all, I am a man too! After all, there is at least some humanity in me. Don’t you ever think of coming to me yourself if you don’t trust me. This incredulity that I won’t come will kill me. I give you my word of honor that I will go immediately, no matter what...
F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

... Anya, honey, I’m worse than cattle! Yesterday by ten o'clock in the evening I had a net gain of 1300 francs. Today - not a penny. All! Lost everything! And all because the scoundrel did not wake up the Hotel des Bains footman, as I ordered, to leave for Geneva at 11 o’clock. I slept until half past eleven. There was nothing to do, I had to leave at 5 o’clock, I went to roulette at 2 o’clock and that’s it, I lost everything...
F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

... – Oh, my dear, don’t even let me go to the roulette table! As soon as I woke up, my heart skipped a beat, my arms and legs trembled and became cold. I arrived here at a quarter to four and found out that roulette was until 5 o'clock. (I thought it was until four). So, there was an hour left. I ran. From the first bets I lost 50 francs, then suddenly I went up, I don’t know how much, I didn’t count; then there was a terrible loss; almost to the last. And suddenly, with the very last money, I won back all my 125 francs and, in addition, I won 110. In total, I now have 235 francs. Anya, dear, I was really thinking about sending you a hundred francs, but it’s too little. If at least 200. But I give you my honest and great word that in the evening, from 8 o’clock to 11, I will play... in the most prudent way, I swear to you. If I add anything to the winnings, I will certainly send it to you tomorrow (a few words crossed out), and I will probably arrive the day after tomorrow, that is, on Tuesday.
F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

... Anya, my dear, my priceless one, I lost everything, everything, everything! Oh, my angel, don’t be sad and don’t worry! Be sure that now the time will finally come when I will be worthy of you and will no longer rob you like a nasty, vile thief! Now a novel, one novel will save us, and if you only knew how much I hope for this! Be sure that I will achieve my goal and earn your respect. Never, never will I play again...

... And therefore I beg you, Anya, my angel-savior: send me 50 francs to pay at the hotel. If you manage to send it early on Wednesday morning or tomorrow, Tuesday evening, then I will receive it on Wednesday evening and on Thursday morning, or at 6 o’clock in the evening, I will be with you.
F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

... My dear angel Nyutya, I lost everything, just as I arrived, in half an hour I lost everything. Well, what will I tell you now, my angel of God, whom I torment so much. I'm sorry Anya, I poisoned your life!..

... Send it to me as soon as possible more money. Not for the game (I would swear to you, but I don’t dare, because I’ve lied to you a thousand times)...

... My angel, 100 francs have arrived. If you have 20 or less left, pawn something. If only I could come to you as soon as possible!..

... Do not consider, Anya, my demand for 100 francs as madness. I am not crazy! And don’t consider him vicious either: I won’t be mean, I won’t deceive, I won’t go and play. I'm just asking to be sure...
F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

Angel Anya, instead of me, this letter will come to you tomorrow, at 5 o’clock...

... I went to play at 8 o'clock - and lost everything! I now have the same 50 centimes. My friend! Let this be my last and final lesson, yes, the lesson is terrible!..

... – Don’t think, oh, don’t think, my angel, that out of the 100 francs you send me, I’ll lose even one franc now!..
F.M.Dostoevsky – A.G.Dostoevsky

Usually for writers, the death of characters happens towards the end of the work. Not Dostoevsky's. There are several examples: “Humiliated and Insulted”, “Eternal Husband”, “The Village of Stepanchikovo”, “The Karamazov Brothers”, Crime and Punishment.” True, towards the end, as a rule, someone else dies.
So it was with the writer himself. He was to die on December 22, 1849. Arrested in the case of the Petrashevites, 8 months after his arrest, he was taken to the scaffold of the Semyonovsky parade ground, where he was read a sentence to death and dressed in death clothes. IN last moment the death penalty was replaced by four years of hard labor.
For reference
Petrashevtsy- participants in meetings with the thinker and public figure Mikhail Butashevich-Petrashevsky. Being all “freethinkers” to one degree or another, the Petrashevites were heterogeneous in their views. Few had plans of a directly revolutionary nature, some were engaged in the study and propaganda of social-utopian thought of the 19th century (contemporaries often called Petrashevites “communists”).

“Rite of Execution on Semenovsky Parade Ground”
drawing by B. Pokrovsky, 1849

The hero of “The Idiot”, Prince Myshkin, discusses the death penalty. Another hero of this novel also talks about the guillotine.
Dostoevsky did not like to describe nature, but something about it is almost invariably present in many of his works. This is the sunset ray of the sun. It is SUNSET, as a reminder of death.
He lost his parents early: his mother at 15, his father at 17. He buried his first wife, and then, less than three months later, his brother. Later there was the loss of a 3-month-old daughter and a 3-year-old son. It was all the more painful because he became a father at the age of 47.
A very noteworthy entry was made in the diary after the death of his wife. Numerous blots indicate that even at this moment Dostoevsky cared about the accuracy and expressiveness of the language. No fear, no confusion.
However, the image of one dead man still haunted Dostoevsky all his life - this is the image of his father. The fact is that his father was killed by peasants to whom he came to check their work. It was this incident, and also what happened on the Semenovsky parade ground that became the reason huge amount violent deaths and suicides in his works.
Moreover, death in these works was for some an ascension for a righteous life, for others it was a punishment for sins. And most indicative in this sense, of course, is his last novel"The Brothers Karamazov". The novel was completed on November 8, 1880. On this day, Dostoevsky sent an epilogue to the Russian Messenger magazine.

Lifetime publication of the novel “Brothers”
Karamazovs" in the magazine "Russian Herald"

The epilogue was accompanied by a covering letter to the editor of the magazine, Nikolai Alekseevich Lyubimov. In it, Dostoevsky wrote:
“Well, the novel is over! I worked on it for three years, printed it for two - a significant moment for me... Let me not say goodbye to you. After all, I intend to live and write for another 20 years.”
However, Dostoevsky was wrong. He had not 20 years or even 20 months to live, but... 80 days. Advanced pulmonary catarrh led to emphysema.
For reference
Qatar- inflammation of the mucous membranes, accompanied by redness, swelling, swelling and the formation of serous, mucous or purulent discharge.
Emphysema– pathological expansion of the lungs, making breathing difficult.
It is curious that a few months before the letter to Lyubimov, he wrote from Ems (Germany) in August 1879: “I am sitting here and constantly thinking that, of course, I will die soon, well, in a year or two...”
What’s interesting is that the actual term is mentioned here, and not the mythical 20 years.
He died on January 28, 1881. The cause was a blood vessel that burst in the chest, after which blood began to flow down the throat. This happened on the night of January 26, but he told his wife only in the morning. She immediately sent for the doctor, but he had already left to see the sick.
Dostoevsky, while waiting for a doctor, wrote a letter to the editor of the Russian Messenger (these were the last lines he wrote). In the letter, he said that he needed money, and added: “This may be my LAST request.”
At this time, an unexpected guest appeared in the house. In her memoirs, Anna Grigorievna (Dostoevsky’s wife) does not write who it was, but indicates that a dispute broke out between him and her husband.
This dispute undermined the writer’s strength, and after the guest left, his throat began to bleed again. The doctor has arrived. The blood, which seemed to have stopped while they were waiting for the doctor, gushed out from new strength. Fyodor Mikhailovich lost consciousness, and when he woke up, he said: “A priest immediately! I want to confess and take communion!”
After confession and communion, Dostoevsky calmed down, blessed his children and wife, and thanked her for the years she lived with him.
The next day, Fyodor Mikhailovich looked through the sheets from the “Diary of a Writer” that were sent to him from the printing house. The same “Diary of a Writer” that will be sold on Nevsky Prospekt on the day of his funeral.

Page from the “Diary of a Writer”, year 1880

The last night Anna Grigorievna slept in her husband’s office at his bedside. Around 7 am she woke up and, seeing that her husband was not sleeping, asked how he was feeling. To which Dostoevsky replied: “You know, Anya, I haven’t slept for three hours and I’m still thinking, and only now I clearly realized that I’m going to die today.” These were exactly the words of the heroine of his story “Humiliated and Insulted.”

Dostoevsky on his deathbed

Two hours before his death, he called the children, said goodbye and ordered to hand over the Gospel, which he had not parted with since hard labor, to his son Fyodor. By the evening he fell into unconsciousness, and at 8:38 pm he died...

Death mask of F. M. Dostoevsky

On January 31, the coffin was taken out of the house and crowds of people filled all the streets around. IN last way The writer was seen off by more than 30 thousand people. There were about 80 wreaths alone. There were especially many young people. In some educational institutions Classes were even cancelled, and where they were not cancelled, schoolchildren and students simply skipped classes.
On February 1, a funeral liturgy and funeral service took place. It was difficult to remove the coffin from the church, because the crowd of people did not allow it to be done. A crowd of people also came to the cemetery. Those who did not have enough space at the grave climbed trees, fences, and monuments.

Funeral of Dostoevsky

Fyodor Mikhailovich was buried next to Zhukovsky and Karamzin.


Grave of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
at the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra

What should a great man's wife be like? Biographers of many famous people asked this question.

How often do great women find themselves next to great men and become like-minded people, helpers, and friends? Be that as it may, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was lucky: his second wife, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, was just such a person.

Anna Grigorievna Dostoevskaya lived a long and eventful life, outliving the writer by almost 40 years.

In order to understand the role of Anna Grigorievna in the fate of the classic, it is enough to look at Dostoevsky’s life “before” and “after” his meeting with this amazing woman. So, by the time he met her in 1866, Dostoevsky was the author of several stories, some of which were highly regarded. For example, “Poor People” - they were enthusiastically received by Belinsky and Nekrasov. And some, for example, “The Double,” were a complete fiasco, receiving devastating reviews from the same writers.

If success in literature, albeit variable, was still there, then other areas of Dostoevsky’s life and career looked much more deplorable: participation in the Petrashevtsy case led him to four years of hard labor and exile; the magazines created together with his brother were closed and left behind huge debts; health was so bad that it was almost most life, the writer lived with a feeling of “on last days»; bad marriage with Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva and her death - all this did not contribute to either creativity or peace of mind.

On the eve of meeting Anna Grigorievna, another one was added to these catastrophes: under an enslaving agreement with the publisher F.T. Dostoevsky had to provide the Stellovskys with a new novel by November 1, 1866. There was about a month left, otherwise all rights to subsequent works by F.M. Dostoevsky was transferred to the publisher. By the way, Dostoevsky was not the only writer who found himself in such a situation: a little earlier, Stellovsky published the works of A.F. on unfavorable terms for the author. Pisemsky; V.V. fell into “bondage”. Krestovsky, author of “Petersburg Slums”. The works of M.I. were purchased for just 25 rubles. Glinka with his sister L.I. Shestakova.

On this occasion, Dostoevsky wrote to Maikov:

“He has so much money that he will buy all Russian literature if he wants. Isn’t that the kind of person who doesn’t have money, who bought Glinka for 25 rubles?”

The situation was critical. Friends suggested that the writer create the main line of the novel, a sort of synopsis, as they would say now, and divide it between them. Each of my literary friends could write separate chapter, and the novel would be ready. But Dostoevsky could not agree to this. Then friends suggested finding a stenographer: in this case, the chance to write a novel on time would still arise.

Anna Grigorievna Snitkina became this stenographer. It is unlikely that another woman could understand and feel the current situation so much. During the day the novel was dictated by the writer, at night the chapters were transcribed and written. The novel “The Player” was ready by the appointed deadline. It was written in just 25 days, from October 4 to October 29, 1866.

Stellovsky was not going to give up the opportunity to outplay Dostoevsky so quickly. On the day the manuscript was submitted, he simply left the city. The clerk refused to accept the manuscript. The discouraged and disappointed Dostoevsky was again rescued by Anna Grigorievna. After consulting with friends, she persuaded the writer to hand over the manuscript against receipt to the bailiff of the unit in which Stellovsky lived. The victory remained with Dostoevsky, but much of the credit belonged to Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, who soon became not only his wife, but also true friend, assistant and companion.

"Netochka Nezvanova"

To understand the relationship between them, it is necessary to turn to much earlier events. Anna Grigorievna was born into the family of a petty St. Petersburg official, Grigory Ivanovich Snitkin, who was an admirer of Dostoevsky. Her family even nicknamed her Netochka, after the heroine of the story “Netochka Nezvanova.” Her mother, Anna Nikolaevna Miltopeus, a Swede of Finnish origin, was the complete opposite of her enthusiastic and impractical husband. Energetic, domineering, she showed herself to be a complete mistress of the house.

Anna Grigorievna inherited both her father’s understanding character and her mother’s determination. And she projected the relationship between her parents onto her future husband: “...They always remained themselves, without repeating or imitating each other in the least. And with my soul I did not get entangled - I - in his psychology, he - in mine, and thus my good husband and I - we both felt free at heart."

Anna wrote about her attitude towards Dostoevsky:

“My love was purely cerebral, ideological. It was rather adoration, admiration for a person so talented and possessing such high spiritual qualities. It was a soul-grabbing pity for a man who had suffered so much, who had never seen joy and happiness and was so abandoned by those close to him who would have been obliged to repay him with love and care for him for everything that (he) had done for them all his life. The dream of becoming his life partner, sharing his labors, making his life easier, giving him happiness - took possession of my imagination, and

• Fyodor Mikhailovich became my god, my idol, and I, it seems, was ready to kneel before him all my life.”

Life together with Dostoevsky

The family life of Anna Grigorievna and Fyodor Mikhailovich also did not escape misfortunes and uncertainty in the future. They had to endure years of almost poverty-stricken existence abroad, the death of two children, and Dostoevsky’s manic passion for the game. And yet, it was Anna Grigorievna who managed to put their life in order, organize the writer’s work, and finally free him from those financial debts that had accumulated since the unsuccessful publication of magazines.

Despite the difference in age and difficult character husband, Anna was able to improve their life together.

The wife struggled with bad habit playing roulette, and helped with his work: she took shorthand notes for his novels, rewrote manuscripts, read proofs and organized the book trade.

Gradually, she took over all financial matters, and Fyodor Mikhailovich no longer interfered in them, which, by the way, had an extremely positive impact on the family budget. (If only he had interfered - what a look Anna Grigorievna has)

It was Anna Grigorievna who decided on such a desperate act as her own publication of the novel “Demons”. At that time, there were no precedents when a writer managed to independently publish his works and make a real profit from it. Even Pushkin’s attempts to earn income from publishing his literary works, were a complete fiasco.

There were several book firms: Bazunov, Wolf, Isakov and others, which bought the rights to publish books, and then published and distributed them throughout Russia. How much the authors lost on this can be calculated quite easily: Bazunov offered 500 rubles for the right to publish the novel “Demons” (and this was for a “cult” writer, not a novice writer), while the income after self-publishing the book amounted to about 4,000 rubles.

Anna Grigorievna proved herself to be a true businesswoman. She delved into the matter down to the smallest detail, many of which she learned literally in a “spy” way: by ordering business cards; asking printing houses about the conditions under which books are printed; Pretending that she was haggling in a bookstore, she found out what markups he made. From such inquiries she found out what percentage and at what number of copies should be given to booksellers.

And here is the result - “Demons” were sold out instantly and extremely profitably. From that moment on, Anna Grigorievna’s main activity became the publication of her husband’s books...

In the year of Dostoevsky's death (1881), Anna Grigorievna turned 35 years old. She did not remarry and devoted herself entirely to perpetuating the memory of Fyodor Mikhailovich. She published the writer’s collected works seven times, organized an apartment-museum, wrote memoirs, gave endless interviews, and spoke at numerous literary evenings.

In the summer of 1917, events that disturbed the entire country brought her to Crimea, where she fell ill with severe malaria and died a year later in Yalta. They buried her away from her husband, although she asked otherwise. She dreamed of finding peace next to Fyodor Mikhailovich, in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, and that at the same time they would not erect a separate monument to her, but would only carve a few lines on the tombstone. Last will Anna Grigorievna was performed only in 1968.

They met on October 4, 1866. Anna Grigorievna recalled in her diary, published after her death: “I saw in front of me a terribly unhappy man, killed, tortured...” And less than a month later, when Dostoevsky unexpectedly asked the girl: “If If I confessed my love to you and asked you to be my wife, what would you answer? - Netochka (that was Anna’s name in her family - Ed.) said: “I would answer you that I love you and will love you all my life.”

In both cases, Netochka was not lying. She met a brilliant writer, perhaps during the most difficult period of his life. Dostoevsky had buried his brother by that time Mikhail(also a writer) and his first wife. He had a debt of 25 thousand rubles. The writer, who was working on the novel “Crime and Punishment,” which was published in parts in the magazine “Russian Messenger,” had to take a forced pause. According to an enslaving agreement with the publisher Stellovsky, in less than a month Dostoevsky was supposed to present him with some short novel. If the work had not been completed, Dostoevsky would have faced a nine-year loss of copyright on all newly created works. The horror was that Dostoevsky did not have a novel! And there were 26 days left until the due date. He was advised to take a stenographer and try to write a new work with his help in a short time. So the best graduate of the stenography course, 20-year-old Netochka Snitkina, came to Dostoevsky’s apartment, who had previously graduated from the first women’s gymnasium in St. Petersburg with a silver medal. In the year of her meeting with the writer, Netochka’s father, an official of the court department, died, the financial condition of the family began to shake, which prompted the girl to look for work. The writer promised to pay the assistant 30 rubles. per month.

Dostoevsky was glad that the stenographer sent was a girl, since “a man will certainly drink, he certainly will, but you, I hope, will not drink.” Anna Grigorievna refused the offered cigarette, noting that she does not smoke and the very sight of women smoking is unpleasant to her. On Dostoevsky's part this was a test. In those years, many girls, carried away by emancipation, cut their hair short and smoked ostentatiously. Netochka, on the contrary, had luxurious hair tied up in a bun. However, in the first days Dostoevsky did not even remember the stenographer’s face, but did not fail to write down her exact address: what if she changed her mind about working with him and disappeared with a dictated piece of the novel?

The new saving novel was to be The Gambler. At night Dostoevsky made sketches, during the day he dictated them to the stenographer, in the evening Netochka put the notes in order, and in the morning Dostoevsky corrected the prepared sheets. Seeing how selflessly Netochka worked, the writer increasingly called her “darling”, “darling”. And she herself wrote in her diary: “... Conversations with Fedya began to become more and more pleasant to me, so that I went to dictation with some special pleasure.” "The Player" was written on time. However, the publisher deliberately disappeared from St. Petersburg, not giving Dostoevsky the opportunity to fulfill the contract. And then Netochka showed ingenuity - the manuscript was handed over against signature to the bailiff of the police station where Stellovsky lives, a few hours before the deadline.

Young widow

And soon 45-year-old Dostoevsky, who saw “ grey eyes and a kind smile” Netochka, got married to her. The couple was destined to live together for 14 years. “During this time, Fyodor Mikhailovich wrote the so-called “Great Pentateuch”: “Crime and Punishment”, “Teenager”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “Idiot”, “Demons”. Moreover, “The Brothers Karamazov” was dedicated to Anna Grigorievna,” said AiF Igor Volgin, President of the Dostoevsky Foundation, author of a series of books about the writer, professor at Moscow State University. - Anna Grigorievna was not only the wife who gave birth to the writer 4 children (two died), but also a faithful assistant. She rewrote manuscripts, dealt with publishing houses and printing houses, and read proofs. Harmony reigned between the spouses: mental and physical. They almost never parted, except for a few days, and then letters flew to Netochka: “I hug you and kiss you tightly. I thought about you all the way... Anya, my clear light, my sun, I love you!” Netochka learned to cope with Dostoevsky's attacks of epilepsy and helped her husband overcome his passion for playing roulette. Great writer died in Netochka's arms from emphysema. In her “Memoirs” Anna Grigorievna gives dying words Dostoevsky: “Remember, Anya, I have always loved you dearly and have never betrayed you, even mentally!”

When Dostoevsky passed away, Anna Grigorievna was 35 years old, and she had young Lyubov and Fedor in her arms. She raised children and created a creative archive of Dostoevsky, which is still used by scientists different countries, after all, Dostoevsky is the most published Russian writer in the world.

After February Revolution 70-year-old Anna Grigorievna lived near Petrograd. She was tormented by malaria, and she went to Yalta in the hope of getting stronger. Instead of luggage, I took with me Dostoevsky’s papers, which I continued to work on. In the summer of 1918, Anna Grigorievna died in Crimea. In the mid-60s. last century, through the efforts of her grandson, Andrei Fedorovich Dostoevsky, who worked in Leningrad as a designer at a factory, her ashes were transferred from Yalta and buried next to the ashes of Dostoevsky in the necropolis of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. “...And if fate wills it, I too will find, next to him, a place of eternal peace,” Netochka wrote shortly before her death. Fate turned out to please.