Setting Out to Petersburg

Even before his father died, Dostoevsky had been attending the Academy of Military Engineers, a prestigious boarding school that would insure the young Dostoevsky a bright future. The school was in St. Petersburg, and Dostoevsky was thrilled to be going. What young man would not be excited by the majesty of the capital city? But his journey to Petersburg was marred by an episode that Dostoevsky called "his first insult" - an event that he would remember all of his life.

Dostoevsky had stopped on his journey in order to get something to eat. As he ate, he looked out the window to see a government troika pull up to the station across the way. A government courier jumped out of the troika, rushed into the station to have a glass of vodka, and then rushed out again, to a new troika. When he got into the troika, he began to beat the young driver mercilessly, simply from impatience, as a way of urging the driver to hurry the horses on their way. The beating continued and intensified. Even as the horses galloped off, the courier was still pummeling the driver as the carriage pulled out of sight.

This episode would bring the young Dostoevsky face to face with the unjust behavior of the government and its officials. Later in his life, when he was joining the movement to abolish serfdom in Russia, he would recall this memory - still with a shudder. The physical punishment of serfs and servants would be a point of discussion even in his final novel, The Brothers Karamazov.

But Brothers Karamazov was many years away. Before he could become a great writer, Dostoevsky would have to finish his education. Unfortunately the education that he was being offered at the Academy of Military Engineers was not the sort of education he was craving. Dostoevsky was disillusioned by the academy: the course work wasn't interesting, and his classmates were boorish. They did not care to discuss the "eternal questions" that so deeply interested Dostoevsky. He made a few close and important friends - those with whom he could discuss literature and philosophy. But mostly school bored him, and he earned mediocre grades.

In 1843, Dostoevsky graduated from military school and received a small post doing deskwork in St. Petersburg. His average grades had kept him from a more prosperous position. He lived in poverty - not because of lack of money, but because he squandered every cent that fell into his hands. Dostoevsky had developed what would become a life-long addiction to gambling. Every payday, he would go immediately to gamble and would lose his pay at billiards or dominoes. (Later, his game of choice would be roulette.) He was generous with his money, and impulsive with it, often borrowing against expected money in order to throw parties. Still, despite the parties and the gambling, Dostoevsky found time to try his hand at writing, producing sketches, essays, and stories - mostly for his own amusement.

In 1844, Dostoevsky was ordered to travel to a distant post - an order that would take him away from both his fun and his writing for several months. Dostoevsky did not want to go, and so he resigned his commission. His relatives were against the resignation, worried that he would have trouble supporting himself. But the decision was a significant move. From here on, Dostoevsky would have to make a living from his writing.

His first work to appear in print was a translation of Balzac's Eugenie Grandet. Dostoevsky was ecstatic to see his work in print. Even more important, the translation work gave him the opportunity to study the art of the novel. As he studied Balzac's sentences and story structure, he began to plan stories of his own.

Then, on a cold day in January, 1844, Dostoevsky had a "vision on the Neva" in which he saw the subject for his first book - a lowly civil servant and the woman who loves him. The work was to be called Poor Folk, a tragedy of noble-hearted people crushed by their poverty. The theme of the work - like many of Dostoevsky's works - is the redemptive power of selfless love in a world of grim realities.

When Dostoevsky finished the novel, he gave it to his friend, the great poet Nekrasov who loved it and took it immediately to the famed and influential literary critic, Belinsky . Belinsky read the entire work in one sitting. Late that night Nekrasov ran to Dostoevsky's quarters to give him the news: Belinsky loved the book and wanted to see Dostoevsky immediately. Dostoevsky's reaction was divided: he felt a kind of rapture over the praise, but he was terrified to meet Belinsky and to embrace the fullness of his success. At first he refused to go. In the end, however, he met with Belinsky. With that meeting he was initiated into the inner circles of Russian literary culture.

With the initiation into literary circles came an initiation into political circles as well. Belinsky was a socialist, as was Dostoevsky. But the difference between the two was profound. Belinsky's socialism sought revolution against the Tsar and his institutions, while Dostoevsky's socialism emphasized brotherhood for all. Moreover, Belinsky was an atheist, while Dostoevsky believed that Christianity, with its emphasis on love, held the answers to Russia's social ills.

The disagreement with Belinsky set Dostoevsky up for ridicule within literary circles. Possibly the depth of his talent intensified this ridicule; certainly there were many in Belinsky's circle who envied Dostoevsky for his talent and for the acclaim he was receiving. But it was his serious, spiritual nature that made Dostoevsky somewhat out of fashion with others in Belinsky's Circle. Eventually, he would break with this circle and find another whose influence on his life would be profound.

Read on: Politics and Punishment

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