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Politics and Punishment According to Dostoevsky's biographers, Petrashevsky first approached Dostoevsky with great fanfare on Nevsky Prospekt and asked him what the subject of his next story would be. Petrashevsky was a tremendously influential figure. He had a "circle" of young followers who met at his house off of Potrovsky Square to discuss the overthrow of the current social order. Petrashevsky aggressively criticized the reign of Nicholas I, calling for the abolition of serfdom, the reformation of the courts, and freedom of the press. Petrashevsky's views were extreme: "We have sentenced the present social order to death," he is often quoted as saying. "Now we must carry out that sentence." Petrashevsky was a follower of Fourier, the anti-capitalist, French utopian philosopher who proposed a romantic solution to social problems. Key to Fourier's utopia was the concept of the "phalanx" - a joint agrarian/industrial association for community life, where concerts, dances, and readings would be held. Fourier argued that such a center would teach people of all walks of life to live together in harmony. A strong sense of community would bring people to love their work and their fellow man. Dostoevsky never had revolutionary aspirations - that is, he never wanted to overthrow, in bloody fashion, the existing government. Fourier's ideas were not a threat to Russia's political structure; rather, they inspired a revolution of the mind and spirit. This sort of revolution interested Dostoevsky very much. Dostoevsky wanted to form a different kind of circle - one whose concern was art, not politics. He asked his friend Speshnev to help him create the new circle. The two men had in common a belief in the power of language. Dostoevsky wanted to use that power to inspire utopia, not revolution. Speshnev, on the other hand, wanted to use language to spread "socialism, atheism, and terrorism - everything good in the world." Though he disagreed with Speshnev's ideas about the use of language, Dostoevsky shared with Speshnev the belief that freedom in language was essential to Russia's future. Accordingly, Dostoevsky agreed to establish, with Speshnev, an underground press. This relationship with Speshnev would prove to be Dostoevsky's undoing. Scholars continue to debate Dostoevsky's involvement in the plottings of Speshnev and his circle. What is clear is that Dostoevsky declared that he'd found himself in a kind of devil's deal with Speshnev. For several months at the end of 1848 and the beginning of 1849, Dostoevsky was especially melancholy and agitated - so much so that he visited his doctor to see if there was some organic source for his malaise. His doctor found nothing, but was concerned for Dostoevsky and asked him what was troubling him so. Dostoevsky told the doctor that he had borrowed some money from his friend Speshnev - and in doing so he had "a Mephistopheles" of his own. He went on to tell the doctor that he could not repay the debt. And even if he could, Speshnev was not the sort of man to accept the repayment. Joseph Frank believes that this final remark indicates that Dostoevsky's debt to Speshnev was more than financial. Frank believes that Dostoevsky had become involved in Speshnev's plot to revolt against the tsar and did not know how to extricate himself. Perhaps he wasn't sure that he wanted to extricate himself. At this time Dostoevsky was overheard arguing bitterly with his brother Mikhail, who was committed to Fourier's view that the new social order should be achieved through peaceful means. In the argument, Dostoevsky told his brother that he should read a book by Louis Blanc, which advocated using force to implement social change. From this conversation, Frank concludes that Dostoevsky had broken with Fourier's views and was preparing to join Speshnev in his plot against the tsar. However, in the view of other scholars, Dostoevsky's extreme agitation over the very mention of Speshnev indicates that it's likely that he was ambivalent about how far he was willing to go. The decision would never need to be made. Unbeknownst to the Petrashevsky Circle, Tsar Nicholas had been watching them for fourteen months. Events in Europe - in particular, the political uprisings in France- had made Nicholas nervous. He mobilized troops but never sent them. Instead, Nicholas turned his energies to his own country, putting intellectuals and revolutionaries under surveillance. Arrests began. In April 1849, Nicholas called for the arrest of all of the members of the Petrashevsky Circle. Dostoevsky's name was on that list. A little after four in the morning, on April 22, 1849, an officer burst into Dostoevsky's room to tell him that he was under arrest. A dazed Dostoevsky was taken immediately to the Peter and Paul Fortress, where he was to be imprisoned while awaiting trial. Conditions at the fortress were severe. The dim cells were damp with mould. Each cell was far from the other, so that in solitary confinement prisoners would feel utterly and entirely alone. Oddly, Dostoevsky claimed that his time in Peter and Paul Fortress was marked more by boredom than by anxiety or despair. For three days he felt that his life was over; then a feeling of calm descended on his soul. Some biographers say that the certainty of the upcoming trial was preferable to the uncertainty of the general paranoia that he had been feeling before his arrest. Others believe that his calm indicated that he had embraced his suffering and found strength in it. In any case, Dostoevsky used his time in prison to read, write letters, and make notes for books to come. He read voraciously whatever books were sent him. He particularly requested the Bible, in several translations; he rejoiced over a collection of Shakespeare; he admired a serial publication of Jane Eyre. And he spent a good deal of time writing his defense. Dostoevsky was accused of four different charges:
The last of the four accusations Dostoevsky denied, but to no avail. In his written defense, he explained eloquently to his judges that though he believed in free speech and the abolition of serfdom, he was not seeking revolution. He further stated that Petrashevsky's idol, Fourier, was not revolutionary; rather, Fourier claimed that art, not revolution, held the power to bring a universal harmony to man. Though he himself now believed that Fourier's ideas were outdated and impossible to achieve, Dostoevsky continued to feel that socialism - of a particularly Russian character - might be the answer. He offers his own vision of what Russia might become:
His eloquence got him nowhere. The judges remained unmoved. They wanted two things of their prisoners: 1) a sense of remorse, and 2) some new information about other subversive movements. Dostoevsky gave them neither. He did not renounce his convictions, and he was very concerned with protecting others. In the end, the judges sentenced all of the members of the Petrashevsky circle to death by firing squad. The prisoners were taken back to their cells to await their execution. On the 22 of December, 1849, a 28-year-old Dostoevsky was marched out to face his death with the other members of the Petrashevsky Circle. The morning was cold; the wind was howling so fiercely that Dostoevsky could barely hear as each man's name was called and his sentence read. The first three were called up to the line: Petrashevsky and two others. Dostoevsky was in the second group and stood watching as his three friends faced their executioners. The order was given for the soldiers to load their guns. A second order was given - which Petrashevsky refused - to lower the hoods on the prisoners' eyes. A third order was given to take aim. And then came a long silence. At first, Dostoevsky did not understand what was happening - or not happening. And then, by the order of Tsar Nicholas, the death sentence was commuted, and the prisoners were instead sentenced to prison in Siberia. The prisoners accepted the news differently. Some were resentful; others rejoiced; one, Grigoryev, lost an already tenuous grip on his sanity. As for their leader, Petrashevsky: when the guards put on his chains, Petrashevsky grabbed the hammer and began to rivet the shackles with his own hands, mutilating himself in the process. For Dostoevsky, the moment of reprieve was a resurrection. Having stood face to face with death, he was ready to embrace life - even life in exile. Dostoevsky related his feelings about the ordeal in the often-printed letter to his brother:
Read on: Life in Exile 
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