/ world today news/ Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky’s love was like his novels: complex, full of tension and psychology. And also, as in relation to his novels, Dostoevsky devoted himself entirely to his beloved women, but only one managed to bring peace and harmony to the restless soul of the writer.
The first love
Dostoevsky felt his first feeling after the hard labor, he was the only Russian writer of the 19th century, sentenced to hard labor. Then Dostoevsky, tormented and ruined by the four years of deprivation and hard labor, as never in need of female warmth and sympathy. Fortunately for him or for his sorrow, it was at this moment in his life that Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva appeared. However, their relationship developed rather complicatedly: at the time of their acquaintance, Maria Isaeva was married to a minor clerk with poor health and had a son.
But Dostoevsky loves her and obediently waits. And finally he waits: Maria Isaeva’s husband dies, and then the modest writer, practically without means of existence, already openly offers Maria to become his wife. But the belated first love prepares new and new obstacles for Dostoevsky: his beloved woman begins to test him. She torments Dostoyevsky by asking him to give her advice on which aging and wealthy man to marry. But if Dostoevsky was a famous card player, he never played in love.
They still get married, but the writer remains more like a brother to Maria than a man. Spouses cannot find a common language either spiritually or physically. One of the greatest Russian philologists of the 20th century, Mark Slonim, wrote in his book “The Three Loves of Dostoevsky”: “Dostoevsky loved her because of all those feelings she awakened in him, because of everything he invested in her, because of everything, which was connected with her—and even for those sufferings she caused him.’ Until the last day of Maria’s life, who died of a long illness in 1864, the spouses were supported by mutual suffering, but not by a bright feeling.
It was Maria Isaeva who served as a prototype for Dostoevsky’s heroine from “The Humiliated and Insulted” Natasha – the woman who is capable of excruciating pain and at the same time loving uncomplainingly.
Eternal love
Dostoevsky met the young student Apolinaria Suslova at one of the public reading evenings of his works. He is 42 years old and she is 22 years old. Apollinaria gives Dostoevsky what he lacks in Maria: she shares his literary tastes, carnal passion, she is not meek and gentle, but an Amazon – both frightening and magnetic. However, Dostoevsky cannot give Apollinaria what she desires: he is still married to Maria, his relationship with the young Apollinaria is hidden.
Therefore, soon their relationship begins to be interrupted by a series of her infidelities, their longest separation lasts two years, after which Apolinaria is no longer this young and inexperienced girl, ready to return to the writer constantly. Apollinaria coldly declares to Dostoevsky that she will not marry him. It is possible that it was Apolinaria Suslova who caused Dostoevsky the greatest emotional pain in his life, but it is difficult to deny that it was this woman who left an eternal imprint on his soul.
“He cringed when her name was pronounced before him, he corresponded with her in secret from his young wife, he invariably returned to her description in his works, he carried throughout his life, even to his death, the memory of her caresses and her blows, he forever – in the innermost depths of his heart and flesh – remained faithful to his irresistibly tempting, cruel, unfaithful and tragic girlfriend,” writes Mark Slonim.
Just as Apollinaria left its mark on Dostoevsky’s entire life, the features of his eternal love can be found in practically every work of his. There is something of Suslova in the sacrificial Dunya (“Crime and Punishment“), something in the passionate and whimsically unbalanced Nastasya Filipovna (“Idiot“), something in the proud and neurotic Lisa (“Devils”). Apolinaria is a complete prototype of the main character of “The Roulette Player” – Polina.
Happy love
Anna Grigorievna Snitkina was Dostoevsky’s stenographer, she helped the writer during the period of his work on the novel “The Roulette Player”. The writer is older than his future wife by 25 years. The work on the novel absorbed them to such an extent that after a few days they could no longer imagine life without each other, and in 1867 Anna became Dostoevsky’s wife. It is interesting what significance the novel “The Roulette Player” has for the writer: Dostoevsky chooses the familiar image of the beloved Apollinaria as the main character, and stenographed it with the help of his future wife – Anna.
At the beginning of his marriage with Anna, Dostoevsky felt mostly a practical necessity: he needed constancy, solid ground under his feet. And at first, their marriage reminds of what happens in Dostoevsky’s relationship with his former lovers, but Anna takes a step that no woman of the creator decided before her: she takes it upon herself to preserve the family, change the atmosphere and leave abroad. A year after Dostoevsky’s marriage, a daughter was born to him, whom the writer sincerely loved. However, soon a great sorrow comes to the happy home: little Sonya dies. Subsequently, the couple had three more children. For 14 years of marriage with Dostoevsky, Anna goes through a lot of suffering and torture – the death of two children, her husband’s jealousy, his addiction to cards – but she never complains about her fate and remains his faithful friend until his last day.
Perhaps precisely because Anna is the only woman who accepted Dostoevsky as he is, without trying to change him, his love for her becomes the happiest and most harmonious in his life.
- It is possible that it was Apolinaria Suslova/pictured/ that caused Dostoevsky the greatest emotional pain in his life, but it is hard to deny that it was this woman who left an eternal imprint on his soul. Photo: press photo
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