Dostoyevsky's Crime & Punishment

Imagine being arrested for joining a Book Group and sentenced to death for discussing 'forbidden' literature. Fyodor Dostoyevsky's 'Petrashevsky Circle' discussed books that were critical of Tsarist Russia, which led to their being deposed and sentenced to death by firing squad in 1849. He was already lined up in a row of 3 when a cart rumbled in bearing a letter from the Tsar commuting the sentence to 4 yrs hard labour in a Siberian prison camp, followed by 6 yrs compulsory military service in exile.

Raised on a diet of fairy tales, legends & heroic sagas by his nanny, from the age of 3; his mother taught him to read & write, aged 4, using the Bible; before introducing him to a wide-ranging buffet of literary writers & thinkers.

Many of his life experiences worked their way into his novels & short stories, including witnessing his doctor-father being called to attend to a 9yr old girl who'd been raped by a drunk.

His addiction to gambling also became a feature in both life & writing.

Prison: an enforced time of (self)reflection, however, he was noted for his kindness during his incarceration, sufficient enough to prevent an inmate's suicide.



I have a Turkish friend who was arrested and kept under house arrest for months & months for openly carrying a book by Karl Marx in the street in Istanbul. Books are dangerous. Writers are dangerous. Free thinking is dangerous. Having a view in opposition to one's government is dangerous.



Truth is paramount. What is life truly worth without it; without the love to commit to its presence & outworking in life / behaviour/ choices by whatever means available?

Dostoyevsky's thought to be one of our 1st existentialist writers; his Bible-reading foundation seeps out through his use of allegory; parable; and matters of choice, conscience and consequences. I've only read his short stories; always meant to read his great works. Looks like now is the time.