Anna Dostoevskaya - “what it means to be the wife of a genius. Anna Dostoevskaya: wife of a genius

A young, largely naive girl.

Used frame from the documentary film “Anna Dostoevskaya. Letter to my husband", film company "ATK-Studio"

Behind him were hard labor, exile, an unhappy first marriage, the death of his wife and beloved brother, endless debts, the terrible physical pain of epileptic seizures, an obsession with playing roulette, loneliness and, most importantly, knowledge of life from its most unsightly side. She was cheerful, young, brought up in a warm and carefree manner, she didn’t even really know how to do housework. But Dostoevsky was able to notice the depth and strength of personality, which she, out of modesty, did not note in herself.

Their hasty marriage could easily end in disappointment. But it was he who brought famous writer that great happiness that he had never known before. It was during these last 14 years of his life that he wrote his most powerful and famous works. “You are the only woman who understood me,” he repeated to his Anya, and it was to her that he dedicated his last, brilliant novel, “The Brothers Karamazov.” What kind of marriage was this? How did a fragile, inexperienced girl manage to make happy a genius who, it seems, felt all the evil in life and became a great preacher of Light?

“There was no happiness yet. I'm waiting for him"

At the beginning of the 20th century, recalling a meeting with Dostoevsky’s widow Anna Grigorievna, Russian actor L. M. Leonidov (he played Dmitry Karamazov in the 1910 production of The Brothers Karamazov at the Moscow Art Theater) wrote: “I saw and heard “something”, unlike anything else, but through this “something,” through this ten-minute meeting, through his widow, I felt Dostoevsky: a hundred books about Dostoevsky would not have given me as much as this meeting!”

Fyodor Mikhailovich admitted that he and his wife “merged in soul.” But at the same time, he also noticed: their inequality in age - and there was no less than a quarter of a century difference between the spouses - the inequality of their life experiences could lead to one of two opposite options: “Either, after suffering for several years, we’ll separate, or Let's live happily all our lives." And judging by the fact that Fyodor Mikhailovich wrote with surprise and admiration in the 12th year of marriage that he was still madly in love with his Anya, their life turned out to be very happy indeed. However, it was not easy from the very beginning: the marriage of Anna Grigorievna and Fyodor Mikhailovich was tested by poverty, illness, death of children, and all of Dostoevsky’s relatives rebelled against it. And, probably, what helped him resist was that the spouses “looked in the same direction”, having been brought up with the same values...

Anna Grigorievna was born on August 30, 1846 in the family of a minor official Grigory Ivanovich Snitkin. Together with his old mother and four brothers, one of whom was also married and had children, Grigory Ivanovich and his family lived in big apartment of 11 rooms. Anna Grigorievna recalled that in their large family There was a friendly atmosphere, no quarrels, she did not know of any sorting out of relations with her relatives and thought that this happens in any family. Anna Grigorievna's mother - Anna Nikolaevna Snitkina Miltopeus) - was a Swede of Finnish origin, and by religion she was a Lutheran. The meeting with her future husband put her before a serious choice: marriage with her loved one or loyalty to the Lutheran faith. She prayed a lot for a solution to this dilemma. And one day I saw a dream: she entered Orthodox church, kneels before the shroud and prays there. Anna Nikolaevna took this as a sign - and agreed to convert to Orthodoxy. Imagine her surprise when, having arrived to perform the rite of anointing at the Simeon Church on Mokhovaya, she saw the very same shroud and exactly the situation that she had seen in her dream!

Since then, Anna Nikolaevna Snitkina lived a church life, confessed and received communion. From an early age, Archpriest Philip Speransky was the confessor of her daughter Netochka. And as a teenager of 13, while vacationing in Pskov, young Anya suddenly decided to go to a monastery. Her parents managed to return her to St. Petersburg, although they resorted to a trick: they lied that her father was seriously ill...

In Dostoevsky’s family, as he later put it in “The Diary of a Writer,” “they knew the Gospel almost from early childhood.” His father Mikhail Andreevich was a doctor at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor, so the fates of those whom the writer would later make heroes of his works unfolded before his eyes - he learned compassion from childhood, although his father’s character was strangely mixed with generosity and gloominess, hot temper . Dostoevsky's mother, Maria Fedorovna, whom he loved and respected immensely, was a person of rare kindness and sensitivity. And she died like a true righteous woman: just before her death, she suddenly came “to perfect memory, demanded an icon of the Savior, and first blessed everyone<близких>, giving subtle blessings and instructions.”

In Anya Snitkina, Dostoevsky saw the same kind, sensitive, compassionate heart... And suddenly he felt: “with me she can be happy.” That's right: she can be happy, not me.

Did he think about his happiness? Like any person, I thought. He told his friends and hoped that after all the hardships of life and at an age that was considered old age by his parents’ generation, he would still land in a quiet haven and be happy in his family. “There was no happiness yet. “I’m waiting for him,” he said, a man already tired of life.

“It’s good that you are not a man”

As often happens, by the time this happiness was achieved, tragic, turning-point events had occurred in the fate of both. In the spring of 1866, after a long illness, Anna's father dies. A year earlier, doctors announced that Grigory Ivanovich was terminally ill, and there was no hope for recovery, then she was forced to leave the Pedagogical Gymnasium in order to be with her dad more. At the beginning of 1866, shorthand courses opened in St. Petersburg; they made it possible to combine education and caring for a parent - and Anna Grigorievna, at his insistence, signed up for the course. But after 5-6 lectures, she returned home in despair: “gibberish writing” turned out to be a very difficult task. It was Grigory Ivanovich who was indignant at his daughter’s lack of patience and perseverance and made her promise that she would complete the course. If only he knew how fateful this promise would be!

What was happening at this time in Dostoevsky’s life? By that time he was quite famous - in the same Snitkin house they read all his works. Already his first story, “Poor People,” written in 1845, evoked the most flattering praise from critics. But then there was a shaft negative reviews, which befell his subsequent works, was hard labor, the death of his first wife from tuberculosis, sudden death beloved brother, entrepreneur, whose debt obligations - imaginary and real - Fyodor Mikhailovich took upon himself...

By the time he met Anna, he was also supporting his now adult, 21-year-old stepson (the son of his first wife Maria Dmitrievna), as well as the family of his deceased brother Mikhail and helping his younger brother, Nikolai... As he later admitted, “all his life he lived in the grip of money "

And so, at the end of the summer of 1866, the literary genius had to enter into an enslaving agreement with his publisher Stellovsky: cunning and enterprising, this man undertook to publish full meeting works of Fyodor Mikhailovich, provided that he writes a full-fledged one before November 1, 1866 great novel. If there is a delay of a month, Dostoevsky will be obliged to pay a large penalty, and if he does not have time to deliver the novel by December 1, the rights to all his works will be transferred to Stellovsky for 9 years, and the writer will be deprived of interest from publications. In essence, this meant doom to debtor's prison and poverty. As Anna Grigorievna wrote in “Memoirs,” Stellovsky “knew how to lie in wait for people in difficult moments and catch them in his nets.”

The very thought of having time to write a new full-fledged novel in such a short time made Fyodor Mikhailovich despondent - after all, the writer had not yet finished work on Crime and Punishment, the first parts of which had already been published - he needed to finish it. And by not fulfilling Stellovsky’s conditions, he risked losing everything, and this prospect seemed much more realistic than the possibility of putting a finished novel on the publisher’s table in the remaining time.

As Dostoevsky later admitted, in these circumstances Anna Grigorievna became the first person who helped him in deed, and not just in word: 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. She was recommended by the founder of the courses, Olkhin, as the best graduate.

It’s good that you are not a man,” said Dostoevsky after their first brief acquaintance and “testing the pen.”
- Why?
- Because the man would probably drink. You won't drink, will you?..

Good and unfortunate

Anna Grigorievna's first impression of meeting her was really not the most pleasant... Yes, she did not believe her luck when shorthand professor Olkhin invited her to work for the famous Dostoevsky - the same one! - who was so revered at home, did not sleep at night, repeated, afraid to forget, the names of the heroes of his works (she was sure that the writer would ask them), with a beating heart she hurried, fearing to be late even a minute, to Stolyarny Lane, and there...

There she was met by a life-weary, sickly-looking man, gloomy, absent-minded, irritable: either he could not remember her name, then, having dictated a few lines too quickly, he grumbled that she couldn’t keep up, then he said that there was nothing she could do about this idea. will come out.

At the same time, Dostoevsky endeared himself to Anna Grigorievna with his sincerity, openness and gullibility. At that first meeting, he told perhaps the most incredible episode of his life - he would later describe it in detail in the novel “The Idiot.” This is the moment when Dostoevsky was arrested for his connection with the Petrashevsky political circle, sentenced to death and led to the scaffold...

“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 mortal 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 read a new sentence: I was sentenced to four years of hard labor. I don't remember another one like this have a good day! I walked around my casemate in the Alekseevsky ravelin and kept singing, singing loudly, I was so glad of the life given to me!”

When Snitkina left the writer’s office, she left with her a painful impression. It was not a weight of disappointment, but of compassion.

“For the first time in my life,” she would later write, “I saw a smart, kind man, but unhappy and abandoned by everyone”...

And that gloominess, unsociability, discontent that was on the surface did not hide the depths of his personality from her sensitive heart. Dostoevsky would later write to his wife:

“You usually see me, Anya, gloomy, gloomy and capricious; it's just outside; This is how I have always been, broken and spoiled by fate; It’s different inside, believe me, believe me!”

And she not only believed, but was also surprised: how could people see gloom in her husband when he is “kind, generous, selfless, delicate, compassionate - like no one else!”

26 days

The future spouses had 26 days to work together on the novel “The Gambler”, in which Fyodor Mikhailovich described his passion for roulette and his painful hobby. a real person-Apollinaria Suslova, an infernal woman, as the writer himself spoke about her. However, this passion for the game, which Fyodor Mikhailovich could not overcome for many years, disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, thanks to the extraordinary patience and extraordinary wisdom of his young wife.

So, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina took a shorthand copy of the novel, at home, often at night, copied it in ordinary language and brought it to Fyodor Mikhailovich’s house. Slowly he began to believe that everything would work out. And by October 30, 1866, the manuscript was ready!

Dostoevsky's study in his last St. Petersburg apartment

But when the writer came to the publisher with the finished novel, it turned out that he... had left for the province and who knows when he will return! The servant did not agree to accept the manuscript in his absence. The head of the publisher's office also refused to accept the manuscript. It was meanness, but the meanness was expected. With her characteristic energy, Anna Grigorievna got involved in the matter - she asked her mother to consult a lawyer, and he ordered Dostoevsky’s work to be carried to a notary, to certify its receipt. But Fyodor Mikhailovich was late to the notary! However, he still assured his work - in the management of the quarter against receipt. And he was saved from collapse.

By the way, we note that Stellovsky, whose name was associated with more than one scandal and more than one meanness in the fate of writers and musicians, ended his days sadly: he died in psychiatric hospital before reaching the age of 50.

So, “The Gambler” is finished, a stone has been lifted from his shoulders, but Dostoevsky understands that he cannot part with his young assistant... And he proposes, after a short break, to continue working on “Crime and Punishment.” Anna Grigorievna also notices changes in herself: all her thoughts are about Dostoevsky, her former interests, friends, entertainment are dimming, she wants to be near him.

Their explanation occurs in unusual shape. Fyodor Mikhailovich seems to be telling the plot of a novel he had conceived, where an elderly, seasoned artist falls in love with a young girl... “Put yourself in her place for a minute,” 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?” -

“I would answer you that I love you and will love you all my life!”

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 second wife. True, for her this first year turned out to be a year of both happiness and difficult deliverance from illusions. She entered the house famous writer, the “heart expert” Dostoevsky, whom she admired sometimes even excessively, calling him her idol, but real life roughly “pulled” her from these blissful heavens onto solid ground...

First difficulties

“She loved me infinitely, I also loved her beyond measure, but we did not live happily with her...” Dostoevsky said about his first marriage to Maria Isaeva. And indeed, the writer’s first marriage, which lasted 7 years, was unhappy almost from the very beginning: he and his wife, who had a very strange character, in fact, did not live together. How did Anna Grigorievna manage to make Dostoevsky happy?

After the death of her husband, in a conversation with Leo Tolstoy, she said (though not about herself - about her husband): “Nowhere is a person’s character expressed more clearly than in everyday life, in my family." It was here, in the family, in everyday life, that her kind, wise heart made itself felt...

After a serene and peaceful home environment, Snitkina - now Dostoevskaya - entered the house where she was forced to live under the same roof with Fyodor Mikhailovich's eccentric, dishonest and spoiled stepson Pavel. The 21-year-old young man constantly complained to his stepfather about his daughter-in-law, and, when left alone with her, tried to hurt the young woman more painfully. He reproached her for her inability to manage the house, the anxiety that she brings to her already sick father, and he constantly demanded money for his
content.

“This stepson of mine,” admitted Fyodor Mikhailovich, “is a kind, honest boy; but, unfortunately, with an amazing character: he positively promised himself, from childhood, to do nothing, without having any the slightest fortune and at the same time having the most ridiculous concepts about life.”

And other relatives behaved arrogantly towards Dostoevskaya. She soon noticed: as soon as Fyodor Mikhailovich receives an advance for a book, out of nowhere, the widow of his brother Mikhail, Emilia Fedorovna, or his younger unemployed brother Nikolai appears, or Pavel has “urgent” needs - for example, the need to buy a new coat to replace the old one, out of fashion.

One winter, Dostoevsky returned home without a fur coat - he gave it as collateral in order to provide Emilia with 50 rubles, which she urgently needed... Relatives took advantage of the writer’s kindness and reliability, things disappeared from the house - either a Chinese vase given by friends, then a fur coat, or silverware: everything had to be pawned. So Anna Grigorievna was faced with the need to live in debt, and to live very modestly. And she calmly and courageously accepted this necessity.

One more ordeal the writer was ill. Dostoevskaya knew about her from the first day they met, but she hoped that Fyodor Mikhailovich’s health would improve from the joyful change in life. And for the first time the seizure happened when the young couple were visiting: “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!” She hoped that with marriage his attacks would become less frequent. But they continued... She hoped that at least during their honeymoon they would have time to be alone, talk, enjoy each other’s company, but all her free time occupied by frequent guests, Dostoevsky's relatives, whom she had to treat and entertain, while the writer himself was constantly busy.

The young wife is sad about her former life, quiet and homely, where there was no place for worries, melancholy, and clashes. She is sad about that short time between the engagement and the wedding, when she and Dostoevsky spent evenings together, waiting for their happiness to be fulfilled... But it was in no hurry to be fulfilled.

“Why doesn’t he, the “great heart expert,” see how hard my life is?”

She asked herself. She was tormented by thoughts: he stopped loving her, saw how much lower she was than him in spiritual and intellectual development(which, of course, was far from the truth). Anna Grigorievna was thinking about divorce, thinking that if she had ceased to be interesting to her beloved husband, then she would not have enough humility to stay with him - she would have to leave: “I placed too many hopes for happiness on the alliance with Fyodor Mikhailovich and it was so bitter I wouldn’t care if this golden dream didn’t come true!”

One day, another misunderstanding occurs, Anna Grigorievna cannot stand it, sobs and cannot calm down, and Fyodor Mikhailovich finds her in this state. Finally, all her hidden doubts come out - and the couple decide to leave. First to Moscow, then abroad. This was in the spring of 1867. The Dostoevskys would return to their homeland only after 4 years.

Save the marriage

Although Dostoevskaya constantly emphasized that she was just a child, when she got married, she got used to it unusually quickly, taking care of the family “treasury.” Her main task was to provide her husband with peace and the opportunity to engage in creativity. He worked at night. Writing was not only a vocation for Fyodor Mikhailovich, but also his only income: not having a fortune, like, for example, Tolstoy or Goncharov, he was forced to write all his works (except for the first story) hastily, in a hurry, to order, otherwise he would not survive ...

Smart and energetic, Anna Grigorievna took upon herself relations with creditors, analysis of debt receipts, protecting her husband from all these worries. And she took a risk - she pawned her considerable dowry in order to go abroad and “save her happiness.”

She was sure that only

“constant spiritual communication with your husband can create that strong and friendly family, which we dreamed of."

By the way, it was her efforts that helped reveal the fictitiousness of many of Dostoevsky’s debts. Despite the huge life experience, he was such a trusting, honest, conscientious person, not adapted to life, that he believed everyone who came to him for money. After the death of his brother Mikhail, who also owned a tobacco factory, people began to come to Fyodor Mikhailovich, demanding the return of the money that his brother owed them. Among them there were many crooks who decided to profit from the writer’s simplicity. He didn’t demand confirmation or paper from anyone, he believed everyone. Anna Grigorievna took it all upon herself. One can only guess how much wisdom, patience and work such an activity required.

In “Memoirs,” Dostoevskaya admits: “A bitter feeling rises in me when I remember how they ruined my personal life these other people's debts... My whole life at that time was darkened constant reflection about where to get so much money by such and such a date; where and for how much to pawn such and such an item; how to make sure that Fyodor Mikhailovich does not find out about the creditor’s visit or about the pawning of some thing. This took away my youth, my health suffered and my nerves were upset.” She wisely protected him from own emotions: when he wanted to cry, he went into another room, tried never to complain - neither about his health (rather weak), nor about his worries, always to encourage him. Considering compliance a necessary condition happy marriage, Dostoevsky’s wife fully possessed this rare quality. Even in those moments when he went to play roulette and returned, having lost all their food...

Roulette was a terrible disaster. Great writer was sick of her. He dreamed of winning in order to free his family from debt bondage. This “fantasy” possessed him completely, and he alone could not find the strength to escape from its clutches... If it were not for Anna Grigorievna’s unparalleled endurance, love for her husband and the absence of any self-pity.

“It pained me to the depths of my soul to see how Fyodor Mikhailovich himself suffered,” she wrote. - He returned from roulette, pale, exhausted, barely able to stand on his feet, asked me for money (he gave me all the money), left and half an hour later returned even more upset, for money, and this until he had lost everything that We have it." What about Dostoevskaya? She understood that it was not a matter of weak will, that this was a real illness, an all-consuming passion. And she never reproached him, did not quarrel with him, and did not argue with his requests for money for the game.

Dostoevsky begged her for forgiveness on his knees, sobbed, promised to give up his destructive passion... and returned to her again. At such moments, Anna Grigorievna... no, she did not remain meaningfully silent: she tried to convince her husband that everything would get better, that she was happy, and distracted him with a walk or reading newspapers. And Dostoevsky calmed down...

When in 1871 Fyodor Mikhailovich wrote that he was throwing roulette, his wife did not believe it. But he really didn’t return to the game again: “Now it’s yours, yours inseparably, all yours. Until now, half of this damned fantasy belonged to me.”

Sonechka

For countless families, the loss of a child is a devastating experience. This Dostoevsky terrible tragedy, experienced twice in 14 years of their marriage, only brought them together. The first time the family faced severe grief was in the first year of marriage, when daughter Sonechka, having lived only 3 months, suddenly died of a common cold. Anna Grigorievna describes her grief sparingly; she, with her characteristic selflessness, thought about something else - “she was terribly afraid for my poor husband.” Fyodor Mikhailovich, according to her memoirs, “sobbed and cried like a woman, standing in front of the cooling body of his favorite, and covered her pale face and hands with hot kisses. I have never seen such violent despair.”

A year later, a second daughter, Lyubov, was born. And Dostoevskaya, who was afraid that her husband would never be able to love another child again, noticed that the joy of fatherhood eclipsed all previous experiences. In a letter to one critic, Fyodor Mikhailovich argued that a happy family life and the birth of children are three-quarters of the happiness that a person can experience on earth.

In general, his relationship with children was unique. He, like no one else, knew how, as she wrote, “to enter into a child’s worldview,” to understand the child, to captivate him in conversation, and at such moments he was like a child himself. While abroad, Fyodor Mikhailovich writes the novel “The Idiot”, and already at home he finishes the novel “Demons”. But living away from Russia was a difficult ordeal for the couple, and in 1871 they returned to their homeland.

8 days after returning to St. Petersburg, a son, Fyodor, is born into the family, and in 1875, another son, Alyosha, named in honor of the righteous Alexy, the man of God - a saint whom Fyodor Mikhailovich greatly revered. This is the year when the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski publishes the fourth great novel Dostoevsky,
“Teenager”* (the concept of “Dostoevsky’s Great Pentateuch”, which came into use thanks to critics, implies five novels by the writer: “Crime and Punishment”, “Idiot”, “Teenager”, “Demons”, “The Brothers Karamazov”. - Ed.).

But misfortune befalls the family again. Son Alyosha inherited epilepsy from his father, and the boy’s first attack, which occurred in three years old, turned out to be fatal for him... This time the spouses seemed to change places. Unhappy Anna Grigorievna, an unusually strong woman, still could not cope with this grief, lost interest in life, in her other children, which frightened her husband. He spoke to her, convincing her to submit to the will of God and move on with her life. This year, the writer went to Optina Pustyn and twice met alone with Elder Ambrose, who conveyed to Dostoevskaya his blessing and those words that the writer would later put into the mouth of his hero, Elder Zosima, in The Brothers Karamazov: “Rachel cries for her children and cannot be comforted because they are not there,” and this is the limit on earth for you, mothers. 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.”

What could he see in me?

Dostoevsky wrote his last and, according to many critics, most powerful novel, The Brothers Karamazov, from the spring of 1878 to 1880. He dedicates it to his beloved wife, Anna Grigorievna...

“Anka, you are my angel, my everything, alpha and omega! Oh, so you see me in a dream and, “when you wake up, you yearn that I’m not there.” It's terribly good, and I love it. Longing, my angel, yearning in all respects for me - that means you love me. That's for me sweeter than honey. I’ll come and kiss you”; “But how can I live without you and without children during this time? No joke, 12 whole days.”

These lines are from Dostoevsky’s letters of 1875-1976, in the days when he went to St. Petersburg on business, and the family remained at the dacha in Staraya Russa. They do not require comments.

The family became a safe haven for him, and, by his own admission, he literally fell in love with his wife again many times. Anna Grigorievna, until the end of her life, sincerely could not understand what Dostoevsky himself found in her: “All my life it seemed to me like a kind of mystery that the fact that my good husband not only loved and respected me, as many husbands love and respect their wives, but almost bowed before me, as if I were some kind of special creature, created just for him, and this not only in the first time of marriage, but throughout the remaining years until his death. But in reality, I was not distinguished by beauty, had neither talents nor special mental development, and had a secondary education (gymnasium). And despite this, she deserved it from such a smart and talented person deep reverence and almost worship.”

Of course, she was not an ordinary person, a kind of simpleton whom a genius fell in love with for no apparent reason. Fyodor Mikhailovich fell in love with his stenographer, sensing in her not only a compassionate and kind, but also an active, strong-willed, noble character, rich inner world and the art of being a real woman, with dignity remaining in the shadow of her husband, while being, without exaggeration, his main inspiration.

And although Anna Grigorievna and Fyodor Mikhailovich really “didn’t match in character,” as they say now, she admitted that she could always rely on him, and he could count on her delicacy and care, and trusted her completely, which also sometimes surprised Anna Grigorievna. “Without repeating or imitating each other, and did not get entangled with our souls - I - in his psychology, he - in mine, and thus my good husband and I - we both felt free in soul... These relationships with both parties and gave us both the opportunity to live all fourteen years of our married life in the happiness possible for people on earth.”

Dostoevskaya did not have an ideal life - she was indifferent to outfits and was used to living in cramped conditions, in constant debt. The great writer, of course, was not an ideal husband either. For example, he was very jealous and could make a scene for his wife and flare up. Anna Grigorievna wisely avoided situations that could infuriate her husband and tried to prevent the consequences of his temper. Thus, during the time of his editorial work, he could lose his temper because of the impudence of the authors who demanded that not a single comma be changed in their works - he could write them a sharp letter in response. And the next morning, having cooled down, he very much regretted it, was ashamed of his temper. So, in such cases, Dostoevskaya did not send letters, but waited until morning. When “it turned out” that they had not yet had time to send a harsh letter, Fyodor Mikhailovich was very happy and wrote a new one, having already softened.

She did not reproach him for his impracticality and gullibility. Anna Grigorievna recalled that her husband could not refuse help to anyone. If he didn't have any change, he could take the beggar home and give him money there. “Then these visitors began to come themselves and, having learned the husband’s name thanks to a board nailed to the door, began to ask Fyodor Mikhailovich. Of course, I came out; they told me about their misfortunes, and I gave them thirty or forty kopecks. Although we are not particularly rich people, we can always provide such help,” she said.

And although religiosity did not prevent the spouses for some reason, perhaps out of curiosity, from going one day to some fortune teller (who, by the way, foretold the death of their son Alyosha), the Gospel always accompanied their lives. Dostoevskaya recalled how, putting the children to bed , Fyodor Mikhailovich together with them read the prayer “Our Father”, “Virgin Mother of God” and his favorite - “I place all my trust in You, Mother of God, keep me under Your roof”...

"Don't hold back"

In 1880, Anna Grigorievna took up the task of independently publishing his works, founding the enterprise “Book Trade of F. M. Dostoevsky (exclusively for nonresidents).” And it was a success! Financial situation the family recovered, the Dostoevskys managed to pay off their debts. But Fyodor Mikhailovich did not have long to live. In 1880, his novel “The Brothers Karamazov” was published, and this, according to his wife, was the last joyful event in his long-suffering life.

On the night of January 26, 1881, the writer’s throat began to bleed (he had suffered from emphysema since hard labor). During the day, the bleeding repeated, but Fyodor Mikhailovich calmed his wife and entertained the children so that they would not be frightened. During the doctor's examination, the bleeding was so severe that Dostoevsky lost consciousness. When he came to his senses, he asked his wife to invite a priest for confession and communion. I confessed for a long time. And in the morning, a day later, he said to his wife: “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.” He asked to give him the Gospel, given on the way to exile by the wives of the Decembrists, and opened it at random: “John restrained Him and said: I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, “Do not hold back, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

“You hear,” he said to his wife. - “Don’t hold me back” means I will die.”

A happy turn in the difficult fate of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky occurred at a time when he was in predicament: in unreal short time I had to write new novel. I had to hire a young but experienced stenographer, Anna Snitkina. It was this woman, Anna Snitkina, who became Dostoevsky’s second wife.

Dostoevsky's assistant successfully completed not only the St. Petersburg stenographer courses, but also the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium, upon completion of which she received a large silver medal. I had to interrupt my studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Higher Pedagogical Courses due to the illness of my father, who soon died. Joint daily work a famous writer and a twenty-year-old brilliantly educated girl ultimately led not only to the writing of the novel “The Gambler,” but also to the subsequent family life.

The beginning of the family life of Dostoevsky and Anna Snitkina

The wedding ceremony of Dostoevsky and Anna Snitkina took place in the Izmailovsky Cathedral on February 15, 1867. Exactly ten years ago, also in the month of February, Fyodor Dostoevsky stood in front of the altar of a church in the city of Kuznetsk with another woman whom he had long and passionately pursued - Maria Isaeva. But his first wife died of consumption, and now the writer was destined to go through life with another companion - loving, understanding and very worthy in all respects. So, Anna Snitkina became Dostoevsky’s second wife.

But this marriage was negatively perceived by Dostoevsky’s stepson, so married couple In order to avoid family disagreements and cement their relationships, I had to go abroad.

Even before leaving for Europe, Anna Snitkina had to deal with Dostoevsky’s epileptic seizure. Moreover, this did not happen at home, but while visiting my sister. Dostoevsky's seizure was so terrible and was accompanied by such an inhuman scream that his sister and brother-in-law ran away from the living room in fear. For the first time in their lives, everyone present saw epilepsy with their own eyes, and only Anna Snitkina was not at a loss and provided all possible help to her husband. After bouts of illness, Dostoevsky returned to his home for a very long time. normal condition, he felt depressed and lost. Epilepsy not only darkened family life, but was also inherited by his son Alyosha.

The second shock for Dostoevsky’s young wife was her husband’s unbridled passion for gambling. Even during his honeymoon in Dresden, he left Anna Snitkina alone for a week, and he himself went to try his gambling luck in Homburg, from where he constantly sent letters asking for money. This was the beginning of future financial losses, which are simply inevitable with such a destructive passion.

They went to the roulette city of Baden-Baden together. In just a week, Dostoevsky lost all the money he had, so in the future he had to pawn his jewelry. Dostoevsky's wife Anna Snitkina especially regretted the unredeemed wedding gift husband - brooches and earrings interspersed with diamonds and rubies. The money sent from St. Petersburg by Anna’s mother was also spent on the game. Dostoevsky's weakness was that he could not stop at the right moment and played until the last thaler.

Dostoevsky's first wife was Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva, who died of consumption, and with whom family relationships were heavy. Dostoevsky's second wife Anna Snitkina.

In the fall of 1867, this gambling nightmare ended - the couple moved to Geneva, where Dostoevsky began writing the novel The Idiot.

Sorrows and joys alternated, as in any family life, but in 1868 the couple had to experience terrible grief - daughter Sonya, born in Geneva, died three months later. In 1869, a second daughter, Lyuba, was born in Dresden, and two years later the Dostoevsky couple, who had lived in Italy and were completely homesick, returned home. Instead of the planned three months, they spent four years abroad.

In native lands

Soon after returning to St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky’s wife Anna Grigorievna Snitkina was happily married to her son Fyodor, and in 1875 the family was replenished with another son, Alyosha. He was not destined to live long; the boy died at the age of three during an attack of epilepsy.

At home, Dostoevsky wrote the most fundamental work of his life - the novel The Brothers Karamazov. The main place of writing was a quiet and cozy place - Staraya Russa, where the writer dictated his novel, and Anna Snitkina habitually took shorthand. Every summer, the writer and his family escaped from the bustle of St. Petersburg to this creative haven.

After returning from Europe, Anna Grigorievna had to fight for 13 years with creditors who threatened to take an inventory of her property and even intended to put the great writer in debtor’s prison. The amount of debt was about 25 thousand rubles, and these were mainly the debts of Dostoevsky’s brother, who died suddenly in 1864. His large family, accustomed to a prosperous life, was left without a livelihood. Until the end of his life, Dostoevsky provided support to his widow and nephews financial assistance, depriving his family in many ways. The question constantly on the agenda was: “Where can I get money?”

Many sad events happened in 1872. Arriving at summer rest in Staraya Russa, the couple discovered an incorrectly healed fracture of their little daughter’s arm. The next day I had to return to St. Petersburg again to have the operation. At the same time, his infant son Fedya remained with strangers in Staraya Russa. At the same time, the mother of Dostoevsky’s wife Anna Grigorievna severely injured her leg: a heavy chest literally crushed her thumb. A Native sister Masha, at the age of 30, suddenly died abroad. Anna Snitkina herself almost followed her sister: the abscess that had formed in her throat left little chance of life. But the abscess broke, the patient recovered, and life went on as usual.

In 1873, the novel “Demons” was published, on the creation of which the writer worked for almost three years. Taking an artistic break, Dostoevsky agreed to temporarily become editor of the magazine Citizen, and then began writing the novel The Teenager. Dostoevsky worked on his works at night, and during the day he dictated to his wife what he had written during the night. Heavy writing more and more undermined the health of Fyodor Mikhailovich. In 1874, 1875 and 1879 he made trips abroad to the resort town of Ems. But the result of the treatment was short-lived.

Anna Snitkina's life without Dostoevsky

All 14 years old life together Dostoevsky's wife Anna Grigorievna Snitkina was worried about the poor health of her brilliant husband; each of his seizures resonated with pain in her soul and left scars on her heart.

In January 1881, after a quarrel with his sister Vera over an inheritance, Dostoevsky’s throat began to bleed. This was a harbinger of the end. A few days later, on January 28, the writer died in the arms of his wife, having managed to say how much he loved her all these years and never cheated on her, even mentally.

For the 35-year-old widow, life has stopped. The trip to Crimea, organized by relatives, was supposed to soften the bitterness of the loss, but Anna Snitkina, on the contrary, plunged into terrible melancholy and despair.

She devoted the next 37 years to preserving the memory of the great writer, publishing his books, letters, collecting manuscripts and photographs, and creating a house-museum in Staraya Russa.

Death overtook Dostoevsky's wife in Yalta in 1918, where she was interred. And only fifty years later, thanks to the efforts of her grandson, she was reburied next to her husband in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

You have read the article, which tells about who Dostoevsky’s second wife was and about their family life. You can find more material on these topics in the Blog section. In addition, be sure to visit the Summary section - there in summary you can find and read many of the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky.

On October 16 (4), 1866, the young stenographer Anna Snitkina came to Fyodor Dostoevsky to help him work on his new novel “The Gambler.” This meeting changed their lives forever.

In 1866, Anna was 20 years old. After the death of her father, a minor official Grigory Snitkin, the girl, who graduated from the Mariinsky Women's Gymnasium and shorthand courses with a silver medal, decided to put the acquired knowledge into practice. In October, she first met the 44-year-old writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, whose books she had been reading since childhood. She was supposed to help him work on a new novel, which had less than a month left before it was due. In St. Petersburg, in a house on the corner of Malaya Meshchanskaya and Stolyarny Lane, the writer began dictating a plot to his assistant, which she carefully wrote down in shorthand.

In 26 days, they together accomplished the impossible - they prepared the novel “The Player,” which previously existed only in drafts. If this had not happened, the writer would have transferred the copyrights and royalties for his publications for 9 years in favor of the enterprising publisher Fyodor Stellovsky, who, according to Dostoevsky, “had so much money that he could buy all Russian literature.”

“I’m ready to kneel before him all my life.”

Working under force majeure conditions brought the writer and Anna closer together. Soon something happened between them straight Talk, which Anna Grigorievna later cited in her memoirs. He invited her to imagine herself in the place of the heroine to whom the artist confessed his love, and asked what she would answer to this.

“Fyodor Mikhailovich’s face expressed such embarrassment, such heartache that I finally realized that this was not just 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!” she wrote.

According to her recollections, the feeling that gripped her was like boundless adoration, resigned admiration for the great talent of another person.

“The dream of becoming his life’s companion, 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.”

And she made her dream come true, becoming a reliable support in the writer’s life.

On February 15, 1867, they got married in the Izmailovsky Trinity Cathedral in St. Petersburg. For Dostoevsky, this was his second marriage (his first wife, Maria, died of consumption), but only in it did he learn what family happiness was.

“I had to atone for my happiness of being close to him.”

After the wedding, which took place just 5 months after they met, Anna began to understand what difficulties they now had to fight together. The terrible attacks of epilepsy that the writer had frightened her and at the same time filled her heart with pity.

"See favorite 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...” - she recalled.

But not only the fight against the disease lay ahead of them. The young family's budget was fragile. Dostoevsky had accumulated financial debts since the time of the unsuccessful publication of magazines. According to one version, in order to hide from multiple creditors, Anna and Fyodor Mikhailovich decided to leave for Germany. According to another version, the young wife’s conflicting relationship with her husband’s relatives played a role in this.

Dostoevsky himself imagined that the trip would not be like a romantic journey between two lovers. According to him, he left “with death in his soul.”

“I didn’t believe in foreign countries, that is, I believed that the moral influence of foreign countries would be very bad. Alone... with a young creature who, with naive joy, sought to share my wandering life; but I saw that in this naive joy there was a lot of inexperience and the first fever, and this confused and tormented me very much... My character is sick, and I foresaw that she would be tormented by me,” he told the poet Apollo Maikov.

Traveling around Europe, married couple I visited the city of Baden in Switzerland. The thought of quick riches, a wild win that would get rid of many problems, took possession of Dostoevsky after he won 4 thousand francs at roulette. After that, the painful excitement did not let him go. As a result, he lost everything he could, even his young wife’s jewelry.

Anna tried to help her husband fight this destructive passion, and in 1871 he gave up gambling forever.

“A great thing has happened to me. The vile fantasy that tormented me for almost ten years disappeared. I kept dreaming of winning: I dreamed seriously, passionately... Now it’s all over! I will remember this all my life and bless you, my angel, every time,” wrote Dostoevsky.

According to historians, a bright period in their lives began upon their return to St. Petersburg. Dostoevsky was absorbed in work; Anna Grigorievna took upon herself all the worries about the house and children (and by that time there were already three of them - approx.). Thanks to her skillful management, financial difficulties gradually disappeared. She represented her husband’s affairs, communicating with publishers, and published his works herself.


Anna Grigorievna with children.

In 1881, Dostoevsky died. At that time, Anna was 35 years old. After his death, she did not remarry. All the years she continued to take care of her husband’s affairs, collecting manuscripts, documents, and letters.

Anna Grigorievna died in 1918 at the age of 71. Currently, her ashes are buried next to her husband’s grave in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

The attitude of his contemporaries towards Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was ambiguous: they despised him, did not like him, they laughed at him. He was a complex person: nervous, absent-minded, unsure of himself, suffering from frequent seizures of epilepsy, and also a passionate gambler. It is not surprising that such a person was catastrophically unlucky in love.

FIRST, his mad love for Avdotya Panaeva, because of which he endured constant ridicule in salons. The girl chose Nekrasov over him. Then an unsuccessful marriage to Marya Dmitrievna Isaeva, a petty, jealous woman who perceived poverty as a constant insult, tormented Dostoevsky with reproaches and was completely indifferent to his work. After the death of his wife, the writer experienced several more novels, which brought him nothing but pain and disappointment. Love failures haunted Dostoevsky until he met Anna Snitkina, his last love...

Acquaintance

AT 45 YEARS OLD, Dostoevsky made a bet with himself: he decided to do an “eccentric” thing - to write two novels at once in 4 months. The first is “Crime and Punishment” for the magazine “Russian Messenger”, the second is “The Gambler” for the publisher Stellovsky. The writer entered into a completely enslaving agreement with the latter: Stellovsky bought the right to publish three volumes of Fyodor Mikhailovich’s works and one new novel. Dostoevsky was tied hand and foot by obligations to the magazine. And it seemed there was no time to create a new masterpiece. This is exactly what the fraudulent publisher was counting on. In case of non-compliance with the agreement, Dostoevsky lost all income from three volumes for nine years.

But Dostoevsky was a rare workaholic: he had everything for “eccentric” things - talent, desire and ability to write. The only thing missing was a stenographer. She became Anna Snitkina, the best student of the cursive writing courses in St. Petersburg. A young girl, waiting for a meeting with Fyodor Mikhailovich, spent a terrible night: she did not sleep, tossing from side to side and dreaming about what her first date would be like with the great writer, “so smart, who has experienced so much.” The great writer in fact turned out to be a strange, absent-minded and completely forgetful person: he could not remember her name, he kept getting confused and asking again. Anna left him laughing, in love at first sight.

Their romance turned out more than successfully: Dostoevsky finished “The Gambler” and, through the police, handed it over to an unscrupulous publisher. There was no other way out: Stellovsky disappeared from the city and left instructions to his subordinates: not to accept anything from the writer, so as not to allow him to fulfill the contract. The magazine received "Crime and Punishment", and Anna became the wife of Fyodor Mikhailovich. And even though he did not love her so passionately and ardently, his heart demanded peace. In addition, Anna was a “very pretty, well-educated and, most importantly, infinitely kind” girl; this is exactly what Dostoevsky dreamed of all his life. In his letters to his brother, he wrote: “The difference in years is terrible (22 and 44), but I am more and more convinced that she will be happy. She has a heart, and she knows how to love.”

Forced departure

The HAPPINESS of the first days ended very quickly. A few months after the wedding, Dostoevsky's brother Mikhail died. And his entire family, headed by the inconsolable widow Emilia, moved in with the writer. The situation was aggravated by the presence of an extremely harmful stepson Pasha (the son of his first wife). Family hearth turned into some kind of booth. The house was always crowded with nephews, some relatives came, everyone begged for money. One day Anna saw that Dostoevsky had returned to his home on a cold December day. light autumn a coat in which I was terribly cold. Emilia and Pasha persuaded him to pawn his fur coat; they once again needed financial help. But much more than selfish interests, something else frightened her: the newly-made relatives managed to convince Fyodor Mikhailovich that the young wife was bored with the old man. As a result, the couple practically stopped seeing each other. Anna was surprised at her husband’s blindness and naivety and suffered immensely. She decided to save her marriage by any means. The only way out the situation was to take Dostoevsky somewhere away from the annoying family. Somewhere abroad. In her diary, Anna wrote: “To save our love, it is necessary to retire for at least two or three months... I was deeply convinced that then my husband and I would get together for life and no one would separate us again. But where would we get money for this much-needed trip? - I was thinking, and suddenly one thought flashed through my head: “What, shouldn’t I sacrifice all my dowry for the sake of the trip?” My plan is to pawn all my things.” Through the efforts of this small but strong woman, the money was found. The Dostoevsky couple went to Europe, despite the efforts of their relatives to prevent their breadwinner from leaving.

New, happy life

THEY left for a few months and returned four years later. “During this time, many joyful events happened in our lives, and I will forever thank God that he strengthened me in my desire to go abroad. There a new, happy life began for my husband and me,” Anna wrote. This was partly true. Only on the path to happiness they had to overcome a lot: lack of money, poverty, Dostoevsky’s bad mood, his passion for the game. Anna was always there - support and support, she looked at everything with a smile and understanding. Fyodor Mikhailovich did not see a shadow of reproach or disappointment on her face, and only then did he realize what a treasure was next to him. And he loved Anna with all his heart: “If you only knew what my wife means to me now! I love her, and she says she’s happy!”

“Many Russian writers would feel better if they had wives like Dostoevsky,” said another Russian classic, Leo Tolstoy, not without envy. And he was right. No other woman could have survived Dostoevsky’s eternal losses at roulette so calmly. “Fedya was terribly upset. I realized that he probably lost those ten gold pieces. And so it happened. But I immediately began to beg him not to be upset and asked if he needed to get more. He asked for five more. I immediately gave it, and he was terribly grateful." Dostoevsky took the money, lost, tearfully asked to forgive him, and the next day everything was repeated all over again. And as a result, the fanatical player, looking at his holy wife, in one fell swoop quit playing once and for all.

Return

ANNA returned from Europe a different person: self-confident, happy woman, mother of two children - daughter Lyuba and son Fedya. She began to manage all her husband’s financial affairs, and she conducted them so brilliantly that Dostoevsky finally managed to pay off all his debts. And there were a great many of them. She was everything to him: publisher, banker, proofreader, stenographer, wife, lover and mother. Dostoevsky found the love he wanted, while apart he wrote to her: “I don’t know a single woman equal to you... and when I go to bed, I think about you with agony, I hug you mentally and kiss you all in my imagination. Do you understand?.. For me "You are lovely, and there is no one like you. You yourself don’t know how lovely your eyes are, your smile and your animation in conversation. May God grant us to live longer together. And the further I go, the more I love you."

And they lived 14 long happy years. Only death could separate them. Fyodor Mikhailovich suffered a rupture of the pulmonary artery; before his death, he took his wife by the hand and whispered in last time that he loves her...

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 rich 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 mental balance.

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 the literary friends could write a 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 police officer 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 in soul.”

Anna wrote about her attitude towards Dostoevsky:

“My love was purely cerebral, ideological. It was rather adoration, admiration for a man 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 age difference and her husband’s difficult character, 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 affairs, and Fyodor Mikhailovich no longer interfered with them, which, by the way, had an extremely positive impact on 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 recognized literally in a “spy” way: when 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. Anna Grigorievna’s last will was fulfilled only in 1968.