Dostoevsky

"Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled, and if you spend your whole life unravelling it, don't say that you've wasted time. I am studying that mystery because I want to be a human being."

— Fyodor Dostoevsky

A literary romantic like me lives for these moments.
Come along with me for a walk down
Dostoevsky Street in Semey, Kazakhstan.

Fyodor Dostoevsky was a young, vibrant writer living in St. Petersburg, Russia when he was sentenced to death with several others of the Petrashevsky Circle, a group of utopian socialist intelligentsia. Don’t they sound cool? While lined before the firing squad they were granted a last minute reprieve and were instead exiled to Siberia (I kinda know how that feels – Siberian exile). He spent 5 years in a convict prison in Omsk followed by 5 more years (1857-1859) of enforced military service in Semey, which is now in Kazakhstan.

It was in Semey, in this log house, where he began his most extraordinary novel
The Brothers Karamasov.
(which I am still comprehending – one page at a time. It’s glorious)

Let's go inside
:::my heart is speeding up:::

IS THIS THE DESK??

no.

But isn't it a lovely era-relevant stand in?
Take a closer look -- there is PAPER on that desk.
:::breath in, breath out:::

These are actual, real life – I TOTALLY BELIEVE IT – manuscripts from F.D. himself!!

UPCLOSE
Such fervent, emotional renderings.

I love what paper and ink can conjure.
Suddenly the Russian script takes on a romantic, lovely form to me.

My children were along to IMBUE, INSTILL, INSPIRE.
Doesn't he look speechless; doesn't he look overwhelmed with awe?

Across the room we can take a figurative sit-down to gaze and reflect at the desk, at the writings, and the GENIUS that was DOSTOEVSKY!