The Wives: The Women Behind Russia's Literary Giants (7 page)

During 1869, the year
The Idiot
was completed and their second daughter was born, the couple traveled to Prague where both hoped to find a Slavic intellectual milieu and where Dostoevsky had fans. But failing to find affordable housing, they went on to Dresden, a relatively inexpensive city they had “tested” before, where they had some friends and where Dostoevsky resolved to work without raising his head.

The Dostoevskys expected their child in early September, “with excitement, and with fear, and with hope, and timidity.”
104
Anna was unwell throughout the year: “I fear terribly for her health,” Dostoevsky wrote to his friend Maikov, “she’s constantly sick … and in addition is seriously afraid that she’ll die in childbirth.…”
105
Both wanted a girl and, already loving her, decided to name her
Lyubov (Love in Russian) or Lyuba for short. When, on September 14, the happy event took place, Dostoevsky informed Maikov that LYUBOV had been born: “Everything went superbly, and the baby is big, healthy, and a beauty. Anya and I are happy.”
106
Maikov was chosen as the girl’s godfather and Anna’s mother, who stayed in Dresden with the couple, as godmother.

In Dresden, Dostoevsky worked on “The Life of a Great Sinner,” which he would later develop into
The Brothers Karamazov
, and
The Devils
, a tendentious novel about revolutionaries and political anarchy in Russia. Meanwhile, his artistic doubts returned: he told Anna of the inevitable “destruction” of his talent, caused by constant pressure of deadlines and the inability to polish his creations. Anna thought his novels could be the equal of Tolstoy’s if only there was financial security and time for revision. She witnessed his despair at the sight of mistakes in the dispatched chapters: “If only I could bring it back! If only I could correct it! Now I see … why the novel isn’t going right.”
107
(While abroad, he did not receive the magazine that published his novel.)
Poor Folk
, his early novel, which Anna had read in her teens, was likely the only work that he wrote without pressure and fear of deadlines and which he was able to plan.

The couple’s financial circumstances remained dismal and, one month after their daughter was born, Dostoevsky drew a picture of his and Anna’s desperation in a letter to Maikov: “How can I write when I’m hungry, when I’ve pawned my pants in order to raise two talers for a telegram! But never mind me and my hunger! But after all, she is nursing a baby. What if she
herself
goes to pawn her last warm wool skirt!”
108

Despite hardship, their second stay in Dresden was more comfortable: Anna was no longer isolated as before. In addition to her mother, Anna’s brother, Ivan, arrived: “I was surrounded by the creatures most beloved and precious in the world to me—my husband, my child, my mother and brother.…”
109
Ivan Snitkin was a student at the Moscow Agricultural Academy, which had recently been shaken with a murder of a student who was his classmate; the victim belonged to a conspiratorial organization, People’s Reprisal,
headed by the revolutionary terrorist Sergei Nechaev. A prominent radical who had plotted to assassinate Alexander II, the fanatical Nechaev was mistrustful of people around him and ordered the student’s killing in November 1869.
110
Dostoevsky was following the event in German newspapers, which also reported about a network of revolutionary organizations in Russia. Ivan told him about the mood among the students and described the Agricultural Academy’s park, the scene of the crime, which Dostoevsky replicated in
The Devils
, where the murder is a major event.

Dostoevsky began to publish
The Devils
in Katkov’s magazine in 1871, the year when, after four tumultuous years abroad, the couple ended their exile. In spring, on the eve of their return to Russia, Dostoevsky became restless again and left for Wiesbaden to play roulette with money Anna had managed to save up. She was expecting their third child and put aside three hundred talers for the birth, but gave it Dostoevsky: “In order to soothe his anxiety and dispel the somber thoughts which prevented him from concentrating on his work, I resorted to the device which always amused and distracted him.”
111
The trip would become the final gambling experience of Dostoevskys’ life.

His guilt at losing the money taken from his pregnant wife, their baby daughter, and their unborn child, along with a tormenting dream of his late father (whenever he had dreamed of his father, he considered it a premonition of disaster), and other mystical experiences on that night, all changed him profoundly.
112
He suddenly became cured of his obsession, describing his conversion to Anna: “A great thing has been accomplished over me, a vile fantasy that had
tormented
me for almost ten years has vanished. For ten years … I kept dreaming of winning. I dreamed seriously, passionately. Now that’s all finished with!”
113
As usual, his gambling losses stimulated his imagination and, upon his return to Dresden, seeking salvation through work, he settled down to write
The Devils
.

Preparing to return to Russia, the couple discussed what should be done with the archive Dostoevsky had accumulated during their travels. Because he was a former political prisoner, officials would
inspect his correspondence, as a well-wisher warned. Dostoevsky insisted on burning his drafts, but Anna managed to save the notebooks for
The Idiot
and
The Devils
by leaving them with her mother, who was returning home separately.

Indeed, at the border in Verzhbolovo the couple’s possessions and papers were painstakingly searched by Russian customs; they nearly missed their train to Petersburg. The search was terminated when little Lyuba, bored and hungry, began to scream for a roll at the top of her voice: sick of her crying, the officials returned the papers.

Years of hardship had made Anna a decisive woman capable of handling any practical problem. She had aged significantly and, at twenty-four, looked nearly her husband’s contemporary. Her friends and family noticed the change and “reproached me for not paying attention to my appearance, for not dressing well and not doing my hair fashionably.” Anna could not afford stylish dresses, and, moreover, wore dark colors to appear less attractive. It pained her, though, when people confused her age, but concerns over Dostoevskys’ tranquility would prevail:

I was firmly convinced that Fyodor Mikhailovich loved me not for my appearance only, but also for the good qualities of my mind and character.… And my old-fashioned appearance and obvious avoidance of male society could only act beneficially on my husband, since it gave no occasion for him to display the unfortunate side of his character—his groundless jealousy.
114

Despite their tribulations abroad, Anna would recall the European period of their marriage “with deepest gratitude to fate.” They came to understand and value one another deeply: their hearts had truly “knitted together.”
115
Dostoevsky now depended on her emotionally and for all his decisions: “He willingly turned over all his affairs to me, listened to my advice and followed it.…”
116
(In 1873, Dostoevsky wrote a will, leaving his literary rights to Anna.)

The Dostoevskys returned to Petersburg on July 8 and, only eight days later, Anna gave birth to their son, Fedya. They lived in furnished rooms until Anna was able to rent a suitable apartment: she negotiated a deal with a merchant, obtaining a few pieces of furniture on installment. This was essential, since in their absence all their possessions in Russia had been lost: Anna’s furniture had gone for insurance premiums; the house she had inherited had been lost through machinations by her sister’s husband; and Dostoevskys’ valuable library had been sold by his stepson Paul.

Like Job, calamities followed them everywhere: less than a year after their arrival, little Lyuba broke her wrist, which was reset under chloroform. Both parents frantically worried that she would not survive the anesthetic, then relatively new.
117
Anna “vividly pictured” the death of their first child and did not expect Lyuba to survive, apprehension Dostoevsky shared. Pale, his hands trembling, he accompanied Anna to a room where they awaited the outcome with dread, and prayed:”… we got down on our knees and prayed as fervently during those moments as perhaps we had ever prayed in our lives before.”
118
The surgery was successful, but the couple’s anxiety over their children’s health would only increase.

Their arrival in Russia could not be kept secret from Dostoevskys’ creditors for long: learning about his return from a newspaper report, they demanded immediate settlement and threatened him with debtor’s prison. Dostoevsky paced his room, pulling his hair at the temples and repeating: “Now what in the world, whatever in the world are we going to do?” To shield him from stress, which interfered with his work on the novel
The Devils
, Anna met with the creditors on her own.

While Dostoevskys’ debts totaled twenty-five thousand rubles, Anna estimated that he was personally responsible for about a tenth of the amount. Having rashly assumed responsibility for his dead brother’s debts, Dostoevsky signed promissory notes with childlike impracticality: he trusted people’s word and was frequently swindled. Because he was easily upset, Anna concealed her negotiations with creditors. These were shady types who had bought up
Dostoevskys’ promissory notes for pennies and wanted to redeem them for their original value; they came to Anna with threats. Undaunted, she told them that if Dostoevsky was put in debtor’s prison, he would stay there until the term of the debt expired, in which case his creditors would receive nothing. Meantime, she would make his prison stay fully comfortable and visit him daily with the children. Their property could not be attached because she rented their apartment in her name and bought furniture on the installment plan. The creditors accepted her arguments and agreed to spread payments over the years. But this new arrangement was only marginally better, since it required her, without a regular income, to deliver the promised sums on time. And because their income depended on the success of Dostoevskys’ work, she lived perennially under pressure and worry: “Where to get such-and-such an amount by such-and-such a date; where and for how much to pawn such-and-such an article; how to manage so that Fyodor Mikhailovich wouldn’t find out about some creditor’s visit.…”
119
(She managed to settle the debts by 1881, the year Dostoevsky died.) Their stepson Paul, now married, continued to press for cash and threatened to complain to Dostoevsky, who felt a sense of moral obligation to care for the young man, having promised this to his dying wife.

Anna sought an independent position as a stenographer, but Dostoevsky thwarted her employment because the thought of her being away from home troubled him more than their financial strain. In 1872 she applied to work at a provincial conference and Dostoevsky consented, later admitting that he counted on her rejection by the chairman of the conference. When Anna was hired, he raised objections to her traveling alone. She declined the job offer, fearing his scenes and also realizing that he was capable of showing up at the conference to fetch her back.

That year, trying to secure an income, the couple launched their own publishing venture, deciding to bring out
The Devils
. It was a bold move: their friends believed the project financially risky. At the time, books were printed and distributed across Russia by
several major firms; a novelist publishing his own work and selling it from his home was likely to fail. Although Dostoevsky had successfully produced
Time
and
Epoch
magazines with his brother, he had handled only the literary duties.

Having to gain business experience they both lacked, Anna gathered information: she came to printing houses and bookshops with casual inquiries, learning about methods of dealing with booksellers, such as discounts based on the number of copies. Books were published on a cash basis, but she learned that for a well-known author, like Dostoevsky, any printer would extend six months’ credit, to which interest would apply. After estimating that they needed to produce thirty-five hundred copies, she contracted a reputable printing firm and the work began. Anna managed the entire business part, but was also checking first and second proofs, while the final proofreading was left to Dostoevsky. “The end of 1872 and the beginning of the following year passed in work connected with the book.”
120
When the novel was bound and delivered to their house, the couple admired its appearance. Impatient to make a first sale, Dostoevsky took a copy to a prominent bookseller, his acquaintance, but returned with a money-losing offer. Anna decided he had failed because he did not take the initiative.

In January 1873, she advertised the novel and anticipated a response. Her calculation proved accurate: that same morning, messengers from several bookshops were at her door. They began bargaining over the discount on the retail price, only to find that Anna knew all about the trade and what terms to accept.

New buyers came, and the morning buyers returned for a new supply of books. It was evident that the book was having a great success, and I felt a rare sense of triumph. I was happy about the money, of course, but mainly because I had found myself an interesting business—the publication of my dear husband’s work. I was pleased also with the fact that the enterprise had come out so well in defiance of the warnings of my literary advisors.
121

Waking up at noon, after he wrote all night, Dostoevsky learned that Anna had sold a hundred and fifteen copies. The stock was almost sold before the year’s end, providing the couple with a profit of four thousand rubles. This success encouraged the Dostoevskys to also publish
The Idiot
and
Notes from the House of the Dead
on their own. In addition, in 1876–77 Anna handled publication of a monthly journal,
Diary of a Writer
, to which Dostoevsky was sole contributor. During her publishing activity of thirty-eight years, she would prove herself an expert manager. A printer, Mikhail Alexandrov, who worked with her, recalls how she handled the business side of publishing the journal: