Near death experience?

[adleberg]

Evening Ladies and Gentlemen  

In the first Dostoevsky I picked up (and subsequently fell in love with) the introduction talked a little about Dostoevsky's death penalty and the eleventh hour reprieve and how it affected Dostoevsky.

Can anyone give me the full story of this very momentous event in Dostoevsky's life? What books were written after this event and does it obviously shape these works?

[adleberg]

Well it is a pretty important part of his life so why cant it discussed at length? Remember you had to ask the question once as well.

Why dont you use your oh-so extensive knowledge of Dostoevsky to enlighten us instead of insulting...maybe be constructive.....?

[adleberg]

Thankyou.

This is possibly one of the clearest explanations I have seen. No offence taken, I just hate being the newbie.....

[kudzai]

To elaborate on what Foxhead has already said.
In his introduction to his translation of The Idiot, Richard Pevear talks about a memoir of a member of the Petrashevsky Circle who claimed that just before the mock execution Dostoevsky turned to the leader of the group, Speshnyov, and said "We will be together with Christ."
Speshnyov replied with a touch of sarcasm: "A handful of ashes".

This question he was forced to contemplate while looking in the eyes of death dominates and shapes the later works.

[adleberg]

Im having trouble grasping the idea of a staged execution...Im assuming it wasnt a common occurence. Was it actually completely staged well in advance?

[Canerican]

Well, I would say D got it easy compared to some. I would suggest that you read some Russian history, executions were nothing for that country. Even noblemen weren't exempt. If you but spoke negativly of the Emporer/king ect you would be condemned. To show an example of tyranny in Russia: on Christmas day of 1934 Stalin ordered Russia's largest and most famous church which took most of the 19th century to built to be blown up. You must understand Russians were very religious so him destroying this church was like saying, "I am in power, do not challenge my power, or there will be so much worse."

[adleberg]

Then why let Dostoevsky off with a complex staged execution. If the tsar held no qualms about summary executions..why let the Petrashevsky Circle off? Was it to brainwash them to love the tsar for his blessing  of life?

[terry]

Dostoevsky was sentenced to spend term in prison for taking part in a plot against russian government, not for freedom of thought support. Russia wasn' t communist at the time. In fact 19th century russian authoryties weren't
so opressive as it's represented in europe and usa, that's
why, finally revolution happened.

[Canerican]

The were definatly more oppresive than modern day Russia. Freedom of speech was not exercised as you may be implying Terry. Revolutions happened many times throughout Russia's history. (Think, Russia was founded between 600-800AD) However many attempts were thwarted before any succeeded. There were many people out there who wanted a revolution, that is why either the Tsar, the king, the emporer or empress or queen, were so strict on people like Dost. I don't mean to sound like a jerk Terry, but you need to check your facts.

[alvaro]

  WELL, THE TRUTH IS THAT ALL RUSSIANS DEEP IN A HEART ARE ANARCHISTS. THEY'RE ALWAYS NOT HAPPY WITH ANY SORT OF AUTHORITY/LAW/ORDER. IF NOT FOR RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT OF ANY PERIOD OF TIME THEY, RUSSIANS WOULD SET THE WHOLE WORLD ON FIRE.
  AND TERRY IS RIGHT, MEANING THAT WESTERN PROPAGANDA IS TRYING TO MAKE AMERICANS AND EUROPEANS THINK THAT CONSTANT CHANGE OF AUTHORITY IN RUSSIA IS NESSESSARY THROUGH REPRESENTING IT AS INHUMANE, WHEREAS IN TERMS OF IT IT DOESN'T DIFFER MUCH FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD.

[adleberg]

Please, feel free to make some sweeping generalisations.

I still dont understand why the Tsar let Dostoevsky and his fellow conspirators live. Why not just kill them? There must have been something special about this case.

[andrez]

that's because tzarist Russia wasn't so repressive as one might think,  isn't it clear yet !!!

[Willie Maykit]

I think maybe adleberg's right to bang on about the 'why'.

Looking down through history it's not so rare to find reigning monarchs commute death sentences. It really does display a control over his/her subjects' life and death just as much as having the sentence actually carried out, and most often it is substituted with some other horrible punishment such as banishment.

As regards Dostoevsky and the Petrashevsky Circle, it was certainly an elaborate charade, with the whole procedure of having the 'condemned' appropriately dressed in peasant smocks, hats removed, swords broken etc, to the point that even the peasant carts that usually carried off the executed bodies were present. The crowds were expectant. Three men were already blindfolded and tied to the stake when the Tsar's representative came galloping up as arranged. This really was a very big demonstration of the tsar's power - and, ultimately, his largesse.

But why the pardon?

Well, a precedent had been set some years earlier in 1825 following the Officers' Rebellion, when those in question were all exiled in Siberia (it was one of these officers ' wives who gave Dostoevsky the New Testament which so influenced him during his own exile and which he was holding at his death). So, perhaps it's right to say that the people involved in the Petrashevsky affair in the end received the punishment that might have been expected.

As for the actual effect on Dostoevsky of the near death experience, it is certainly true that the sight of the sun's rays reflecting off a church dome produced within him a profound experience of mortality and - an instinctual, it would seem - belief that after death one's soul is joined with Christ. This may even be seen as the point when he changed from being socialist in his beliefs, to that of being Christian.

[adleberg]

So an elaborate example to all other would-be political agitators.

Ive read that after the experience Dost had trouble outwardly condemning the Tsar. Do you think this is because he had been 'brainwashed' to no longer hate the Tsar or that he was simply now scared to be further punished?

[Grand_Inquisitor]

To those that insist upon Russia not being as oppressive as Western culture makes it out to be:  let's not forget that, though the execution was stayed, Dostoevsky and the others were still forced to complete "5-10 years" of hard labor in Siberia (one of the most undesirable places in the world) essentially for speaking their minds.  Look at our media today and how they perpetually mock Bush and other political figures.  If the government shipped them off to Alaska for hard labor as a result of their opinions, would we still be saying "Oh, that's not as bad as it seems"?