Reflections of Dostoevsky in Crime and Punishment

• Influenced by the radical new ideas from the West that were entering Russia during the 19th century
• He became involved in some liberal, revolutionary movements and wanted Russia to catch up with the rest of Europe
• He began writing and publishing contraband articles on a variety of political questions. This was illegal because printing was controlled and censored by the government
• He (along with 14 others) was arrested in 1849 and sentenced to death before a firing squad. Moments before his execution they were reprieved. He never forgot the experience and it haunted him for years
• Dostoevsky spent the next 5 years in a Siberian prison under horrible conditions.
• In Siberia, Dostoevsky changes his life
1. Had first epileptic seizure
2. Rejects blind acceptance of new ideas
3. Becomes a Slavophil (believes the salvation of the world was in the hands of Russia and eventually Russia would rise to dominate the world, therefore each Russian must contribute his utmost to the development of Russian ideas and culture) like Porfiry
4. Formulates his ideas about suffering as the means of salvation
• His first wife is a tubercular young widow with a young son by her first marriage. The marriage was short because she dies of her disease (like Katerina)