Dostoyevsky lived Here!

I would first like to note: this is the 50th post on my blog and that I have now lived (and thrived) in Russia for over 2 months!

This past Sunday, we went on one of the most low key, and yet quite informative and interesting excursions yet.  Our first stop was the restored final apartment of Fyodor Dostoyevsky which is laid out just like the day he died and also has a museum to cover his life and works.  Hopefully you know who Dostoyevsky is, but if not here is a quick bio:

He is a Russian writer and orator known for his novels, short stories and essays written about normal people in his contemporary (mid 1800s) Russia, most often set in Saint Petersburg.  His most famous works are Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov, Notes from the Underground, and The Gambler.

Touring the apartment was interesting, more from the perspective it offered on the lives of the Russian middle class life in 1880 then on anything related to him as an author.  Our tour guide did draw some very interesting parallels between events of his life and those of his works and noted the sources some of the major symbols and themes he repeatedly uses.

After this we went on a walking tour of one of the formerly worst parts of town, but is now one of the nicest and best preserved parts of this city.  Interestingly for a work of fiction, the plot of Crime and Punishment involves actual buildings, streets and bridges that exist to this day.  However they are encoded in the book and it requires some careful consideration and consultation with a street map (or a guide who has done it), but it all works out!  It was quite interesting to see the streets, still quite similar looking to how it was 150 years ago.  The biggest clue is that the event of the novel (a triple homicide carried out by a man who thinks that he is a superior person and allowed to get away with such things to further his own ambitions) occur in this area is that the apartment Dostoyevsky lived in at the time was along the route between the main characters apartment and the scene of the murder.

The man himself!

We where even able to count the steps from the murder’s apartment to scene of the crime, 720 is listed in the book and one of my friends counted his steps and got the same number! 

Translation:
In this home between 1864-1867 lived Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky
Here he wrote "Crime and Punishment"

Scene of the Crime!

Our quotient of fictional crime scenes fulfilled for the day, we withdrew to a very good Russian restaurant and had fried black bread, pelmeni and mors (Russian dumplings and cranberry juice)!

It was a good day!  This week is going to be a short one with only 3 days of class since Thursday and Friday are holidays for the “Day of National Unity” and Saturday we are going to a classical Russian music concert at a downtown theater!

Day of National Unity! = 4 day weekend!