Dostoevsky-200
To Siberia for reading banned books
Fyodor Dostoevsky was born 200 years ago in Russia on November 11, 1821. His bicentenary has been marked and celebrated all around Russia for most of 2021 with almost every city and province holding exhibitions, new or revived theatrical productions, talks and lectures, and even special restaurant menus.1
In 1849 Dostoyevski was arrested for being in a literary club that discussed banned books critical of the authorities; he was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted just moments before he was to be shot. He spent four years in a prison camp and another six years of compulsory military service.
The Russian Museum possesses a number of picturesque, graphic and sculptural works associated with the name of Dostoevsky. An exhibition that is now open (October 14 — November 22, 2021) that reflects the literary and philosophical heritage of the writer and his contradictory image through the prism of creative reflection of artists who worked in different types of art, techniques and genres.2
Watch Dostoevsky’s works online
The website culture.ru has made five versions of works by Dostoevsky available online. The films, series and theatrical productions were made from 1973 ("The Village of Stepanchikovo" performed at the Gorky Theater in Moscow) to "Demons" made in 2014 and starring Sergei Makovetsky. All free. To start watching, see the site here. If you have trouble logging on, try YouTube. (a clip from Demons is linked below).
Dostoevsky Literary Memorial Museum
The Dostoevsky Literary Memorial Museum was opened on November 13, 1971 in a house in 5/2 Kuznechny Lane. Dostoevsky rented an apartment in this house twice: for a very short time in 1846 and from October 1878 until the day of his death - January 28, 1881.Here he worked on the early story "The Double", here his last novel "The Brothers Karamazov" was written.3
The International Dostoevsky Society was created in 1971 to further the study of Dostoevsky and his work. The Society has published Dostoevsky Studies, a leading journal, almost continuously since 1971. It is available open access.4
Russia Celebrates Fyodor Dostoevsky's 200th Birthday. The Moscow Times (November 11, 2021).
“Dostoevsky in the visual arts from the collection of the Russian Museum. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the writer.” The Russian Museum-October 14 — November 22, 2021. This is a varied and vivid material: the images of the writer himself - from the well-known engraved portraits of the late 19th century and classical monumental sculptural forms, to vivid psychological interpretations in painting and graphics (L. Bernshtam, S. Konenkov, G. Korzhev, G. Nemenova, V. Favorsky, etc.); whole series of illustrations to the works of Dostoevsky, interpreting his complex, multifaceted texts in different ways (M. Dobuzhinsky, N. Alekseev, A. Goncharov, A. Korsakova-Rudovich, M. Churakova, V. Goryaev, etc.); sketches of costumes and scenery for theatrical performances based on the works of Dostoevsky, made in the first third of the twentieth century (M. Dobuzhinsky, A. Benois, K. Petrov-Vodkin), etc.
The exhibition is a complex body of works with a wide variety of stylistic features and revealing a whole spectrum of creative aspirations of artists who decided to appeal to the image of the great Russian writer and his literary heritage.
This is fantastic. The first link has a lot of stuff in it. It's never shown up on my radar that any films were made of FD stuff. Not that I'm surprised. I'll have to check them out. I've had trouble making my way through FD in the past, perhaps the films would be easier. Or maybe I had bad translations.
I just ordered Demons. I'd been getting around to reading it for years. It's time.