The Autobiographical Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
: he always treated women with respect. The Russians have always retained their Oriental point of view with regard to women. Since the days of Peter the Great they have ceased to whip them; they bow low to them, kiss their hands and treat them as queens, trying to Uve up to their European civilisation. But at the same time they consider women as big children, frivolous and ignorant, who must always be amused by jests and anecdotes more or less witty. They dechne to discuss serious subjects with them, and laugh at their pretensions to an interest in politics. There is nothing more exasperating to an intelligent woman than to see fools and ignoramuses posing as her superiors. Dostoyevsky never adopted such a tone; he never tried to amuse or to fascinate women, but talked to them seriously, as to his equals. He would never follow the Russian fashion of kissing women's hands, he thought the practice humiliating to them. " When men kiss the hands of women they look upon them as slaves, and try to console them for their servitude by treating them Uke queens," he often said. " When in the future they come to recognise them as equals, they will be content to shake hands with them, as they do with their own comrades." Such speeches astonished the inhabitants of Petersburg, who could not understand them. It was one of the many ideas Dostoyevsky had inherited from his Norman ancestors. The English do not kiss the hands of their women, but greet them by clasping their hands. And yet there is no country where the women have a freer and more independent position than England.98
98 Dostoyevsky's popularity with women may also have had another cause. According to one of his comrades in the Petra-chevsky conspiracy, my father was one of those men who, " though the most virile of males, yet have something of the feminine nature," as Michelet says.
Dostoyevsky had a strong affection for Countess Tolstoy, who gave him that literary sjTnpathy which all writers need; but it was not to her he entrusted his family at his death. He had another friend, whom he saw less frequently, but for whom he had a greater veneration. This was Countess Heiden, nle Countess Zubov. Her husband was Governor-General of Finland, but she continued to live in Petersburg, where she founded a large hospital for the poor. There she spent her days tending the suffering, interesting herself in their affairs and trying to comfort them. She was a great admirer of Dostoyevsky. When they met they talked of religion; my father gave her his views on Christian education. Knowing the importance he attached to the moral training of his children, Countess Heiden became my mother's friend and tried to influence me for good. After her death, which left a great blank in my life, I understood all I owed to this saintly woman.
The literary soirees inaugurated by the students of Petersburg soon became fashionable in the great world. Instead of getting up tableaux vivants or amateur theatricals, the great Russian ladies who patronised charities organised literary gatherings in their salons. Our writers placed themselves at their disposal and promised their help in working for a good cause. As always, Dostoyevsky was the great attraction of these evenings. As the public here was a very different one to that he met at the students' gatherings, he discarded the Marmeladov monologue in favour of other fragments from his works. Faithful to his idea of bringing the intellectuals and the masses together, he chose to read to these aristocratic assemblies the chapter in The Brothers Karamazov, where the staretz Zossima receives the poor peasant women who have come on pilgrimage. One of these women having lost her son of three years old, leaves her home and her husband and wanders from convent to convent, unable to find comfort in her grief. It was his own sorrow which Dostoyevsky painted in this chapter; he, too, could not forget his little Aliosha. He put so much feeling into the simple story of the poor mother that all the women in his audience were deeply moved. The Hereditary Grand Duchess Marie Fyodor-ovna, the future Empress of Russia, was present at one of these evenings. She, too, had lost a little son and could not forget it. As she listened to my father's reading, the Cesarevna 99 cried bitterly, When the reading was over, she spoke to the ladies who had organised the evening, and told them she wished to talk to my father. The ladies hastened to meet her wishes, but they cannot have been very intelligent persons. Knowing Dostoyevsky's somewhat suspicious character, they feared he might refuse to be presented to the Cesarevna, and determined to bring about the interview by a stratagem. They went to my father and told him in mysterious tones that a very, very interesting person wished to talk to him about his reading.
99 Europeans often make a mistake in speaking of our Hereditary Grand Dukes as " Tsarevitcli." Tliis title belongs to the sons of the ancient Moscovite Tsars. The eldest son of the Emperor of Russia was the " Cesarevitch," and his wife the " Cesarevna." The word Tsar, which Europeans take for a Mongolian word, is only " Caesar " pronounced in the Russian manner.
"What interesting person?" asked Dostoyevsky in surprise. " Oh! you will see for yourself. Come with us ! " replied the young women laughingly, and they took him to a little boudoir, pushed him in and closed the door behind him. Dostoyevsky was astonished at these mysterious proceedings. The little room was dimly lighted by a shaded lamp; a young woman was quietly seated by a small table. At this time of his Ufe my father no longer looked at young women; he bowed to the lady, as one bows to a fellow-guest, and thinking some joke was being played upon him, went out by the opposite door. Dostoyevsky knew that the Cesarevna was to be at the party, but he believed, no doubt, that she had left, or perhaps, with his usual absence of mind, he had forgotten that she was among the audience. He returned to the large room, was inimediately surrounded, and plunging into a discussion which interested him, entirely forgot the incident. A quarter of an hour later the two young women who had taken him to the door of the boudoir rushed up to him.
" What did she say to you ? " they asked eagerly.
" Who do you mean? " asked my father.
" Who? Why, the Cesarevna, of course."
"The Cesarevna! But where was she? I never saw her."
The Grand Duchess was not content with this futile interview; knowing of the friendship between the Grand Duke Constantine and my father, she asked the former to present Dostoyevsky to her. The Grand Duke at once arranged a reception and invited Dostoyevsky, taking care to impress upon him whom he would meet. My father was rather ashamed of not having recognised the Cesarevna, whose portraits were to be seen in every shop window of the town. He went to the party bent on being amiable. He was delighted with the Cesarevna. She was a charming person, kindly and simple, who had the art of pleasing. Dostoyevsky made a great impression on her; she talked so much of him to her husband that the Cesarevitch also wished to make his acquaintance. Through the intermediary of Constantine Pobe-donoszev, he invited my father to come and see him. The future Alexander III interested all the Russophils and Slavophils of the Empire greatly. They expected great reforms from him. Dostoyevsky wished very much to know him, and to talk to him about his Russian and Slav ideas. He went to the Anitchkov Palace, the official dweUing of our Hereditary Grand Dukes. The imperial pair received him together and were charming to him. It is very characteristic that Dostoyevsky, who at this time was an ardent monarchist, disregarded Court etiquette and behaved in the palace as he was accustomed to behave in the salons of his friends. He spoke first, got up to go when he thought the conversation had lasted long enough, and after taking leave of the Cesarevna and her husband, left the room as he always left it, turning his face to the door. This was surely the first time in his life that Alexander III had been treated as a mere mortal. He was not in the least offended, and later spoke of my father with much esteem and sympathy. He saw so many bent backs in his life ! Perhaps he was not sorry to find in his vast empire one spine less supple than the rest.
XXVIII
THE PUSHKIN FESTIVAL
In June 1880 the inauguration of Pushkin's monument at Moscow took place. This great national festival brought all political parties together: Slavophils and Occidentals alike laid flowers at the base of the monument and celebrated the greatest of Russian poets in their speeches. Pushkin satisfied every one. The Occidentals admired his European culture and his poems, the subjects of which were of English, German and Spanish origin; the Slavophils exalted his patriotism and his magnificent Slav poems. All the Russian writers and intellectuals hastened to do him homage. Turgenev came from Paris and was given a great reception by his admirers. He had a most brilliant