Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky

In 1863, Vremia, the journal he had started with his brother, was banned for political reasons. The bitterness of the novel can also be partially attributed to the circumstances of Dostoevsky's life at the time. Dostoevsky's visit to Europe, where he saw the symbol of utopian ideals?the crystal palace, made him even more skeptical of the liberal position. While he was in prison, the ideals of Western Europe penetrated Russian more and more, so that the utopianism of the 1840s with which he had been involved had become integrated into a wider liberal movement by the 1860s. As a result, Dostoevsky turned against his previous utopian beliefs. In Siberia he interacted with common people who were not members of the intelligentsia and discovered that they viewed the intellectuals with the same distaste as the ruling class. In the 1840s he had been a romantic and a liberal, defending the Western ideas of utopia, materialism, and rationalism. The time spent in prison and the visit to Europe served to drastically alter Dostoevsky's world view. He wrote a novel about his experience in Siberia and then, after visiting Western Europe, wrote another book about his experience there. In 1859, having gotten married, Dostoevsky was allowed to return to St. From 1850 to 1854, Dostoevsky was in Siberia and then served in the army for the next four years.

At the last moment, they were told that their lives had been pardoned by the Tsar and they were sentenced instead to exile and hard labor in Siberia.

As a result of his liberal political leanings, Dostoevsky was sentenced to death along with a group of liberals in 1849. The novel, written in 1864, reflects the changes in Dostoevsky's thought that had occurred as a result of recent events in his life.

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky