ABSTRACT
We come now to one of the most dramatic episodes in Dostoevsky’s life: his arrest for political subversion and his years of imprisonment in Siberia. A consideration of this period will sharpen our understanding of his political, social, and religious ideas. There is a popular view, mistaken in my opinion, that Dostoevsky was a socialist—even a radical or revolutionary—in the late 1840s before his arrest, and that his years in prison transformed him into a political conservative, a Russian nationalist, and Christian. This view is incorrect, he was never a revolutionary nor much of a socialist, to begin with, and he was a very unconventional conservative and Christian afterwards. Some biographers put forth the view that he returned from prison purified and humane. But Dr. Yanovsky, who knew him more intimately than anyone in the years before his arrest says he was “just exactly the same as he returned from Siberia and as he departed to the grave.” As is always the case, he does not fit into the standard categories. The years in prison and Siberia had their effect on him—how could they not?—but it is also striking how his underlying character was untouched by these events. His writing picks up ten years later with the same themes and preoccupations that were interrupted by the arrest.
