Dostoevsky's novel was literally suffered by the author and excites the minds of readers to this day. The history of the creation of the novel “Crime and Punishment” is not simple, but very interesting. The writer put his whole soul into this novel, which still haunts many thoughtful people.

Birth of a plan

The idea of ​​writing a novel arose from Dostoevsky at a time when the writer was in hard labor in Omsk. Despite the hard physical work and poor health, the writer continued to observe the life around him, people whose characters, under conditions of imprisonment, were revealed from completely unexpected sides. And here, in hard labor, seriously ill, he decided to write a novel about crime and punishment. However, heavy hard labor and serious illness did not make it possible to begin writing it.

“My whole heart and blood will pour into this novel,”

This is how Dostoevsky imagined working on the work, calling it a confessional novel. However, the author was able to start writing it much later. Between the idea and its implementation, “Notes from the Underground”, “Humiliated and Insulted”, “Notes from the House of the Dead” were born. Many themes from these works, the problems of society described in them, found their place in Crime and Punishment.

Between dream and reality

After returning from Omsk, Dostoevsky's financial situation leaves much to be desired, worsening every day. And writing a huge problematic psychological novel took time.

Trying to earn at least a little money, the writer suggested that the editor of the magazine “Otechestvennye zapiski” publish a short novel, “Drunk People.” The author wanted to attract public attention to drunkenness. The plot was supposed to be connected with the Marmeladov family. The head of the family, a former official dismissed from service, becomes an alcoholic, and the whole family suffers.

However, the editor insisted on other conditions: Dostoevsky sold all rights to publish the complete collection of his works for a meager fee. In accordance with the requirements of the editor, the author begins to write a novel, which must be submitted as soon as possible. So almost suddenly the writer began working on the novel “Crime and Punishment.”

Start

Dostoevsky suffered from gambler's disease - he could not help but play. And, having received a fee from the magazine, the writer, having improved his affairs a little, again succumbed to the temptation of gambling. In Wiesbaden he had no money to pay for board and light at the hotel. Thanks only to the kindness of the hotel owners towards him, Dostoevsky did not remain on the street.

To get the money, I had to finish the novel on time, so I had to hurry. The writer decided to tell a story about how a poor student decided to kill and rob an old woman. The plot was supposed to be a story about one crime.

The author was always interested in the psychology of his heroes, and here it was extremely important to study and describe the psychological state of a person who took another’s life, it was important to reveal the “process of the crime” itself. The writer had almost finished the novel, when suddenly he destroyed the manuscript for a completely unknown reason.

Psychology of creativity

However, the novel had to be submitted to the editor according to the contract. And the hasty work began again. The first part was published by the Russian Messenger magazine already in 1866. The period for writing the novel was ending, and Dostoevsky’s plan was only gaining more and more completeness. The student's story is closely intertwined with the story of the drunkard Marmeladov and his family.

The writer was threatened with creative bondage. To avoid it, the author takes a break from “Crime and Punishment” for 21 days and literally writes a new novel “The Player” in three weeks and submits it to the publishing house.

Then he goes back to writing a lengthy novel about the crime. He studies crime chronicles and makes sure of the relevance of the chosen topic. He finishes the novel in Lublin, where he lives at that time with his sister on the estate. The novel was completely finished and published at the end of 1866.

Diary of working on a novel

It is impossible to study the history of writing a novel without studying the writer’s drafts. Sketches and rough notes help to understand how much effort, work, soul and heart, how many thoughts and ideas the author put into his novel. They show how the concept of the work changed, how the range of tasks expanded, how the entire architecture of the novel’s composition was built.

The writer almost completely changed the form of the narrative in order to understand Raskolnikov’s behavior and character as thoroughly and thoroughly as possible, to understand the motives of his actions and deeds. In the final version (the third), the narration is already conducted in the third person.

So the hero begins to live his own life, and completely independently of the will of the author, does not obey him. Reading the workbooks, it becomes clear how long and painfully Dostoevsky himself tries to understand the motives that pushed the hero to commit a crime, but the author almost failed.

And the writer creates a hero in whom “two opposing characters alternately alternate.” It is clearly visible how in Rodion two extremes, two principles are simultaneously present and fighting each other: contempt for people and love for them.

Therefore, it was very difficult for the author to write the ending of the novel. Dostoevsky first wanted to end with how the hero turned to God. However, the final version ends completely differently. And this makes the reader think, even after the last page of the novel is turned.

F.M. Dostoevsky nurtured the idea of ​​the novel “Crime and Punishment” for six years: in October 1859 he wrote to his brother: “In December I will begin a novel... do you remember, I told you about one confession - a novel that I wanted to write after everyone, saying that I still have to go through it myself. The other day I completely decided to write it immediately... My whole heart will pour into this novel. I conceived it in hard labor, lying on a bunk, in a difficult moment..." - judging by the writer’s letters and notebooks, we are talking specifically about the ideas of “Crime and Punishment” - the novel initially existed in the form of Raskolnikov’s confession. In Dostoevsky's draft notebooks there is the following entry: “He killed Aleko. The consciousness that he himself is unworthy of his ideal, which torments his soul. This is crime and punishment” (we are talking about Pushkin’s “Gypsies”).

The final plan is formed as a result of the great upheavals that Dostoevsky experienced, and this plan united two initially different creative ideas.

After the death of his brother, Dostoevsky finds himself in dire financial need. The threat of debtor's prison hangs over him. Throughout the year, Fyodor Mikhailovich was forced to turn to St. Petersburg moneylenders, interest-bearers and other creditors.

In July 1865, he proposed a new work to the editor of Otechestvennye Zapiski, A. A. Kraevsky: “My novel is called “Drunken” and will be in connection with the current issue of drunkenness. Not only the issue is examined, but all its ramifications are presented, mainly paintings families, raising children in this environment, and so on... and so on." Due to financial difficulties, Kraevsky did not accept the proposed novel, and Dostoevsky goes abroad to concentrate on creative work, away from creditors, but history repeats itself there: in Wiesbaden, Dostoevsky loses everything at roulette, even his pocket watch.

In September 1865, addressing the publisher M. N. Katkov in the magazine “Russian Bulletin”, Dostoevsky sets out the idea of ​​the novel as follows: “This is a psychological report of a crime. The action is modern, this year. A young man expelled from university students, a tradesman in origin and living in extreme poverty, due to frivolity, due to unsteadiness in concepts, succumbing to some strange, “unfinished” ideas that were floating in the air, he decided to get out of his bad situation at once. He decided to kill one old woman, a titular adviser who gave money for interest. ... in order to make her mother, who lives in the district, happy, to save her sister, who lives as a companion with some landowners, from the voluptuous claims of the head of this landowner family - claims that threaten her with death, to complete the course, go abroad and then be all her life honest, firm, unswerving in the fulfillment of his “humane duty to humanity”, which, of course, will “make amends for the crime”, if only this act against an old woman who is deaf, stupid, evil and sick, who herself does not know why she lives on light and which in a month, perhaps, would have died of its own accord...

He spends almost a month before the final disaster. There is not and cannot be any suspicion against him. This is where the entire psychological process of the crime unfolds. Unsolvable questions arise before the killer, unsuspected and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's truth, earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up being forced to denounce himself. Forced to die in hard labor, but to join people again, the feeling of isolation and disconnection from humanity, which he felt immediately after committing the crime, tormented him. The law of truth and human nature took their toll. The criminal himself decides to accept torment in order to atone for his deed..."

Katkov immediately sends the author an advance. F. M. Dostoevsky works on the novel all autumn, but at the end of November he burns all the drafts: “... a lot was written and ready; I burned everything... the new form, the new plan carried me away, and I started again.”

In February 1866, Dostoevsky informed his friend A.E. Wrangel: “Two weeks ago, the first part of my novel was published in the January book of the Russian Messenger. It’s called Crime and Punishment. I’ve already heard a lot of enthusiastic reviews. There are brave and new things".

In the fall of 1866, when “Crime and Punishment” was almost ready, Dostoevsky began again: according to the contract with the publisher Stellovsky, he was supposed to present a new novel by November 1 (we are talking about “The Gambler”), and in case of failure to fulfill the contract, the publisher would have the right for 9 years, “for free and as you please,” print everything that is written by Dostoevsky.

By the beginning of October, Dostoevsky had not yet begun to write The Player, and his friends advised him to turn to the help of shorthand, which at that time was just beginning to come into use. The young stenographer Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, invited by Dostoevsky, was the best student of the St. Petersburg stenography courses; she was distinguished by her extraordinary intelligence, strong character and deep interest in literature. "The Player" was completed on time and delivered to the publisher, and Snitkina soon became the writer's wife and assistant. In November and December 1866, Dostoevsky dictated to Anna Grigorievna the last, sixth part and epilogue of Crime and Punishment, which were published in the December issue of the Russian Messenger magazine, and in March 1867 the novel was published as a separate edition.

For six years, F. M. Dostoevsky developed the concept of the novel “Crime and Punishment,” just during his hard labor. That is why the first thought was to write about Raskolnikov’s ordeals. The story was not supposed to be big, but still a whole novel arose.

In 1865, Dostoevsky told the idea of ​​his novel with the title “Drunken” to the publisher of the magazine “Domestic Notes” A. A. Kraevsky, demanding three thousand rubles in advance. To which Fyodor Mikhailovich was refused.

Without a penny in his pocket, Dostoevsky enters into a slave agreement with the publishing house of F. T. Stellovsky. According to the agreement, the poor writer undertakes to transfer the right to publish complete collections of his works in three volumes, and also to provide a new novel on ten sheets within a year. For this, Dostoevsky received three thousand rubles and, having paid off his debts, left for Germany.

Being a gambling person, Fyodor Mikhailovich is left without money, and subsequently without food and light. It was this condition of his that helped bring into being a work that became known throughout the world.

The new idea of ​​the novel was the story of the repentance for the crime of one poor student who killed a greedy old money-lender. Three people became the prototypes for creating the plot: G. Chistov, A. T. Neofitov and P. F. Lasener. They were all young criminals of the time. In the same 1865, Dostoevsky did not find a balance between his thoughts, and as a result, he burned the first draft of the work.

Already at the beginning of 1866, the first part of “Crime and Punishment” was published. Inspired by the success, all six parts of the novel appeared in the Russian Messenger that same year. In parallel with this, Dostoevsky creates the novel “The Gambler,” which was promised to Stellovsky.

When creating the novel “Crime and Punishment,” three draft notebooks were created that describe all the author’s working stages.

“Crime and Punishment” reveals two main topics: the commission of the crime itself and the consequences of this action on the criminal. This is where the title of the work came from.

The main goal of the novel is to reveal the feelings for the life of the main character Raskolnikov, for what purpose he committed murder. Dostoevsky was able to show how feelings of love and hatred for people resist in one person. And in the end, receive forgiveness from all the people.

F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” teaches its reader to find human sincerity, love and compassion under all the dark masks of the surrounding society.

Option 2

Fyodor Mikhailovich is a famous Russian writer of the 19th century. He created a large number of novels and stories in which he summarized his entire life experience. Now his works are read with special awe. The most famous creation of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is the novel “Crime and Punishment”. It is included in the school curriculum. Of course, every person who thinks about morality and morality must study it.

This article presents the history of the creation of Dostoevsky's most famous work.

In the fall of 1859, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote to his brother that he was ready to start writing a novel in the winter. He had a plan in his head for a long time. He emphasized that this would be the confession of a criminal. He is ready to fit into it all his life experience acquired during his stay in hard labor. He thought about many things, lying on his bunk, when he was freezing in a damp cell. It was in the place of hard labor that the writer met a large number of people who were strong in spirit and morally. These people helped change Fyodor Mikhailovich's beliefs.

Six years later, Dostoevsky began work. During this period many other novels were written, but not the main one. The main theme of all those works was the idea of ​​poverty, humiliation of people who were forced to face all these difficulties in order to repent. The work was written in 1865. It had a name different from the current one - “Drunk”. Dostoevsky brought it to the editorial office, where his works were usually published, but there Kraevsky said that there was no money for publication. Dostoevsky was saddened, but then turned to another editor. The novel was published, Dostoevsky received the money, paid off all his debts and went traveling. But the novel was not finished.

Initially, the emphasis was on the lives of poor people, who are called “drunks.” Dostoevsky showed the life of the Marmeladov family, black Petersburg, showed all the cruel reality, after all, he was a realist. Dostoevsky is confident that all the poverty and beggary of people is purely their fault.

Then the writer went to Dresden and there he thought that it would be better for him to edit his work. And he brought Raskolnikov’s story into the novel, or rather, he revealed it in much more detail. This means that the author wanted to pay particular attention to the criminal part of the work.

Despite the time, the work is still relevant today.

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When was Crime and Punishment written? Few people remember, although everyone remembers its plot.

"Crime and Punishment" year of writing

The novel “Crime and Punishment” was written in 1866 writer F. M. Dostoevsky.

Dostoevsky wrote the novel from 1865-1866. “Crime and Punishment” reproduces the life of the urban poor, reflects the growth of social inequality and crime.

The novel was published in parts from January to December 1866. Dostoevsky worked a lot on the novel, rushing to add fresh chapters to each new book in the magazine. Soon after the publication of the novel in the magazine was completed, Dostoevsky published it in a separate edition: “A novel in six parts with an epilogue by F. M. Dostoevsky. Corrected edition." For this edition, Dostoevsky made significant cuts and changes in the text: three parts of the magazine edition were transformed into six, and the division into chapters was partially changed.

The main motive of the novel “Crime and Punishment”- this is a decline in morality. In his work, F. M. Dostoevsky talks about people living an intense spiritual life, who painfully and persistently search for the truth.
The writer shows the life of different social groups: disadvantaged urban people, oppressed by poverty and humiliation, educated poor people rebelling against evil and violence, successful businessmen. Dostoevsky deeply explores not only the inner world of an individual person, but also his psychology. It poses complex social, moral and philosophical questions. The search for answers to these questions, the struggle of ideas - this is what forms the basis of the novel.

F. M. Dostoevsky nurtured the idea of ​​the novel “Crime and Punishment” for six years: in October 1859 he wrote to his brother: “In December I will begin the novel...

Do you remember, I told you about one confession - a novel that I wanted to write after everyone else, saying that I still had to experience it myself. The other day I completely decided to write it immediately...

My whole heart and blood will pour into this novel. I conceived it in penal servitude, lying on a bunk, in a difficult moment...” - judging by the writer’s letters and notebooks, we are talking specifically about the ideas of “Crime and Punishment” - the novel initially existed in the form of Raskolnikov’s confession. In Dostoevsky’s rough notebooks, the following is found entry: “Killed Aleko. The consciousness that he himself is unworthy of his ideal, which torments his soul.

This is crime and punishment" (we are talking about Pushkin's "Gypsies"). The final plan is formed as a result of the great upheavals that Dostoevsky experienced, and this plan united two initially different creative ideas. After the death of his brother, Dostoevsky finds himself in dire material need.

The threat of debtor's prison hangs over him. Throughout the year, Fyodor Mikhailovich was forced to turn to St. Petersburg moneylenders, interest-bearers and other creditors.

In July 1865, he proposed a new work to the editor of Otechestvennye Zapiski, A. A. Kraevsky: “My novel is called “Drunken” and will be in connection with the current issue of drunkenness. Not only the issue is examined, but all its ramifications are presented, mainly paintings families, raising children in this environment, etc...

and so on." Due to financial difficulties, Kraevsky did not accept the proposed novel, and Dostoevsky goes abroad to concentrate on creative work, away from creditors, but even there history repeats itself: in Wiesbaden, Dostoevsky loses everything at roulette, even his pocket watch. In September 1865, addressing the publisher M. N. Katkov in the magazine “Russian Messenger,” Dostoevsky outlined the idea of ​​the novel as follows: “This is a psychological report of a crime. The action is modern, this year.

A young man, expelled from the university students, a tradesman by birth and living in extreme poverty, due to frivolity, due to unsteadiness in concepts, succumbing to some strange, “unfinished” ideas that were floating in the air, he decided to get out of his bad situation at once. He decided to kill one old woman, a titular councilor who gave money for interest... in order to make his mother, who lived in the district, happy, and to save his sister, who lived as a companion with some landowners, from the voluptuous claims of the head of this landowner family - claims that threatened her death, finish the course, go abroad and then spend your whole life being honest, firm, unswerving in the fulfillment of your “humane duty to humanity,” which, of course, will “make up for the crime,” if you can call this act against a deaf, stupid old woman a crime, angry and sick, who herself does not know why she lives in the world and who in a month, perhaps, would have died of her own accord... He spends almost a month before the final catastrophe. There is not and cannot be any suspicion against him. This is where the entire psychological process of the crime unfolds.

Unsolvable questions arise before the killer, unsuspected and unexpected feelings torment his heart. God's truth, earthly law takes its toll, and he ends up being forced to denounce himself.

Forced to die in hard labor, but to join people again, the feeling of isolation and disconnection from humanity, which he felt immediately after committing the crime, tormented him. The law of truth and human nature took their toll. The criminal himself decides to accept torment in order to atone for his deed...” Katkov immediately sends the author an advance.

F. M. Dostoevsky works on the novel all autumn, but at the end of November he burns all the drafts: “...

much was written and ready; I burned everything... the new form, the new plan captivated me, and I started again."

In February 1866, Dostoevsky informed his friend A.E. Wrangel: “Two weeks ago, the first part of my novel was published in the January book of the Russian Messenger. It’s called Crime and Punishment.” I have already heard many enthusiastic reviews.

There are bold and new things there." In the fall of 1866, when "Crime and Punishment" was almost ready, Dostoevsky began again: according to the contract with the publisher Stellovsky, he was supposed to present a new novel by November 1 (we are talking about "The Gambler"), and in the event of failure to fulfill the contract, the publisher will have the right for 9 years “for free and as he pleases” to print everything that will be written by Dostoevsky. By the beginning of October, Dostoevsky had not yet begun to write “The Gambler,” and his friends advised him to turn to the help of shorthand, which is available. At that time, she was just beginning to enter into life. The young stenographer Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, invited by Dostoevsky, was the best student of the St. Petersburg stenography courses, she was distinguished by her extraordinary intelligence, strong character and deep interest in literature. The Player was completed on time and handed over to the publisher, and Snitkina soon became his wife. and assistant writer.