A novel written in the dungeons

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On December 4, 1862, while imprisoned in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Nikolai Chernyshevsky began writing the novel What Is to Be Done?, which “plowed” Russia.

As reported in the book by Pavel Shchegolev “Alekseevsky ravelin” (series “Historical and literary archive”, Moscow, ed. “Book”, 1989), the novel “What is to be done?” Chernyshevsky wrote in 4 months: having begun on December 4, 1862, he finished on April 4, 1863. As Pavel Shchegolev, who personally worked with the writer’s archive, explains, in order to “force” the creative process as much as possible, Chernyshevsky, starting from the 18th sheet of the manuscript, abandoned the ordinary font and began to use a cursive system of his own invention, which seemed very suspicious to the jailers. Using this innovative method of work, Nikolai Gavrilovich managed to write his novel twice in 4 months: once in rough cut cursive and the second time in white. The white edition was sent by him to the Sovremennik magazine, whose editor at that time was Nikolai Nekrasov.

The fact that the prisoner Chernyshevsky was allowed not only to have writing materials and receive the books necessary for work, but also to send his works to the press, is explained by the fact that during this period the Peter and Paul Fortress was used as a pre-trial detention center (i.e., the prisoners who were there were not convicted, but under investigation).

Nikolai Chernyshevsky was arrested in his apartment on July 7, 1862, on charges of compiling an outrageous appeal “Bow to the lordly peasants from their well-wishers”, which was regarded as a measure aimed at indignation of the people and overthrow of the existing order. In addition, Chernyshevsky was accused of illegal relations with the London exile Herzen and of participating in his criminal plans.

When Chernyshevsky was arrested, he never doubted for a moment that the government would have no evidence to expose him as a crime against the state, and that the imprisonment itself could not be prolonged. On October 5, 1862, that is, 3 months after his arrest, he wrote to his wife: “It can only be judged by common sense that more than half of our time of separation has passed.”

But the government did not err in determining the specific gravity of Chernyshevsky’s personality, his danger as an agitator and publicist, and did not stop at any measures and means to drag out the case and falsify evidence.

“The novel” What to do? was written during the first period of his imprisonment, when there was still a strong revival, when reality had not yet resounded, from which Chernyshevsky, as it turned out, had gone forever. Two elements are peculiarly intertwined in the novel: the justification of the empirical life in which Chernyshevsky lived, and the construction of a utopia of a future happy life, when there will be neither poor nor unfortunate, but everyone will be free and happy. Chernyshevsky began with deeply subjective experiences and ended with an objective construction of the highest order. And the friend of my life (wife Olga Sokratovna. – S.I.) he raised to an unattainable height: in reality, she was not like that and, in any case, was alien to the idealistic justification of the relationship between husband and wife, which Chernyshevsky erected. While working on the novel, Chernyshevsky thought about new people who act in a new way, give a new resolution to issues of everyday life and human relations – they are all positivists, materialists, reasonable egoists, ”writes Pavel Shchegolev.

According to the memoirs of Avdotya Panaeva, after leaving the dungeons of the Peter and Paul Fortress in April 1863, the white manuscript of the novel was almost lost due to a fatal accident:

“Nekrasov (editor-in-chief of Sovremennik. — S.I.) he himself took the manuscript to the printing house of Wulff, located nearby – on Liteiny near Nevsky. A quarter of an hour had not passed when Nekrasov returned and, entering my room, struck me with a lost expression on his face:

“A great misfortune has happened to me,” he said in an agitated voice, “I dropped the manuscript!” <...> And the devil took me to leave today in a droshky, and not in a carriage! And how many years before I used to take a lot of manuscripts to different printing houses on vans and never lost a piece of paper, but here I couldn’t bring a thick manuscript!

Nekrasov could not give himself an account at what moment the manuscript fell from his knees:

– I thought, I look: there is no manuscript; I ordered the coachman to turn back, but she was no longer on the pavement, as if she had fallen through the ground … What should I do now?

I hurried Nekrasov to write an advertisement in the newspapers and set a good reward for its delivery. <...> The next morning, the announcement was published in Police Vedomosti, and Nekrasov was terribly worried that no one would come with the manuscript to the editor.

(Quoted from the book: Avdotya Panaeva. “Memoirs”. Publishing house “Zakharov”, Moscow, 2002)

However, on the same day, a minor official brought the manuscript, who said that he picked it up on the pavement, crossing Liteinaya Street near the Mariinsky Hospital. Delighted, Nekrasov doubled the amount of the reward: instead of the 50 rubles promised in the ad, he gave the poor official another 50.

According to Avdotya Panaeva, after the publication “Chernyshevsky’s novel was a huge success in the public, and in the literature raised endless controversy and controversy.” This work enjoyed particular success among young people and, as many contemporaries noted, had a powerful influence on the warehouse of the revolutionary worldview of the era.

Sergei Ishkov.

Photo irsepi.ru

Message A novel written in the dungeons first appeared on Moscow truth.

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