In Siberian Prisons 1846–1857
In Siberian Prisons 1846–1857

Summary/Abstract: Simon Tokarzewski’s Memoirs are remarkable for several reasons. First, even though they are related to (and probably precede) Dostoevsky’s House of the Dead, they have hardly ever been mentioned as a possible stimulus for Dostoevsky’s work. Second, they contain notable comments about Dostoevsky. The details and insights Tokarzewski provides fit well with Dostoevsky’s enigmatic personality. Critics have maintained that Dostoevsky changed radically in prison from a “revolutionary” to a “reactionary.” Tokarzewski demonstrates that this is inaccurate and that Dostoevsky went to prison through one of those systemic quirks (common in autocratic Russia) that sent people to prison for brushing shoulders with revolutionaries.

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