Dostoevsky Escapes Death Sentence

On this day the writer Fyodor Dostoevsky escaped imminent death. He had been convicted of participating in a secret revolutionary society with conspiratorial aims, the Petrashevsky Circle, and had been sentenced to death. After the sentence, the conspirators were taken to Semyonov Place in Saint Petersburg where they were lined up in front of a firing squad. The execution was about to take place when a cart arrived with a letter from the Tzar commuting the sentence. Dostoevsky later described the experience of what he believed to be the last moments of his life in his novel The Idiot.

Author: Tony

Born and raised in Malaysia between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. Educated at Wycliffe College in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire, England. Living in the foothills of Mount Etna since 1982 and teaching English at Catania University since 1987. View all posts by Tony