Petrashevsky Circle
Origins
Early in the 1840s, Mikhail Petrashevsky began inviting friends to drop in for conversation and browse his library of “forbidden” books, a collection covering the most important political and social issues of the day (The Seeds of Revolt 241). This was the beginnings of what would become Petrashevsky’s Friday ‘circle.’ Dostoevsky began attending in the spring of 1847, and is known to have made good use of his library, borrowing texts by anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, as well as a popularization of the utopian-socialist Charles Fourier, among others (Carter 47).
Conversation at Petrashevsky’s largely centred around socialist ideas and the merits of one or another system (The Seeds of Revolt 252). Although undoubtedly well-versed in socialist theory, Dostoevsky’s interests seem to have lay elsewhere—namely, in literature and its role in society; censorship; and the abolition of serfdom (Carter 48).
Subversion and Surveillance
It is this last interest, the abolition of serfdom, that likely attracted Dostoevsky to the more radical offshoots of the Petrashevsky circle (The Seeds of Revolt 256). Nikolay Speshnev—a frequenter of the Friday meetings and, writes Joseph Frank, “ruthlessly determined to turn words into deeds”—formed a secret society made up of members of the Petrashevsky circle, Dostoevsky among them (Seeds of Revolt 257). The society’s purpose was to set up a printing press and publish propaganda against serfdom, with the stated aim of “producing a revolution in Russia” (Seeds of Revolt 267).
Prior to 1848, advocacy for the abolition of serfdom would not have been particularly subversive, as Tsar Nicholas I himself had expressed support for the cause in 1847 (Seeds of Revolt 247). The revolutions in Europe, however, saw Nicholas move to repress discussion of social reform (The Years of Ordeal 4). Indeed, it is around this time that the circle was placed under government surveillance (Seeds of Revolt 249).
Arrest and Mock Execution
After a year of surveillance, members of the Petrashevsky circle were arrested in the early morning hours of April 23 1849 (The Years of Ordeal 6). A commission having found that the meetings at Petrashevsky’s “were in general notable for a spirit of opposition to the government, and a desire to alter the existing state of things,” twenty-three members, including Dostoevsky, were condemned to death by execution (The Years of Ordeal 49). Dostoevsky was sentenced for having read aloud and distributed copies of Vissarion Belinsky’s Letter to Gogol, which called for the abolition of serfdom; for having failed to denounce another work, N. P. Grigoryev’s A Soldier’s Conversation; and for having “taken part in deliberations about printing and distributing works against the government” (The Years of Ordeal 49).
A high military court, however, asked the Tsar to show mercy—namely on the grounds that the Petrashevtsy’s criminal intentions had failed to come to fruition (The Years of Ordeal 50). Nicholas granted the request. On December 22, the Petrashevtsy were transported to Semenovsky Square. Only after preparations had been made to put them to death were the prisoners informed that their sentence had been commuted, a dramatic moment that would recur time and again in Dostoevsky’s later works (The Years of Ordeal 50).
Further Reading
1. Belinsky's Letter to Gogol
2. Dostoevsky as Reformer: the Petrashevsky Case, edited and translated by Liza Knapp
References
Carter, Stephen. The Political and Social Thought of F.M. Dostoevsky. Garland, 1991.
Frank, Joseph. Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849. Princeton, 1976.
Frank, Joseph. Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859. Princeton, 1983.