New Delhi. 11 November: On the evening of 11th November, the birth anniversary of Fyodor Dostoevsky, his great-great-great Grandson "Alexei Dostoevsky" walked among us at Russian Cultural Centre of New Delhi. The evening was more than a commemoration — it became a bridge between centuries, when history seemed to breathe again. His words carried the weight of five hundred years of family memory — from Tatar roots and Napoleonic battlefields to the spiritual struggles that gave birth to one of the world’s greatest literary voices.
MEETING ALEXEI DOSTOYEVSKY
When I met him and spoke to him at the start of lecture, Alexei Dimitrievich Dostoyevsky was remarkably warm and cordial. There was an ease in his manner that instantly dissolved formality. He listened intently, smiled often, and spoke with quiet sincerity. I have rarely seen someone so approachable, especially one carrying such an extraordinary legacy. His humility and gentleness left a lasting impression — as if the kindness and depth of his ancestor’s world had found living expression in him.
A HISTORIC EVENING IN DELHI
On the birth anniversary of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the Russian Cultural Centre hosted a remarkable event attended by scholars, students, and admirers of Russian literature. It was a historic occasion — the first-ever visit of a Dostoyevsky descendant to India. Alexei began his address by expressing his joy and fascination at being in India, describing it as “fantastic and majestic.” He then took the audience on a journey through the family’s long and extraordinary past.
During the event some Russian members of the audience had put a small Soviet era statue of Fyodor Dostoevsky on the stage along with two small figurines.
FROM TATAR ROOTS TO THE SLAVIC WORLD
Alexei recounted that the Dostoyevsky lineage began in a Tatar Mongol fiefdom (Tatar Murza). In 1504, their ancestor Danila Irtishch moved to a Slavic Christian fiefdom and settled in a village called Dosteyvo in modern-day Belarus — a name meaning “knife.” There the family received a small estate and used the double surname Irtishchev-Dostoyevsky for several generations, later shortening it to Dostoyevsky.
The village of Dosteyvo still exists. Alexei said his family visited a few years ago and found the stones of their ancestral house. After centuries in Belarus, the family gradually moved south to Vinnytsia Oblast (today in Ukraine), and in time became dispersed across Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Many generations served as priests, both Orthodox and Greek Catholic.
THE TURNING POINT — MIKHAIL DOSTOYEVSKY
The family’s story changed with Mikhail Andriyevich Dostoyevsky, Fyodor’s father. Raised in an Orthodox environment, he studied at a seminary but received imperial orders to study at the Moscow Medical Academy — part of preparations for the Napoleonic wars. The state covered his education. During the Battle of Borodino he served as a doctor with the elite Borodino regiment. After five years of military service, he worked at the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor for fifteen years, earning four award orders before retiring for health reasons and receiving a government apartment.
PUSHKIN’S DEATH AND A WRITER’S OATH
It was in the year of Pushkin’s death that the brothers arrived in St. Petersburg. Aged 15 and 16, they were deeply affected by the poet’s passing and, standing at Pushkin’s grave, they took an oath never to abandon writing. Alexei reflected that “Dostoyevsky’s literary life began with Pushkin and ended with Pushkin,” noting Fyodor’s final speech at the inauguration of the Pushkin Memorial in Moscow.
THE LINEAGE TODAY
Fyodor married Anna Snitkina; they had four children, of whom only two survived into adulthood — Lyubov Fyodorovna and Fyodor Fyodorovich. From Fyodor Fyodorovich came Andrei Dostoyevsky, father of Dimitri Dostoyevsky, who is Alexei’s father.
A SCHOLAR’S NOTE
In a brief opening talk, Professor Meeta Narain of the Centre for Russian Studies, JNU, highlighted Dostoyevsky’s psychological and spiritual depth, showing how his Orthodox upbringing shaped themes of faith, doubt, love, and the darker edges of human nature in works such as Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Demons.
A LEGACY THAT STILL BREATHES
For one evening in Delhi, the world of Dostoyevsky came alive — not through fiction, but through his living descendant. Listening to Alexei trace the family’s journey from Tatar origins and the village of Dosteyvo, through Mikhail’s service at Borodino, to Fyodor’s vow at Pushkin’s grave, felt like touching a fragment of history itself — a reminder that great legacies continue to breathe through voice, spirit, and human kindness.
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