Conclusion

This concluding chapter describes how, on the night of December 24, 1849, Fyodor Dostoevsky headed out for two great unknowns. One was a trip by sled of almost fourteen hundred miles to prison in the provincial city of Omsk. The other was an equally dark and searing internal journey to ponder his past, present, and future. Dostoevsky was being exiled to Siberia, from which he would come back to St. Petersburg and astound the world with Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Devils, and The Brothers Karamazov. Four things not only saved Dostoevsky, but also ensured that he would be heard from again. First, he stood his ground with the members of the Investigatory Commission for the Petrashevsky affair. Second, having escaped death, Dostoevsky began the long and arduous process of genuine confession. Third, he advanced as a writer. Finally, Dostoevsky learned to love and revere creation and humankind in a genuine and sincere way. His fifteen minutes or so facing his end at the Semyonovsky Parade Ground showed him the sinfulness of his past and the sanctity of his present and future.