When he was only twenty eight, the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky was, condemned to death. It was the spring of 1849. He was condemned for reading ‘subversive literature and frequenting suspect gatherings of anarchists’. There was nothing in these charges, but at the time the Tsar, like other monarchs, who had survived the aftermath of the French revolution, was still paranoid. Two days before Christmas he was taken to the place of execution. The prison yard where he was to meet his death, was arranged with funereal decorations to suit the occasion and strike further terror into the condemned. The whole thing was a farce, a pantomime, ordered by the Tsar. It seemed to appeal to his obscure sense of theatre.
As the executioners raised their rifles the procedure was suddenly interrupted by a messenger, hot foot from the palace, with a reprieve - the charade was over. The sentence was commuted to eight years hard labour in Siberia. Later Dostoyevsky said that day, December 23
rd 1849, was the happiest day of his life,
for on that day he experienced both death and resurrection. It influenced him for the rest of his life.
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