Dostoyevsky, The Man Behind: Memoirs, Letters & Autobiographical Works. Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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Norman, he ignores the Norman blood of his compatriots, and declares ingenuously that they are merely Finno-Turks, who came originally from Asia. The author here adopts the attitude of the majority of the Lithuanians, who, under the influence of some perverted sense of national pride, have always repudiated their Norman ancestors.3
3 In their hatred of Russia and of Poland, the Lithuanians have even refused to admit that they have Slav blood in their veins. Yet one has only to look at them to see that they are much more Slav than Finno-Turkish.
Instead of glorying in their descent, as the wise Rumanians glory in their descent from the ancient warriors of Rome, the Lithuanians have always tried to pass off their Norman Grand Dukes as princes of native blood. The Russians have never been deceived on this point. They knew that the Lithuanians were too weak to beat them, and were only able to do so with the help of the Normans. This is why my compatriots have always given all these Gediminas, Algardas and Vitantas their true Norman names of Guedimine, Olguerd and Witold. The Poles and the Germans have done the same, and the Norman princes have passed into history under their real names, to the great annoyance of all the Lithuanophils. Guedimin was the most famous of these princes. He was of the true Norman type, almost without any trace of Finno-Turkish blood. His portraits always remind me of those of Shakespeare; there is a family likeness between these two Normans. Guedimin showed the characteristic Norman indifference and tolerance in religious matters; he protected both Catholic and Orthodox. For his own part, he preferred to remain a pagan.
As Russia and Ukrainia became stronger, they succeeded in severing their connection with Lithuania and recovering their former independence. When they had lost their rich provinces to the east and the south, the Lithuanians were enfeebled, and could no longer struggle against their mortal enemies, the Knights of the Teutonic Order. The Germans conquered Lithuania, and introduced into the country a host of mediasval institutions and ideas. These the Lithuanians retained for a long time when they had entirely disappeared from the rest of Europe. The Germans forced the Lithuanians to become Protestants. Like all Slavs, the Lithuanians were mystics, and Luther's religion meant nothing to them.4
4 The Finns, the Esthonians and the Letts, who are Finno-Turks of unmixed race, adopted the Protestant religion with ardour and remained faithful to it. The hostility the Lithuanians have always shown to Protestantism attests their Slav blood more eloquently than all else. The Slavs, who readily embraced the Orthodox or the Catholic faith, have never been able to understand the doctrine of Luther.
When at a later period Poland had become a powerful state in its turn, and had wrested Lithuania from the Teutonic Knights,5 the Lithuanians hastened to return to the Catholic or Orthodox faith of their ancestors. The Polish Catholic clergy, especially the Jesuits, warred passionately against the Orthodox monastic houses; but these were protected by many Lithuanian families, who preferred the Orthodox religion. Among these were some very influential personalities, notably Prince Constantine Ostrogesky, the celebrated champion of the Orthodox Church. In face of this determined resistance the Poles were obliged to leave the Orthodox religious houses in the country, placing them, however, under the supervision of noble Catholic families, in order to check Orthodox propaganda. The Jesuits organised excellent Latin schools, forced the nobihty of the country to send their sons to them, and in a short time succeeded in latinising all the young nobles of Lithuania. Poland, wishing to attach the Lithuanians to herself definitively, introduced among them many Polish institutions, including the Schliahta, or Union of Nobles. The Schliahtitchi (nobles) adopted the custom of ralljdng to the banner of some great lord of the country in time of war, and lived under his protection in time of peace. These lords allowed the Schliahtitchi to adopt their armorial bearings. Later, Russia, who had borrowed numerous institutions from Lithuania, imitated the Schliahta by creating the Union of Hereditary Nobles, Among the Russians, this Union was agrarian rather than martial; but in both countries the Unions were above all patriotic.
5 The Germans, however, kept a part of Lithuania, which was inhabited by the Lithuanian tribe of the Borussi. They ger-manised it and christened it Prussia. The Prussians are not Germans, but Lithuanians, first normanised and then germanised. Their strength of character and the important part they have played in Germany are due to their Norman blood. The majority of the Prussian Junkers are the direct descendants of the ancient Norman chiefs.
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My father's ancestors were natives pf the Government of Minsk, where, not far from Pinsk, there is stiU a place called Dostoyeve, the ancient domain of my father's family. It was formerly the wildest part of Lithuania, covered almost entirely with vast forests; the marshes of Pinsk extended as far as the eye could reach. The Dostoyevsky were Schliahtitchi and belonged to the "grassy Radwan." That is to say, they were nobles, they went to war under the banner of the Lord of Radwan, and had the right to bear his arms. My mother had the Radwan armorial bearings drawn for the Dostoyevsky Museum at Moscow. I have seen them, but I cannot describe them, as I have never studied heraldry.
The Dostoyevsky were Catholics, very devout and very intolerant, it seems. In the course of our researches into the origin of our family, we found a document, in which an Orthodox monastery placed under the supervision of the Dostoyevsky family complained of their harsh treatment of the Orthodox monks. This document proves two things:
1. That the Dostoyevsky must have held a good position in their country, otherwise an Orthodox monastery would not have been placed under their supervision.
2. That as fervent Catholics, the Dostoyevsky must have sent their sons to the Latin schools of the country, and that my father's ancestors must have possessed that excellent Latin culture which the Catholic clergy propagate wherever they go.
When in the eighteenth century the Russians annexed Lithuania, they did not find the Dostoyevsky in the country; the family had passed into Ukrainia. What they did there and what towns they inhabited we know not. I have no idea what my great grandfather Audrey may have been, and this for. a very curious reason.
The fact is that my grandfather Mihail Andrevitch Dostoyevsky was a highly original person. At the age of fifteen he had a mortal quarrel with his father and his brothers, and ran away from home. He left the Ukraine, and went to study medicine at Moscow University. He never spoke of his family, and made no reply when questioned as to his origin. Later, when he had reached the age of fifty, his conscience seems to have reproached him for having thus quitted the paternal roof. He put an advertisement in the papers, begging his father and his brothers to let him hear from them. No notice was ever taken of this advertisement. It is probable that his relations were all dead. The Dostoyevsky do not make old bones.
However, my grandfather Mihail must have declared his origin to his children, for I often heard my father, and later my uncles say: "We Dostoyevsky are Lithuanians, but we are not Poles. Lithuania is a country quite distinct from Poland."
My father told my mother of a certain Episcopus Stepan, who, according to him, was the founder of our Orthodox family. To my great regret, my mother did not pay much attention to these words of her husband's, and did not ask him for more precise details. I suppose that one of my Lithuanian ancestors, having emigrated to the Ukraine, changed his religion in order to marry an Orthodox Ukrainian, and became a priest. When his wife died he probably entered a monastery, and later, rose to be an Archbishop.6
6 In the Orthodox Church only monks—the Black Clergy-may become Archbishops. The White Clergy—married priests never rise to high rank. When they lose their wives they often become monks, and can then pursue their career.
This would explain how the Archbishop Stepan may have founded our Orthodox family, in spite of his being a monk. My father must have been convinced of the existence of this Episcopus, for he named his second son Stepane in his honour.
At this time Dostoyevsky was fifty years old. It is very curious that my grandfather pubUshed his advertisement in the newspaper when he reached this age, and that it was also at the age of fifty that my father suddenly remembered the existence of the Archbishop Stepan. Both seem to have felt a wish to strengthen the bonds of union with their ancestors at this period.
It is somewhat surprising to see the Dostoyevsky, who had been warriors in Lithuania, become priests in the Ukraine. But this is quite in accordance with Lithuanian custom. I may quote the learned