Collected Shorter Fiction, Volume 1 Read online

  Tsar Nicholas I visits England.

  Herzen leaves Russia.

  Revolution in France: Second Republic declared.

  First Californian Gold Rush.

  DATE

  AUTHOR’S LIFE

  LITERARY CONTEXT

  1849

  Goes to St Petersburg, studies law for a time. Becomes local magistrate in Tula.

  Dickens:

  David Copperfield

  (to 1850).

  1850

  Living in Moscow. Reads and translates Sterne.

  Death of Balzac.

  1851

  First serious attempt at writing fiction:

  A History of Yesterday

  (fragment). Goes to the Caucasus with eldest brother Nikolai to serve as a volunteer in the army. Begins

  Childhood

  , first part of a projected tetralogy entitled

  Four Periods of Growth

  .

  Melville:

  Moby-Dick

  . Stowe:

  Uncle Tom’s Cabin

  (to 1852).

  1852

  Enlists officially in the army.

  Childhood

  published in

  The Contemporary

  .

  Death of Gogol. Dickens:

  Bleak House

  (to 1853).

  1853

  During campaigns in the Caucasus writes

  Boyhood

  and stories of army life. Writes

  A Christmas Night

  . Publishes

  The Raid

  .

  Ostrovsky’s first play produced.

  1854

  Promoted to ensign and transferred to Crimea.

  Boyhood

  appears in

  The Contemporary

  .

  1855

  Publishes

  A Billiard-Marker’s Notes, Sevastopol in December, Sevastopol in May, The Wood-Felling

  . Returns to St Petersburg.

  Trollope:

  The Warden

  .

  1856

  Death of his brother Dmitri. Publishes

  Sevastopol in August, The Snow Storm, Two Hussars, Meeting a Moscow Acquaintance, A Landlord’s Morning

  . Resigns from the army, returns to Yasnaya Polyana.

  Aksakov:

  A Family Chronicle

  .

  Turgenev:

  Rudin

  .

  Nekrasov:

  Poems

  .

  1857

  Visits France and Switzerland. Publishes

  Youth, Lucerne

  .

  Flaubert:

  Madame Bovary

  . Trollope:

  Barchester Towers

  . Birth of Conrad.

  1858

  Visits St Petersburg. Publishes

  Albert

  .

  Pisemsky:

  A Thousand Souls

  .

  1859

  Publishes

  Three Deaths, Family Happiness

  . Critical enthusiasm more muted than for his earlier works. Starts an experimental school for the peasants at Yasnaya Polyana.

  Goncharov:

  Oblomov

  . Turgenev:

  A Nest of the Gentlefolk

  .

  Ostrovsky:

  The Storm

  .

  Eliot:

  Adam Bede

  .

  Darwin:

  The Origin of Species

  .

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Russian intervention in Hungary.

  Dostoevsky sentenced to forced labour in Siberia.

  Great Exhibition in London.

  St Petersburg-Moscow Railway opened.

  France: Second Empire established.

  Turkey declares war on Russia.

  Crimean War begins.

  Death of Tsar Nicholas I. Accession of Alexander II.

  Crimean War ends.

  Indian Mutiny.

  Committees set up to prepare the gentry for the Emancipation of the serfs from private ownership.

  Russia acquires Amur and Maritime Provinces from China.

  Russian conquest of Caucasus completed: surrender of Shamil.

  DATE

  AUTHOR’S LIFE

  LITERARY CONTEXT

  1860

  Second (and last) visit to western Europe. Death of his brother Nikolai, in France. Visits Rome.

  Turgenev:

  On the Eve, First Love

  .

  Eliot:

  The Mill on the Floss

  .

  Dickens:

  Great Expectations

  (to 1861).

  Chekhov born.

  1861

  Visits Paris, London, Brussels. Back in Russia, quarrels with Turgenev. Serves as Arbiter of the Peace. Resumes school work at Yasnaya Polyana.

  Dostoevsky:

  The House of the Dead

  .

  Herzen:

  My Past and Thoughts

  (to 1867).

  1862

  Starts publication of educational magazine. Gives up being Arbiter of the Peace. Police raid on his house. Marries Sofya Andreyevna Behrs, daughter of a court physician. Closes the school.

  Turgenev:

  Fathers and Children

  .

  Hugo:

  Les Misérables

  .

  Flaubert:

  Salammbô

  .

  1863

  Publishes

  The Cossacks, Polikushka

  . Sergei born (first of thirteen children).

  Death of Thackeray.

  Chernyshevsky:

  What is to be Done?

  1864

  Dostoevsky:

  Notes from Underground

  .

  Nekrasov:

  Who can Live Happy in Russia?

  (to 1876).

  Dickens:

  Our Mutual Friend

  (to 1865).

  1865–6

  Publishes

  1805

  (volumes 1 and 2 of

  War and Peace

  ).

  Leskov:

  Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk

  .

  1866

  Unsuccessful defence of soldier court-martialled for striking an officer.

  Dostoevsky:

  Crime and Punishment

  .

  1867

  War and Peace

  volume 3 published.

  Turgenev:

  Smoke

  .

  1868

  War and Peace

  volume 4 published.

  Dostoevsky:

  The Idiot

  . Gorky born.

  1869

  War and Peace

  volumes 5 and 6 published. Experiences acute fear of death in a hotel room at Arzamas.

  Goncharov:

  The Precipice

  .

  1870

  Begins a novel about Peter the Great. Starts learning Ancient Greek.

  Death of Dickens, Herzen. Kuprin born.

  1871

  Dostoevsky:

  Demons

  (to 1872).

  1872

  Reopens Yasnaya Polyana school. Poor health. Reading philosophers notably Schopenhauer. Writes

  A Prisoner in the Caucasus, God sees the Truth but Waits

  .

  Leskov:

  Cathedral Folk

  .

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Vladivostok founded.

  Italy: Garibaldi captures Naples and Sicily.

  Emancipation of the serfs.

  American Civil War begins. Lincoln President of the USA.

  Bismarck becomes Prime Minister of Prussia.

  American slaves freed.

  Polish Rebellion crushed.

  Zemstva and trial by jury introduced in Russia.

&
nbsp; First International formed in London.

  Russia captures Tashkent.

  American Civil War ends.

  First attempt on the life of Alexander II.

  Russia captures Samarkand and Bukhara.

  Franco-Prussian War. End of Second Empire; Third Republic inaugurated in France.

  Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Lenin) born.

  Paris Commune.

  Russian translation of Marx’s Capital published.

  DATE

  AUTHOR’S LIFE

  LITERARY CONTEXT

  1873

  Begins writing

  Anna Karenina

  .

  Leskov:

  The Enchanted Wanderer

  .

  1875

  Publishes

  New Primer, Russian Reader

  . Increasingly preoccupied with religious problems, troubled by war with Turkey.

  Saltykov-Shchedrin:

  The Golovlyovs

  (to 1880).

  1875–7

  Anna Karenina

  appears in instalments.

  1876

  Begins to practise Orthodoxy.

  James:

  Roderick Hudson

  .

  1877

  Turgenev:

  Virgin Soil

  .

  Garshin:

  Four Days

  .

  1878

  Anna Karenina

  published in book form. Reconciliation with Turgenev. Moral crisis leads him into theological studies. Abandons practice of Orthodoxy.

  Hardy:

  The Return of the Native

  .

  1879

  Begins writing

  A Confession

  .

  Dostoevsky:

  The Brothers Karamazov

  (to 1880).

  1880

  Begins

  Critique of Dogmatic Theology, Translation and Harmony of the Gospels

  . 4th edition of

  Collected Works

  appears (11 vols).

  Death of Flaubert. Blok, Bely born.

  1881

  Writes to the Tsar asking for a pardon for the assassins of Alexander II. Visits monastery of Optina Pustyn.

  Death of Dostoevsky.

  James:

  The Portrait of a Lady

  .

  1882

  Finishes

  A Confession

  (banned in Russia). Studies Hebrew. Moves his family to Moscow.

  1883

  Writes

  What I Believe

  . Hands over control of property to his wife. Chertkov arrives as a visitor, stays as a disciple.

  Death of Turgenev.

  Korolenko:

  Makar’s Dream

  .

  Garshin:

  The Scarlet Flower

  .

  1884

  What I Believe

  banned. Publishes fragments from

  The Decembrists

  (unfinished novel). Writes

  Memoirs of a Madman

  .

  Huysmans:

  Against Nature

  . Zamyatin born.

  1885

  Renounces hunting, meat, tobacco and alcohol. Publishes ‘popular’ tales including

  What Men Live By, Where Love is, God is, Ivan the Fool, Two Old Men

  .

  Zola:

  Germinal

  .

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Russian Populist movement begins.

  Russia invades Chinese Turkestan.

  Universal Exhibition in Vienna.

  Land and Liberty movement formed in Russia.

  Russia declares war on Turkey.

  Russo-Turkish War ends. Congress of Berlin.

  Afghan War.

  Trial of Vera Zasulich.

  People’s Will party formed in Russia.

  Governor of Kharkov assassinated.

  Osip Vissarionovich Djugashvili (Stalin) born.

  Alexander II assassinated. Accession of Alexander III.

  Jewish residence in Russia severely restricted.

  Great Britain: Married Women’s Property Act.

  University riots. Censorship laws strengthened.

  Plekhanov and others form Marxist study groups.

  DATE

  AUTHOR’S LIFE

  LITERARY CONTEXT

  1886

  The Death of Ivan Ilych, How Much Land Does a Man Need?, The Godson

  published. Tolstoy’s play

  The Power of Darkness

  offends the Tsar and is forbidden. Finishes

  What Then Must We Do?

  Denounced as heretic by Archbishop of Kherson.

  Chekhov: first volume of stories.

  James:

  The Bostonians, The Princess Casamassima

  .

  1887

  1888

  Publishes

  Strider

  (written 1861).

  The Power of Darkness

  performed in Paris.

  Chekhov:

  The Steppe

  . Death of Garshin.

  1889

  Begins writing

  Resurrection

  . Publication of

  Collected Works

  (12 vols). Unauthorized copies of

  The Kreutzer Sonata

  in circulation.

  Akhmatova born.

  1890

  Tsar gives permission for publication of an edited version of

  The Kreutzer Sonata

  . Writes

  The Devil

  .

  Pasternak born.

  Wilde:

  The Picture of Dorian Gray

  .

  1891

  Renounces copyright on his works post-1881, divides property among family. Writes

  Why do Men Stupefy Themselves?

  Ehrenburg, Bulgakov born.

  1891–2

  Engaged in famine relief work.

  1892

  The Fruits of Enlightenment

  produced in Moscow.

  Chekhov:

  Ward Mo. 6

  .

  Merezhkovsky:

  Symbols

  .

  Gorky publishes his first story.

  Mandelstam, Tsvetayeva born.

  1893

  Publishes

  The Kingdom of God is within you

  .

  Death of Maupassant.

  1894

  Publishes

  Christianity and Patriotism, Reason and Religion, Religion and Morality, How to Read the Gospels, Walk in the Light

  .

  Babel born.

  1895

  Publishes

  Master and Man

  . Intervenes to defend the Dukhobors against persecution.

  1896

  Chekhov:

  The Seagull

  . Merezhkovsky:

  Christ and Anti-Christ

  (to 1905).

  1897

  Chertkov arrested and exiled.

  1898

  Finishes

  Father Sergius

  . Publishes a censored version of

  What is Art?

  Zola:

  J’Accuse

  .

  Blok:

  Ante Lucem

  (to 1900).

  HISTORICAL EVENTS

  Five students (including Lenin’s brother) hanged for an attempt on the Tsar’s life.

  Second International founded.

  Beginning of Trans-Siberian Railway construction.

  Famine in southern Russia.

  Witte becomes Finance Minister.

  Famine in some Russian regions.

  Massacres in Armenia.

  Great Britain: Independent Labour Party founded.

  Death of Tsar Alexander III. Accession of Tsar Nicholas II.

  Great Britain: Greenwich bomb outrage.

  Socialist Revolutiona
ry Party founded in Russia.

  Pobedonostsev urges the Tsar to imprison Tolstoy.

  Spanish-American War. Curies discover radium.

  Russian Social Democrat Party founded.

  DATE

  AUTHOR’S LIFE

  LITERARY CONTEXT

  1899

  Publishes

  Resurrection

  (begun 1889). Son Sergei accompanies Dukhobors to Canada.

  Leonov, Olesha, Nabokov born.

  Gorky:

  Foma Gordeyev

  .

  Chekhov:

  The Lady with the Dog

  .

  1900

  Freud:

  The Interpretation of Dreams

  .