The older I am, the more I recall and see how much Dostoyevsky influenced my life.
I am convinced that reading almost all of Dostoevsky’s works in 2013 (at the age of 28) awakened my imagination and sensitivity, which two years later translated into my creative work in the form of street photography (I started doing it consciously and regularly in October 2015) and writing (I started writing in a foreign language [English] in May 2017). The fact that Dostoevsky himself published his texts (under the title “A Writer’s Diary”) also influenced my decision to start a blog and publish my work on it. I am convinced that it is primarily thanks to Dostoevsky’s work that I redirected and developed my sensitivity in the right direction.
Thanks to Dostoevsky, I received an immeasurable dose of sublime and beautiful impressions that gave my mind and soul great strength, capable of fighting adversity, temptations, passions, and decay.
I am convinced that the fact that I practice intermittent fasting, expose my body to cold, and engage in rucking, that is methods of stressing my body in a controlled way in order to become a better version of myself, also echoes in the process of getting to know Dostoevsky’s mind and soul. Why do I write about Dostoyevsky’s influence on my life? It is because I decided to return to one of these writings. Speaking shortly, I decided to return to Dostoyevsky’s epistolography. I still have a book with his letters. I would try to read one letter a day starting from today (I wrote this text on the 2nd of August, 2025). Of course, I do not think I will be able to read one letter each day. Especially when I will be truly busy with my office work. Still, I will simply try to do it.
PS
I know that Dostoyevsky would applaud today’s Russian invasion of Ukraine. Knowing that, I want to stress that I disagree with Dostoyevsky’s political point of view (after all, he did not like Poles due to our Catholicism, the November Uprising (1830-1831) and January Uprising (1863-1864), and our cravings to be, practically in all aspects, a Western-European country, not an Eastern-European one). He saw Poles as a form of decaying agent of the world of Slovians, and he did not understand why Poles did not want to be a part of the Russian empire. Also, I remember that Dostoyevsky was writing about “rotting West” and that only the Russian idea of how to live could help people to strive in this world. We see the same message in the Russian propaganda in the third decade of the XXI century.
For more information about my attitude to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, please search on my website for some “War in Ukraine” series.
