4-Hour Walking Tour of Saint Petersburg's Feodor Dostoevsky

This tour was one of the highlights of my 7 days in St Petersburg during the World Cup. Elena is an excellent guide with great knowledge of the city as it is now and was in Dostoevsky's time, the author's life and works and, specifically, Crime and Punishment. We walked the streets described so vividly in the novel, seeing so many of the buildings, bridges and canals from the book. An unexpected bonus was entering a courtyard off one of the streets and going inside an apartment block similar to those depicted in the book. One thing to be aware of is that the Dostoevsky Museum is closed on Monday so we couldn't incorporate that into the tour. Otherwise this tour could not be faulted. Since returning to Australia I have again re-read Crime and Punishment and the tour has further enhanced my appreciation of this extraordinary book. Many thanks Elena!

We took Dostoevsky private walking tour on 10 August 2017 with Elena Baturo. Hotel pickup and drop off was included in our tour. We requested to start tour at Crime and Punishment trail: Sennaya Square and surrounding slums which are the setting for this iconic novel. We took a stroll around the neighbourhood and walk the same steps as Raskolnikov after he murdered the pawnbroker in her apartment. Specifically we went to Kaznacheyskaya Street where Dostoyevsky lived in flats 1, 7 and 9 because according to some scholars, Raskolnikov may have lived on Stolyarny lane and Ill admit that after reading and visiting that place definitely maintains a sinister vibe. Crime and Punishment Zone: The murder scene, Raskolnikov's house, Haymarket, Grivtsova lane, The police office, Cache where the stolen loot is buried, The tavern, Voznesensky Bridge, Sonya Marmeladov's house, The canal. We visited Dostoevsky Museum: Dostoevskys last apartment was recreated in order to show its primary state. Elena is very polite, kind and expert guide. She has outstanding grasp on life and books of Dostoevsky. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky 1821-1881 is one of the world's greatest authors, Dostoevsky is noted for his penetrating psychological insights, whereby he delved into such complex issues as poverty, exploitation, morality, suicide, free will, the essence of good and evil, and the existence of God. His works are marked by a great empathy for the poor and the downtrodden. Dostoevsky was a writer of Crime and Punishment, in which a tormented young intellectual murders an elderly Bubushka loathesome pawnbroker, is one of his most riveting works. This book captures a distinctly Petersburgian atmosphere, but not one that features imperial palaces, classical architectural ensembles and promenades along aristocratic Nevsky Prospekt. Rather, Dostoevsky focused on Poor,underprivileged and the Humiliated as two of his earlier works were titled and on the crowded streets, dirty alleys, cheap taverns and dilapidated rooms where these outcasts inhabited. He was born on 11 November old style 30 October 1821 in Moscow where he spent the first sixteen years of his life. He moved to St. Petersburg in 1837 at his father's insistence to attend the Military Engineering Institute in the Engineers' Mikhailovsky Castle, from which he graduated in 1843. He left his job as a military engineer in 1844 to devote himself to writing and published his first novel, Poor Folks in 1846 to general critical acclaim. He thought his life was over in 1849 when he was condemned to death by firing squad for his connections to a secret society of Utopian Socialists. He was carted from his cell in the Peter and Paul Fortress to be shot on Semyonovskaya now Pionerskaya Ploshchad, but as the Guards were raising their rifles, a messenger from the Tsar arrived commuting the sentence to four years hard labor in Siberia, which was followed by five years impressed service as a soldier in a Siberian garrison. He was finally allowed to return to Petersburg in 1859, where he continued his literary career with The House of the Dead 1861, the first published novel to deal with Russian prisons. He suffered from epileptic fits, which had a significant effect on his philosophy and conception of life. Characters with epilepsy appear in four of his novels. He often fell into a perilous lack of funds and spent years in Europe hiding from creditors, where he indulged in his financially disastrous addiction to roulette at one low point, he even pawned his patient wife's wedding ring. He penned a number of classics of world literature, including Idiot, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. His oeuvre includes fifteen novels and novellas, seventeen short stories, and numerous articles, and his works have been translated into over 170 languages. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky died on 9 February 28 January orthodox calendar 1881, just two months after completing his masterwork, The Brothers Karamazov. The F.M.Dostoevsky Literary-Memorial Museum opened on November 12, 1971, in the house at 5/2 Kuznechny Lane. Dostoevsky had rented an apartment in this building twice, once for a very short time in 1846, and then from October 1878 until his death, on January 28, 1881. The beginning and end of his writing career turned out to be joined together in one spot. Here he had worked on his early story The Double, and here he wrote his last novel, The Brothers Karamazov. The Dostoevskys' apartment was recreated for the most part from the memoirs of his wife Anna and of his contemporaries. I highly recommend this tour and Elena as a tour guide.

This tour was amazing!

This tour was one of the highlights of our stay in St Petersburg. Our guide, Elena, was excellent. As we retraced the footsteps of Rodion Raskolinkov, she brought the world of Crime and Punishment vividly to life. Points that had seemed a little obscure in the book became clear. But this, very thoroughly researched, tour is not just about Crime and Punishment, or even Dostoyevsky, it gives a wonderful insight to a period in St Petersburg's history. So, whether you are a fan of Dostoyevsky or not, it is a very enjoyable way to gain a deeper understanding of this fascinating city.