| Apollinaria Prokofievna Suslova | |
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| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | Panino village, Gorbatovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province |
| Date of death | |
| A place of death | |
| A country | |
| Occupation | writer |
| Spouse | Vasily Vasilievich Rozanov |
| Apollinaria Prokofievna Suslova on Wikimedia Commons | |
Romance with Dostoevsky
“Polina came from the Russian province, where she had rich relatives who sent her enough money to live comfortably in St. Petersburg. Every fall she enrolled as a student at the university, but never studied or took exams. However, she diligently attended lectures, flirted with students, went to their homes, interfering with their work, incited them to perform, forced them to sign protests, took part in all political demonstrations, walked at the head of students, carrying a red banner, sang the Marseillaise, scolded the Cossacks and behaved defiantly... Polina was present at all the balls, all the literary evenings of the students, danced with them, applauded, shared all the new ideas that excited the youth... She revolved around Dostoevsky and pleased him in every possible way. Dostoevsky did not notice this. Then she wrote him a letter declaring her love. This letter was found in my father's papers, it was simple, naive and poetic. One could assume that it was written by a timid young girl, blinded by the genius of the great writer. Dostoevsky, moved, read Polina’s letter..."
The testimony of Dostoevsky's daughter in the first part is a deliberate untruth. Suslova could not have been a student at all: in the 60s. In the 19th century, higher education for women simply did not exist in Russia. Women could appear at lectures only as auditors, and the university authorities looked at this with disapproval, and there was no question of claiming admission to the exams (see the history of the Higher Women's Courses). Suslova's active participation in student life was possible only in the role of the beloved of some revolutionary-minded student (but there is no evidence of this kind). As for the story of how Suslova and Dostoevsky met, the version of the writer’s daughter seems quite plausible.
Soon Dostoevsky and his fan began an affair. The writer did not refuse his beloved’s requests: for example, her story “Until,” rather weak and pretentious, was nevertheless published in the Dostoevsky brothers’ magazine “Time.” The further relationship between Suslova and Dostoevsky can be described as “love-hate”. Fyodor Mikhailovich constantly heard reproaches from Apollinaria, demands to divorce “his consumptive wife.” Then Dostoevsky will write:
“Apollinaria is a sick egoist. The selfishness and pride in her are colossal. She demands everything from people, all perfections, does not forgive a single imperfection in respect for other good traits, but she herself relieves herself of the slightest responsibilities towards people.”
After another quarrel, instead of a planned joint trip to Europe, Apollinaria Suslova went to Paris alone. F. M. Dostoevsky arrived in France a little later... Apollinaria was no longer waiting for him; she made a new French friend. Here is how Lyubov Fedorovna Dostoevskaya writes about the further development of events:
“In the spring, Polina wrote to her father from Paris and reported the unsuccessful ending of her novel. The French lover deceived her, but she did not have the strength to leave him, and she begged her father to come to her in Paris. Since Dostoevsky delayed his arrival, Polina threatened to commit suicide - a favorite threat of Russian women. The frightened father finally went to France and did everything possible to reason with the inconsolable beauty. But since Polina found Dostoevsky too cold, she resorted to extreme measures. One fine day she came to my father at 7 o’clock in the morning, woke him up and, pulling out a huge knife, declared that her lover was a scoundrel, she wanted to plunge this knife into his throat and was now heading towards him, but first she wanted to see him again my father... I don’t know whether Fyodor Mikhailovich allowed himself to be fooled by this vulgar comedy, in any case, he advised Polina to leave her knife in Paris and accompany him to Germany. Polina agreed, this was exactly what she wanted.”
After the death of his first wife, F. M. Dostoevsky invited Apollinaria Suslova to marry him, but she refused. Their relationship continued to remain nervous, unclear, painful, primarily for Fyodor Mikhailovich. Some believe that for Suslova, Dostoevsky was not a great writer, but just an admirer; they even claim that she almost never read his books, and therefore the entire rich inner world of Fyodor Mikhailovich seemed to not exist for her. And when Dostoevsky wrote to Apollinaria in one of his letters: “Oh dear, I am not inviting you to cheap, necessary happiness...”, for her these were just words.
The young stenographer Anna Snitkina had a completely different attitude towards F. M. Dostoevsky’s proposal: she agreed to any invitation, to any happiness - as long as it was with Fyodor Mikhailovich. Anna Snitkina was ready to dissolve in him, to sacrifice herself to him. Apollinaria, on the contrary, did not long for obedient service to genius, but for personal freedom.
After the end of her affair with F. M. Dostoevsky, Apollinaria Suslova burned many incriminating papers, including the writer’s letters to her. The secrets of their stormy and unusual relationship have sunk into history, leaving researchers with only guesses and assumptions. Critics have more than once found traits of Suslova in some of the images of the great classic - Polina (“The Player”), Nastasya Filippovna (“The Idiot”), Katerina and Grushenka (“The Brothers Karamazov”). Having already parted with Apollinaria, Dostoevsky will write: “I still love her, I love her very much, but I would no longer want to love her.”
Marriage to Vasily Rozanov
When Vasily Rozanov met Apollinaria Suslova, he was still a high school student, she was well over thirty. V.V. Rozanov knew that Apollinaria was the mistress of F.M. Dostoevsky himself, and for him, a desperate admirer of the great writer, this alone was enough to show interest in her. In Rozanov’s diary there is a short entry: “Acquaintance with Apollinaria Prokofievna Suslova. Love for her. Suslova loves me, and I love her very much. This is the most wonderful woman I have ever met...”
jealousy and at the same time flirting with his friends. V.V. Rozanov certainly suffered greatly. As V.V.’s daughter states in her memoirs. Rozanova, Tatyana, “Suslova mocked him, saying that he was writing some stupid books, insulted him very much, and in the end abandoned him. It was a big scandal in a small provincial town.”
Apollinaria Suslova left Vasily Rozanov twice. Oddly enough, he forgave her everything and asked her to come back. In one of the letters of the year V.V. Rozanov wrote to her:
“...You dressed yourself in silk dresses and scattered gifts left and right to create a reputation for yourself as a rich woman, not realizing that with this reputation you bent me to the ground. Everyone saw the difference in our ages, and you complained to everyone that I was a vile libertine, what could they think other than that I married money, and I carried this thought silently for all 7 years... You disgraced me with curses and humiliation, with all sorts of counter and cross interpreted that I was busy with idiotic work.”
Dostoevsky was forty-four years old. Life was not easy, he was harassed by creditors, illnesses of his brother and wife. And suddenly this joyless background was illuminated by unexpected love - a passionate romance happened...
It is not known for certain under what circumstances this passionate girl and the gloomy, self-absorbed writer first met.
According to the writer's daughter, the relationship began unexpectedly: the writer received a letter from an admirer of his work, Apollinaria Suslova.
In it, she boldly confessed her love to her idol. The author of the sensational “Notes from the House of the Dead” was popular among the youth of that time, and Apollinaria invariably visited places where one could meet the great writer.
He himself noticed, reading a new work at literary evenings, how the eyes of a tall and slender listener with red hair lit up.
Her eyes were like those of a cat, with which she looked proudly and arrogantly. A little time passed, and Fyodor Mikhailovich reciprocated the stranger’s feelings.
Apollinaria was a peasant by birth and grew up in the village until the age of 15, and then, together with her younger sister Nadezhda, was raised in a private boarding house in Moscow, where her daughters were assigned by their father, Prokofy Suslov, an outstanding, well-read man, a former serf of Count Sheremetev.
He saved up money and bought his freedom even before the abolition of serfdom. Having received his freedom, Suslov remained faithful to his master and remained in the service of the count.
He permanently lived in St. Petersburg, fulfilling the duties of managing the affairs and all the huge estates of the Sheremetevs.
Much struck the writer in this passionate nature - Apollinaria. Her readiness to undertake any feat was accompanied by ineradicable egoism.
A defiant reluctance to follow norms and decency, which she considered the prejudices of society, was intertwined with respect for Russian folk traditions and customs. In one character, all the contradictions coexisted perfectly.
The writer invited Apollinaria to go to Europe, where nothing would distract them from their feelings: neither the writer’s work in a publishing house, nor annoying creditors, nor the endless ailments of his wife.
But the problems that arose with the Vremya magazine and the deteriorating health of his wife Maria Dmitrievna, whom doctors strongly recommended to take away from St. Petersburg, did not allow the dreams to come true.
Fyodor Mikhailovich needed to take care of these urgent everyday matters: take his doomed wife to Vladimir, find a reliable family to look after his stepson Pasha.
Dostoevsky persuaded Suslova to go alone, without him. Out of impatience to quickly change the situation, she left for Paris and persistently began to call him in letters.
However, he was in no hurry to meet; several months passed after the breakup, and only excited that his mistress suddenly fell silent - he had not received a single line from her for the last three weeks - the writer set off on the road.
True, Apollinaria’s sudden silence did not prevent Fyodor Mikhailovich from staying for three days in Wiesbaden and trying his luck at roulette.
“From the very minute I touched the gambling table and began to rake in wads of money, my love seemed to recede into the background,” - he repents in “The Player” through the mouth of the main character Alexei Ivanovich.
Three days passed, the passion was quenched, the winnings, almost the only time in Dostoevsky’s life when roulette treated him favorably, were divided between his dying wife and his mistress waiting on the banks of the Seine.
During these three days there was no news from her, but the letter was waiting for him in Paris, which Apollinaria left a week before her friend’s arrival.
“You are going a little late... Very recently I dreamed of going to Italy with you and even started learning Italian: everything changed in a few days. You once said that I could not give my heart away soon. I gave it up within a week at the first call, without a struggle, without confidence, almost without hope that they would love me... You didn’t know me, and I didn’t know myself either. Goodbye, darling!- Dostoevsky read the confession.
His amorous girlfriend’s new romance did not work out: her lover, Spanish student Salvador, avoided meetings after a couple of weeks, and if it was not possible to hide from Apollinaria, he cleverly found explanations for the impossibility of meetings.
The young lover swore that he was very busy, tired of his studies, called in sick, sent his friend with assurances of love, but the impossibility of dating.
And when his Russian mistress accidentally met him on the street, the “dying man” explained that there were problems that prevented the date... Dostoevsky involuntarily turned out to be a witness to these love experiences of Apollinaria. She then ran away from him, then returned again.
At seven in the morning she got him out of bed after a sleepless night and shared her doubts, hopes, dragged him through the streets of Paris, counting on a chance meeting with Salvador.
Fyodor Mikhailovich persuaded her to leave Paris, convinced her that this rogue had abandoned her irrevocably. “Calm down, I’ll be like a brother to you,” a devoted friend consoled the unlucky friend, and she agreed to go to Italy in early September.
The writer’s heart was also restless. Personal worries about the family he left behind in Russia did not leave him alone, he began to notice that his thoughts often returned to his dying wife - the unfortunate woman abandoned by him, he realized that he yearned for Russia, his stepson Pasha. Even Polina could not save him from the sadness that settled in his heart.
Together they went to Berlin, where, as agreed at the beginning of their trip, they parted: Apollinaria returned to Paris again, and Dostoevsky, before St. Petersburg, stopped in Hamburg, famous for its gambling houses.
Here he lost every penny, but Polina saved him, sending 350 francs from Paris, with which the writer went to St. Petersburg.
The relationship was gradually complicated by various circumstances, the dissimilarity of characters, and soon they began to make life difficult for both of them.
“Apollinaria is a sick egoist,” the writer complained to Suslova’s sister after their final breakup . – The selfishness and pride in her are colossal... I still love her, I love her very much, but I would no longer want to love her. She's not worth that kind of love. I feel sorry for her because I foresee that she will forever be unhappy. She will never find a friend or happiness. He who demands everything from another, and relieves himself of all responsibilities, will never find happiness.”
Suslova was 27 years old at that time. As the writer foresaw, her life did not work out. The former mistress of the famous writer was forced to go to live in the provinces and was under police surveillance.
“She really was great. I know that people were completely conquered and captivated by her,” Vasily Rozanov, a writer and philosopher, spoke enthusiastically about the “magnificent” Apollinaria, into whose life she burst into, very soon turning it into hell.
I foresee: she will be unhappy (Dostoevsky and Appolinaria Suslova)
Being 16 years younger than her, he married her. After breaking up with Dostoevsky, Apollinaria expressed her hatred for her husband openly and frantically; she could not come to her senses for a long time; she sent letters to her former lover, secretly hoping that everything will work out for them.
However, time passed. Fyodor Mikhailovich buried his wife and remarried his assistant Anna Grigorievna Snitkina.
The young wife secretly met her rival; she was afraid that the old affection would be renewed. But Suslova’s role as a homewrecker was unsuccessful. In 1943, she was overtaken by her “last” burning love for a student who was visiting the Rozanovs in the house.
The student suffered greatly from this femme fatale, who, not having met reciprocity, made his life difficult - he loved another, but Suslova could not come to terms with someone else’s happiness.
Apollinaria Suslova spent the rest of her life alone. She died in Sevastopol in 1918 at the age of 78.
From her imperious and captivating nature, the great Dostoevsky wrote brilliant female characters in the immortal classic novels - Polina from The Gambler, Nastasya Filippovna from The Idiot, Grushenka and Katerina from The Brothers Karamazov...
The talented philosopher Rozanov also captured it in his frank prose. But the life of the prototype of female literary images, alas, was mediocre, and she did not leave a good memory of herself...
Inna ININA
Emancipe
The French word “emansipe” became the next self-name for ladies of free morals. This word appeared in the 70s of the 19th century, but it was “staken out” by a Polish writer in the 90s Boleslaw Prus, his acclaimed novel “Emancypantki”
.
Directly translated from French, this word means “unauthorized,” but its Latin translation is also interesting. “Emansipatio” was the name of the Latin rite, during which the child was freed from paternal authority, and paternal rights were not destroyed, but were transferred to another person, and the “emancipated” thus acquired not freedom, but a new father and ruler. The word “emancipe” fully corresponded to the fiery nature of female muses, who really liked 
a feeling of personal freedom and independence, but who did not even think about fighting for any of their rights (like the American suffragettes). At the end of the 19th century, “emancipes” shocked society not only with sole residence, but also with the opportunity to host both individual men and entire companies without any family control. They were indifferent to the slander of those around them, the authorities preferred not to notice these piquant demimonde girls, so the “emancipes” carved out personal space for themselves, without intending to do so at all. They just lived like that. It was more convenient for them, and at the end of the 19th century one could no longer give a damn about conventions.
Appolinaria Suslova
She was indifferent to money.
Secretly envious of fame.
Intelligence - average, rather even small.
But style, style...
V.V. Rozanov
The emancipatory muse known throughout Russia at the end of the 19th century was Apollinaria 
Suslova, the one who, according to the lamentations of literary critics, “broke the lives” of two Russian literary geniuses: Dostoevsky and Rozanov. They say that her portrait looked great on some old medallion: a young stranger with delicate features and neatly styled hair. In a glance directed slightly downwards and to the side one can read tenderness, grace and... unclear purposefulness. There is no smell of an angel here. And yet, looking at her, you immediately imagine lush balls, candles in golden candelabra, rich treats, waltzes and other attributes of the brilliant 19th century. But that was not the case: instead of luxurious halls there were smoky student closets, revolutionary sentiments, bravado of cynicism and an uncompromising rejection of past (and vulgar) traditions. Apollinaria was at the very heart of the storm of rebellious youth, participating in heated discussions, disputes and gatherings. Here she loved to be the first and attract attention. Almost no one dared to argue with her, she “advertised”, and the rest listened. At those who wanted to dispute what she said, Suslova immediately attacked like a kite and tormented the “offender” with all sorts of words, without thinking at all whether they were appropriate or not. Eloquence was never her strong point, however, everything was forgiven to her - men love passionate and strong women. That’s why Apollinaria was always in the forefront at student demonstrations, loudly shouting slogans and bullying the police and Cossacks in every possible way. She was so furious and determined that it seemed just a little longer and she would start biting the faces of the Cossack horses. Therefore, it was usually she, the angry revolutionary fury, who was the first to be dragged to the police station by the gendarmes, put in a cell with prostitutes and thieves, and released the next morning. And she came out to the applause of the students admiring her courage and fearlessness and, most importantly, the student leaders. Apollinaria loved making them tame with just a turn of her head or the inevitable force of her gaze. In her presence, no one could feel like a leader. All views and all aspirations had to belong to her...
Apollinaria (that is, belonging to the family of Apollo, the Greek deity of the Sun) was born in 1839 into a family that was quite extraordinary for its time. Her father, Prokofy Grigorievich Suslov, belonged to the so-called Nizhny Novgorod schismatics. He was a serf, but later he bought himself out, took up trade, was very successful in this business and became a manufacturer. Of course, in connection with this
Suslov had his own special views on the life and upbringing of his daughters (Polina - as everyone at home called her - had a younger sister, Nadya). No patriarchal oppression or dictatorship, only freedom of choice. The sisters graduated from a boarding school for noble maidens, after which the young ladies of that time should have gotten married and given birth to at least two strong and rosy-cheeked children, but such petty-bourgeois interests only irritated the Suslovs. Nadezhda dreamed of becoming a doctor; which, of course, is absolutely unthinkable for the 19th century. And Polina, as befits a muse, was in constant search for fans and admirers of her beauty. She had no special talents, other than the ability to please and give orders, and therefore it was clear: household chores, fluttering around children and, characteristic of the age, pleasing her husband (the happy lot of married women) were not about her. As time went. Sister Nadenka achieved the opportunity to continue her education. She and two other lucky women were allowed to attend lectures by Sechenov and Botkin. What happened next was better: the girl entered the University of Zurich, passed all the exams brilliantly and truly became the first female doctor (general practitioner and gynecologist) in Russia. And Nadya finally got married - to the talented doctor Fyodor Erisman. Polina, enjoying herself, ruled in student circles, publicly condemned her beauty - a specific feature characteristic of “emancipation”.
Romance with a classic
In 1861, 22-year-old Polenka, as was customary among “advanced” 
revolutionary youth, found herself at a public lecture by the famous writer Dostoevsky. This visit literally “blew her mind,” because she was surprised to note that during the reading, almost no one looked at her! All eyes were directed at the nondescript, life-chewed, almost old man, who was rather sluggishly reading his work. Polenka could not tolerate such inattention to her person, and therefore, gnawing on her full lips, she feverishly thought about how to change this extremely unpleasant situation. She also wanted such attention and even more, but how 
I didn’t understand how to achieve this. However, the revolutionary fairy did not suffer for long - the plan of attack matured even before Dostoevsky finished reading his work. Returning home, Suslova immediately wrote a passionate letter to the great writer, in a manner completely uncharacteristic of the century - she completely “opened her heart.” Fyodor Mikhailovich, inexperienced in such rapid courbettes and vain, was, as they say, “fallen”. Of course, not right away; first, in his characteristic manner, he tormented himself by talking to himself. He kept comparing the arguments and reasons: after all, he has a sick (but at the same time managing to cuckold him with a young lover) wife...., difficulties with money..., problems with publishers... . 
Besides, the young girl is only 22, and he is 41…. Having talked to himself enough in this manner and, of course, convincing himself, (how many can resist the possibility of such advances!) Fyodor Mikhailovich carefully trotted with small steps towards the trap set by Apollinaria, walked around, then sighed, crossed himself and jumped into it like into a pool , stuck up to your ears. Suslov was even slightly disappointed by this act - the prey surrendered too meekly to the hunter. She wanted a fight, a fierce intensity of passion, public meetings under luxurious restaurant chandeliers. But everything turned out somehow dull, drab and bourgeois. Dostoevsky received her at his apartment, hesitated for a long time, bleated something about the need to think. And if it weren’t for the determined Polenka, he would never have dared to put the young charmer into his bed. Several meetings passed in a matter of seconds and Apollinaria wanted to publicly testify to her prize - to walk along Nevsky Prospect arm in arm with a famous writer. So that everyone would watch, whisper, so that she would catch snatches of phrases: “Who is this with Dostoevsky?”, “Do you know her?” “Damn good!” and so on. But Fyodor Mikhailovich was not ready for such a turn. It’s one thing to enjoy a young, inept, but passionate body in an apartment closed from the whole world, and quite another thing to appear with it in public. This is so inconvenient, so indecent, so... . Polechka had to make considerable efforts to get her first lover out for at least a short walk near the house. Dostoevsky gave up (try not to give up to the muse!) and crept half-bent for an afternoon walk. Shrinking under the gaze of his acquaintances (“How can he, with his wife still alive!”), Fyodor Mikhailovich shuffled down the street a little and immediately asked to go home. I even came up with something about stomach colic. We're back. A slightly enraged Polina (and she can be understood - her triumph was ruined) gave the first beating to her lover (oh, how many more there will be!) Dostoevsky “ekal”, “mekal”, kept trying to talk about decency and Polenka, with a subtle feminine instinct, understood that there was a lot of sense here will not be. And for the first time she became bored - why the hell did she need Dostoevsky slobbering on her in a prim, homely manner when she wanted publicity and active male attention. She soon realized that she could not achieve her goals in the bourgeois apartment of a famous writer. And then she begins her well-known scandals: she either insisted on a divorce from “this consumptive”, then demanded to leave, then to publish her weak story “Until” on the pages 
magazine “Time”... And the sluggish wreck Fyodor Mikhailovich agreed to all this, which angered her beyond words. Scandals did not save him - a subtle connoisseur of human souls, who invented entire pages of monologues for his book heroes, did not understand the simplest things in life. She increased the pressure. Having quarreled with her “lover” once again, Suslova went to Paris. She saw that Dostoevsky could not stand it and would soon rush to the city of eternal love. So he asks her to meet - she refuses. He knocks and even beats on the door of her room - she is relentless. He resigns himself, sends her a huge bouquet of flowers with a note of repentance and regret...
And she also wanted a public scandal (certainly for everyone to see!). Then the same public reconciliation and declaration of love. She didn’t know what to choose: Dostoevsky, on his knees, simply confesses his love to her, or slaps her in the face and, grabbing her hand, drags her along with him. Her heart ached for the second option - there was undoubtedly more fire in it, and dreaming about it, she quietly melted, like creamy ice cream in a bowl. Three days passed and nothing was heard of Dostoevsky. After waiting a couple more days, Polenka immediately got herself a natural Parisian “amoureux”, a Spaniard with the sonorous name Salvator. Her new petit ami was good - as befits a Spaniard, he ate with his eyes, said the right compliments, and casually touched one or another part of her body. But the scale of the personality was still not the same: Dostoevsky, recognizable everywhere in St. Petersburg, is one thing, and the ordinary Parisian “amoureux” is another thing. After dragging him from side to side like a kitten (which the Spaniard really didn’t like), Polinka got bored again. But then, unexpectedly, the “bug” Fyodor Mikhailovich emerged from the hatched eggs. Suslova tensed in anticipation! Now he will come to ask for forgiveness! Now!
But in vain, it would be time to understand who she is dealing with. The great writer remained true to himself: not at all in a restaurant, and not in any Ritz hotel, but simply in his room 
of an ordinary hotel, tete-a-tete, in a nasal voice began his pitiful song about “Really... I don’t understand... Paul, what about our meetings?” Then he began to lie at her feet, become hysterical, and in the end he began to shout at her in some nasty, thin, womanish voice. In short, he erased all her most touching dreams into dust. They parted, Dostoevsky sulked, sitting in his hotel, and Polenka still could not give up her unfulfilled dreams. After thinking a little, she decided not to give up and made a new, perhaps last, attempt: she came to him with a knife before allegedly going to her unfaithful lover Salvator and stabbing him. But the feed was clearly on the wrong horse - Dostoevsky again, disregarding his pride, bleated requests to leave this ridiculous idea, et cetera. And suddenly he suggested a trip - the two of us to Germany. At first, Polina perked up and rushed back and forth in her thoughts, but there was nothing to choose from yet and she agreed. Naturally, on the trip she and Fyodor Mikhailovich finally quarreled and broke up - Polina could not stand this vulgar bourgeois affair. It finally dawned on her that she couldn’t get anything more out of the story with Dostoevsky. Deeply immersed in his fictional book reality, he will never be able to appreciate the unexpected gift of fate - the emancipatory muse at his shoulder. Dostoevsky was and remained a sick petty bourgeois who unexpectedly broke through to all-Russian fame. This is how he will evaluate the one whom fate presented to him with a broad gesture, so that Fyodor Mikhailovich could feel the tension of the main strings of life: 
“Apollinaria is a sick egoist. The selfishness and pride in her are colossal. It demands everything from people, every perfection, and does not forgive a single imperfection.”, - equalizing her to himself, with an understanding of the matter, the annoyed Dostoevsky wrote about her. It didn’t even occur to him that, with the help of Polenka Suslova, fate was trying to lift him above himself. Him, a sick egomaniac who mercilessly and shamelessly robbed his women, just to once again, to please his manic egoism, make a bet in the game of roulette. But, as mentioned above, this feed was for the wrong horse.
In the spring of 1864, his wife Masha died. Looking at her withered corpse, the great humanist writes in a notebook: “Masha is lying on the table... It is impossible to love a person as yourself according to the commandment of Christ...” Almost immediately after the funeral, he offers Apollinaria his hand and heart, but is refused - for her Dostoevsky no longer exists. She squeezed everything she could out of him and now, thanks to rumors, she was no less popular in Russia than he himself. Not everyone read his books, but almost everyone, and certainly everyone, knew about their novel. Other men were already following her like a gypsy camp (or, if you prefer, a dog wedding), and she, verbally denying her own beauty, simply bathed in fountains of compliments from enthusiastic fans. She felt good and felt in her place. The muse gave birth to love, admiration and great deeds.
Trying a new life and getting married
The period of great passion was long, almost twenty years, but like all good things it ended - one day Polina saw her first wrinkle, which could not be removed by any ointments and rubbing. Suslova first encountered her main and ruthless rival - an iron-sided lady named “Old Age”. In a fit of uncontrollable rage, abandoning all her “amants” at once, she leaves her former life and goes as an ordinary teacher to a remote village near Tambov, where her parents then lived. She doesn’t want to give up, but she doesn’t yet know what to do or what to do. And at this crossroads in life, she was met by a then unknown 20-year-old 3rd year student of the Faculty of History and Philology, Vasenka Rozanov (emphasis on the second syllable). Later he would write about this meeting to a friend, very accurately guessing the nature of the emancipatory muse: 
“With the sharp gaze of an experienced coquette, she realized that she had “hurt” me - she spoke coldly, calmly... Suslikha was truly magnificent... I have never seen such a Russian. She was completely non-Russian in style of soul, and if Russian, then she was a schismatic.” Four years after their acquaintance, which immediately turned into an intimate carnal relationship, in November 1880, V. Rozanov and A. Suslova got married (she was 41, he was 24), but Vasenka still did not know what it smelled like. And the aromas of real passion smelt on him. He was thinking of playing a little love with Dostoevsky’s own mistress and, having tamed her (which the engineer of human souls himself could not do!), make her a domestic chicken submissive to her husband. It was then that Suslova showed him who would play with whom and by what rules! Polenka (Lord! what kind of Polenka is Apollinaria Prokofyevna!) gave exemplary lessons of real passion 
a person who decided to write some kind of abstract religious-philosophical treatise “On Understanding.” Oh, she showed him this very “Understanding”! Apollinaria staged public scenes of jealousy for her husband, attacked her husband’s poor colleague at the gymnasium with her fists, and cheated on him with all his friends. And she wrote a slander against the student who refused her carnal intercourse on behalf of Rozanov himself. Vasily Vasilyevich stoically endured, but at times he could not stand it and, instead of squeezing her with his husband’s stern right hand and putting her in her place, he cried and lay at the feet of his unfaithful wife. But by the end of the seventh year of his phantasmagoric married life, he completely broke down and decided to divorce his irrepressible muse - by this time he met another woman - the submissive and modest Varvara Dmitrievna. Do you think Rozanov said “Thank you” to the emancipation for not dying out as a sad writer of the treatise “On Understanding”? For the fact that he lived for seven years, did she make him a very decent writer and religious thinker? Neither this nor that, like everything else in his chaotic life. Ungrateful at first 
Vasil Vasilyevich could only cry and complain. In 1890, with melancholy and anger, he wrote her a long letter from a weakling and a moralist (I can just feel his hands shaking with impotent anger): “...You dressed yourself in silk dresses and scattered gifts left and right to create a reputation for yourself as a rich woman.” , not realizing that with this reputation you bent me to the ground. Everyone saw the difference in our ages, and you complained to everyone that I was a vile libertine, what could they think other than that I married money, and I carried this thought silently for all 7 years... You disgraced me with curses and humiliation, with all sorts of counter and cross interpreted that I was busy with idiotic work. You are a low woman, empty and cowardly... look back at your past life, look at your character and understand at least something about this... You need to cry over yourself, but you still look triumphant. You are pathetic, and I hate you for my torment.” Later, having calmed down, in letters to his friends he could already be slightly objective: “And indeed I had some kind of mystical attachment to her: she was truly noble in her compassion for the poor, for everything homeless; I alone knew the true value of the hidden gifts of the soul, 
ruined gifts, and the entire depth of her misfortune - and despite all appearances, all crimes - he could not get away from her. She knew this very precisely and knew that she would return to me when she wanted and meet me the way she wanted. Her very vanity, such a “burgundy color,” stemmed from her misfortune, her loneliness, her consciousness - that, in essence, no one on earth needed her. And that’s what chained me to her feet; like a slave, like a criminal to the block. I endured everything, renounced everything and stayed with her. ...Suslikha is quite a heroic type. "Historic proportions." At another time, she would “get things done.” Here she withered untimely. She never loved me and completely despised me, to the point of disgust; and only accepted “affections” from me. She could not live without “caresses”. She was indifferent to money. Secretly envious of fame. Intelligence - average, rather even small. But style, style...” So Vasil Vasilyevich did not understand anything about the female breed, but the years with Suslova completely turned his entire spiritual world upside down. If in his first book “O 
understanding" (which no one had ever read), he wrote about rather abstract philosophical issues, then after his marriage with Apollinaria Prokofievna, literally all of his subsequent works were devoted to the main and only question: “What is the meaning of true love and marriage and is not official Christianity mortal enemy of both?” And he considered his research book, “The Family Question in Russia,” published at the beginning of the twentieth century, to be one of his main works. And millions of people in Russia read these books! Wanting to be known as the conqueror of the mistress of Dostoevsky himself (before whose image he literally died) and having so cruelly and shamefully broken off his young teeth on her, the kind Vasil Vasilich never understood the plurality and variability of female nature. Combing all the ladies under the comb of a submissive, undemanding and obedient wife, even having received a lesson, he still did not understand that in female nature anything is possible, including such “things” as an emancipatory muse and this is NORMAL!
Apollinaria Prokofievna Suslova born in 1839. Apollinaria's father, Prokofy Suslov, began life as a serf of the Sheremetev counts, and then became a merchant and manufacturer. He decided to give his daughters Apollinaria and Nadezhda a real education. Nadezhda later became the first Russian female doctor.
Apollinaria studied at a boarding school for noble maidens, then the Suslov family moved to St. Petersburg, and here the girl began to attend lectures at the university. She immediately fell into the whirlpool of the student movement: political struggle, demonstrations.
In 1861 Apollinaria Suslova first time I heard F.M. Dostoevsky, at that time already a venerable writer, whose lectures were a great success among young people. At the time of the meeting, Dostoevsky was forty, Apollinaria Suslova was twenty-one. A curious portrait of Suslova from that time in the memoirs of the writer’s daughter, Lyubov Fedorovna Dostoevskaya:
“Polina came from the Russian province, where she had rich relatives who sent her enough money to live comfortably in St. Petersburg. Every autumn she enrolled as a student at the university, but never studied or took exams. However, she diligently attended lectures , flirted with students, went to their homes, interfering with their work, incited them to perform, forced them to sign protests, took part in all political demonstrations, walked at the head of students, carrying a red banner, sang the Marseillaise, scolded the Cossacks and behaved defiantly... . Polina was present at all the balls, all the literary evenings of the students, danced with them, applauded, shared all the new ideas that excited the youth... She revolved around Dostoevsky and pleased him in every possible way. Dostoevsky did not notice this. Then she wrote him a letter explaining love. This letter was found in her father's papers, it was simple, naive and poetic. One could assume that it was written by a timid young girl, blinded by the genius of the great writer. Dostoevsky, moved, read Polina's letter..."
Soon F.M. Dostoevsky and a young student began an affair. The writer provided Appolinaria Suslova with literary assistance; Thus, Suslova’s story “Until” appears in the family magazine of the Dostoevsky brothers “Time” - weak and pretentious, according to critics.
Their relationship could be described as love-hate. From Apollinaria, Fyodor Mikhailovich constantly heard reproaches and demands to divorce “his consumptive wife.” Then Dostoevsky will write: “Apollinaria is a sick egoist. The egoism and pride in her are colossal. She demands everything from people, all perfections, does not forgive a single imperfection in respect for other good traits, but she frees herself from the slightest responsibilities towards people.”
After another quarrel, instead of the planned joint trip to Europe, Apollinaria Suslova I went to Paris alone. F.M. Dostoevsky arrived in France a little later... Apollinaria was no longer waiting for him; she made a new French friend. This is how Lyubov Fedorovna Dostoevskaya recalls the further development of events:
“In the spring, Polina wrote to her father from Paris and reported the unsuccessful end of her affair. The French lover deceived, but she did not have enough strength to leave him, and she begged her father to come to her in Paris. Since Dostoevsky delayed his arrival, Polina threatened to commit suicide - the favorite threat of Russian women. The frightened father finally went to France and did everything possible to reason with the inconsolable beauty. But since Polina found Dostoevsky too cold, she resorted to extreme means. One fine day she appeared to my father at 7 o'clock in the morning , woke him up and, pulling out a huge knife, declared that her lover was a scoundrel, she wanted to plunge this knife into his throat and was now heading towards him, but first she wanted to see my father again... I don’t know if Fyodor Mikhailovich allowed "To fool himself with this vulgar comedy, in any case, he advised Polina to leave her knife in Paris and accompany him to Germany. Polina agreed, this was exactly what she wanted."
After the death of F.M.'s first wife. Dostoevsky invited Apollinaria Suslova to marry him, but she refused. Their relationship continued to remain nervous, unclear, painful, primarily for Fyodor Mikhailovich. For Appolinaria Suslova F.M. Dostoevsky was not a great writer, but just an admirer; she almost never read his books, so it was as if the entire rich inner world of Fyodor Mikhailovich did not exist for her. And when Dostoevsky wrote to Apollinaria in one of his letters: “Oh dear, I am not inviting you to cheap, necessary happiness...”, for her these were just words.
I had a completely different attitude towards F.M.’s proposal. Dostoevsky's young stenographer Anna Snitkina: she agreed to any invitation, to any happiness - as long as it was with Fyodor Mikhailovich. Anna Snitkina was ready to dissolve in him, to sacrifice herself to him. Apollinaria, on the contrary, did not long for obedient service to genius, but for personal freedom...
After the end of the affair with F.M. Dostoevsky Apollinaria Suslova she burned many incriminating papers, including the writer’s letters to her. The secrets of their stormy and unusual relationship have sunk into history, leaving researchers with only guesses and assumptions. Critics have more than once found features of Appolinaria Suslova in some of the images of the great classic - Polina ("The Player"), Nastasya Filippovna ("The Idiot"), Katerina and Grushenka ("The Brothers Karamazov"). Having already parted with Apollinaria, Dostoevsky will write: “I still love her, I love her very much, but I would no longer want to love her.”
When Vasily Rozanov met Apollinaria Suslova, he was still a high school student, she was well over thirty. V.V. Rozanov knew that Apollinaria was the mistress of F.M. himself. Dostoevsky, and for him, a desperate admirer of the great writer, this alone was enough to show interest in her. In Rozanov’s diary there is a short entry: “Acquaintance with Apollinaria Prokofievna Suslova. Love for her. Suslova loves me, and I love her very much. This is the most wonderful woman I have ever met..."
On November 11, 1880, Rozanov received a certificate: “From the rector of the Imperial Moscow University to the 3rd year student of the Faculty of History and Philology, Vasily Rozanov, that there are no obstacles to his entering into a legal marriage from the university.” The bride was 40 years old at that time, the groom was 24.
But by that time Appolinaria Suslova I no longer wanted to feed myself to other people’s vanity and curiosity. She was already fed up with the chimeras replicated by the epileptic brain of her first lover. It's a thankless job to serve geniuses in kind. They are like sorcerers who sculpt a figurine of a person from wax in order to reach the original through the doll and control his fate. Resist, don’t resist, you’ll still act against your will, as if under someone’s devilish dictation, and sometimes you’ll get so crazy that you’ll even hang yourself.
Maybe, Appolinaria I hoped that the love of my young husband would dispel the evil spell. Instead, he looked at her with a laboratory gaze, endlessly checking the texts of his idol. Ah well? Well then, Mr. Literary Critic, please don’t get angry. You asked for it!
Family life with V. Rozanov gradually became a nightmare. Suslova arranged public scenes of jealousy for her husband and at the same time flirted with his friends. V.V. Rozanov certainly suffered greatly. As V.V.’s daughter states in her memoirs. Rozanova, Tatyana, " Suslova mocked him, saying that he wrote some stupid books, insulted him very much, and in the end she left him. It was a big scandal in a small provincial town."
Apollinaria Suslova She left Vasily Rozanov twice. Oddly enough, he forgave her everything and asked her to come back. In one of the letters of 1890 to V.V. Rozanov wrote to her: “...You dressed yourself in silk dresses and scattered gifts left and right to create a reputation for yourself as a rich woman, not realizing that with this reputation you bent me to the ground. Everyone saw the difference in our ages, and you complained to everyone that I was a vile libertine, what could they think otherwise, except that I married money, and I carried this thought silently for all 7 years... You disgraced me with curses and humiliation, with all sorts of counter and cross interpretations that I busy with idiotic work."
With whom did Vasily Rozanov actually live, with which of his favorite heroines, which of them made wild scenes for him, humiliated him, betrayed him, tyrannized him? Dostoevsky has them all as if they were selected, anyone on the line will sleep the length and breadth. But she threw it away, or rather, cut it off, already herself Suslova. And she personally deprived children born in another family of church blessings, inheritance and family names, refusing their father a divorce. For gang rape, which V.V. Rozanov committed on her during seven years of marriage in the company of his beloved classic.
When V.V. Rozanov was lucky enough to meet another woman, his future wife Varvara Dmitrievna. Apollinaria did not give Rozanov a divorce for 20 years, dooming the new family to additional difficulties and suffering.
Apollinaria Suslova died in 1918 at the age of 78. A year later, V.V. also passed away. Rozanova. Shortly before his death, he remembered Apollinaria: “It was difficult with her, but it was impossible to forget her.”
Many historians write that this woman lived an empty and mediocre life, that she left behind neither good memory nor children. And this is the honest truth. But there is another truth: this strange woman was loved by two geniuses of the Russian land - F.M. Dostoevsky and V.V. Rozanov.
August 26, 2013
It is to this person that we owe the emergence of a whole gallery of female images in Dostoevsky. Nastasya Filippovna from the novel “The Idiot”, Polina from “The Gambler” - at least in these two heroines we can easily detect the features of Apollinaria Suslova. Biographers and cultural historians still argue about her contribution to art, which, frankly, was really small. Loose secondary stories, an ordinary diary - that’s all that remains of this woman. Besides, of course, her love affairs with Dostoevsky and her scandalous marriage with Rozanov. But this is only on one side. On the other hand...
Her image would look great on some old medallion: a young stranger with delicate features and neatly styled hair, meekness in her gaze, grace... A sort of angel from a vintage postcard. Looking at it, you immediately imagine lush balls, candles in golden candelabra, rich treats, waltzes and other attributes of the brilliant 19th century. But that was not the case: instead of luxurious halls there were smoky student closets, revolutionary sentiments, bravado of cynicism and an uncompromising rejection of past traditions. Apollinaria Suslova inherited the most exciting and poignant part of the 19th century, and she was a completely typical representative of her time.
Modern feminists would easily recognize her as one of their own. Of course, there was nothing angelic about our heroine. Alas, appearances are deceptive (although physiognomists will not agree with us): Apollinaria was vicious, capricious, eccentric, prone to shocking behavior, violent theatricality and scandalous antics. Turning book pages with thin fingers, tilting her head to the side in a mannered manner, chirping in French - this is not about her. But to hit the venerable professor who dared to speak out about her beauty, to fight with a provincial teacher, making her husband jealous of her, to be about to stab to death an unfaithful lover, having dropped by before that - this is all Apollinaria. By the way, she hated her femininity. And she preferred to cut her long hair as short as possible.
...Apollinaria Suslova was born in 1839 into a family that was quite extraordinary for its time. Firstly, her father Prokofy Grigorievich belonged to the so-called Nizhny Novgorod schismatics; secondly, he was 
a serf of Count Sheremetyev, but later bought himself out, took up trade, was very successful in this business and became a manufacturer. Of course, in this regard, Suslov had his own special views on the life and upbringing of his daughters (Polina - as everyone at home called her - had a younger sister, Nadya). No patriarchal oppression or dictatorship, only freedom of choice. The sisters graduated from a boarding school for noble maidens, after which the young ladies of that time should have gotten married and given birth to at least two strong and rosy-cheeked children, but such petty-bourgeois interests only irritated the Suslovs.
Nadezhda dreamed of becoming a doctor; which, of course, is absolutely unthinkable for the 19th century. And Polina was in search. The girl did not show any special talents, but one thing was clear: cooking and pleasing her husband was not her case. It was not enough for the beautiful Polenka, daddy’s favorite, to turn into a swollen, plump woman with three screaming children at the ready (Suslova was a kind of child-free of her time). But she was lucky; for such sentiments, the time was most fertile: the flourishing of student circles, revolutionary sentiments... So Nadezhda and Polina organically fit into the society of young rebels thirsting for freedom. True, according to historians, Apollinaria was not exactly ideological: she was rather attracted to the party, the community, the opportunity to shine, to be a kind of cherry on the cake.
But time passed: Nadezhda Suslova achieved the opportunity to continue her education. She and two other lucky women were allowed to attend lectures by Sechenov and Botkin, and then things got better: the girl entered the University of Zurich, passed all the exams brilliantly and truly became the first female doctor (general practitioner and gynecologist) in Russia. And Nadya finally got married - to the talented doctor Fyodor Erisman. What about Polenka? She was far from her sister's learning; but nature generously endowed the girl with the beauty that she so publicly hated. However, Polenka learned to use this gift-curse for her own selfish purposes. Suslova, having not mastered a single profession, decided to become a femme fatale and drive men crazy by playing with them, like a child with kittens. Needless to say, Apollinaria Prokofievna really succeeded in such “skill.” But that was later.
Romance with a classic
And in 1861, the young and inexperienced Polenka, who had not yet tasted the delights of carnal love, found herself at a public lecture by the famous writer Dostoevsky. And fell in love. They say that Suslova wrote him an ardent letter, which 
melted the ice in the heart of Fyodor Mikhailovich, who, of course, did not notice Polenka right away. And in general, he had enough problems at that time: she, who also cheated on him, difficulties with money. And here the young beauty with her enthusiastic love - out of the blue. Having fluctuated a little, Fyodor Mikhailovich still chose a new passion over conscience and family decency. And who would refuse: he, an aging writer, is already 41, and his beloved Polenka is almost 20 years younger. Both willingly and selflessly threw themselves into the abyss of passion, but Apollinaria Prokofievna, having first learned the joy of carnal pleasures, quickly became bored and did not give Dostoevsky any more a calm, idyllic life. Either she insisted on a divorce from “this consumptive”, then she demanded to leave, or to publish her weak story “Until” on the pages of the magazine “Time”... And Fyodor Mikhailovich obediently fulfilled almost all of this.
Meanwhile, Polenka’s appetites, just like those of that old woman from Pushkin’s fairy tale, grew by leaps and bounds. Having quarreled with her lover once again, Suslova went to Paris alone. But Fyodor Mikhailovich was not very upset, because he naively believed that Polenka would be waiting for him - her first and only man. But that was not the case: the liberated Apollinaria quickly found herself a lover in the French capital. The fate of Dostoevsky did not really worry her, unlike her own sensory experience. When Fyodor Mikhailovich finally came to his beloved, he was quite surprised and upset by her coldness. However, at the same time Polina showed a new facet of her character - a craving for theatricality. She put on a whole performance for Dostoevsky: she came to him with a knife before allegedly going to her unfaithful lover Salvator and stabbing him. Dostoevsky, despite his wounded pride, persuaded Polenka to leave this ridiculous idea and, as an alternative, to go with him to Germany. Suslova, of course, agreed. True, during the trip he and Fyodor Mikhailovich finally quarreled and broke up. And the obstinate Polenka did not marry Dostoevsky, even though he invited her, turning a blind eye to her betrayal.
“Apollinaria is a sick egoist. The selfishness and pride in her are colossal. It demands everything from people, every perfection, and does not forgive a single imperfection.”, - Dostoevsky said about her.
By the way, despite the breakup, Polina still did not completely disappear from Fyodor Mikhailovich’s life; for example, I wrote him a letter when he was on his honeymoon (which, of course, spoiled the blood of Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, who was completely dissolved in her beloved wife).
Trying a new life and getting married
At the age of 30, Polina decided to leave her old life and went to a remote village near Tambov, where her parents then lived. But solitude and asceticism did not really suit our femme fatale. She wanted to play a spectacular role in some performance more than once.
And fate gave her a young high school student - the future famous philosopher - Vasily Rozanov, who was 16 years younger than Suslova. It is he who will later call her nothing more than “gopher”, doubt her mental abilities and write: «
…VIn Russia she loved only aristocratic things, traditions and the throne.”. And then he is fatally in love and fascinated by “traces of her former beauty.” And some said that Rozanov was also flattered that his wife was the muse of Dostoevsky himself (a strange opinion, but still).
If someone else had been in her place, it would have been logical to calm down, but Suslova remained true to herself. There is no spiritual degradation in the spirit of Chekhov’s heroines (“she has grown ugly, aged”) and dissolution in married life. Poor Vasily had a very hard time; Judge for yourself: endure your wife’s scandalous antics and constant humiliation - and even in a tiny provincial town! The eccentric Apollinaria staged public scenes of jealousy, attacking her husband's poor colleague at the gymnasium with her fists, but she herself did not avoid sensual pleasures on the side. Suslova cheated on her husband with all his friends. And she wrote a slander against the student who refused her on behalf of Rozanov himself. Vasily Vasilyevich stoically endured, cried, lay at the feet of his unfaithful wife, but, in the end, decided to divorce Apollinaria. He met another woman - the submissive and modest Varvara Dmitrievna, the future mother of his children and a wonderful wife. But that was not the case: the insidious Suslova did not give Rozanov a divorce for 20 years, thereby bringing numerous inconveniences to his family. For what? Nobody knows about this. But, probably, this eccentric woman could not do otherwise.
Men's attraction to her is irrational. After all, who openly admits that they love the type of hysterical, unfaithful brawler? However, no one will deny people’s craving for the dark sides of life, the incomprehensible and the opposite. For example, the neat and pedant Blok chose the dirtiest and cheapest taverns for his evening and night libations - with sticky tables, poor drunkards and riotous girls. What did the brilliantly educated poet, who glorified the Beautiful Lady, want to discover there? Alas, no one knows about this.
What did the men find in Apollinaria Suslova? Perhaps it was her ex-husband who described her most comprehensively: “She was difficult, but it was impossible to forget her.”
The Suslov sisters lived in their old age on the southern coast of Crimea.
Both died in the same year – 1918.
Apollinaria had a pupil who drowned under unclear circumstances.
In the series “Dostoevsky” by Vladimir Khotinenko, Suslova was played by actress Olga Smirnova. Her image received mixed reviews from critics. Some talk about a 100% hit, others point to a discrepancy: Smirnova’s heroine turned out to be very liberated for a chaste 21-year-old girl.
Valeria Mukhoedova