Anna Dostoyevskaya

Anna Grigoryevna Dostoevskaya (née Snitkina; ; 30 August 1846 – 9 June 1918) was a Russian memoirist, stenographer, and assistant, as well as the second wife (from 1867) of writer Fyodor Dostoevsky. She was also one of the first female philatelists in Russia. Dostoevskaya wrote two biographical books about her husband, Fyodor Dostoevsky, both of which were published posthumously: Anna Dostoyevskaya's Diary in 1867, which was issued in 1923, and Memoirs of Anna Dostoyevskaya (also known as Reminiscence of Anna Dostoyevskaya

Early life Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina was born to Maria Anna and Grigory Ivanovich Snitkin. Upon moving from Poltava Governorate to Saint-Petersburg he changed his surname from Snitko to Snitkin.

She graduated from an academic high school summa cum laude and subsequently trained as a stenographer.

Marriage On 4 October 1866, Anna Snitkina started working as a stenographer on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Gambler. A month later they became engaged. In the story an old painter makes a proposal to a young girl whose name is Anya. Dostoevsky asked if it was possible for a girl so young and different in personality to fall in love with the painter. Anna answered that it was quite possible. Then he told Anna: "Put yourself in her place for a moment. Imagine I am the painter, I confessed to you and asked you to be my wife. What would you answer?" Anna said: "I would answer that I love you and I will love you forever".

On 15 February 1867, the couple were married. Two months later they went abroad, where they remained for over four years (until July 1871). Shortly before their departure two of Dostoevsky's creditors filed charges against him.

During a stop in Baden, Dostoevsky lost all of his money playing roulette, as well as his wife's clothes and belongings. Anna seems to have succeeded, like Dostoevsky himself, in divorcing his gambling mania from his moral personality, and in regarding it as something extraneous to his true character. At that time Anna started writing the diary.

Philately Her stamp collection was established in 1867 in Dresden. It started, as explained in the Memoirs of Anna Dostoyevskaya, with a dispute between Anna and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, who made some critical comments about female inconstancy. Anna was annoyed that her husband did not consider women of her generation capable of persistence or devotion to anything. She told her husband that she would prove him wrong and show him that a woman may pursue one goal for years. She decided to collect stamps and filled up her collection throughout her life. According to the Memoirs, she did not buy a single stamp. All of them were either her own discoveries or donations from friends. The fate of this collection is unknown.