The first day in Belarus – acquaintance with the National Library in Minsk. Minister of Culture Anatoly Markevich joined the excursion. In the evening, the guests visited the National Academic Drama Theater named after Maxim Gorky, where Serbian director Ivana Zhigon presented her vision of the novel The Idiot. And, finally, the obligatory point of the program is a trip to Dostoyevo, the ancestral home of the Dostoyevskys.
Valentina Putsykovich, curator of the Dostoyevsky Museum Fund at the Dostoyevsky School, admitted that they were preparing thoroughly for the visit of the guests:
< p class="">- We have something to show and say. Over the years of the museum's existence, many unique and valuable exhibits have been collected, of which we are proud. Excavations have been carried out at the place where the estate of the Dostoyevsky family was located. How popular we are with Dostoyevsky's work, the fact that the museum has twice confirmed the title of the national museum. I wanted to share as much information as possible with the heirs of Fyodor Mikhailovich. The funds of the school museum in Dostoevo include more than 3.5 thousand exhibits. The most valuable can be called authentic cartographic documents of the second half of the XIX - the beginning of the XX century, the travel book of a monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra of the XVII century. The exhibition features a lifetime photograph of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, a biography of the writer from 1891 published by Florenty Pavlenkov, the novel "Poor People" published in 1912, as well as the writer's works in different languages, documents from unique archive on representatives of Dostoyevsky family. Here, unfortunately, it is still impossible to show, so this is Dostoyevsky's domain. Where once stood a mansion and its outbuildings, there is a field of local economy. The foundation has been preserved. A commemorative panel has been erected. The mansion restoration project was not implemented due to lack of funding. But the idea lives on. Alexei Dostoyevsky was here for the first time and did not hide his feelings:
- Now I get up and try to imagine how they lived here. Not just people, but my distant ancestors. Because we, the Dostoyevskys of today already live a different life. I need to experience it myself. It’s impossible to talk about emotions in a short line – it’s too big for us. This trip had to come true sooner or later, especially since the path is beaten, the road is well laid out, said my father, family friends Sergey Vladimirovich Belov, Nikolai Nikolaevich Bogdanov (researchers of the phenomenon and creativity of FM). I would love to come back here in the spring or summer when everything is blooming.
Asked about whether to restore the estate, Alexey Dmitrievich replied that the idea was good and that he was ready to support it:
- True, I can only morally, as a representative of the family, because we have nothing to patronize.
In 2006, an alley of oak trees was planted on the site of the estate, acorns were brought from the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Not all grew up.
- We will definitely “fix” the driveway, – promised Valentina Putsykovich. Alexei Dmitrievich promised to personally bring acorns from the Lavra.
Together with Alexei Dostoyevsky, four of his children also visited the country of their ancestors. The youngest – Fyodor Alekseevich Dostoyevsky – is 12 years old. He is the 67th heir to the surname in the male line.
- What are your impressions ?
- Impressive, – answered the great-great-great-grandson of the Russian writer in a questioning tone.
With the participation of Alexei Dostoevsky, an international public award was created – the Order of Dostoevsky’s Star. It so happened that during a visit to Dostoevo, three holders of the order met here – Valentina Putsykovich, Alla Burak – the widow of Anatoly Burak, the founder of the school museum in Dostoevo, as well as the Serbian director Ivana Zhigon. The premiere of the play “The Idiot” took place in Minsk the day before. As director Ivana Zhigon noted, a creative person cannot do without symbolism, so the premiere took place in Belarus:
- Dostoyevsky’s “Idiot” is a defense fortress of our mind. And Belarus is a fortress between the Slavic peoples, it is the same white tower. Dostoyevsky was a prophet. He constantly comes to us with his thoughts. In “The Idiot”, he spoke of liberalism, of progress, of the fact that beauty saves the world, because he always wrote about the essentials and universally. About the eternal – it is still relevant.
By the way, Alexei Dostoyevsky refused to name the favorite work of his famous ancestor:
- They, like my four children, are all different. If I underline something, I’m lying. Dostoyevsky’s books appear in a person’s life at the time he needs them, I myself came to Dostoyevsky as an ordinary reader and I will not say that it was too early. It is a special reading.
