Origin and youth
The Russian writer Apollinaria (Polina) Suslova was born in 1840 in the village of Panino, Gorbatovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod province. Her father, Prokofy Suslov, began life as a serf connected to Count Sheremetev and worked as a clerk. Through his remarkable intellect, he rose to oversee all the earl’s estates before the abolition of serfdom and earned his freedom. He later moved the family to St. Petersburg, became a merchant, and did everything possible to give his daughters Apollinaria and Nadezhda a decent life and education.
Initially the sisters studied at home with tutors, then they were sent to a boarding school for noble young women. Polina was deeply drawn to the history of ancient Greece and classical art, while Nadezhda developed an interest in the natural sciences and began publishing stories in magazines, including Sovremennik. At that time higher education for women was unavailable, yet attending university classes was not forbidden. The sisters quietly pursued study in St. Petersburg University, where they gained access to information, met fellow students, and attended balls and literary evenings.
Acquaintance with Dostoevsky
In 1861, 21-year-old Suslova crossed paths with Fyodor Dostoevsky, whose lectures and writings had strong appeal for progressive youth. Dostoevsky was 40 at the time. He had already published Notes from the House of the Dead and helped him publish a literary and political journal with his brother Mikhail, while his first marriage to Maria Isaeva, who suffered from tuberculosis, drew public attention. Although Dostoevsky was famous, Suslova’s presence coincided with his most productive period, and some of his best-known works followed this meeting. The rich collection of novels that forms Dostoevsky’s Pentateuch—Crime and Punishment, The Gambler, Demons, The Possessed, The Adolescent, and The Brothers Karamazov—began to take shape during this era.
Lyubov Dostoevskaya, the writer’s daughter, claimed that Polina regularly attended secular evenings, actively engaged with people, and was among the first to show sympathy for Fyodor Mikhailovich.
“He gravitated toward Dostoevsky and sought him out in every possible way. Dostoevsky did not notice this at first. Then he sent her a letter of declaration of love. The letter found in your father’s papers was simple, sincere, and lyrical. It seems it was authored by a timid young woman dazzled by the genius of the great writer. Dostoevsky was moved, read Polina’s letter, and began to respond,” the daughter recalled.
The admirer eventually won the writer’s attention, and a fierce, passionate romance blossomed. With Dostoevsky’s help, Polina managed to publish the story Quite in the magazine Time.
Quarrels and separation
The relationship between Suslova and Dostoevsky was volatile, oscillating between tenderness and conflict. Polina often reproached her beloved for various reasons and urged him to divorce his ailing wife. Dostoevsky later described his beloved in a letter to Nadezhda Suslova as a “sick egoist.”
“Egoism and pride in it are immense. He demands everything from others, perfection in all things, never forgives a flaw, yet absolves himself from duties toward people.”
In 1863 the couple planned a trip to Paris, but a fierce quarrel drove Polina to go alone. In France she began an affair with a singing teacher, though that teacher betrayed her. Lyubov Dostoevskaya wrote that Polina sent a letter from Paris reporting the failed completion of her novel. The French lover’s betrayal did not push him away, yet he could not leave Polina; he called his father to join him in Paris. Delays on his part prompted Polina to threaten self-destruction, a familiar fear among some Russian women of that era. The frightened father eventually traveled to France to try to calm the situation.
Afterward, Suslova reconciled with Dostoevsky, and they undertook a joint tour of Germany. Dostoevsky soon became interested in gambling, spending heavily, which distressed Polina and forced her to pawn her belongings to survive.
When Dostoevsky’s first wife died in 1864, he proposed to Suslova and was rejected. After their separation, he wrote of Polina: “I still love her, I love her very much, but I do not want to love her anymore.”
Dostoevsky’s next wife, Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina, became his stenographer and later his wife. Suslova married at age 40 to 24-year-old Vasily Rozanov, who gained fame as a philosopher of religion and literary critic.
Suslova in the works of Dostoevsky
Literary critics identified Suslova’s influence in several of Dostoevsky’s characters. The most obvious portrayal is Polina in The Gambler, a novel about love, quarrels, and a man’s infatuation with roulette. Written in 1863 during a period of Dostoevsky’s gambling debts, the work was produced with speed, and soon afterward he relied on a stenographer who would become his wife.
In The Idiot, Dostoevsky attributes to Nastasya Filippovna certain Suslova-like traits: a striking presence, dark hair, deep eyes, and a thoughtful forehead. The description conveys a mix of passion and inner strength.
According to the literary critic and biographer Alexander Dolinin, Dostoevsky drew on Apollinaria when shaping Katerina Ivanovna in The Brothers Karamazov. He noted that Ivan Karamazov’s line to Katerina—deliberately provoking a response to win forgiveness—echoes Dostoevsky’s own message to Nadezhda Suslova: a confession of love followed by restraint.
Critics also see parallels between Avdotya Romanovna in Crime and Punishment and Apollinaria in appearance and demeanor: a tall, lean, self-assured beauty with dark hair, almost black eyes, and a look that could be both intense and gently vibrant. The portrayal emphasizes vitality and presence rather than frailty.