Among the legacy of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, there are only three brief notes about the otherworldly. In the "Diary of a Writer" for 1876, he admitted that he was present at the seance, but did not go into details. Fortunately, we can close this gap.
Schism among scientists
In the years 1875-1876, spiritualism once again became the "spite of the day." Famous scientists, including Academician Alexander Butlerov and Professor Nikolai Wagner, spoke out openly in his defense. Other scientists, headed by professor of chemistry Dmitry Mendeleev, decided to crush the "superstition" at any cost.
On their initiative, the Physical Society at St. Petersburg University created a commission to consider mediumistic phenomena. For more than 10 months they arranged seances with mediums invited from England by State Councilor Alexander Aksakov.
The work of the commission was accompanied by loud scandals. Mendeleev was more than once caught by the hand when trying to interfere with sessions and manipulate facts.
Dostoevsky wanted to attend a seance himself in order to write competently on this topic. Fyodor Mikhailovich was familiar with Wagner: the professor of zoology, in his spare time, composed children's fairy tales under the pseudonym Cat-Murlyka. He promised to introduce his pen colleague to Aksakov.
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First session
On January 8, 1876, Wagner wrote to Fyodor Mikhailovich that Mrs. St. Clair had arrived in St. Petersburg. “This is not a professional medium,” Nikolai Petrovich emphasized. - The lady is very rich, she agreed to come here for the sake of the local scientific commission. Her strength is extraordinary. Aksakov will be very glad to see you."
As luck would have it, these days the whole Dostoevsky family did not get out of bed. The children were seriously ill with scarlet fever, and his wife, Anna Grigorievna, lay with a sore throat. The writer was able to accept the invitation only after a month. The session, held on February 13, was attended by two more famous writers - Nikolai Leskov and Pyotr Boborykin.
What Fyodor Mikhailovich experienced in Aksakov's apartment struck him to the core. So much so that he refused to write about it, although he admitted that the session "made a pretty strong impression on me." But Nikolai Leskov told about the session in the house number 6 on Nevsky Prospect with all the details.
“We gathered at Mr. Aksakov's at about 8 pm. There were five outsiders of us, the owner and the hostess and the medium himself … There were outsiders: professors Wagner, Butlerov, writers Dostoevsky, Boborykin and me.
First, we sat down at an ordinary round table on one leg and put our hands on it … Spiritual knocks - not dry, with the table leg on the floor, but soft, sounding like in the very tree of the table, were heard this very minute.
They answered by very quickly tapping out the English alphabet, which Aksakov spoke. In most cases, they made it unnecessary to form the whole word and warned the answer with an affirmative knock in three strikes."
St. Clair knew she might be suspected of tapping her feet under the table. She suggested making any sounds on the tabletop, and the "spirits" were supposed to repeat them. The writers began to scratch the table with an iron key, writing out "arbitrary figures and strokes."
The unpleasant rattle was repeated after a couple of moments "with complete accuracy, but extremely quietly." The medium's hands lay motionless. Sound recording devices did not exist in those years.
Guessing thoughts
“The room during the session was lit by a lamp hanging from the ceiling with a small opaque lampshade,” Leskov described another experiment. “It gave an even light, so clear that we could write numbers and names on the table.
The first experiment was made by F. M. Dostoevsky: he wrote seven names (in French) and noticed one of these names on a special piece of paper that he was holding in his hand. Then he ran his pencil through the register of names he had compiled, and when he brought up the name Theodore, there were three affirmative sounds.
Dostoevsky said that he really conceived this name. Then Boborykin wrote and received false answers. After them they offered to write to me. I wrote down on a special scrap the name of one of my deceased acquaintances - Michel, and, holding this scrap of paper in my hand, began to write the names on the sheet; but at the very first two names that I wrote, the answers were negative, and as soon as I inscribed the letters Mich … I hurriedly and firmly struck out the affirmative three times.
Both me and F. M. Dostoevsky wrote the conceived names so secretly that no one could see it. F. M. I did it, getting up from the table and stepping aside, and I wrote with my hands under the table."
Flying furniture
“Then we started the experiment with lifting the table,” Leskov recalled. - He rose into the air, as it seemed to me, by 6-8 vershoks and, having held this position for about 7-8 seconds, quickly sank. A few minutes later, everything repeated again, and this time the table stayed in the air longer. About 30 centimeters (this is how much the indicated 6-8 vershoks are) - the height is quite decent.
Experienced spiritualists knew that a round table could be easily lifted with a foot or knee. In case of deception, they had a square table with legs tilted outward and a thick tabletop. It is impossible to lift such a table alone without being exposed. Nevertheless, this happened: the table rose twice in the presence of the medium and once remained in the air "for a long time."
Two bells sounding differently were placed under the third table. The bells under the table rang first one, then both together. Leskov was sitting next to the medium. He ruled out the possibility that St. Clair could discreetly take off her tight boots and pick up the bells with her toes. The experiment with the accordion, which Butlerov put under the table, holding by one end, was also a success, although you cannot play the hanging keys with your feet. Then Fyodor Mikhailovich took up a musical instrument.
“In Dostoevsky's hand, harmony did not utter a single sound, but at the same time something was tugging strongly at the hem of her dress. Then the medium, through Aksakov, suggested leaving harmony and replacing it with a handkerchief, which could be taken from his hand. F. M. took out a handkerchief and, lowering it under the table, held the tip. A few minutes later he said that his handkerchief was pulling to the side. But then there was a small misunderstanding, in the explanation of which the session ended."
Boborykin did not hide the fact that the "small misunderstanding" was a careless statement by Fyodor Mikhailovich. Mrs. St. Clair did not appreciate his joke, took offense and interrupted the session.
Miracles Continue
The silence of the famous writer did not affect Dostoevsky's friendship with Wagner and Aksakov. Fyodor Mikhailovich soon reconciled with Madame Saint-Clair and attended at least one more session.
He told the linguist Baudouin de Courtenay that he saw with his own eyes a large table with instruments, "just standing in the air quite high from the ground." The participants' arms, extended above the table, could barely touch the tabletop.
The last straw was a visit to Dostoevsky's acquaintances. They decided to organize their own seance. Although Madame St. Clair did not take money, she could hardly be called an amateur medium. Here, the medium was a friend of acquaintances, "a serious and sincere woman who can never be suspected of deception."
“I was offered to guess some numbers and promised that the table, under the influence of Mrs. B., would solve them,” Dostoevsky recalled. - I went into another room, completely empty, deliberately invented more elaborate numbers, for memory I wrote them down in several rows on a piece of paper, immediately folded it and put it in my pocket. The table repeated all the rows of numbers without the slightest mistake."
Fighting invisibility
Fyodor Mikhailovich understood that his acquaintances had no one to deceive him and there was no need.
“There were three of us in the room: the landlord, me and the lady-medium. She was sitting on a chair, the table was 10-12 paces from her. The room had so little furniture that it seemed almost empty. Mrs B. and the owner were so far away that they could not touch the table with their hand or foot. In emptiness, I would immediately notice any movement. I was asked to put a handkerchief on the table so that one corner of it lay on the edge of the table, and the other three ends went down freely.
In less than a few minutes, I clearly felt a slight twitch at one of the furred edges of the scarf, although I saw that no one was approaching the table. Then the twitching became so intense that I had to press very hard.
Finally, some invisible force grabbed the longest, middle end of the handkerchief and began to drag it so tightly that I could hardly hold it with both hands. I saw perfectly how the handkerchief stretched out in the air in a horizontal direction, as if someone was holding it by the middle end, and how longitudinal stripes protruding under strong tension were noticeably visible on it."
Dostoevsky told Baudouin de Courtenay that he wanted to seriously engage in spiritualism. He did not have time to carry out this intention.
After Dostoevsky's death, Wagner made a written request to his widow. He asked permission to summon the spirit of Fyodor Mikhailovich to find out whether "his views have changed where the thirst for truth is quenched." Anna Grigorievna answered with a resolute refusal. The session with the posthumous participation of the writer did not take place.
