RUSSIA: ONE OF THE LAST LIVING RELATIVES OF RUSSIAN NOVELIST FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY IS FOUND LIVING A MEAGRE EXISTENCE IN ST. PETERSBURG.

Record ID: 647840

  • Title: RUSSIA: ONE OF THE LAST LIVING RELATIVES OF RUSSIAN NOVELIST FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY IS FOUND LIVING A MEAGRE EXISTENCE IN ST. PETERSBURG.
  • Date: 12th July 2000
  • Summary: ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (JULY 6, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. VARIOUS: TATYANA VYSOKOGORETS-DOSTOEVSKY WALKS INTO ELEVATOR OUTSIDE HER FLAT / ELEVATOR DOORS CLOSE ON HER / CORRIDOR / PILES OF TRASH AROUND DOSTOEVSKY'S HOUSE (4 SHOTS) 0.29 2. GV/PAN/LV: DOSTOEVSKY WALKS OUT OF HOUSE LEANING ON CANE (2 SHOTS) 0.57 3. MV/CU/GV: DOSTOEVSKY BUYS A BREAD BUN AND BISCUITS, WALKS OUT OF STORE (4 SHOTS) 1.25 4. MV/CU: DOSTOEVSKY WATCHING TELEVISION AT HOME / PORTRAIT OF DOSTOEVSKY'S GREAT-GRANDFATHER FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY / DOSTOEVSKY SHOWING HER FAMILY PHOTO ALBUM (5 SHOTS) 2.00 5. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) TATYANA VYSOKOGORETS-DOSTOEVSKY, GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER OF WRITER FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY: "They [Communist officials] didn't consider Dostoevsky to be a writer, but some type of blood-sucking, bloodthirsty thing. That was the time of socialism, Stalinism, communism, and so forth. People would rarely ask me and, even when they did at the doctor's office or the drugstore, they wouldn't believe me when I said I was Dostoevsky's great-granddaughter. So, I always wanted to get married and change my family name as soon as possible." 2.53 6. CU: DOSTOEVSKY'S HANDS 2.59 7. MCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) TATYANA VYSOKOGORETS-DOSTOEVSKY, GREAT-GRANDDAUGHTER OF WRITER FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY: "Many ordinary people have called me [with offers of help]. Strangers have called, even from Belarus and Nizhny Novgorod. But there hasn't been one call from someone belonging to our class of new rich, or from someone in the government. Nothing." 3.19 8. MV/CU: DOSTOEVSKY DRINKING TEA AND EATING PORRIDGE / DOSTOEVSKY PRAYING IN FRONT OF ICONS (5 SHOTS) 3.59 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA411L7WC2HI14YRSBRYF6GWP0C
  • Story Text: Babushka Tatyana is a sick and poor widow from St.

    Petersburg, whose desolate life seems to be straight out of a
    Dostoevsky novel. But she isn't an imagined heroine from one
    of Russia's greatests novelist, she is one of his last living
    ancestors.



    Today is one of the rare days when Babushka Tatyana
    leaves her St. Petersburg apartment.

    Her poor health keeps her from walking down stairs, and
    even makes riding the elevator difficult.

    But, on her monthly pension of about $30, she can afford a
    small treat each month, and today she is venturing out to buy
    a sweet bun and biscuits. These are rare treats.

    More than100 years after Russian novelist Fyodor
    Dostoevsky shocked the world with his descriptions of
    desperate, impoverished lives in novels such as "Poor Folk,"
    life in St. Petersburg has changed very little.

    Nearly one-third of Russians live at, or below, the
    subsistence level. The elderly, without savings, or health
    insurance, are the hardest hit by the post-Soviet economic
    collapse.

    One of these is Dostoevsky's great-granddaughter, Tatyana
    Vysokogorets-Dostoevsky.

    Babushka Tatyana receives very little for being related to
    Dostoevsky. She draws no royalties from the writings of one
    of the world's most read novelists, nor does she have any
    right to claim any of the Dostoevsky estates that her family
    lost after the communist revolution.

    All she has from the past is a family photo album.

    Indeed, Dostoevsky's legacy has caused her problems since
    she was born in 1937 under a communist regime that did not
    approve of the Russian writer.

    "They didn't consider Dostoevsky to be a writer, but some
    type of blood-sucking, bloodthirsty thing. That was the time
    of socialism, Stalinism, communism and so forth. People would
    rarely ask me and, even when they did at the doctor's office
    or the drugstore, they wouldn't believe me when I said I was
    Dostoevsky's great-granddaughter. So, I always wanted to get
    married and change my family name as soon as possible,"
    Tatyana said.

    Babushka Tatyana did marry young, but her husband, a
    sailor, was frequently ill and died, leaving her no money
    behind. She worked as a typist for the library and then in
    the local utilities office before retiring eight years ago,
    dogged by poor health like her ancestors.

    Illness runs in the Dostoevsky family and Babushka
    Tatyana, who has already suffered a heart attack, fears she
    will develop a brain tumour, as her father did.

    As she grows older, Babushka Tatyana relies on strangers to
    survive.

    She has been offered help from as far away as Belarus and
    Nizhni Novgorod, but wonders why the government does not
    assist.

    The Russian government has said that it is making economic
    growth a priority, but the government plans have yielded yet
    few results that impact on people's lives.

    Babushka Tatyana still makes do with a lunch of tea and
    porridge. And, just like the characters in her
    great-grandfather's novels, she prays to icons to make it
    through the next day.

    (dw/lh)
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