Dostoevsky’s acquaintance with Pobiedonoszev, during the last ten years of his life (1871–1881), is an episode of great interest in the social history of that time, and of importance in the history of Dostoevsky’s life as man and author. Up till now no light has been thrown upon it.
Dostoevsky met Pobiedonoszev in the winter of 1871–1872 at the house of Prince Meschersky, the editor of the reactionary paper Grazhdanin. The acquaintance continued and developed, and in the year 1873 (when Dostoevsky was editor of the Grazhdanin) it ripened into friendship. Of the first moment of their friendship, Dostoevsky wrote to his wife (on June 26, 1873):
‘Pobiedonoszev came yesterday to the office of the Grazhdanin. He waited for me, but I was out; so he left a note asking me to call on him after 8 o’clock. I called last night and sat with him till about midnight. He talked all the time, told me a great deal, and pressed me to go and see him again to-day. He said that I was to let him know if I did not feel well enough, and he would come to me instead. He wrapped me up in a rug, and although the maid ran to the hall to let me out, he himself saw me down three dark flights of stairs, with a candle in his hands, to the porch. What would Vladislavlev say if he had seen it? He read Crime and Punishment when he was in the Isle of Wight, for the first time in his life. It was recommended to him by a certain person, an admirer of mine already too well known to you [probably the Tsarevitch], whom he escorted to England. Consequently things aren’t so very bad. But please don’t talk about it.’
The description of the meeting and of the unexpectedly cordial and attentive reception from the omnipotent Pobiedonoszev shows that Dostoevsky was at his house for the first time, and was affected by Pobiedonoszev’s attitude to him. From the first Pobiedonoszev had a warm regard for him. In a letter to Aksakov on January 30, 1881, Pobiedonoszev wrote: ‘The time when he edited the Grazhdanin brought us close together. At that time, in sympathy for his desperate position, I worked with him the whole summer, and we became very friendly.’ Their friendship grew, and they used to meet regularly on Saturday evenings.