Dostoevsky and World Culture Dostoevsky and World Culture 2619-0311 2712-8512 IWL RAS https://doi.org/10.22455/2619-0311-2025-3-130-157 Research Article Articles “A Hundred Years Still Have a Strange Effect on a Person...” The Hidden Purpose of a Journey Saraskina Liudmila I. fedor@dostmirkult.ru 25 09 2025 1 3 130 157 Dostoevsky A Writer’s Diary “A Hundred-Years-Old Woman ” longevity K.S. Aksakov common people workbooks household life purpose Copyright © 2026, IWL RAS 2026 The paper analyzes Fyodor Dostoevsky’s story “A Hundred-Years-Old Woman” (A Writer’s Diary, 1876), based on the real impressions of “a certain lady” (Anna Dostoevskaya) who had met, in a street of Saint-Petersburg, a very old, hundred-and-four-years-old, woman; that woman was hobbling along the streets of the city in order to visit her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The first part of the story (based on what “a certain lady” had seen and heard) is supplemented by the second part, which presents imagined scenes of the old woman’s meeting with her relatives. The writer tries to imagine the outcome of her visit to them. Dostoevsky, as a writer and an artist, took a keen interest in the age of his characters and in the phenomenon of longevity. In this paper, it is suggested that Dostoevsky became interested in the character of the very old woman and imagined the finale of her story, because he was inspired by the article of K.S. Aksakov “About the Contemporary Man” (1860), in which the author reflects with sympathy on the Russian common people and calls on readers to see their beauty. Special attention is paid to the process of creating the character of the “Hundred-Years-Old Woman.” This process has been reflected in the notes in the workbooks for A Writer’s Diary of 1876. The topic of the “Old Woman” is situated among such key topics as “The Hero Ilya Muromets,” “Orthodoxy,” “War,” and others. It is evident that the topic of the “Old Woman” was not just a trifle for the writer. The note “An Old Woman” was repeated in the workbooks eight times for one week, close to the notes about Russian bylinas. This shows that the topic was, for the writer, not just a matter of everyday life. Dostoevsky was captivated by an ambitious task: to place the most serious problems “under the roof” of “a very pretty picture” — and so capture the discerning reader. Dostoevsky gave his “old woman” a meaningful name (Marya Maximovna, that is, Maria who has reached the maximum age) and portrayed her kinsfolk with great sympathy: as decent common people who lived in a harmonious and orderly way, preserving noble family traditions and a peaceful household. The finale of the story discloses the real purpose of the old woman’s tiring journey to the place of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren: having soberly assessed her physical resources, she resolves to exhaust completely her vital forces in order to end her life surrounded by her kith and kin.