In Dresden, he "suddenly imagined that there was nothing more disgusting than the type of Dresden women." In Cologne, he did not like the cathedral, but a month later, when he saw it for the second time, he wanted to "on his knees ask for forgiveness." At the entrance to France, his first encounter with the "European spirit" awaited him. At the Aokélin border station, four strange travelers got into the car: they were light, in shabby frock coats, dirty linen and bright ties. Everyone's faces are similar, rumpled and self-satisfied. The Russian traveler is surprised to learn that these are "police spies". In Paris, at the Hotel des Empereurs, the hostess writes down all his signs in detail. "Oh, monsieur, it is necessary!" she exclaims, and Dostoevsky is amazed at the "colossal regulation" of this "most virtuous city on the whole globe." He wrote to Strakhov: "Paris is a most boring city, and if there were not a lot of really wonderful things in it, then, really, one could die of boredom. The French, by God, are such a people that make you sick ... The Frenchman is quiet, honest, polite, but false and he has all the money. There is no ideal... You won't believe how loneliness overwhelms the soul here. A dreary, heavy feeling." From Paris, he went to London for 8 days, visited the World Exhibition, and often met with Herzen. London amazes him. In "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions" he writes: "What broad, overwhelming pictures! This, day and night, bustling and immense, like the sea, city, the screech and howl of machines, these cast-iron stoves laid over the houses (and soon under the houses), this boldness of enterprise, this seeming disorder, which, in fact, is bourgeois order in the highest degree, this poisoned Thames, this air saturated with coal, these magnificent squares and parks, these terrible corners of the city, like Whitechapel, with its half-naked and hungry population, the City with its millions and world trade, the crystal palace, the world's fair... Yes, the exhibition is amazing! "

Returning to Paris, Dostoevsky went from there to Geneva, where he met with N. Strakhov. Together they go to Lucerne. Then through Montseny to Genoa; from Genoa they go by steamer to Livorno, and from there to Florence. Strakhov reports that Dostoevsky was bored in the Uffizi, compared Arno with the Fontanka and read Hugo's new novel "Les Miisierables" with enthusiasm.

In September, they both returned to Russia. Neither in his letters nor in his 'Notes' does the writer say a word about Italy, of which he dreamed so ardently from early childhood. In Europe, complete disappointment awaited him - the "land of holy miracles" turned out to be a cemetery.

* * *

In the November issue of "Time" (1862) Dostoevsky's story "A Bad Joke" appears. The rosy hopes of the first days of the reform dissipated. The liberation of the peasants, for the sake of which the writer "went to the revolution" and for which he paid with ten years of exile, did not make him happy for long. The holiday of reconciliation "between the people and the intelligentsia until recently inspired his journalism; Now he takes revenge on himself for his incorrigible "dreaminess" and mocks his naivety. Instead of a hymn to the era of great reforms, he writes a ferocious satire on it. The reform failed, instead of it it turned out to be a "bad joke".

In the statesmen of the new reign he recognizes the same utopians of the forties, but only suddenly believing in their parliamentary abilities. In the person of the hero, the actual state councilor Ivan Ilyich Pralinsky[117], he draws a murderous caricature of them. Ivan Ilyich is a general, still young, he likes to talk and "take parliamentary poses." In moments of despondency, he calls himself a "parler" and a "phrase-monger." But the renewing Russia suddenly gave him great hopes. He suddenly began to speak eloquently and a lot, and to speak on the most novel topics." He is "a poet at heart" and his favorite subject is humanity. Humanity is the main thing, he exclaims, humanity with subordinates, remembering that they too are people. Humanity will save everything and take everything out... Humanity, I say, can serve, so to speak, as the cornerstone of the forthcoming reforms and in general to the renewal of things."

The author of "Poor People" and "The Humiliated and Insulted", whose humane reputation was affirmed by Belinsky and Dobrolyubov, does not find sufficiently strong sarcasms to joke about the "philanthropy" of the reformers. He wants, like his hero, Prince Volkovsky, "to spit a little on the whole thing." Recently he wrote in "Vremya" that the people will lovingly accept their "shepherds". In "A Bad Joke" this prediction is parodied.

Pralinsky proposes the following syllogism: "I am humane, therefore I am loved, and therefore they feel trusted. They feel trusted, therefore, they believe; they believe, therefore, they love... that is, no, I mean, if they believe, they will believe in the reform, they will understand, so to speak, the very essence of the matter, so to speak, they will embrace morally."

Chance helps His Excellency to test the correctness of his idea in practice. Returning on foot from a visit, he hears music in some dilapidated, one-story house. He learns that his subordinate Pseldonimov, "an official on ten rubles a month's salary", is getting married, and decides to commit an act "patriarchal, high and moral": to make this poor man happy with his visit. My act will resurrect nobility in them, the general dreams sweetly. Why, I will raise the morally humiliated, I will return him to myself... They are already mine: I am the father, they are the children... "

Появление Пралинского на мещанской свадьбе вызывает сначала смятение, но скоро гости догадываются, что он, "кажется, того… под шефе "и начинают вести себя непочтительно. Генерал в смущении все прихлебывает из бокала. Студент кричит ему в лицо петухом, сотрудник сатирического журнала "Головешка "[118] бросает в него хлебными шариками. Пралинский чувствует, что пьян, хочет уйти, но остается ужинать и произносит тост.

"Я сказал уже, господа, что Россия… Да, именно Россия…. одним словом, вы понимаете, что я хочу сказать.. Россия переживает, по моему глубочайшему убеждению, гу–гуманность ". — "Гу–гуманность! ", раздалось на другом конце стола — "Гу–гу! " — "Тю–тю! "

Поднимается скандал, и сотрудник "Головешки " "обличает "гуманного генерала. Тому делается дурно и его укладывают на брачное ложе: всю ночь он страдает от расстройства желудка. Молодые устраиваются на перине, положенной на стульях; стулья разъезжаются и они с грохотом падают. Семейное счастье и служебная карьера Пселдонимова навсегда испорчены. Вернувшись к себе на следующее утро, Пралинский восемь дней не выходит из дому. "Были минуты, когда Он было думал постричься в монахи… Ему представлялось тихое подземное пеиие, отверстый гроб, житье в уединенной келье, леса и пещеры ". Этим язвительным штрихом заканчивается портрет "гуманиста ". Рассказ написан в стиле самых свирепых обличений Щедрина. Это грубый фарс, но не лишенный комической силы. Для общепризнанного проповедника человеколюбия гуманность превратилась теперь в "гу–гуманность, гу–гу, тю–тю! "

* * *

В февральской и мартовской книжках 'Времени "за 1863 год появились "Зимние заметки о летних впечатлениях ". Этот замечательный опыт философской публицистики написан в виде писем к друзьям о заграничном путешествии 1862 года. Автор вспоминает о чувствительном путешественнике Карамзине и начинает свои заметки вполне в карамзинском стиле: "Вот уже сколько месяцев толкуете вы мне, друзья мои, чтобы я описал вам поскорее мои заграничные впечатления, не подозревая, что вашей просьбой вы ставите меня просто в тупик ". Напомнив читателям о сентиментальной традиции "Писем русского путешественника ", автор только усиливает впечатление контраста: нет ничего более противоположного карамзинской чувствительности, чем жестокая ирония "Зимних заметок ". Критики Достоевского, особенно иностранные, упрекают его в предвзятости и поспешности оценки европейской культуры; в Европе он пробыл всего два с половиной месяца, в Париже менее месяца, в Лондоне — восемь дней. Когда успел он проникнуть в психологию парижского буржуа, изучить положение лондонского пролетариата? Это недоразумение вызывается исключительным свеобразием литературной формы "Заметок ". Автор притворяется, что описывает свои "впечатления ", но это только прием публициста, создающего новую и острую форму историко–философского трактата. Достоевский поехал в Европу с готовой идеей и лишь "проверил "ее заграничными впечатлениями: действительность вполне подтвердила его теоретическое построение.