How Fyodor Dostoevsky ran the first Russian ‘BLOG’

It all began in 1873, when Fyodor Dostoevsky, who had been appointed editor and publisher of the ‘Grazhdanin’ (‘Citizen’) magazine, decided to run an author’s column titled ‘A Writer’s Diary’ in the same magazine. Working for the magazine soon tired him out and the idea of ​​regularly speaking out about everything in the world seemed very tempting. So, he came up with a format that would now be known as an ‘author’s blog’. And he began publishing a monthly magazine comprised of one author – himself.

The announcement in newspapers about its release went as follows: “Subscriptions are now open for F. M. Dostoevsky’s monthly publication ‘A Writer’s Diary’. Each issue will contain from one and a half to two sheets of small print (approximately 80,000 characters), in the format of our weekly newspapers. Each issue will be published on the last day of every month and sold separately in all bookstores for 20 kopecks. Those wishing to subscribe to the entire annual publication in advance will benefit from a discount and pay only 2 rubles (excluding shipping and handling) or 2 rubles 50 kopecks with shipping or home delivery. The circulation of each issue was approximately 6,000 copies. In modern terms, the project not only turned out to be self-sustaining, but also brought the author a stable income.

As a monthly, ‘A Writer's Diary’ was published in 1876-1877 and in 1880-1881. The author described the format as follows: "What struck me personally in a month." In this sense, the pages of the diary covered various topics – children and childhood, the development of science, spiritualism, relations between Russia and Europe, issues of national identity, suicide, youth problems, the liberation of the peasants, the proclamation of the French Republic, the Eastern Question, the liberation war of the Serbs and Montenegrins, etc. – in equal detail. Among other things, reviews of literary works and fiction were published there. And all of this was written by one author – Dostoevsky himself. 

The enterprise was popular and the author received letters from readers all over Russia. Dostoevsky treated them with great attention and responded to many of them. These responses were also published in ‘A Writer’s Diary’, which is also quite reminiscent of commentary in a modern blog. The last issue of ‘A Writer’s Diary’ was published in January 1881 – the writer died the following month.