Mikhail Dostoevsky bought the estate of Darovoye in 1831 when his son Fyodor was 10. The future writer spent there all summer months before he went to study in Petersburg in 1837.
Today Darovoye is a small village near Zaraysk in the south of Moscow Region. When it was bought by the Dostoevsky it had 11 households and 70 serfs. In 1832, the next year after they bought it, a fire happened in the village. It destroyed nearly all structures including the manorial house.
The Dostoevsky gave money all their peasants to restore their houses and settled in a small house. The house survived to our days. In 1836 Maria Fyodorovna died of tuberculosis. After her death Mikhail Dostoevsky retired from his post at the Mariinsky hospital, left his Moscow apartment and moved with his family in Darovoye.
The older sons Mikhail and Fyodor were sent to Petersburg to study at Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute. Two years later, in 1839, Mikhail Dostoevsky also died in Darovoye. It is believed that he was killed by the peasants of Cheremoshnya, the village which by that time also belonged to him, for vicious treatment but this wasn`t proved.
Afterthe death of Mikhail Dostoevsky the estate was given in equal shares to his children. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky refused from his share and sold it to his relatives for a thousand silver roubles. Finally, the estate was bought out by the favorite sister of Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vera.
In our days the museum of Dostoevsky is in the remote part of Darovoye. The museum house has a small exposition of photos and manuscript reproductions. In 1993 near the museum a monument to Fyodor Dostoevsky was installed.
The landscape of the estate remained the same as it was seen by Fyodor Dostoevsky. There are many lime-trees and oaks, which were planted several hundred years ago, at Darovoye. You can also see there the pond where the Dostoevsky children like to fish. In 1877, in the age of 56, Fyodor Dostoevsky visited Darovoye.
