Winter Notes on Summer Impressions

In June 1862, Dostoevsky left Petersburg on his first excursion to Western Europe. Ostensibly making the trip to consult Western specialists about his epilepsy, he also wished to see first-hand the source of the Western ideas he believed were corrupting Russia. Over the course of his journey he visited a number of major cities, including Berlin, Paris, London, Florence, Milan and Vienna.

His record of the trip, Winter Notes on Summer Impressions – first published in the February 1863 issue of Vremya, the periodical he edited – is the chrysalis out of which many elements of his later masterpieces developed.