[3] She graduated from an academic high school summa cum laude and subsequently trained as a stenographer.

[4] On 4 October 1866, Anna Snitkina started working as a stenographer on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Gambler.

[5] In the Memoirs, Anna describes how Dostoevsky began his marriage proposal by outlining the plot of an imaginary new novel, as if he needed her advice on female psychology.

[1] During a stop in Baden, Dostoevsky lost all of his money playing roulette, as well as his wife's clothes and belongings.

Anna seems to have succeeded, like Dostoevsky himself, in divorcing his gambling mania from his moral personality, and in regarding it as something extraneous to his true character.

Back in St. Petersburg Anna gave birth to two sons Fyodor (16 July 1871 – 4 January 1922) and Alexey (10 August 1875 – 16 May 1878).

Anna took over all finance issues, including publishing business matters and negotiations, and soon liberated her husband from debt.

Anna Dostoevskaya née Snitkina trained to be a stenographer and planned to earn her own living.

Initially Dostoevsky dictated too fast but once they established a pace they completed the project just in time.

She took over sales of his novels, particularly Demons, from their apartment in St Petersburg, and began managing his business affairs.