The Peasant Marey

by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Dostoyevsky skilfully paints a portrait of a character who manages to recall a childhood memory from 20 years ago, and by doing so he alters the course of his life and even enables himself to completely free his heart from hatred and anger.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, Russia, Russian Literature, Literature, Philosophy

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 1876

About the author

Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский (Russian)

Works, such as the novels Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), of Russian writer Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky or Dostoevski combine religious mysticism with profound psychological insight.

Very influential writings of Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin included Problems of Dostoyevsky's Works (1929),

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky composed short stories, essays, and journals. His literature explores humans in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century and engages with a variety of philosophies and themes. People most acclaimed his Demons(1872) .

Many literary critics rate him among the greatest authors of world literature and consider multiple books written by him to be highly influential masterpieces. They consider his Notes from Underground of the first existentialist literature. He is also well regarded as a philosopher and theologian.

(Russian: Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский) (see also Fiodor Dostoïevski)

Reviews

[Luthfi Ferizqi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing!! One of Dostoevsky’s finest works, for sure.

The Peasant Marey is often said to be an autobiography from Dostoevsky during his time as a political prisoner in Siberia.

The story uses a first-person perspective, which makes it so profound, as if the reader is experiencing everything being told.

Well, Dostoevsky will always have a place in my heart. I’ve always said that his work Crime and Punishment is what made me the avid reader I am today.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...and now twenty years later I suddenly remembered this meeting so distinctly that not a single detail of it was lost, which means of course that that it must have been hidden in my mind without my knowing it, of itself and without any effort on my part, and came back to me suddenly when it was wanted."

In this story, which is one of the more personal that he wrote, Dostoevsky recalls his time as a prisoner in Siberia; during a holiday, when, once a year, the guards ease their control over the prisoners - who take the opportunity to drink and fight without restraint - he finds himself somewhat despondently lying on his bunk. He tries to dream a little, but cannot seem to get to a relaxed state. Then, suddenly, he remembers an incident from when he was nine years old. He was fooling around outside on his father's estate, in the bushes catching insects, when he suddenly images someone screaming 'Wolf!' in the distance. Frightened and out of sorts, he runs toward a peasant named Marey, who is ploughing the land nearby, and who then comforts him in an exceptionally a sweet and loving way. The memory of this incident restores his faith in his fellow man enough to face the rough imprisoned peasants without bitterness.

The story provides a relatively rare glimpse into Dostoevsky's own experiences while he was imprisoned (Notes from the House of the Dead having had a fictional narrator), and, aside from being a moving story, constitutes a subtle meditation on memory.

[Medisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

یک خاطره از زبان داستایفسکی
که زمانی که در زندان بود دلش را گرم می‌کرد.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the only texts in which Dostoyevsky refers explicitly to his own experiences as a political prisoner in Siberia (given that "The House of the Dead" is ostensibly narrated by a fictional character). It's one of my favorite short stories because of its meaningful and rare glimpse into the more personal aspects of this time in Dostoyevsky's life. During Easter week in the prison camp, Dostoyevsky, exasperated "to the point of illness" by the other convicts' drunkenness and resulting violent fights, suddenly remembers an incident from his childhood which allows him to view those around him a little more kindly.

Dostoyevsky remembers an event which took place when he was only 9 years old, of the simple kindness of a stranger. A peasant comforted the frightened boy who thought he had seen a wolf in the woods. Dostoyevsky writes that "our encounter was solitary, in an open field, and only God, perhaps, looking down saw what deep and enlightened human feeling... could fill the heart of a coarse... Russian peasant". This line truly sums up the entire story and allows readers a poignant glimpse into this event which would forever alter Dostoyevsky's life; he would go on to advocate the liberation of the serfs for many years afterward. The memory of this incident also comes to Dostoyevsky at a time when he needs it most. It allows him to withhold judgment on his fellow prisoners and begin to attain the perspective which later allowed him to portray even those normally labeled as "evil" with a great compassion and understanding.

[Shauny Free Palestine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice story about the importance of being more tolerant. Dostoyevsky is at his best when facing despair and other hardships. Something deeply honest and personal about this particular tale too.

[Kashan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Peasant Marey” by Fyodor Dostoevsky is not really about a peasant, and not even about childhood it’s about how one single act of kindness can stay alive inside you even when everything around you feels rotten.
The story takes place in prison, surrounded by suffering, corruption, and people the world would easily call monsters. And honestly, that’s how they appear at first harsh, cold, the torture almost stripped of anything human. But then a memory interrupts that judgment. A simple memory of a scared child who thought he heard a wolf, and a poor peasant who did nothing extraordinary, just spoke gently, reassured him, and treated him like he mattered.
And that’s the point nothing “extraordinary” happened, yet it meant everything.
Dostoevsky shows that humanity is not found in intelligence, status, or even morality as society defines it, but in small, quiet moments of compassion. Marey, an uneducated peasant, holds more emotional depth than the so-called “civilized” world. And through this memory, the narrator starts to question his own perception of the prisoners around him. Maybe they are not just what they seem. Maybe somewhere in them, there was or still is a Marey.
What I find interesting is that the wolf was never real, but the fear was. And more importantly, the kindness was real too. It’s like Dostoevsky is saying that even if our fears are illusions, the way people respond to them defines everything.
This story feels like a reminder: we are too quick to reduce people to one version of themselves the worst one bc that what the society taught us. But a single memory of kindness can break that illusion completely.
In the end, it’s not a story about the past, but about perspective. About how remembering goodness can stop you from becoming completely numb to the world.

[Nikhil Patel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing too special about this book to give it 5/5. Dostoyvesky wrote this one as his memory from prison about his memory of childhood when he was 9 years old in a country farm where he had a hallucination of a wolf.

What I realized reading this one is that how powerful the stories could be across space and time? For example, I am an Indian guy living in USA enjoying a memorial day evening while drinking Heineken. I am reading a Russian Author from 19th century who is recalling his story of his childhood about a pesant. Do you think that this peasant would have thought that 200 years later an Indian guy would be reading about me and posting it on internet for others to read? How beautiful that is! I think that's the power of stories.

[Adia · Rating 4 out of 5]

the narrator, presumably Dostoevsky himself, is serving time in a Siberian prison, disgusted by his fellow inmates. he finds himself recalling a forgotten memory of his childhood, when a serf named Marey had comforted the frightened boy. the story is very short, and almost unremarkable, but it is somehow intimate...it makes you feel something.

[Julie Kuvakos · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a stand alone it’s nothing special but might have done better if I read along with the house of the dead.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy to read, good flow, deep, philosophical, but I had the feeling of incompleteness when I finished.

[Salem ☥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love reading dostoevsky's novellas before bed, but i think this short story would make more sense if you've finished notes from the underground, or at least read some of it.

[Estifanos · Rating 4 out of 5]

My interpretation of the story:

Show kindness to people(old or young), it really goes a long way!

[aynsrtn · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first experience reading Fyodor Dostoevsky's writing with this short story which is only 10 pages. I deliberately chose the short one first before reading his other works in the future, one of which is Crime and Punishment which is included in my 25 books for 2025.

This writing is very personal because it tells the story of when he was in a Siberian prison. He suddenly remembered his childhood, when he was helped by The Peasant Marey. At that time he was scared because he heard a wolf in the forest. Marey, the stranger, comforted and calmed him down.

The moral of the story that can be obtained is to be nice to everyone. Because it's short, it just ends like that. But, it is okay for an introduction to his work.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful short story laced with much truth. It could easily become one of my favorites from Dostoevsky.

[Book Lover · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was great! An awesome story that makes you think.

[Keiry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have tears in my eyes, but this is such a beautiful reflection of how we should truly view one another. I am floored by Dostoyevsky's perspective--especially considering his circumstances. I hope that over time, my times of reflection can help me grow in love no matter the circumstances.

[Jack Smith]

Nothing revolutionary but an interesting anecdote that helps build an understanding of how Dostoevsky thinks.

[Maryam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brief precocious biography. I enjoyed reading these 7 pages. this is a recollection of a childhood experience by Dostoevsky while he was in a prison camp in Siberia. Dostoevsky said; this recollection was decisive in seeing his fellow prisoners in a new light. What struck me in this story was how he described the peasant Marey in maternal terms.
When he first encountered convicts who had been serfs he felt a sense of revulsion and hatred toward their behavior. After his conversion experience he said “his savoir complex” disappeared. Peasants required sympathy and understanding not just rescue from serfdom.

[Monique Mathiesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story in which Dostovesky recalls a memory from childhood where a peasant named Marey shows him kindness. He grabs hold of the love he felt in that seemingly insignificant moment and carries it with him in the present day, as he attempts to show the love of Christ to the men imprisoned with him in Serbia.

[Cary Whaley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this not out of the chronological order that I'm striving for, but instead as a coda to House of the Dead that was written twenty years earlier. This short story revisits the narrator of the House of the Dead, Goryanchikov/Dostoyevsky, to recount a childhood memory where the speaker sought refuge with one of his father's serfs, Marey. I'll most likely reread this when I get to A Writer's Diary.

[Jake Seitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not gonna lie was confused because I had not looked into the origin of the book, or even cared to read any preface for the short story. I thought I was reading a chapter out of his House of the Dead, but I wasn’t. Overall not bad.

[Nicholas Kuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very Short and so far the only story to actually talk about his time in prison. I know House of the Dead is his account with some salt but this is the only one where you can not really distinguish between his characters and his own character.

[moci · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...and when i got down off the bed and looked around me, i remember i suddenly felt that i could look at these unhappy creatures with quite different eyes, and that suddenly by some miracle all hatred and anger had vanished utterly from my heart..."

a story about tolerance and empathy :)

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short story on compassion, and that kindness is never forgotten.

[ShizleGhizle · Rating 4 out of 5]

As depressing as expected.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this story

[emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

i LOVE sir fyodor

[Aishee Mukherjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pregaming notes from a dead house

[Anirudh Kukreja · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deep, profound piece, made even more impressive by the autobiographical nature of the story. The social system and how one may have stereotypical perceptions towards certain groups are highlighted, questioned merely by an innocent experience of the narrator in his childhood.

[Pardis · Rating 4 out of 5]

About kindness when you least expect it. It’s exactly what we need nowadays.