The Idiot three prisoners were tied to stakes facing the firing squad: Dostoevsky was among the next in line. Just as the first shots were about to be fired, a message arrived from the Tsar commuting the sentences to hard labor in Siberia. The experience had a profound effect on Dostoevsky, and in Part 1 of "The Idiot" (written twenty years after the event) the character of Prince Myshkin repeatedly speaks in depth on the subject of capital punishment. On one occasion, conversing with the Epanchin women, he recounts an anecdote that exactly mirrors Dostoevsky's own experience. A man of 27, who
Myshkin (town) district significance of Myshkin. As a municipal division, the town of district significance of Myshkin is incorporated within Myshkinsky Municipal District as Myshkin Urban Settlement. The town attracts a significant number of tourists usually arriving by river cruise ships. Myshkin retains architectural features characteristic for the 19th century Russia. It also features a number of museums. One of them is the unique Mouse Museum (the name of the town is derived from the word "" ("mysh") meaning "mouse" in Russian). There are also a Museum of Valenki ("valenki" being a type of Russian felt boots), an ethnographic museum, an art