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
Vladimir Myshkin the others coming in 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986, and 1990. Myshkin replaced Tretiak after the first period in the famous "Miracle on Ice" game versus the USA in the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympics. He faced only 2 shots in the second period, and stopped them both, but gave up 2 goals in the third scored by Americans Mark Johnson and Mike Eruzione. Team USA won the game 4-3 and went on to capture the gold medal with the Soviets taking the silver. As the Americans celebrated wildly and Myshkin waited politely with his teammates to congratulate them