In June 1862 Fyodor Dostoevsky left Petersburg on his first excursion to Western Europe. Ostensibly a trip to consult Western specialists about his epilepsy, Dostoevsky also wished to see firsthand 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. He recorded his impressions of everthing he saw, and published them as
Winter Notes on Summer Impressions
in the February 1863 issue of
Vremya
( Time ), the periodical he edited.