Fyodor Dostoevsky

Who is Fyodor Dostoevsky?

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was born in Moscow in 1821, the son of a physician. Trained as a military engineer, he abandoned that career for literature, debuting with 'Poor Folk' (1846). In 1849 he was arrested for involvement with the liberal Petrashevsky Circle, subjected to a mock execution, and sentenced to years of hard labor in a Siberian prison camp, an ordeal that deeply shaped his worldview. His major novels, written in the last two decades of his life, include 'Crime and Punishment' (1866), 'The Idiot' (1869), 'Demons' (1872) and 'The Brothers Karamazov' (1880). These works probe questions of faith, doubt, free will, guilt and redemption, and their psychological depth made him a founding figure of literary existentialism and a profound influence on modern thought. He also wrote 'Notes from Underground,' often cited as a precursor to existentialist literature. Dostoevsky died in Saint Petersburg in 1881, shortly after completing 'The Brothers Karamazov.'

Sources: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866) · Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880) · Joseph Frank, Dostoevsky: A Writer in His Time (2010)