Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881) was a Russian novelist and, side by side with Tolstoy, one of the best writers of Russian realism. He lived a hard life in poverty and also had epilepsy. He faced a death sentence, Siberian jail and the death of dear members of his family.

He went to a military academy in January 1838, when he was 16, to please his father. He never liked it. He began writing in his 20s, and completed his first novel, Poor Folk, in May 1845.

A big turn in his life was his participation in the utopian - socialist society because of which he was sentenced to death in 1849, but then he was saved by going to Siberia where he spends 10 years.

In the beginning of his career he followed the footsteps of Gogol and he represented some advanced social point of views and after he served his sentence, described in the work "Notes from Underground" in 1861, not only did he left but also judged the revolutionary actions (novel "Demons" from 1871- 1872) and fell deep into the world of mysticism, Eastern Orthodox Church and preached non-defiance of evil with force.

Dostoyevsky worked as a journalist. He began to travel around western Europe and developed a gambling addiction, which led to financial hardship. For a time, he had to beg for money, but he eventually became one of the most widely read and highly regarded Russian writers.

His books have been translated into more than 170 languages. His main works are the novels: "Crime and Punishment", "Poor Folk", "Notes from Underground", "The idiot" and "The Brothers Karamazov".

He dies in January 1881 from a pulmonary hemorrhage.