Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Growing up in Moscow in the 1820s, Dostoyevsky was introduced to literature through legends, fairy tales and books. Upon graduation from Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute, he worked as a translator and engineer. Dostoyevsky wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, in the mid-1840s, gaining entry to the literary circles of St. Petersburg. In 1849, Dostoyevsky was arrested for being part of a secret society of utopians and was condemned to death. At the last moment, his sentence was commuted to four years’ hard labor in Siberia. In the years after his release, he began writing and publishing some of his most famous novels, including Notes from Underground and Crime and Punishment. Today, he is one of the highest regarded Russian writers.