Born in Moscow on November 11, 1821, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky wrote novels, short stories, essays, and journals exploring psychology, politics, sociology, and spirituality in the context of 19th century Russia. The second of eight children, he grew up on the grounds of the Mariinsky Hospital for the Poor on the edge of Moscow, where his father, Mikhail Andreevich Dostoyevsky, worked as a senior physician and collegiate assessor. As a child Fyodor spent his time playing in the hospital gardens, learning to read and write from his mother, Maria, and listening to stories read by his nanny, Alena Frolovna, before his parents introduced him to classic and contemporary literature.
Sent to a French boarding school in 1833, he was described as, “a pale, introverted dreamer and an over-excitable romantic.” His mother passed away due to tuberculosis in 1837, and the next year he entered the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute in St. Petersburg. He neither fit in nor liked being there, having little interest in science and math, although he did find time to study literature and also maintained the respect of his classmates. In 1839 his father died as the result of an apoplectic stroke, which might have marked the start of Fyodor’s lifelong struggle with epileptic seizures.
Publishing his first novel, Poor Folk, in 1846, he enjoyed immediate commercial success as the influential critic, Vissarion Belinsky, praised the book as Russia’s first “social novel.” Literary success prompted him to resign his post as military engineer and complete his second novel, The Double, at which time he took an interest in French Socialism. Dostoevsky continued writing in spite of negative reviews and worsening seizures, releasing short stories in the magazine, Annals of the Fatherland. In the late 1840’s he participated in a group called the Petrashevsky Circle that met to discuss freedom from censorship and the abolition of serfdom. The members of this group were accused by the Ministry of International Affairs of reading and circulating materials criticizing Russian politics and religion. Dostoevsky confessed to reading Belinsky’s works, though denied any motives of inciting rebellion, and was arrested in April of 1849.
Four months of investigation led to a death sentence for the members of the Petrashevsky Circle, and the prisoners were taken to St. Petersburg and split into three-man groups to await the firing squad, Dostoevsky standing with Pleshcheyev and Durov. A mail cart delivered a letter from Tsar Nicolas I just in time to stay the execution. The next four years he spent in a Siberian prison camp, followed by a term of compulsory military service, during which Fyodor consoled fellow prisoners, endured illness, and read the Bible and various books including Charles Dickens.
From 1854, the year of his release, to 1881, the year of his death, he lived a life of relative freedom, writing, traveling, and caring for his family. He married Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva in 1857, but their life together proved mostly unhappy. Dostoevsky wrote of their relationship, “Because of her strange, suspicious and fantastic character, we were definitely not happy together, but we could not stop loving each other; and the more unhappy we were, the more attached to each other we became.” Maria passed away in 1864 as did his older brother, Mikhail. Over the next twenty years Fyodor married Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina and had four children, Sonya, Lyubov, Fyodor, and Alexey. His most recognized books are Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov.
Sent to a French boarding school in 1833, he was described as, “a pale, introverted dreamer and an over-excitable romantic.” His mother passed away due to tuberculosis in 1837, and the next year he entered the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute in St. Petersburg. He neither fit in nor liked being there, having little interest in science and math, although he did find time to study literature and also maintained the respect of his classmates. In 1839 his father died as the result of an apoplectic stroke, which might have marked the start of Fyodor’s lifelong struggle with epileptic seizures.
Publishing his first novel, Poor Folk, in 1846, he enjoyed immediate commercial success as the influential critic, Vissarion Belinsky, praised the book as Russia’s first “social novel.” Literary success prompted him to resign his post as military engineer and complete his second novel, The Double, at which time he took an interest in French Socialism. Dostoevsky continued writing in spite of negative reviews and worsening seizures, releasing short stories in the magazine, Annals of the Fatherland. In the late 1840’s he participated in a group called the Petrashevsky Circle that met to discuss freedom from censorship and the abolition of serfdom. The members of this group were accused by the Ministry of International Affairs of reading and circulating materials criticizing Russian politics and religion. Dostoevsky confessed to reading Belinsky’s works, though denied any motives of inciting rebellion, and was arrested in April of 1849.
Four months of investigation led to a death sentence for the members of the Petrashevsky Circle, and the prisoners were taken to St. Petersburg and split into three-man groups to await the firing squad, Dostoevsky standing with Pleshcheyev and Durov. A mail cart delivered a letter from Tsar Nicolas I just in time to stay the execution. The next four years he spent in a Siberian prison camp, followed by a term of compulsory military service, during which Fyodor consoled fellow prisoners, endured illness, and read the Bible and various books including Charles Dickens.
From 1854, the year of his release, to 1881, the year of his death, he lived a life of relative freedom, writing, traveling, and caring for his family. He married Maria Dmitrievna Isaeva in 1857, but their life together proved mostly unhappy. Dostoevsky wrote of their relationship, “Because of her strange, suspicious and fantastic character, we were definitely not happy together, but we could not stop loving each other; and the more unhappy we were, the more attached to each other we became.” Maria passed away in 1864 as did his older brother, Mikhail. Over the next twenty years Fyodor married Anna Grigoryevna Snitkina and had four children, Sonya, Lyubov, Fyodor, and Alexey. His most recognized books are Notes from Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov.