Born in Moscow in 1821, Dostoevsky was introduced to literature at an early age through fairy tales and legends and through books by Russian and foreign authors. His mother died in 1837, and around the same time, he left school to enter the Nikolayev Military Engineering Institute (later renamed the Military Engineering-Technical University). After graduating, he worked as an engineer and briefly enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, translating books to earn extra money. In the mid-1840s, he wrote his first novel, Poor Folk, which gained him entry into Saint Petersburg's literary circles. However, he was arrested in 1849 for belonging to a literary group, the Petrashevsky Circle, that discussed banned books critical of Tsarist Russia. Dostoevsky was sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted at the last moment. He spent four years in a Siberian hard labour camp, which inspired him to write The House of the Dead (1860–1862). Aside from the labour camp also followed six years of compulsory military service in exile. In the following years, Dostoevsky worked as a journalist, publishing and editing several magazines of his own and later A Writer's Diary, a collection of his writings. 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.
Life and Career
Dostoevsky's body of work consists of thirteen novels, three novellas, seventeen short stories, and numerous other works. His writings were widely read both within and beyond his native Russia, influencing an equally great number of later writers, including Russians such as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Anton Chekhov, the philosophers Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, and the emergence of Existentialism and Freudianism. Friedrich Nietzsche called him "the only psychologist from whom I had something to learn" in Twilight of the Idols, one of his final works before suffering a mental collapse. His books have been translated into over 170 languages, and served as the inspiration for many films.
Key Facts
- Born: November 11, 1821 in Moscow, Moscow Governorate,, Russian Empire
- Died: 1881
- Field: Literature
Legacy and Impact
The influence of Fyodor Dostoevsky extends far beyond his own lifetime. He fundamentally shaped literature and the written word, and his written works and literary innovations remain foundational to this day.
Though he passed away in 1881, his ideas continue to be studied, debated, and built upon by scholars and practitioners worldwide.
Fyodor Dostoevsky remains one of the most celebrated minds to emerge from Russia, a testament to the rich intellectual heritage of the region.
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