Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) was aRussian writer and is sometimes referred to as one of the founders ofexistentialism. Dostoevsky is widely regarded as one of the most importantRussian language authors.
Born onOctober 30,1821 to parents Mikhail and Maria, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was the second of seven children. Fyodor's mother died of an illness in1837.
Fyodor and his brother Michael were sent to the Military Engineering Academy at St. Petersburg shortly after their mother's death, though these plans had begun even before she became ill.
It was not long before his father, an army surgeon, also died in1839. While not known for certain, it is believed that Mikhail Dostoevsky was murdered by his ownserfs, who reportedly became enraged during one of Mikhail's drunken fits of violence, restrained him, and pouredvodka into his mouth until he drowned.
Dostoevsky was arrested and imprisoned in1849 for engaging in revolutionary activity againstTsar Nicholas I. After a mock execution in which he faced a stagedfiring squad, Dostoevsky's sentence was commuted to a number of years of exile performing hard labor at a prison camp inSiberia. His sentence was completed in1854, at which point he enrolled in the Siberian Regiment.
This was a turning point in the author's life. Dostoevsky abandonded his earlier radical sentiments and became deeply conservative and extremely religious.
In1860, he returned to St. Petersburg, where he ran a series of unsuccessful literary journals with his older brother Mikhail. Dostoevsky was devastated by his wife's death in1864, followed shortly thereafter by his brother's death. He was financially crippled by business debts and the need to provide for his brother's widow and children. Dostoevsky sunk into a deep depression, frequenting gambling parlors and blithely accumulating massive losses at the tables.
To escape creditors in St. Petersburg, Dostoevsky traveled to Europe. In1867 Dostoevsky married Anna Snitkin, a 19 year old stenographer. This period resulted in the writing of his greatest books.
Fyodor Dostoevsky died onJanuary 28,1881 and was interred inTikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery,St. Petersburg, Russia.