Born Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky in Russia. (1821-1881). His surname is also written: Dostoevsky or Dostoevskii. Fyodor Dostoyevsky's finest work is found in four novels written during the last 20 years of his life: Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Devils, and The Brothers Karmazov.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, the great Russian writer the might of whose artistic talent considered equal in his writings to that of Shakespeare alone, gave expression in his writings to the boundless suffering of a humiliated and insulted mankind and the boundless anguish that suffering caused him. At the same time, however, he was violently opposed to any attempts to find a way to liberate mankind from humiliation and insult.
The writings of Dostoyevsky were the product of an epoch of transition and crisis, when feudal serf-owning relations in Russia were yielding place to new, capitalist relations. The foundations of the old patriarchal Russia, built on serfdom, were being riven asunder.
His heart heavy with the sufferings of mankind, Dostoyevsky, as it were, bowed to the ground before them as Raskolnikov might do, expressing thereby his compassion for their boundlessness, which he considered beyond the comprehension of the human mind and heart.
