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FOCUS ON: Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Mikhaylovich
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Mikhaylovich
Russian novelist and philosopher born in 1821 in Moscow.
One of the world's greatest writer. His works deal with psychological, moral and religious problems.
His first work Poor Folks written in 1846 is in the form of a letter dialogue between the two protagonists, Barbara and
Makar. This was followed by The Insulted and Injured and The Double.
In the 1840's Dostoyevsky befriended a group of young social activists. These persons used to meet, discuss and debate the social problems that plaque Russia at that time. The activities of this group were considered seditious by the then Czar Nicholas I and in 1849 Dostoyevsky was arrested, tried and sentenced to death. Following a mock execution his sentence was commuted to banishment and imprisonment in Siberia.
He would spend the next 4 years doing hard labor in a prison camp in Omsk. During that time his epileptic seizures that he had begun to experience, intensified.
He was released in 1854, but forced to serve in the army. Only in 1859 was he pardoned and allowed to return to Saint Petersburg.
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Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Mikhaylovich
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