DESCRIPTION
If you're ever lucky enough to go to St. Petersburg (Russia), you'd be wise to see it through Dostoevsky's eyes. To many Russians, St. Petersburg is a place synonymous with Fyodor Dostoevsky—one of the world's most renowned writers and philosophers. One of the world's greatest authors, Dostoevsky is noted for his penetrating psychological insights, whereby he delved into such complex issues as poverty, exploitation, morality, suicide, free will, the essence of good and evil, and the existence of God. His works are marked by a great empathy for the poor and the downtrodden.
Dostoevsky called St. Petersburg "the most intentional and abstract city."
This is where Fyodor Mikhailovich spent most of his life, lived at nearly 20 different addresses, wrote his most phenomenal works, and where he was finally laid to rest. The city is also the backdrop for many of his novels, but it's so much more than that. In Dostoevsky's writings St. Petersburg is not just passive scenery; it's an essential part of his characters' lives, an active protagonist that influences the course of events.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was a philosopher and novelist whose works portrayed human turmoil in the midst of a politically and socially troubled atmosphere of the 19th century Russia. His works were characterized by an intensity that led him to be labeled one of the most significant psychologists of the literary world. He was exposed to literature from an early age and had already published a novel by the time he was 25 years of age. A brilliant young man, he also boasted of a great academic record, graduating at third position from engineering college. Russia was going through a politically turbulent period and Dostoevsky, along with his brothers was forced to join military services which he absolutely loathed. His youth was ridden with strife and he was once arrested for his involvement in revolutionary activities and sentenced to death, only to be pardoned at the last minute. He was of delicate health and suffered from epileptic seizures. However, his health problems could not keep him away from writing and he went on to produce classics like ‘Crime and Punishment’ and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’. In spite of his successes with his books, his life was marked by periods of financial crises and illnesses. He overcame the many obstacles life threw at him to become one of the most widely read Russian writers of all time.