Facts about Fyodor Dostoevsky

1. 06

   Poverty and debt led Fyodor Dostoevsky to dictate his novel The Gambler to a stenographer, Anna Snitkina, whom he later married in 1867.

   Fyodor DostoevskyJun 8shareliteraturebiographymarriage
2. 05

   Before achieving literary fame, Fyodor Dostoevsky trained as a military engineer and briefly worked as a draughtsman before resigning his commission to pursue writing.

   Fyodor DostoevskyMay 17shareliteraturebiographyhistory
3. 04

   Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky suffered from epilepsy throughout his adult life, a condition he portrayed in several of his fictional characters, including Prince Myshkin in The Idiot.

   Fyodor DostoevskyMay 17shareliteraturehealthrussian
4. 03

   Dostoevsky's gambling addiction cost him substantial sums throughout the 1860s, forcing him to write Crime and Punishment serialized in 1866 to pay debts to creditors.

   Fyodor DostoevskyMay 14sharepsychologyliteraturebiography
5. 02

   The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky's final novel published in 1879-1880, required over a decade of planning and notes before he completed the 732-page manuscript.

   Fyodor DostoevskyMay 14shareliteraturewriting19th-century
6. 01

   In 1849, Dostoevsky faced execution by firing squad for political activities before Tsar Nicholas I commuted his sentence to four years of hard labor in Siberia.

   Fyodor DostoevskyMay 14sharehistorybiographyrussia