Fyodor Michaylovich Dostoevsky was an outstanding Russian write and is now regarded as one of the best novelists in the world. He was born on November the 11th 1821 in Moscow. His father was a physician and he was a quite cruel even to his servants, while his mother was a very kind woman. The place, where he lived, was surrounded by gloomy institutions, such as a cemetery, a mental house, an orphanage. This atmosphere greatly influenced his works in the future. From the early age, Dostoevsky sometimes suffered from epilepsy. When he turned 17, he successfully passed the exams and entered Saint Petersburg Institute of Military Engineering. His early works were published when he was 21 or 22 years old. At first he translated Balzac’s novel “Eugenie Grandet” and a year later he wrote his first work – “Poor Folk”, which made him immediately famous. One of the best literary critics of that time Belynsky said that this novel was excellent and socially useful. Dostoevsky soon left his military career and devoted himself to writing. After that he wrote several other novels and short stories, which didn’t bring him success and left him in financial crisis. Other difficult periods in novelist’s life include Siberian exile and prison from 1849 till 1854 and the gambling trip to Europe. In 1866 one of his most renowned works “Crime and Punishment” was published. At the same time he was working on “Gambler”. In 1867 Dostoevsky married his young assistant and stenographer Anna Snitkina and they went together to Germany for their honeymoon. Soon their first daughter Sonya was born. Unfortunately, the child was ill and died after three months. In 1869 in Dresden their second daughter Lyubov was born. In 1871 Dostoevsky and his family returned to Saint Petersburg. While travelling he wrote another outstanding novel “The Idiot” and started working on “Demons”. Dostoevsky died on February the 9th 1881 after suffering a lung hemorrhage. His last novel was “The Brothers Karamazov”.