The Life of Fyodor Dostoevsky

  • Birth

    Dostoevsky is born in Moscow in the Russian Empire
  • Schooling

    Dostoevsky is sent to French Boarding School
  • Schooling

    Dostoevsky enrolls at a Military Engineering Institute in St Petersburg. He is uninterested in math and science and does not fit in well.
  • Employment

    Dostoevsky takes a job as a lieutenant engineer. He travels frequently to Tallinn, Estonia where he visits his brother. He attends plays, operas and ballets
  • First Works

    Poor Folk, his first work, is published. It is a commercial success.
  • Arrest

    Dostoevsky is arrested for involvement in a socialist literary group that reads banned books. He is at first sentenced to death but this ruling is changed to exile in Siberia.
  • Exile

    Begins prison labour in Omsk, Siberia
  • Marriage

    Meets his first wife
  • Release From Prison

    Released from prison but still forced to work for the military in Siberia.
  • Return to Russia

    Returns to St Petersburg. Struggles to publish works that are well received.
  • Travels Europe

    Travels across much of Western Europe. He is horrified by some facets of the industrial revolution.
  • Crime and Punishment

    Crime and Punishment is published. One of his most renowned works.
  • 2nd Marriage

    Marries his second wife, Anna. They have four children but only two survive childhood.
  • Brothers Karamazov

    The Brothers Karamazov is published.
  • Speech

    Delivers a famous speech on Pushkin, another famous Russian writer, to crowds in Moscow
  • Death

    Dostoevsky dies in St Petersburg of a lung hemorrhage at age 59