Born in Moscow, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) was a Russian novelist, short-story writer, translator, essayist, journalist, and philosopher, regarded today as one of the most significant writers of the Golden Age of Russian Literature.
Raised with an appreciation for books, Dostoyevsky developed a desire to write at an early age. His first novel, Poor Folk, gained him entry into literary circles, but his interest in the banned books of tsarist Russia landed the young author in a Siberian prison camp for four years. It helped to instill in Dostoyevsky themes of desperation, suicide, poverty, manipulation, crime, and morality that would inform his novels.