Passion or Profession: Novelist

Period: 1821–1881

Dostoyevsky began a military career at the insistence of his father but later became a writer. An opponent of the tsars and serf system, he became involved in the revolution, for which he was sentenced to several years in a Siberian labor camp. His works dealt with questions about life, faith, and the human struggle between good and evil. Some of his works include Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov.