I.

Among world-famous Russian writers, Dostoyevsky is the one whose creative work most clearly reveals a foundation in Christianity. Both his life and his work are marked by the unusual. The son of a doctor, he graduated from a military engineering school, but after a brief period as a lieutenant in the war ministry, he took his leave and made his living as a writer. In 1846 his first novel, Bednye lyudi (ET: Poor Folk), which he wrote at age 24, brought him sudd…