On this day 159 years ago, the young writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky was led out to be executed. A few years earlier he had achieved some success with his novel Poor Folk, but he had been arrested in April 1849 for being part of a politically subversive intellectual group. On 22 December 1849, with other members of the group, he was taken outside in the freezing weather, and a firing squad was ready to perform the execution when a message arrived announcing that the death sentences had been commuted to hard labour in Siberia.
Dostoyevsky’s five years in prison were a time of great suffering, and he underwent a conversion experience while studying the New Testament, becoming a Christian. For the following five years he was required to serve in the army, before resuming his literary career in St Petersburg. His writing became more serious, featuring existential and spiritual themes and dark brooding characters.
Dostoevsky’s greatest works, including The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and Notes from Underground, were written during this period. His near-execution and his subsequent period of imprisonment with hard labour cast a shadow over all of these works, while at the same time providing the depth of emotion and perspective on existence which have made them some of the greatest literary works of all time.