Mikhail Dostoyevsky

Mikhail Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (; 25 November 1820 – 22 July 1864) was a Russian short story writer, publisher, literary critic and the elder brother of Fyodor Dostoevsky. They were less than a year apart in age and spent their childhood together.

Biography Mikhail Dostoevsky was born on 25 November 1820 in Moscow, where his father was a surgeon at the Mariinsky Hospital. Mikhail received a home education. He began to write poetry at the age of nine.

In 1861 he started a magazine titled Vremya (, lit. Time). Dostoevsky wanted to create a fresh independent publication—impartial, freestanding, sustainable, and not subservient to any authority. At the same time, it would appeal to common people and inspire the study of their lives and life principles. Mikhail Dostoevsky was convinced that all flaws in Russian society had come from "apathetic" cosmopolitanism. Officially Mikhail was publisher and editor, but the editorial work was mostly borne by his brother, who worked as columnist, critic, essayist and writer all at once. Three days later, at the age of 43, he died.

Fyodor Dostoevsky recalled his brother as a persistent, hard-working and energetic man, "a connoisseur of European languages and literature", and a harsh critic of his own writing. According to Fyodor, Mikhail did not consider himself an accomplished writer, and for that reason he stopped writing fiction and concentrated on publishing activities.

Works

In the 1840s Mikhail Dostoevsky's short stories were published in Notes of the Fatherland: A Daughter (Дочка; 1848) Mr. Svetelkin (Господин Светелкин; 1848) Sparrow (Воробей; 1848) Two Old Men (Два старичка; 1849) Fifty Years (Пятьдесят лет; 1850) The Older and the Younger (Старшая и меньшая, 1851)

He translated many European literature classics, including Goethe's Reineke Fuchs and Schiller's Don Carlos.