[[Image:Dostoevsky 1872.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait by Vasily Perov, 1872]]'''Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky''' (Russian: Фёдор Миха́йлович Достое́вский, ''Fëdor Mihajlovič Dostoevskij'', sometimes [[Transliteration of Russian into English|transliterated]] '''Dostoyevsky''' [[October 30]]/[[November 11]], 1821 – [[January 28]]/[[February 9]], 1881) is considered one of the greatest Russian writers, whose works have had a profound and lasting effect on twentieth-century fiction. His works often feature characters living in poor conditions with disparate and extreme states of mind, and exhibit both an uncanny grasp of human [[psychology]] as well as penetrating analyses of the political, social and spiritual states of Russia of his time. Many of his best-known works are prophetic precursors to modern-day thoughts. He is sometimes considered to be a founder of [[w:existentialism|existentialism]], most frequently for ''Notes from Underground'', which has been described by Walter Kaufmann as "the best overture for existentialism ever written".