Fyodor Dostoyevsky was a Russian novelist famous for works such as ‘Crime and Punishment’, ‘The Idiot’ and ‘The Brothers Karamazov’. His father was a retired military surgeon who practiced at the Mariinsky Hospital in Moscow (an area that included such cheerful landmarks as a cemetery for criminals, a lunatic asylum and an orphanage) . His father was poor enough that Dostoyevsky’s family of eight was housed in three small rooms in the hospital. In spite of their poverty Dostoyevsky’s paternal ancestors were minor nobles, and had a small country estate. Although it has never been proven, his father is alleged to have been murdered by the serfs on his small estate in a most painful and unusual way:
Two years later, his father died, allegedly murdered by the serfs on his small estate whose daughters he was said to have abused on a regular basis while drunk. One morning, while he was out riding, he was ambushed by a group of enraged fathers who knocked him off his horse, pulled down his trousers and crushed his testicles with their bare hands. Then, as he gasped convulsively in agony, they poured vodka down his throat until he drowned. (passportmagazine.ru)
Not hard to see why Dostoyevsky’s writings are a little…dark.