Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky was a 19th century Russian author, famous for writing Notes From Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and The Brothers Karamazov. A deeply philosophical writer with a nuanced understanding of human psychology, Dostoevsky is credited with being, depending on your view, either a forerunner or a founder of modern existentialism. Dostoevsky is known as "the Mad Russian" for two reasons: