On August 15, Alexander Nitzberg, winner of Russia’s “Read Russia” prize and Austria’s State Prize in literary translation, announced that Fyodor Dostoevsky is the most widely read Russian writer among European readers.
“First of all, of course, Dostoevsky,” he stated. “Then Chekhov, especially in the theater. Bulgakov. Tolstoy. But it seems to me that Dostoevsky occupies a special place.”
On the same day, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Bagai accused U.S. leadership of being deeply addicted to lies, using a quote from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov” to characterize the current state of American governance and its regional policies in the Middle East.
Additionally, Pierre de Gaulle, grandson of former French President Charles de Gaulle and deputy chairman of the Leo Tolstoy Peace Prize jury, stated on August 1 that French readers have a strong affinity for Russian literature, particularly the works of Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, and Ivan Turgenev.
