The Idiot The Idiot The Idiot (pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform ) is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal "The Russian Messenger" in 1868–9. The title is an ironic reference to the central character of the novel, Prince (Knyaz) Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin, a young man whose goodness, open-hearted simplicity and guilelessness lead many of the more worldly characters he encounters to mistakenly assume that he lacks intelligence and insight. In the character of Prince Myshkin, Dostoevsky set himself the task of depicting "the positively good and beautiful man." The novel examines the
Lev Anninsky Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award jury. Lev Anninsky Lev Alexandrovich Anninsky (, born 7 April 1934, Rostov-on-Don, USSR) is the Soviet, Russian literary critic and historian, publicist, essayist, author of more than 30 books. He is also a scriptwriter, and as such the three times TEFI laureate (1996 and 2004, twice). Lev Anninsky was born in 1934, to Alexander Anninsky, a cossack from stanitsa Novo-Anninskaya, and Anna Alexandrova, born in Lyubech, Ukraine. In his early years Lev Anninsky read a lot, mostly Russian classics and history books, but also philosophers like Hegel and Kant. In 1939 a five-year-old appeared on the