Prince Myshkin Prince Myshkin Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin (pre-reform Russian: ; post-reform ) is the protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot". Dostoevsky wanted to create a character that was "entirely positive... with an absolutely beautiful nature", someone who is truly 'Christian'. According to Joseph Frank, the character of Prince Myshkin approaches "the extremest incarnation of the Christian ideal of love that humanity can reach in its present form, but he is torn apart by the conflict between the contradictory imperatives of his apocalyptic aspirations and his earthly limitations." Prince Myshkin has been in Switzerland for the last four years, at a
Lev Panyutin Lev Panyutin Lev Konstantinovich Panyutin (, 6 March 1831 in Yelisavetgrad region, Kherson Governorate, Imperial Russia – 13 December 1882 in Saint Petersburg, Imperial Russia) was a Russian writer, poet and journalist. Panyutin, who debuted as a published author in 1858 in Moscow with the "Stikhotverenya" (Poems) collection, then moved to Saint Petersburg where he started contributing to "Golos", using the pseudonym Nil Admirari, and soon became a popular author of feuilletons which came out in 1872 as a separate two-volume edition. Panyutin was also writing stories, as well as critical and historical essays for "Otechestvennye Zapiski", "Nedelya" and "Budilnik".