Fyodor Dostoevsky served his penal-labor sentence in Omsk, Siberia.
After his arrest in 1849 for involvement with the Petrashevsky Circle, Dostoevsky was sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted during a staged execution in Saint Petersburg, and he was sent to four years of hard labor at the Omsk fortress. He arrived there in January 1850.
The prison experience profoundly influenced his writing and religious outlook. He later described the brutal conditions, forced labor, overcrowding, and psychological strain in Notes from a Dead House, a work based on his Siberian imprisonment.
Omsk should not be confused with Semipalatinsk, where Dostoevsky lived after completing his prison term while serving military duty. Tobolsk was also associated with his journey east, but it was not the main penal-labor camp where he served the sentence.