Dostoevsky served his penal-labor sentence at the Omsk katorga in Siberia.
After his arrest in 1849 for involvement with the Petrashevsky Circle, Dostoevsky was sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted at the last moment, and he was sent to four years of hard labor at an Omsk prison fortress. He arrived in January 1850 and was released in February 1854.
The prison experience shaped his later writing, especially Notes from a Dead House, a semi-autobiographical account published in 1861–1862. He described overcrowding, forced labor, harsh discipline, social tensions, and the psychological effects of imprisonment.
Omsk is sometimes confused with Semipalatinsk. Omsk was the site of his penal labor, while Semipalatinsk was where he served as a soldier after his release. Tobolsk was also connected with his journey into exile, but it was not the main penal-labor camp where he served the four-year sentence.