The international festival has been held since 1992. Its aim is the exchange of stage presentation experiences and interpretation of the literary heritage of the great Russian writer.

The festival is held by Novgorod Academic Drama Theatre named after F.M. Dostoevsky in Veliky Novgorod and Staraya Russa(in the memorial house-museum of F.M. Dostoevsky). Performance groups of Drama and Youth Theatres and creative workshops take part in the festival. In different years well-known theatre companies from Russia, Japan, Germany, Finland, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, Iran were among the participants of the festival. The programme includes performances of various genres and styles; individual works on Dostoyevsky’s writings, compositions based on his life, letters, memoirs.