>>Few weeks ago I remembered that I had an old edition of Anna Karenina (by the same Tolstoyevsky guy, as some of my countrymen would say)... and then I dug it up, opened and closed. It was in English.
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>Quite recently I read 'The Hero of Our Time' (that started the second line), in English and I was impressed (to the extent of my humble abilities) with translation.

It's sometimes impossible to get a good translation until a translator is born who will just get into the writer's mind and get to like it there, to the point of passion. Maybe both Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy scare the translators, being so big and important.

There's an interesting story of a Hungarian writer, Béla Hamvas (hom-vosh), who was pretty much unknown at home, but found a translator in Belgrade who passionately translated his books and published them. Few years later he became famous at home. I know my old roommate, who boasts some broad knowledge of the culture (he's Hungarian by origin), heard about the guy from me. Years later he started emailing me stuff about him.