This thesis reveals the social dimension of works written by the Russian realist writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and novels written by the Croatian realist writer Vjenceslav Novak. The term realism is often used for a literary style describing the matter truthfully by showing characters, everyday activities and life without any idealization. Characters are usually described socially, physically and psychologically. To shape a human character even better, the environment is described in order to understand the character's social condition. The characters are in a relation to nature, to each other, to their social class and to their own past. Both of these realist writers give us a big picture of the whole society, but their focus is on the lower social class. Dostoyevsky places his characters in cheerless and gloomy parts of Saint Petersburg, which is a reflection of their state of mind and their future. Novak places his characters in a small town Senj and in the periphery of Zagreb which is poor and without any perspective. The analysed literary works are Crime and Punishment, The Gambler, The Humilated and Insulted and The Poor, written by Dostoyevsky, as well as Novak's novel The Last Stipančićis and his short story From the Metropolitan Underground. This thesis starts with an explanation of the realism as a literary movement, followed by a short biography of Dostoyevsky and Novak, characterization of the protagonists and environment where the characters are placed. Both of the authors are describing problems of the working class during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They are describing issues of poverty, prejudice, daily struggles and alcoholism. Their novels are written in a similar way, but Novak in comparison to Dostoyevsky is much more conservative, according to my analysis.