Włodzimierz Spasowicz

Włodzimierz Spasowicz or Vladimir Spasovich (1829–1906) was a Polish-Russian lawyer often acclaimed as the most brilliant defense attorney of Imperial Russia.

[1] Spasovich attended school in Minsk and studied law in St. Petersburg University, where he later became a professor.

Fetyukovich, a defense attorney in Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, was apparently based on Spasovich.

[2] His involvement as defence attorney in the Kroneberg case of 1876 was also discussed in the February section of Dostoevsky's A Writer's Diary; the Russian novelist thought this case proved a prime example of the dilemma that had then arisen in the Empire's new courts, where the skill and effectiveness of a lawyer could lead to the obstruction of truth and justice, contrary to their vowed custody, as finding the resources to conceal or defend morally reprehensible acts seemed as much a perquisite of the legal profession as unconvering the truth that had been hitherto obfuscated.

He founded in St. Petersburg the Polish-language newspaper Kraj and "advocated the concept of Polish cultural autonomy within Russia"[3] in the Warsaw periodical Atheneum.