Team Dostoyevsky here. Tolstoy, well, in a novel I’m not looking for serenity and elegance. I’m looking for colossal struggles. FD was nobody of note, in his time and place, but he sure punched above his weight. Tolstoy mostly stuck to his social comfort zone.
I was homeschooled, exposed to various translations and commentaries thereon, all in the library at home and my teacher was fluent in Russian anyway. So it was “stereo surround” reading and I’ve no preference.
What good fortune to have such an exposure to Russian and Russian literature!