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I'm at the 50% point where the Professor of Languages and Razumov meet for the first time so it is too early for me to draw many conclusions.
I recommend the Wikipedia article on Joseph Conrad. It is quite comprehensive and describes his personal experiences that shaped his world view as well as his writing influences. He was a Russian citizen, but his national identity was Polish. When he was about 11 he moved to Austria-held Poland which had more freedoms. He was 16 when he moved to France to start his maritime career and then ultimately moved to England and became a subject of Queen Victoria. I think it's an interesting contrast that his father's revolutionary activities and exile influenced Conrad's fate whereas Razumov's apparent lack of family ties shaped his fate.
I also think that it's interesting that Conrad didn't learn English until he was in his 20s yet he chose to write his novels in this adopted language because it seemed natural. However his mastery of English prose was tinted by his foreign upbringing and sensibilities. He drew upon his personal experiences and historic events & people rather than invent completely original plots. The assassination at the beginning of Under Western Eyes is modeled after the real assassination of a Russian official in 1904. The revolutionists and the salon of Chateau Berol are also modeled after real people and places. Some of his works were considered by critics on the fringe of plagiarism. The annotated version that I am reading helps to point out the many allusions to other works & ideas of the time that I would have glossed right over without the footnotes.
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