 The first two parts of "Crime and Punishment" were published in January and February 1866 in the periodical "The Russian Messenger", attracting at least 500 new subscribers to the magazine.Dostoevsky returned to Saint Petersburg in mid-September and promised his editor, Fyodor Stellovsky, that he would complete "The Gambler", a short novel focused on gambling addiction, by November, although he had not yet begun writing it.One of Dostoevsky's friends, Milyukov, advised him to hire a secretary.