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Crime and Punishment

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Background Information


Crime and Punishment
See caption.
1956 Random House printing of Crime and Punishment, translated by Constance Garnett.
Author(s) Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Original title Преступление и наказание
Language Russian
Genre(s) suspense, literary novel
Publisher The Russian Messenger (series)
Publication date 1866
Media type Print ( Hardback & Paperback) & Audio book
ISBN 0-679-73450-3
OCLC Number 26399697
Dewey Decimal 891.73/3 20
LC Classification PG3326 .P7 1993

Crime and Punishment (Russian: Преступление и наказание Pryestupleniye i nakazaniye) is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. This was first published in the Russian literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single volume. This is the second of Dostoevsky's full-length novels following his return from five years of exile in Siberia, where he was serving his sentence in Katorga camps, the Tsarist forced-labor system and predecessor to the Soviet Gulag. Crime and Punishment is the first great novel of his "mature period" of writing.

Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral dilemmas of Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Petersburg who formulates and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawnbroker for her money. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker's money he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the world of a worthless parasite. He also commits this murder to test his own hypothesis that some people are naturally capable of, and even have the right to, do such things. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov justifies his actions by connecting himself mentally with Napoleon Bonaparte, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose, only to find out he "... is not a Napoleon."



Dostoyevsky offered his story or novella (at the time Dostoyevsky was not thinking of a novel) to the publisher Mikhail Katkov, whose monthly journal, The Russian Messenger, was a prestigious publication of its kind, and the outlet for both Ivan Turgenev and Leo Tolstoy. However Dostoevsky, having carried on quite bruising polemics with Katkov in early 1860s, had never published anything in its pages. Nonetheless, forced by his situation, after all other appeals elsewhere failed, Dostoevsky turned as a last resort to Katkov, urging for an advance on a proposed contribution: In a letter to Katkov written in September 1865, Dostoevsky explained to him that the work was to be about a young man who yields to "certain strange, 'unfinished' ideas, yet floating in the air"; he had thus embarked on his plan to explore the moral and psychological dangers of the ideology of "radicalism". In letters written in November 1865 an important conceptual change occurred: the "story" has become a "novel", and from here on all references to Crime and Punishment are to a novel.


 — Dostoevsky's letter to his friend Alexander Wrangel in February 1886


 — Dostoevsky's letter to A.P. Milyukov

Why Dostoevsky abandoned his initial version remains a matter of speculation. According to Joseph Frank, "one possibility is that his protagonist began to develop beyond the boundaries in which he had first been conceived". The notebooks indicate that Dostoevsky was aware of the emergence of new aspects of Raskolnikov's character as the plot action proceeded, and he structured the novel in conformity with this "metamorphosis," Frank says. Dostoevsky thus decided to fuse the story with his previous idea for a novel called The Drunkards. The final version of Crime and Punishment came to birth only when, in November 1865, Dostoevsky decided to recast his novel in the third person. This shift was the culmination of a long struggle, present through all the early stages of composition. Once having decided, Dostoevsky began to rewrite from scratch, and was able to easily integrate sections of the early manuscript into the final text—Frank says that he did not, as he told Wrangel, burn everything he had written earlier.




After much deliberation, Raskolnikov sneaks into Alyona Ivanovna's apartment where he murders her with an axe. He also kills her half-sister, Lizaveta, who happens to stumble upon the scene of the crime. Shaken by his actions, Raskolnikov manages to only steal a handful of items and a small purse, leaving much of the pawn-broker's wealth untouched. Raskolnikov then flees and manages to leave miraculously unseen and undetected.


In the meantime, Raskolnikov's mother, Pulcheria Alexandrovna, and his sister, Avdotya Romanovna (or Dounia) have arrived in the city. Avdotya had been working as a governess for the Svidrigailov family until this point, but was forced out of the position by the head of the family, Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigaïlov. Svidrigailov, a married man, was attracted to Avdotya's physical beauty and her stunning spiritual qualities, and offered her riches and elopement. Avdotya, having none of this, fled the family and lost her source of income, only to meet Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin, a man of modest income and rank. Luzhin proposes to marry Avdotya, thereby securing her and her mother's financial safety, provided she accept him quickly and without question. It is for these very reasons that the two of them come to Saint Petersburg, both to meet Luzhin there and to attain Raskolnikov's approval. Luzhin, however, calls on Raskolnikov while he is in a delirious state and presents himself as a foolish, self-righteous and presuming man. Raskolnikov dismisses him immediately as a potential husband for his sister, and realizes that she only accepted him to help her family.

As the novel progresses, Raskolnikov is introduced to the detective Porfiry, who begins to suspect him for the murder purely on psychological grounds. At the same time, a chaste relationship develops between Raskolnikov and Sonya. Sonya, though a prostitute, is full of Christian virtue and is only driven into the profession by her family's poverty. Meanwhile, Razumikhin and Raskolnikov manage to keep Avdotya from continuing her relationship with Luzhin, whose true character is exposed to be conniving and base. At this point, Svidrigailov appears on the scene, having come from the province to Petersburg, almost solely to seek out Avdotya. He reveals that his wife is dead, and that he is willing to pay Avdotya a vast sum of money in exchange for nothing. She, upon hearing the news, refuses flat out, suspecting him of treachery.

As Raskolnikov and Porfiry continue to meet, Raskolnikov's motives for the crime become exposed. Porfiry becomes increasingly certain of the man's guilt, but has no concrete evidence or witnesses with which to back up this suspicion. Furthermore, another man admits to committing the crime under questioning and arrest. However, Raskolnikov's nerves continue to wear thin, and he is constantly struggling with the idea of confessing, though he knows that he can never be truly convicted. He turns to Sonya for support and confesses his crime to her. By coincidence, Svidrigailov has taken up residence in a room next to Sonya's and overhears the entire confession. When the two men meet face to face, Svidrigailov acknowledges this fact, and suggests that he may use it against him, should he need to. Svidrigailov also speaks of his own past, in which he reveals that he has committed murder and most recently killed his wife.

Raskolnikov is at this point completely torn; he is urged by Sonya to confess, and Svidrigailov's testimony could potentially convict him. Meantime, Svidrigailov attempts to seduce and then rape Avdotya, who convinces him not to. He then spends a night in confusion and in the morning shoots himself. This same morning, Raskolnikov goes again to Sonya, who again urges him to confess and to clear his conscience. He makes his way to the police station, where he is met by the news of Svidrigailov's suicide. He hesitates a moment, thinking again that he might get away with a perfect crime, but is persuaded by Sonya to confess.

The epilogue tells of how Raskolnikov is sentenced to penal servitude in Siberia, where Sonya follows him. Avdotya and Razumikhin marry and are left in a happy position by the end of the novel. Raskolnikov, however, struggles in Siberia. It is only after some time in prison that his redemption and moral regeneration begin under Sonya's loving influence.


In Crime and Punishment Dostoevsky succeeds in fusing the personality of his main character, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov (Russian: Родион Романович Раскольников), with his new anti-radical ideological themes. The main plot involves a murder as the result of "ideological intoxication," and depicts all the disastrous moral and psychical consequences that result from the murderer. Raskolnikov's psychology is placed at the centre, and carefully interwoven with the ideas behind his transgression; every other feature of the novel illuminates the agonizing dilemma in which Raskolnikov is caught. From another point of view, the novel's plot is another variation of a conventional nineteenth-century theme: an innocent young provincial comes to seek his fortune in the capital, where he succumbs to corruption, and loses all traces of his former freshness and purity. However, as Gary Rosenshield points out, "Raskolnikov succumbs not to the temptations of high society as Honouré de Balzac's Rastignac or Stendhal's Julien Sorel, but to those of rationalistic Petersburg".

Raskolnikov is the protagonist, and the action is focalized primarily from his perspective. Despite its name, the novel does not so much deal with the crime and its formal punishment, as with Raskolnikov's internal struggle (The book shows that his punishment results more from his conscience than from the law. He committed murder with the belief that he possessed enough intellectual and emotional fortitude to deal with the ramifications, [based on his paper/thesis, "On Crime", that he is a Napoleon], but his sense of guilt soon overwhelms him. It is only in the epilogue that he realizes his formal punishment, having decided to confess and end his alienation.

Sofia Semyonovna Marmeladova (Russian: Софья Семёновна Мармеладова), variously called Sonia (Sonya) and Sonechka, is the daughter of a drunk, Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov, whom Raskolnikov meets in a tavern at the beginning of the novel, and who, Raskolnikov discerns, shares the same feelings of shame and alienation as he does. She becomes the first person to whom Raskolnikov confesses his crime, and she supports him even though she was friends with one of the victims (Lizaveta). For most of the novel, Sonya serves as the spiritual guide for Raskolnikov. After his confession she follows him to Siberia where she lives in the same town as the prison.

Other characters of the novel are:

  • Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova (Авдотья Романовна Раскольникова) – Raskolnikov's strong willed and self-sacrificial sister, called Dunya, Dounia or Dunechka for short. She initially plans to marry the wealthy, yet smug and self-possessed, Luzhin, to save the family from financial destitution. She has a habit of pacing across the room while thinking. She is followed to Saint Petersburg by the disturbed Svidrigailov, who seeks to win her back through blackmail. She rejects both men in favour of Raskolnikov's loyal friend, Razumikhin.
  • Dmitri Prokofich Razumikhin (Дмитрий Прокофьич Разумихин) – Raskolnikov's loyal friend. In terms of Razumikhin's contribution to Dostoevsky's anti-radical thematics, he is intended to represent something of a reconciliation of the pervasive thematic conflict between faith and reason. The fact that his name means reason shows Dostoevsky's desire to employ this faculty as a foundational basis for his Christian faith in God.
  • Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin (Пётр Петрович Лужин) – A well-off lawyer who is engaged to Raskolnikov's sister Dunya in the beginning of the novel. His motives for the marriage is rather despicable, as he states more or less that he chose her since she will be completely beholden to him financially.
  • Andrey Semyenovich Lebezyatnikov (Андрей Семёнович Лебезятников) – Luzhin's utopian socialist roommate who witnesses his attempt to frame Sonya and subsequently exposes him.
  • Lizaveta Ivanovna (Лизавета Ивановна) – Alyona's handicapped and innocent sister. Raskolnikov murders her when she walks in immediately after Raskolnikov had killed Alyona. Lizaveta was a friend of Sonya's.
  • Zossimov (Зосимов) – A friend of Razumikhin and a doctor who cared for Raskolnikov.
Name Word Meaning (in Russian)
Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin luzha a puddle
Dmitri Prokofich Razumikhin razum reason, intelligence
Alexander Grigorievich Zamyotov zametit to notice, to realize
Andrey Semyenovich Lebezyatnikov lebezit to fawn on somebody, to cringe
Semyon Zakharovich Marmeladov marmelad marmalade/jam
Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov Svidrigailo a Lithuanian duke of the fifteenth century
Porfiry Petrovich Porphyry (perhaps) named after the Neoplatonic philosopher










The Dreams



The Cross


Saint Petersburg

— Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, I, I


Dostoevsky's Petersburg is the city of unrelieved poverty; "magnificence has no place in it, because magnificence is external, formal abstract, cold". Dostoevsky connects the city's problems to Raskolnikov's thoughts and subsequent actions. The crowded streets and squares, the shabby houses and taverns, the noise and stench, all are transformed by Dostoevsky into a rich store of metaphors for states of mind. Donald Fanger asserts that "the real city [...] rendered with a striking concreteness, is also a city of the mind in the way that its atmosphere answers Raskolnikov's spiritual condition and almost symbolizes it. It is crowded, stifling, and parched." The inner turmoil suffered by Raskolnikov can also be perceived as a Shakespearian pathetic fallacy. For example, the great storm in King Lear reflects the state of the King's mind, much like the chaos, disorder and noise of St. Petersburg reflects the state of Raskolnikov's mind.









English translations

  • Frederick Whishaw (1885)
  • Constance Garnett (1914)
  • David Magarshack (1951)
  • Princess Alexandra Kropotkin (1953)
  • Jessie Coulson (1953)
  • Sidney Monas (1968)
  • David McDuff (1991)
  • Richard Pevear & Larissa Volokhonsky (1992)
  • Julius Katzer
  • Michael Scammell

Film adaptations


  • Raskolnikow (aka Crime and Punishment) (1923, directed by Robert Wiene)
  • Crime and Punishment (1935, starring Peter Lorre, Edward Arnold and Marian Marsh)
  • Eigoban Tsumi to Batsu (1953, manga by Tezuka Osamu, under his interpretation)
  • Crime and Punishment (1970 film) ( Soviet film, 1970, starring Georgi Taratorkin, Tatyana Bedova, Vladimir Basov, Victoria Fyodorova) dir. Lev Kulidzhanov
  • Rikos ja Rangaistus (1983; Crime and Punishment), the first movie by the Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, with Markku Toikka in the lead role. The story has been transplanted to modern-day Helsinki, Finland.
  • Crime and Punishment in Suburbia (2000, an adaptation set in modern America and "loosely based" on the novel)
  • Columbo (1971–78, and intermittently otherwise, starring the American actor Peter Falk) According to the creator of "Columbo", William Link, the American detective "Columbo", is based in part upon Porfiry Petrovich.
  • Crime and Punishment (2002 film), 2002, starring Crispin Glover and Vanessa Redgrave.
  • Crime and Punishment: A Falsified Romance (manga), 2007, by Naoyuki Ochiai, a retelling of the novel set in modern day Japan. The main character is a NEET, and the criminals he tracks are a gang of high school girls practicing enjo kōsai.
  • Paranoid Park, a film by Gus van Sant based on the novel of the same name. That author has said that the book is a kind of retelling of Crime and Punishment in a young adult fiction setting.
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