7 Secrets of Crime and Punishment

1. The Secret of the Chronology

The novel begins with the phrase: “At the beginning of July, in an unusually hot time, towards evening…”

Dostoevsky began working on the novel in 1865. In September, he informed Mikhail Katkov, the editor of The Russian Messenger, that the novel’s “action is contemporary, in the current year.” 1865 was remembered in St. Petersburg for abnormal heat. City weather data shows that July 9 reached a maximum of 24.8 degrees Réaumur (31 degrees Celsius), and there had been no rain for over a week.

Establishing the Timeline (July 1865):

July 7: Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov he brought his salary home six days ago. Since officials were traditionally paid on the first of the month, the conversation took place on July 7.

July 9: The murder occurs, coinciding with the hottest day of that summer.

July 10: Raskolnikov is summoned to the police station. Delirium begins in the evening and lasts for four days (July 11–14).

July 15: Raskolnikov visits Sonya and asks her to read the Gospel about the resurrection of Lazarus.

July 16: Katerina Ivanovna dies. Raskolnikov loses track of time for two or three days.

July 19: The funeral of Katerina Ivanovna takes place (laws then required burial three days after death). Raskolnikov has his final conversation with Porfiry Petrovich.

Night of July 20: Svidrigailov shoots himself.

Evening of July 20: Raskolnikov goes to Sennaya Square, kisses the earth, and then confesses to the murder at the police station.

On the morning of July 20, Raskolnikov is seen near his mother and sister’s apartment, looking dishevelled: “His costume was terrible: everything dirty, having been under the rain all night, torn, ragged.” The timing is significant: July 20 (Old Style) is Elijah’s Day (Ilyin Den). According to belief, Elijah the Prophet rides across the sky on this day, causing thunder and lightning to strike demons and those who have transgressed God’s law. Rain on this day cleanses from evil. The rain on the day of Raskolnikov’s confession hints at the deep, cleansing significance of his surrender.

2. The Secret of Sonya Marmeladova’s “First Time”

“…Sonechka got up, put on a kerchief, put on her burnous and left the apartment, and came back around nine o’clock. She came, went straight to Katerina Ivanovna, and silently laid thirty silver rubles on the table in front of her.”

The sum of 30 silver rubles was enormous in 1865. Raskolnikov’s mother received a pension of 120 rubles a year. Razumikhin bought secondhand clothes (a cap, trousers, boots, shirts, and underwear) for 9 rubles 50 kopecks. Prostitutes at the notorious “Malinnik” brothel only received 30–50 kopecks per night. It is highly unlikely a young woman would have been paid 30 rubles for her first time.

The high figure is important for its biblical symbolism: 30 silver rubles represents the 30 pieces of silver for which Sonya sells and betrays herself. The number 30 appears several times in the novel in “treacherous” contexts:

Marmeladov takes the last 30 kopecks from Sonya for a hangover.

Svidrigailov was bought out of debtor’s prison for “30 thousand silver rubles” by his wife, Marfa Petrovna, who later held the sum over his head.

Svidrigailov offers Raskolnikov’s sister, Dunya, the same sum to flee with him.

3. The Secret of the Dandy with the Cigarette

Wandering through St. Petersburg before the murder, Raskolnikov notices a drunken girl and a middle-aged man pursuing her on the boulevard. Raskolnikov believes the “dandy” wants to take advantage of her, runs to the policeman, and urges him to intervene:

“Look, he’s stepped away a little now, standing, as if rolling a cigarette… How can we stop him? How can we send her home, — think about it!”

The policeman reacts to Raskolnikov’s plea. The reason may be related to an administrative ban on smoking. Due to the abnormal heat and frequent fires, the Senate issued a decree on July 3 forbidding smoking in the city’s streets. Although police oversight later relaxed, during the period of July 7–20, 1865, the police were watching potential violators. The “dandy” drawing attention to himself by rolling a cigarette could have been enough of a violation to warrant the policeman’s intervention.

4. The Secret of the Ditch (Kanava)

After killing the pawnbroker, Raskolnikov considers how to dispose of the stolen items:

“Where should I go? This had already been decided long ago: ‘Throw everything into the ditch, and the ends into the water, and be done with it.'”

The same ditch (kanava) appears on Raskolnikov’s way to the pawnbroker’s house and on his way to confess at the police station. It is a major location, mentioned over 20 times. The pawnbroker’s house overlooks the kanava, and it is visible from Sonya Marmeladova’s apartment.

The “ditch” is the local St. Petersburg name for the Ekaterininsky Canal (now the Griboyedov Canal). While attempts were made to improve the canal, for a time it continued to be used for sewage, giving it the unofficial, derogatory name kanava. By consistently using this term, Dostoevsky conveys the local residents’ attitude toward the area and establishes the gritty, slum-like atmosphere of the setting.

5. The Secret of St. Petersburg Geography

The day after the murder, Raskolnikov goes to the police station for an unrelated debt complaint. There, he meets Lieutenant Ilya Petrovich Porokh and clerk Zametov, both of whom he meets again later, including during his final confession.

In reality, these encounters could not have happened.

Raskolnikov lives in the Kazanskaya police district.

He murders Alyona Ivanovna in the Spasskaya police district.

He should have dealt with different police officers in different precincts. Dostoevsky describes Raskolnikov crossing the canal (kanava)—the symbolic border dividing the two police districts—on his way to the murder.

Dostoevsky ignored the administrative division of the city for artistic purposes:

To concentrate the tension by reducing the number of characters.

To make Raskolnikov feel cornered by the same officers who were investigating the murder.

To create a symbolic journey: Raskolnikov crosses a symbolic watery boundary (the kanava) between his own district and that of his victim.

Furthermore, the author used his own experience to shape the geography. Dostoevsky lived near Raskolnikov’s assumed home (in Kazanskaya district). In 1865, the year the action takes place, he dealt with the publisher Fyodor Stellovsky, who lived near the assumed location of the pawnbroker’s house (in Spasskaya district). Raskolnikov’s route mirrors the path the writer took between his home and the publisher’s, possibly infusing the route with the author’s own negative feelings about his contract with Stellovsky.

6. The Secret of Alyona Ivanovna and the Interest Rates

The pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna explains her financial policy to Raskolnikov:

“Here, sir: if it’s ten kopecks a month on a ruble, then for a ruble and a half you will be charged fifteen kopecks, a month in advance, sir.”

Ten kopecks on a ruble is an interest rate of 10% per month.

For many years, the maximum legal interest rate for private money lenders was 6% per month. Violations resulted in warnings, fines, or arrest.

In 1864, a new law was passed that permitted lenders to charge up to 10% per month. This was a response to economic development, the growing needs of the population, and a reduction in their incomes.

Alyona Ivanovna is, in a sense, a sign of the times. She is operating legally under the new economic reality of higher interest rates, which intensifies the clients’ indignation towards her.

7. The Secret of Delirium Tremens and Hypochondria

Raskolnikov’s initial poor state is noted: “…for some time he had been in an irritable and tense state, similar to hypochondria.”

Hypochondria: While 19th-century medicine defined it as excessive worry about one’s health, Dostoevsky defined his own hypochondria in a letter as a state of being “too irritable… with the ability to distort the most ordinary facts and give them a different appearance and size.” Raskolnikov suffers from a “Dostoevskian” hypochondria—a state of intellectual and moral distress that distorts reality.

After the murder, Raskolnikov has nightmarish dreams. Nastasya, the landlady’s servant, suspects that “his blood is crying”: “That’s when it has no outlet and begins to bake in the liver, then the visions begin…”

This is a reference to the Bible, specifically God’s address to Cain: “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground” (Genesis 4:10). The “cry” or “wail” of the crime rising to the heavens is a popular Old Testament image signifying terrible atrocities that will inevitably be punished.

Several characters also suggest Raskolnikov is suffering from delirium tremens (belaya goryachka).

In the 19th century, belaya goryachka was a broad term that included sudden and short-term mental derangements not necessarily caused by alcoholism.

Reviewers of Crime and Punishment understood this nuance. Critics complained that the writer portrayed a representative of the young generation as having “all the signs of delirium tremens; everything only seems to him; he acts completely accidentally, in a delirium,” but they never accused Dostoevsky of making Raskolnikov a drunkard. The term was used to describe his state of feverish mental turmoil.

Sources

Belov S. V. F. M. Dostoevsky’s Novel “Crime and Punishment”: A Commentary. A Book for the Teacher. Leningrad, 1985.

Dostoevsky F. M. Collected Works. Vol. 7. Leningrad, 1973.

Tikhomirov B. N. “Lazarus! Come Forth.” F. M. Dostoevsky’s Novel “Crime and Punishment” in a Modern Reading. A Commentary Book. St. Petersburg, 2005.