Crime and Punishment continues to be a fantastic novel. Fyodor Dostoyevsky really hit the literary jackpot with this novel. And, what makes this book all the more impressive is the fact that he wrote it very quickly because he had debts to pay after his exile in Siberia. Dostoyevsky had gambled away much of his money on his return, so he knew that he had to crank out a couple of books in order to pay bills. While it seems that it usually takes most authors a couple of years to write a book, Dostoyevsky wrote Crime and Punishment in a little under a year. For the quality of book it is and how much it causes me to think, it’s insane to think that he was able to write it so fast.
Now one thing that is important to keep in mind when reading this novel is what Russia was like in the 1860s. in 1861, Russia had just put into effect a law that gave peasants freedom from landowners and gave them land. Just like that, many poor people were now in charge of the farmland in Russia, able to work the land for themselves. In 1855 Tsar Alexander II succeeded Tsar Nicholas I. By 1864, Alexander had put into effect regional and city-by-city court systems and juries so that the law could be carried out fairly across the whole land (opposed to the corruption that plagued Nicholas). Also, censorship was a very big issue in Russia in this time period. Under Nicholas, freedom of speech was taken away, and people (like Dostoyevsky) were exiled to Siberia. Now, under Alexander these liberties were restored and Dostoyevsky finally had the legal means to write about government and other writers like him could have their voices heard.
Understanding the changes in Russia that began shortly before the conception of this novel really shed a light on much of what happens in the book. The industrialized city of St. Petersburg really showcases this movement through its burgeoning proletariat population. People there aren’t too rich, but they’re not too poor either. People have started to become more “equal”. But for Raskolnikov, well, it’s hard for him to handle his ordinariness. Sure, the reforms are a good thing, but he’s convinced he’s a great man and really plays into how he thinks about the changing political and social scene in Russia.
Nolan Schad 