Crime and Punishment was first published in 1866. Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel appeared serially in the literary journal The Russian Messenger, with installments running from January through December of that year.
The novel was published as a separate book edition in 1867, which causes occasional confusion about its publication date. For a question asking when it was first published, however, 1866 is the canonical answer because that is when readers first encountered it in serialized form. Its protagonist, Rodion Raskolnikov, is a former student who commits a murder and struggles with guilt, theory, and moral responsibility.
Dostoevsky wrote the novel under intense financial and professional pressure while also working on The Gambler. His future wife, Anna Snitkina, assisted him as a stenographer. The book quickly became a major literary success and was described by contemporaries as one of the great sensations of Russian literary life in 1866.