In which city does most of 'Crime and Punishment' take place?

Most of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment takes place in Saint Petersburg. The city’s streets, canals, taverns, and cramped apartments shape the novel’s atmosphere as strongly as its characters do.

The action is centered in the poorer districts around places such as Haymarket Square and the canals near the protagonist’s lodgings. Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student, moves through a hot, crowded, and oppressive urban environment before and after committing murder. Dostoevsky uses the city’s physical congestion to mirror Raskolnikov’s feverish thoughts, isolation, and moral confusion.

The novel was serialized in 1866 and published in book form in 1867. Although the main narrative unfolds in Saint Petersburg, the epilogue takes Raskolnikov to a penal settlement in Siberia, so “most” is more precise than “all.” Odessa, Kiev, and Moscow are important Russian cities, but they are not the principal setting of this novel. Saint Petersburg was then the capital of the Russian Empire and a major center of intellectual and social life.