In which city is Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' set?

Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is set in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The city is more than a backdrop: its cramped lodgings, oppressive heat, crowded streets, taverns, bridges, and canals mirror Raskolnikov’s psychological turmoil.

Rodion Raskolnikov is a poor former student living in the city when he murders a pawnbroker and her sister. Many scenes unfold around recognizable Petersburg locations, including Sennaya Square and the Catherine Canal area. Dostoevsky uses the city’s real geography to make the novel’s moral descent feel immediate and physical.

Readers sometimes confuse the setting with Moscow because Moscow is Russia’s largest and best-known historic city. In the nineteenth century, however, Saint Petersburg was the imperial capital and a major intellectual and administrative center. Its architecture and social contrasts—monumental avenues beside severe poverty—fit the novel’s themes especially well.

The city’s symbolic role is one reason the novel is often discussed as a landmark of urban literature. Saint Petersburg becomes almost a psychological character, reflecting isolation, disorder, temptation, and eventual moral awakening.