The first name of the protagonist in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is Rodion. His full name is Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, a former law student living in severe poverty in Saint Petersburg.
Raskolnikov develops a theory that intellectually or morally exceptional people may be permitted to break ordinary laws if their actions serve a supposedly higher purpose. He tests this idea by murdering an unscrupulous pawnbroker, but the crime sets off intense guilt, paranoia, illness, and moral conflict.
The name Rodion is sometimes confused with the first names of other major characters. Dmitry belongs to Razumikhin, while Alexei and Ivan are not the protagonist’s first name. Raskolnikov’s psychological struggle drives the novel, and his eventual confession and exile form the basis of its movement from isolation toward moral and spiritual renewal. The novel was published in 1866.