What is the name of the protagonist in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment?

The protagonist of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment is Rodion Raskolnikov.

Raskolnikov is a former student living in extreme poverty in Saint Petersburg. He develops a theory that supposedly extraordinary people may transgress moral laws if their actions serve a higher purpose, then tests that theory through murder.

The novel follows his increasingly intense psychological conflict after the crime. His encounters with Sonia Marmeladova, the investigator Porfiry Petrovich, and his own conscience gradually undermine his intellectual justification.

Raskolnikov’s name is linked to the Russian word raskol, meaning “schism” or “split.” That association reflects the character’s divided mind and the novel’s concern with moral, spiritual, and social division. Crime and Punishment was first serialized in 1866.