by, Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment follows Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, an impoverished former student living in nineteenth-century St. Petersburg. Intelligent, proud, and isolated, he develops a theory that humanity is divided into ordinary people, who must obey the law, and “extraordinary” people, who may break moral rules in pursuit of great purposes. Influenced by Napoleon, Raskolnikov convinces himself that murdering Alyona Ivanovna, a cruel old pawnbroker, cou