Chapter 1: University Student

January 21, 1844: the harsh, long winter of St. Petersburg had already arrived, and Tsar Nicholas I was soon to join a group of nobles in the magnificent, bright, and warm Winter Palace to anxiously ponder the fate of the Russian Empire.

And also in St. Petersburg, at the docks, in the districts, in taverns, in brothels, workers continued to toil with lime mortar, scaffolding, and bricks, while ragged beggars huddled together, challenging the Russian winter with their tattered rags.

Drunks, numbing life with alcohol, carried a nauseating stench that polluted the streets of St. Petersburg; only the bodies of the prostitutes still held warmth, trying to warm their families and their gradually decaying lives.

They had no awareness whatsoever of the fate of the Russian Empire, caring only for the slightest thread within their grasp.

Mikhail Romanovich Raskolnikov was none of these, yet he might at any moment face a situation even more difficult than theirs.

After all, he was a university student.

A university student who was about to be swept out for inability to pay rent and driven into the Russian winter.

I have an eight a. m. class!

Early that morning, Mikhail slipped out of his pigeon coop, a room where one could accidentally bump one's head; before leaving, he deliberately observed the surroundings and thus managed to avoid his landlady, whom he might otherwise have bumped into.

The small room where Mikhail now resided was on the top floor of a tall five-story apartment building, just beneath the roof; rather than a room, it resembled a cabinet. The landlady lived in a separate suite on the floor below; every time he went out, he had to pass through her kitchen, whose large door stood open and faced the stairs, so that a slight carelessness would lead to a collision.

Mikhail was not particularly afraid of the landlady, but he indeed owed her a mountain of debt; once she began to seriously consider whether it was still necessary to let him continue living there, Mikhail's eviction was only a matter of time.

One could say that Mikhail had reached a dead end; if not for this, this unlucky fellow would not have quietly died in his coffin-like small room from a fever, only to have a soul from a later era re-open a new life.

Frankly, if there were a choice, even if the present Mikhail were born into a wealthy and noble family, handsome and dashing, and talented in many arts, he would be very willing.

Unfortunately, such good fortune is rare in the world; misfortunes, however, emerge endlessly.

The misfortunes that befall the poor are even more countless.

Wrapping his tattered clothes tightly around himself, Mikhail walked toward the place he had arranged to meet his classmate.

Although he was also an unlucky fellow, in his past life he was after all a master's degree holder specializing in Russian literature, and now his memory seemed to have been strengthened; therefore, although his current situation was dire, there was not yet no chance of turning things around.

【17】 Thinking of this, Mikhail could not help but firmly touch the manuscript tucked in his bosom, fearing that some accident might destroy his last hope.

Thinking of this, Mikhail couldn't help but firmly stroke the manuscript tucked in his bosom, fearing some accident might destroy his last hope.

Just one week ago, after a brief moment of astonishment, Mikhail had been forced to consider the problem of survival.

In 1844, in the winter of St. Petersburg, without a place to shelter, Mikhail could easily be frozen solid and then dragged away with disdain, waiting to be disposed of collectively.

Good news: in these times, things were relatively civilized; there was no organ trade.

Bad news: one could easily be burned like garbage, then drift in the foul ditches of St. Petersburg, or mix into the air, passing through the lungs of some unlucky fellow and aggravating tuberculosis, already quite severe due to the bitter cold.

Mikhail did not wish to receive such treatment; thus, he could only find a way to save himself. After some thought and observation, Mikhail could only rely on the memories in his mind to begin writing novels.

Frankly, if there were other choices, Mikhail would by no means have embarked on this one-way road of writing.

As for how writers and intellectuals would be treated, this indeed depended on the era; for most of the time, so-called writers and intellectuals were thorns in the eyes of the ruling class and parasites in the eyes of the lower masses.

The upper classes sometimes despised them for being unable to control their mouths, so they wielded big sticks to silence them physically; the lower masses often did not feel that these people who merely moved their mouths and wrote characters were of any use, and when the time came, they would surely do something to teach these people a lesson.

Unfortunately, during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I, Russia was in a period of "prosperity," where the development of capitalist production factors masked the already extremely intense contradictions of the autocratic system and the serfdom system.

From the perspective of Tsar Nicholas I: Can you not see that my Russian Empire is prospering and forging ahead?

With such magnificent achievements, why must each of you still talk nonsense, chatter endlessly, and even launch armed uprisings?

Troublemakers! All of you are troublemakers!

You cannot see at all how hard the Tsar labors for the empire!

In short, since the bloody suppression of an armed uprising by progressive officers in 1825, the atmosphere within Russia had remained extremely tense; if Mikhail's memory served him correctly, during this period, in terms of diplomacy, Tsar Nicholas I intensified the suppression of European revolutionary movements, and Russia thereby earned the reputation of "Gendarme of Europe." After the European revolutions erupted in 1848, Russia promptly promulgated severe press censorship laws, known to the world as the "cast-iron press censorship system."

Under such grim circumstances, a large number of writers and scholars were persecuted; some writers who participated excessively, such as Dostoevsky, who joined the Petrashevsky Circle in 1847, were arrested in 1849 on charges of "anti-government activities" for discussing social reform within it and sentenced to death.

Although at the last moment of execution he received a pardon from Tsar Nicholas I, and Tsar Nicholas I may not have truly intended to kill him, most likely merely to frighten him, but as long as one was a normal person, encountering such an event, one would most likely be utterly terrified and dare not stir up any further trouble.

Dostoevsky might not have been an ordinary person, but Mikhail was absolutely, unexceptionally normal.

In short, beginning to write in this present period was basically equivalent to joining the Nationalist Army in 1949; the work done was the kind that cost one's head.

But if Mikhail were truly to fawn over the stinking feet of those noble lords, that would most likely be utterly impossible.

I am the common people!

Putting aside further thoughts on what comes later, for now, he must first write something to earn some manuscript fees to deal with the emergency.

Thus, relying on the memories in his mind, Mikhail, enduring hunger and cold, spent nearly a week and finally completed the work in his bosom.

To quietly finish this novel, Mikhail had almost spent the last kopek in his pocket.

At this point, all his hopes rested on this novel.

And although the writing was finished, how to submit it was also a major problem; fortunately, although the original owner was an unlucky fellow, as a university student of this period, his credentials were not low; he received higher education, came into contact with the latest ideas, and even his classmates, one by one, might be related to some great figure.

Coincidentally, one of Mikhail's friends knew a poet who seemed relatively famous and could fully make an introduction for him.

Thus, Mikhail walked through this filthy district, smelling the nauseating stench coming from numerous small taverns, bumping into drunkard after drunkard, and occasionally seeing one or two prostitutes listlessly displaying their charms.

Mikhail felt the Russian Empire of 1844, felt that harsh winter which previously existed only in books.

Considered a growth-type protagonist; under high-pressure policies, timid and submissive in the early stage, striking hard in the later stage.

Additionally, regarding the Russian materials of this period, there is truly too little; I have done my utmost to collect them and attempt to restore the basic social landscape of this period.

However, most of it is gleaned from Russian literature; furthermore, this novel uses some backgrounds and characters from "Crime and Punishment," but it is certainly not exactly the same.

As for Russia of this period, I have certainly already learned the basic context and traces in advance.

But if the experts have knowledge of Russia of this period, they are welcome to supplement it.

Thank you very much.

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(End of this chapter)