[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia":3,"chapter-my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-chapter-1":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","My Life as a Literary Giant in Russia",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":18,"prevChapterSlug":19,"totalChapters":20,"novelImage":21},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":12,"translator":16,"content_hash":17},2317176,4531,"Chapter 1: University Student","my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-chapter-1",1,"\u003Cp>On January 21, 1844, the harsh and endless winter of Saint Petersburg had arrived, and Tsar Nicholas I, along with a group of nobles, would soon sit in the brilliant, bright, warm Winter Palace, pondering painfully the fate of the Russian Empire.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet in Saint Petersburg too, at the docks, in the neighborhoods, in taverns, in brothels, workers continued hauling lime paste, scaffolding, and bricks, while ragged beggars curled into balls, using tattered burlap to challenge the entire Russian winter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Drunkards, numbed by alcohol, reeked of vomit and polluted Saint Petersburg’s streets, yet the prostitutes’ bodies still radiated warmth, trying to heat their homes and their decaying lives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had no awareness of the Russian Empire’s fate, clinging only to the tiniest scraps within reach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mikhail Romanovich Raskolnikov was not one of them, yet he faced a plight even more desperate than theirs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, he was a university student.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A university student about to be thrown out into the Russian winter for failing to pay rent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I have an 8 a.m. class!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That morning, Mikhail slipped out of his pigeon coop of a room, where he could easily bang his head, and after carefully observing his surroundings, he successfully avoided his landlady, whom he could easily bump into.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tiny room Mikhail now occupied was on the top floor of a five-story apartment building, directly beneath the roof—more like a closet than a room. His landlady lived in a separate suite downstairs, and every time he left, he had to pass through her kitchen, whose door stood wide open and faced directly onto the stairs; one misstep and he’d collide with her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mikhail wasn’t particularly afraid of his landlady, but he was deeply in debt to her; if she seriously considered whether it was still worth letting him stay, his eviction was inevitable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In short, Mikhail had reached the end of his rope; otherwise, this unlucky wretch would not have quietly died of a fever in his coffin-like room, allowing a soul from the future to restart a new life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To be honest, if given a choice, even if the current Mikhail were born into wealth and nobility, handsome, charming, and talented, he would gladly accept it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, such good fortune is rare; misfortunes, however, never cease.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Misfortunes befalling the poor are countless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pulling his tattered clothes tighter, Mikhail walked toward the place he had arranged to meet his classmates.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he was an unlucky wretch, his future self had been a master’s graduate specializing in Russian literature, and now his memory seemed enhanced; thus, though his situation was dire, it was not without hope.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking of this, Mikhail couldn’t help pressing his hand against the manuscript in his chest, terrified some accident might destroy his last hope.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just a week ago, after a brief moment of shock, Mikhail had been forced to confront the question of survival.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In 1844, in the winter of Saint Petersburg, without a place to shelter, Mikhail could easily freeze solid, then be dragged away as unwanted trash, destined for mass disposal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Good news: this era was relatively civilized—there was no organ trade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bad news: he could easily be burned as garbage, his ashes drifting in Saint Petersburg’s filthy canals or swirling in the air, passing through the lungs of some unlucky soul, worsening an already severe case of tuberculosis from the bitter cold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mikhail did not want such a fate; he had to save himself. After careful thought and observation, he could only write a novel using the memories in his mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To be honest, if he had any other option, Mikhail would never have chosen the path of writing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How writers and intellectuals were treated depended on the era; mostly, they were thorns in the rulers’ eyes and parasites in the eyes of the lower classes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The upper class sometimes hated their loose tongues and silenced them physically with clubs; the lower classes often saw no value in those who merely spoke and wrote, and when the moment came, they’d make sure to teach them a lesson.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, during Tsar Nicholas I’s reign, Russia was in a period of apparent “prosperity,” where capitalist production masked the already severe contradictions between autocracy and serfdom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From Nicholas I’s perspective, can’t you see how the Russian Empire is thriving, moving forward without pause?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With such glorious achievements, why are you all still complaining, chattering, even launching armed uprisings?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Riffraff! All of you are riffraff!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You can’t see how hard the Tsar works for the empire!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In short, since the bloody suppression of an officer rebellion in 1825, Russia’s atmosphere had remained tense. If Mikhail remembered correctly, during this period, Nicholas I intensified suppression of European revolutionary movements, earning Russia the reputation of “Gendarme of Europe”; by 1848, when the European revolutions erupted, Russia enacted strict press censorship laws, known as the “Iron Press Censorship.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under this harsh climate, many writers and scholars were persecuted; those who participated too actively, like Dostoevsky, who joined the Petrashevsky Circle in 1847 and discussed social reform, were arrested in 1849 on charges of “anti-government activities” and sentenced to death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though he was ultimately pardoned by Tsar Nicholas I at the last moment—Nicholas I likely never intended to execute him, merely to scare him—any normal person subjected to such an ordeal would be psychologically shattered, never daring to stir up trouble again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dostoevsky might not have been ordinary, but Mikhail was as normal as they come.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In short, beginning to write in this era was essentially like joining the Nationalist army in 1949—everything you did could get you beheaded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if Mikhail were truly forced to kiss the boots of noble masters, he simply couldn’t do it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I’m the common people!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For now, don’t think about what comes later—right now, he must write something to earn some fee money and survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, relying on his memories, Mikhail, starving and cold, spent nearly a week completing the manuscript in his chest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To finish this novel in peace, he had spent his last kopeck.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, all his hopes rested on this novel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had written it, but how to submit it was another problem. Fortunately, though the original owner was unlucky, as a university student of this era, his status still held weight—he had received a higher education, been exposed to the latest ideas, and even his classmates might be related to some prominent figures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Coincidentally, one of Mikhail’s friends knew a somewhat famous poet who could easily introduce him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Mikhail walked through this filthy neighborhood, breathing in the nauseating stench from countless taverns, bumping into one drunkard after another, occasionally spotting a few prostitutes listlessly flirting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mikhail felt the Russia of 1844, the harsh winter he had only ever read about in books.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A growth-oriented protagonist: initially submissive under oppressive policies, later striking back with full force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Also, there is very little material on Russia during this period; I’ve done my best to gather and reconstruct the basic social landscape of the time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mostly, I’ve drawn from Russian literature, and this novel incorporates some background and characters from Crime and Punishment, but it is certainly not identical.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I have certainly researched the basic historical framework and traces of Russia during this period in advance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But if any experts have knowledge of Russia during this era, please feel free to contribute.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thank you very much.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1229,"2026-06-20T14:41:53.633Z","Qwen3-Next 80B","2355e2d72093572110cd61cd5d704177935e299ec01f93f6d62fdc4a56927e9a","my-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-chapter-2",null,105,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fmy-life-as-a-literary-giant-in-russia-cover.jpg"]