St Petersburg: Itineraries

Crime & Punishment

The quintessential St Petersburg novel must be Crime and Punishment , Dostoevsky's tale of the brooding young Raskolnikov who murders a moneylender and (eventually) faces the dramatic consequences. The novel is set around the gloriously insalubrious Sennaya pl (Haymarket), where the walk begins.

In Dostoevsky's time Sennaya was a teeming crime-ridden slum. The major landmarks of the day were seedy pubs and inns.

Petersburgers will point out where Dostoevsky lived as well as the homes of his protagonist Raskolnikov and the old pawnbroker. With the ubiquitous stray cats keeping watch over the nieghbourhood, snatches of the grim reality of slum life in the mid-19th century can still be gleaned.

From Sennaya pl, start walking north on per Grivtsova, across the canal, and turn left onto Grazhdanskaya ul and continue to the next corner - No 5 Stolyarny per is one of the two possible locations of Raskolnikov's attic. The building bears marble plaques in Russian and German marking the waterline reached by the great flood immortalised in Pushkin's poem, The Bronze Horseman . The plaque reads, 'The tragic fate of the people of this area of St Petersburg formed the foundation of Dostoevsky's passionate sermon of goodness for all mankind'. Some believe Raskolnikov retrieved the murder weapon from a street-sweeper's storage bin inside the tunnel leading to the courtyard.

From that corner, turn south onto Stolyarny per ('S... lane' in the book) where, at No 9, you can enter the building of the second possible, and most likely, address. Walk through the tunnel, turn right, use entrance No 2 (up the crumbling stone steps), and walk up four flights until the stairwell ceiling opens upward. Graffiti on the wall (frequently overpainted) often reads, 'Don't Kill, Rodya'. Rodya's flat would have been the padlocked attic on the left-hand side of the 5th floor.

Keep going south along Stolyarny per until you reach ul Kaznacheyskaya. Dostoevsky lived in three flats on this tiny street alone: from 1861 to 1863 at No 1, briefly at No 9, and from 1864 to 1867 at No 7. It was from this flat that he wrote Crime and Punishment , inspired by the human zoo around him.

From whichever flat Raskolnikov lived, he went down Stolyarny per towards the Griboedova Canal. At the Kokushkin most he would stand and gaze into the canal, deep in thought.

The route to the pawnbroker's house taken by Rodya is circuitous. After you cross the canal, head straight to Sadovaya ul then turn right. Make your first right turn into pr Rimskogo-Korsakova. Cross Voznesensky pr, and then continue past Bolshaya Podyacheskaya ul and Srednyaya Podyacheskaya; the pawnbroker's building sits between there and the canal embankment.

The entrance to the building's courtyard is a bit further north on the embankment at nab kanala Griboedova 104. Enter the dank, pot-holed tunnel and head straight for entrance No 5 (flats 22-81).

The brass balls at the corners of the iron banisters are there specifically for visitors, and they end just after the 3rd floor, where the victim's flat (No 74) is on the right-hand side. After the murder, the suspect ran through the tunnel leading to Srednyaya Podyacheskaya.

A Top Day in St Petersburg

St Petersburg is more of a late-to-bed than early-to-rise city. So, although a dawn stroll along the Neva is a lovely idea, chances are I wouldn't be doing it unless I was in town during the White Nights of June and July when the sun barely sets and sleeping is practically out of the question. Let's start then with a leisurely post-breakfast mooch from Dvortsovaya pl (Palace Sq), along the Moyka river, past the riotously polychromatic Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood and through the swirling iron gates of the Mikhailovsky Garden to the rear entrance of the Russian Museum for an essential fix of the masterworks of Russian art. After that I'd follow the Griboedov Canal, across Nevsky pr and past the wide open arms of Kazan Cathedral and the golden winged griffins of Bankovsky bridge, to lunch on excellent inexpensive Armenian food at Kilikia. From here it's a short walk to Sennaya Pl, the heart of 'Dostoevskyland', where the famed novelist lived and set Crime and Punishment . I'd soak up the still raffish atmosphere of the square, then take the metro to Staraya Derevnya in the city's north to tour the Hermitage's state-of-the-art storage facility displaying fascinating fragments from the museum's enormous collection: my favourite piece is the Ottoman ceremonial tent. Returning to the centre, I'd board a river boat for a relaxing late-afternoon tour along the canals. Later in the evening I'd head to the historic Mariinksy Theatre to attend an opera or ballet performance, dropping by Stolle on the way to snack on their sublimely delicious traditional Russian pies. After the show, if I was still hungry there's always the old standby of Café Idiot, or the more contemporary delights of Fasol. Finally I'd hit Datcha, one of the city's most happening DJ bars, for dancing and vodka toasts to the dawn of yet another glorious St Petersburg day.

Author: Simon Richmond