Note on Names
The List of Characters that follows contains the full and alternative names of all the novel’s protagonists, as well as those of the most prominent secondary and episodic characters.
All Russians have three names – a first name, a patronymic and a surname. Thus: Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov or Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailova. The patronymic is the father’s given name with the ending - ovich or -evich for men, and -ovna or -evna for women.
Russian knows three main modes of address, in descending order of formality: by honorific and surname (Mr Raskolnikov), by first name and patronymic (Rodion Romanovich) and by first name alone. First names and patronymics are routinely shortened or softened in spoken Russian to suggest greater familiarity and affection: thus Rodion may become Rodya or Rodka, and Romanovich may become Romanych. Confusingly for the foreign reader, some diminutive forms of given names are quite distant from the original: Raskolnikov’s sister, for example, who bears the proud and formal-sounding name Avdotya, is most commonly referred to in the text as Dunya and Dunechka.
Sudden shifts to the use of the affectionate forms of given names are typical of Dostoyevsky’s style and are preserved in translation. It is not just the characters who shift freely and meaningfully between these modes, but the narrator himself, who thereby subtly registers his apparent sympathies and antipathies. A few characters, such as Svidrigailov, are most commonly mentioned by surname
alone, thereby creating a sense of distance and perhaps mystery. More common in the stiflingly close-knit world of Crime and Punishment is the use of first name and patronymic. Indeed one central character, the investigator Porfiry Petrovich, who declares himself opposed to formality on principle, is given no surname at all; nor is the pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna.
Like Gogol before him, Dostoyevsky makes great play of ‘speaking names’ (such as Marmeladov) for various purposes, notably irony and humour. The possible referents of some surnames are explained in the list that follows.
Further comments on names are included in the Notes.
