Terms

Kopeck The smallest Russian coin, the hundredth part of the ruble: Peter the Great fixed the ruble at one hundred copper kopecks in 1704. It was the change of small life, the alms, the tip, the hired carriage. In the book, kopecks measure poverty: the thirty that... Ruble The monetary unit of Russia, divided into one hundred kopecks. In the 1860s it circulated in silver coins and paper notes. In the book, it is the measure of everything: the silver watch pawned for a ruble and a half, the twenty rubles handed to a widow, the... Pawnbroker Someone who lends money at interest in exchange for an object left as a pledge, which can be sold if the debt is not paid on time. It is the trade of the old woman Alyona Ivanovna, to whom Raskolnikov brings his father's watch: she appraises it for little and... Titular Councillor Ninth of the fourteen ranks of the civil service in the Table of Ranks, created by Peter the Great in 1722, equivalent to the rank of army captain. It was the title of the petty clerk who never rose any further, to the point that people spoke of eternal... Yellow Ticket Document that the police of the Russian Empire gave to registered prostitutes in the nineteenth century: the woman handed over her passport and received the ticket, which also served as a license and as a card for periodic medical examinations. In the book,... Examining Magistrate Magistrate who conducts the investigation of a crime before trial: he gathers evidence, questions suspects and witnesses, and hands the case to the prosecutor. In Russia the post of examining magistrate was born in 1860, separating the investigation from the... Hard Labor Russian penalty called katorga: the convict, removed from society, performed hard, unskilled labor, usually in penal colonies in Siberia. In the 1860s it was applied to murderers and also to political opponents. In the book, Raskolnikov is sentenced to eight... Sennaya Sennaya Square, or Haymarket in English: a large square in Saint Petersburg founded in 1737 as a market for hay, firewood and cattle, the cheapest and busiest in the city, surrounded by miserable tenements. In the book, Raskolnikov crosses it by a useless... Lent Period of forty days of fasting, prayer and penance that, in the Orthodox Church, prepares for Easter; meat, fish, eggs and dairy are given up. In the book, it is the time of the Siberian prison: each barracks fasts in its turn, Raskolnikov goes to church, is... Vasilievsky Island Vasilievsky Island, an island of Saint Petersburg between the arms of the Neva and the Gulf of Finland, facing the Winter Palace and home to the Academy of Sciences and the university. Bridges link it to the rest of the city. In the book, it is where... Neva River of seventy-four kilometers that flows out of Lake Ladoga and empties into the Gulf of Finland; Saint Petersburg was built on its delta, cut by arms and islands, and it freezes from December to April. In the book, it is Raskolnikov's horizon: he wanders...