Dostoevsky’s work is steeped in the working class atmosphere of 19C St. Petersburg, in particular of the shady Hay Square quarter swarming with cabarets, brothels and inns of ill repute. Today the “underbelly of St. Petersburg”, where a market was once held (for wood, livestock and hay), has had a face lift and lost some of its soul in the process. But the ghosts of Raskolnikov and Dostoevsky still seem to be prowling around.