The article proposes a new interpretation of F.M. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment”. It is shown that in addition to realistic and socio-psychological plans, the novel contains a symbolic and mystical plan, which is the main one. A detailed analysis of the text of the novel and the preparatory manuscripts for it suggests that Dostoevsky used as the basis of the novel the Gnostic myth of our world as the creation of the evil God the Demiurge and of the fallen Sophia (lower divine aeon), who was captured by matter and awaiting the Savior (Jesus Christ), who is to be born in the world itself, to realize his destiny and, having found Sophia, unite with her in an act of mystical love (syzygy). The mythological image of the Savior, Jesus Christ, expresses Raskolnikov, the main character of the novel. The article proves that the murder committed by a hero can be explained as an inevitable and tragic consequence of the dual nature of any person: he has not only a higher principle, arising from a connection wi