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In the opening paragraph of "Crime and Punishment", two locations, S-- Lane and K--n Bridge, are identified only by their first and final letters. My translation has a footnote which says that Dostoevsky refrained from using the actual names, Stolyarny Lane and Kokushkin Bridge, because of censorship. What sort of censorship was he avoiding?

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  • Reddit thread with the same question, blog article that mentions "Russian censors" without reason, Study.com question which is paywalled so I can't read the answer. Nothing (that I can read) is enough for an answer, though.
    – bobble
    Apr 3, 2021 at 4:23
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    Some more detailed discussions at Quora and LanguageHat (read the comments as well as the main blog post). Might be enough info there to start cobbling together an answer, although most of it focuses on Russian authors' other reasons to blank out names, rather than what kind of censorship was imposed. See also my answer here about the general practice of blanking out place names in literature.
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Apr 3, 2021 at 9:17

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