This study will examine the changing nature of the hero in three Russian works, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Alexander Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter, and Mikhail Lermontov's A Hero of Our Time. The study will be based on the view that the "hero" of these three works is not a heroic figure in the traditional sense, but is more an anti-hero, a person who in one case (Grinyov in Pushkin) is a weak man who is blown to and fro by circumstances, and, in the other two cases, is far more flawed than such traditional, classical heroes, and far more flawed than the bulk of the readers. By "traditional hero" this study means the classical figure of the Greeks or Shakespeare--an acknowledged leader of men, an honorable and admirable character with far more positive than negative qualities, but also with a fatal flaw (pride, jealousy) which eventually destroys him. What gives the anti-hero in these stories his identity is precisely the fact that he is meant to bring not admiration from the reader, but rather annoyance at best and repulsion at worst. The reader is forced to experience the anti-hero's thoughts and feelings and the terrible consequences of his actions (in the case of the protagonists in Dostoevsky and Lermontov), resulting, first, in repulsion, and then, perhaps, in compassion (as with Lermontov's protagonist), or even in wisdom and a sense of redemption (as with Dostoevsky's protagonist). Perhaps the reader is being asked to identify with the anti-hero for these very purposes, not to look up to the hero, but to look down on the anti-hero in order to be more human, more compassionate and wise, more accepting of the "anti-heroic" dimension in human existence, in the reader himself as well as in the protagonist. A major difference between the anti-hero of Pushkin and the other two is that Pushkin's novel is primarily historical and places more significance on the political and social changes taking place rather than the ...