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Plot Summary

The protagonist is a young orphaned Russian student named Razumov, a studious and career-motivated young man. One day, when he returns home, he finds a student acquantaince named Victor Haldin hiding in his apartment. Haldin informs Razumov that he has just committed a political assassination (which Conrad modeled after the real-life assassination of Vyacheslav von Plehve) and evaded the police. This news causes the single-minded Razumov to panic, as he has no sympathy for Haldin's actions and feels that all he has worked for is slipping away.

Haldin requests Razumov to contact someone named Ziemanitch, who may be able to help Haldin escape successfully. Razumov is panic-stricken, but after much soul-searching agrees to help Haldin—primarily with the intention of getting him out of his apartment. When Razumov finds Ziemanitch in drunken stupor and unable to assist Haldin he temporarily snaps. Then, in a panic stricken state of confusion, Razumov proceeds to go to the one person that may be able to assist him, his sponsor at the university. They decide to betray Haldin. Accordingly, they go to the chief of police, General T (whom Conrad modeled after real-life Petersburg police chief Fyodor Trepov). Subsequently a trap is laid for Haldin, and Razumov finds himself taking the first step to becoming a secret agent, although at this time he has no such intention.

The narrative then shifts to Geneva where Natalia Haldin, the sister of the executed revolutionary, receives the tragic news. In his last correspondence to his sister, Victor mentioned a certain serious young man named Razumov who was kind to him. Nathalie soon learns that Razumov is scheduled to arrive in Switzerland, and she impatiently awaits the arrival of her late brother's final friend.

Razumov comes distressed to Geneva, though he is received warmly by the revolutionists in Geneva, who are planning an insurgency in the Baltic regions; he is also considered suffering from inner confusion, bitterness—all of which are accorded to his guilt at betraying Victor Haldin. No one knows that Razumov indicted Haldin, and he has been sent as a secret agent of the Tsarist regime. Razumov, in a passionate aim at atonement, reveals everything to Natalie Haldin and the revolutionaries, who extract equal revenge. (When Conrad began writing, he planned to have Razumov marry Natalie, have a child, and finally confess years later.^[4])