Fyodor Raskolnikov was born out of wedlock to a general's daughter, A. V. Ilyina, and an Orthodox priest F.A. Petrov (according to other sources, archpriest Sergushenkov). He graduated from Prince Oldenburgsky Orphanage, studied at Saint Petersburg Polytechnical Institute, and then at the Midshipman (gardemarin) School in Saint Petersburg. In 1910 he entered the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. In 1917 he received the Naval rank of Midshipman (michman) but he never participated in World War I.