Raw Youth is generally considered to be the weakest of Dostoevsky's later novels. In this novel, however, human 'duality', one of Dostoevsky's central themes, is consistently represented, and if we pursue the process of the formation of the hero's personality in the context of this duality, we can recognize in the complicated structure of the novel the kind of artistic mastery proper to Dostoevsky. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to show, firstly, how the theme of duality is represented in this novel, and secondly, how the 'linear' process of Arkady's growth is made possible in that dual world where he always has to vacillate between two opposite poles. Many of Dostoevsky's heroes share the remarkable capacity of having two diametrically opposite emotions at the same time, and in Raw Youth this capacity is embodied, first of all, by Versilov. In his mind he always has two opposite ideas vying with each other (reason vs. emotion, love vs. hatred, moral vs. desire, etc.). This duality, however, is not limited to his inner world; it is projected on the outer world and thus becomes the central principle of structuring the plot of the novel. Arkady the 'Raw Youth' suffers in this dual world, but he overcomes, with his sensitivity and strong with to life, all the shocking events that he experiences for the first time in his life, and proceeds with the 'linear' process of self-realization. Thus 'linearity' also underlies the development of the triple-layered time in the novel. It is not accidental that in Raw Youth special importance is attached to the numearals two (<'duality') and one (<'linearity').