I haven't read a whole lot of Dostoyevsky, but Crime and Punishment really rubbed me the wrong way, right down to the prose.  I figured it could have been the translation, just my mood then, something, but never did quite put my finger on it (and admittedly haven't tried very hard to say exactly what it was, because that would require too much re-reading).

I think you're on to something with the Hitchens comparison.  When I read Hitchens, granted I often get angry at his logic, the cheapness of his shots, and/or his staggering unwillingness to self-analyze.  But deeper than that, there's something in there that bothers me, and well, it's a similar feeling.  Selves corrupted by ideology?  Sounds right.  Some combination of nihilism and arrogance?  Yeah, something along those lines: I have a hard time putting it together myself. 

So thank god you were here.