Character guide

Chichikov

major

Also known as Paul Ivanovitch Chichikov, Paul Ivanovitch, Ivanovitch, Monsieur Chichikov, young Chichikov, Pavlushka

Chichikov arrives in provincial drawing rooms as a man of the world — polished, curious, unfailingly agreeable — and sets about acquiring the names of peasants who have died but still stand on the tax rolls. His genius is not the scheme itself but the performance around it: he flatters landowners, haggles gently, and keeps his own history sealed. Watching him work, the reader learns that in this society a man is whatever he can convincingly seem.

Sobakevitch

supporting

Also known as landowner Sobakevitch, villain Sobakevitch

Sobakevitch receives guests the way a wall receives a thrown stone — heavily, and without much interest in the conversation. He distrusts everyone, praises no one, and prices his dead peasants as if they were still standing in his fields. In a book full of men who talk too much, he matters because he simply bargains: his bluntness exposes how ordinary Chichikov's monstrous errand really is.

Nozdrev

supporting

Also known as Monsieur Nozdrev

Nozdrev is the man at every party who has already lost his money, his temper, and his credibility, and is cheerfully working on the rest. He befriends Chichikov impulsively, then turns on him just as impulsively, and the two ladies of the town are soon trading rumors that he was an accomplice in something scandalous. He matters because he is the story's live wire: wherever he goes, private business becomes public noise.

Andrei Ivanovitch Tientietnikov

supporting

Also known as Tientietnikov, young Tientietnikov, Andrei Ivanovitch

Tientietnikov owns aspen-studded meadows, a fine house, and every advantage a man could want, yet he can find nothing worth doing with any of it. He drifts through his own estate in a fog of half-finished plans and vague dissatisfaction, and Chichikov's arrival gives him a rare flicker of interest. He matters because he is the book's portrait of wasted possibility — the educated man who has everything and wants nothing.

Platon Mikhalitch

supporting

Also known as Platon

Platon Mikhalitch has money, health, and freedom, and treats all three as a mild inconvenience. He joins Chichikov's journey almost passively, drawn along by the sheer momentum of another man's purpose. He matters because his apathy throws Chichikov's appetite into relief: in a country full of men who want nothing, the one who wants something — even something crooked — becomes strangely magnetic.

Khlobuev

supporting

Also known as Poor Khlobuev

Khlobuev has spent his way through his fortune and now sits in the wreckage, trying to sell what remains before it is taken from him. His desperation makes him easy prey for a man like Chichikov, who can smell a bargain the way others smell weather. He matters because he shows the reader what lies at the end of the road so many of these landowners are traveling — and what Chichikov's victims look like when the charm wears off.

Plushkin

supporting

Also known as landowner Plushkin

Plushkin is the landowner whose serfs appear on Chichikov's purchase lists as mere names, Christian name and patronymic followed by dots, because even their master's records have shrunk to nothing. His stinginess has curdled into a kind of living death: he hoards rubbish, feeds on suspicion, and sees every visitor as a thief. He matters because his ruined estate shows what the dead-souls traffic looks like when the soul has already been sold off piece by piece.

Selifan

supporting

Also known as the reluctant Selifan

Selifan drives Chichikov's britzka and, more often than his master would like, drives it into ditches, wrong turns, and the yards of strangers. He is loyal, muddled, and given to long speeches to the horses, especially the bay and the gray, whom he scolds and confides in by turns. His wandering is not just comic: it keeps Chichikov's errand from ever feeling like a clean business trip, and it lets Gogol's Russia sprawl out along the ruts.

Manilov

supporting

Also known as landowner Manilov, the smiling Manilov

Manilov is the first host Chichikov visits, a man so eager to please that his politeness dissolves into vapor. He kisses, offers cigars, and speaks of friendship and enlightenment while his household drifts in a haze of unfinished intentions. He matters because he sets the tone for the whole gallery of landowners: each one is a variation on the theme of a soul that has gone soft, empty, or dead while the body keeps smiling.

Murazov

supporting

Murazov appears in the later, surviving pages of Part II, a man of money and experience who has seen every kind of swindle and still speaks plainly about honesty, work, and the soul. He listens to Chichikov's confessions without either flattery or contempt, and his judgments carry weight because he is not poor, not naive, and not afraid. He matters because he shows what a Russian landowner might be if the dead weight of idleness and greed were lifted.

Kostanzhoglo

supporting

Also known as Constantine Thedorovitch, Constantine Thedorovitch Kostanzhoglo, Constantine

Kostanzhoglo is the model proprietor of Part II, a man who rises before dawn, knows every acre and every serf, and speaks of farming with the fervor of a preacher. His efficiency is not cold: he scolds, instructs, and improves, and his household hums with purpose. He matters because he stands as the counter-image to Plushkin's rot and Manilov's haze, proof that Gogol's Russia could imagine a landowner who is neither a dreamer nor a parasite.

General Betristchev

minor

A retired general and Tientietnikov's proud, domineering neighbor.

Captain Kopeikin

minor

Also known as Kopeikin, friend Kopeikin

A war veteran turned robber, whose story is told as a digression by the postmaster.

Korobotchka

minor

Also known as Madame Korobotchka, the window Korobotchka

A superstitious, thrifty old widow landowner who sells dead souls out of fear.

Vassili Thedorov

minor

Also known as Vassili, the perplexed Vassili

A bewildered peasant or servant encountered during Chichikov's travels.

Ivan Antonovitch

minor

A minor official in the town administration who processes documents.

Peter Petrovitch Pietukh

minor

Also known as Peter Petrovitch, Pietukh

A hospitable, gluttonous landowner who loves to feast his guests.

Semen Semenovitch

minor

A minor official or landowner encountered in the story.

Colonel Koshkarev

minor

Also known as Koshkarev

A mad landowner who runs his estate like a bureaucratic office.

Lieutenant Kuvshinnikov

minor

Also known as Kuvshinnikov, that Kuvshinnikov

A dashing officer known for his social exploits, mentioned by Nozdrev.

Samosvitov

minor

A dashing, unscrupulous official who helps Chichikov escape trouble.

Thedor Thedorovitch Lienitsin

minor

Also known as Lienitsin

A young, foppish official who assists Chichikov with legal matters.

Alexander Petrovitch

minor

Also known as Alexander

A former teacher of Tientietnikov, remembered as an ideal educator.

Ivan Potapitch

minor

A servant or minor character in the later chapters of the book.

Porphyri

minor

A servant or minor character mentioned in the narrative.

Themistocleus

minor

Manilov's young son, named after an ancient Greek general.

Grigory

minor

A peasant or servant mentioned in passing.

Michiev

minor

Also known as wheelwright Michiev, the said Michiev

A skilled wheelwright owned by Sobakevitch.

Athanasi Vassilievitch

minor

A minor character, possibly a landowner or official.

Moki Kifovitch

minor

A character from a brief philosophical digression in the narrative.

Alkid

minor

Manilov's other young son, brother to Themistocleus.

Pimenov

minor

A peasant or worker mentioned in the story.

Ivan Grigorievitch

minor

A minor official, possibly the chief of police.

Ponomarev

minor

A wine merchant or trader mentioned in the story.

Uncle Mitai

minor

Also known as the lean, long, and red-bearded Uncle Mitai

A peasant who helps in a comical scene involving tangled horses.

Mavra

minor

A servant in Plushkin's household.

Theodulia Ivanovna

minor

Sobakevitch's wife, a tall and dignified woman.

Aleksasha

minor

A young man or servant mentioned in the narrative.

Kifa Mokievitch

minor

A character from a philosophical digression, father of Moki Kifovitch.

Fetinia

minor

Also known as Clearly Fetinia

A servant woman in Korobotchka's household.

Andrusha

minor

A young boy or servant mentioned in the story.

Probka Stepan

minor

Also known as Probka, Stepan

A dead serf, a skilled carpenter, listed among Sobakevitch's souls.

Proshka

minor

A young servant boy in Plushkin's household.

Varvar Nikolaievitch Vishnepokromov

minor

Also known as Vishnepokromov

A neighbor and friend of Tientietnikov who visits him.

Thoma Bolshoy

minor

A dead serf mentioned in a list of souls sold to Chichikov.

Eremi Sorokoplechin

minor

A dead serf mentioned in a list of souls sold to Chichikov.

Elizabeta Vorobei

minor

Also known as Vorobei, Elizabeta

A dead female serf mistakenly listed as male by Korobotchka.

Antip Prochorov

minor

A dead serf mentioned in a list of souls sold to Chichikov.

Derebin

minor

A landowner mentioned as a potential buyer of an estate.

Perfilievna

minor

A female servant or character mentioned in passing.

Nikolasha

minor

A young man or servant mentioned in the narrative.