# Dead Souls — Character guide

> Key figures in Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol.

- [Chichikov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/chichikov.md): 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 i
- [Sobakevitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/sobakevitch.md): 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 stand
- [Nozdrev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/nozdrev.md): 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
- [Andrei Ivanovitch Tientietnikov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/tientietnikov.md): 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
- [Platon Mikhalitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/platon_mikhalitch.md): 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 becaus
- [Khlobuev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/khlobuev.md): 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 
- [Plushkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/plushkin.md): 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 cur
- [Selifan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/selifan.md): 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 t
- [Manilov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/manilov.md): 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 
- [Murazov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/murazov.md): 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
- [Kostanzhoglo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/kostanzhoglo.md): 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 im
- [General Betristchev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/general_betristchev.md): A retired general and Tientietnikov's proud, domineering neighbor.
- [Captain Kopeikin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/captain_kopeikin.md): A war veteran turned robber, whose story is told as a digression by the postmaster.
- [Korobotchka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/korobotchka.md): A superstitious, thrifty old widow landowner who sells dead souls out of fear.
- [Vassili Thedorov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/vassili_thedorov.md): A bewildered peasant or servant encountered during Chichikov's travels.
- [Ivan Antonovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/ivan_antonovitch.md): A minor official in the town administration who processes documents.
- [Peter Petrovitch Pietukh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/peter_petrovitch_pietukh.md): A hospitable, gluttonous landowner who loves to feast his guests.
- [Semen Semenovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/semen_semenovitch.md): A minor official or landowner encountered in the story.
- [Colonel Koshkarev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/colonel_koshkarev.md): A mad landowner who runs his estate like a bureaucratic office.
- [Lieutenant Kuvshinnikov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/lieutenant_kuvshinnikov.md): A dashing officer known for his social exploits, mentioned by Nozdrev.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters