# Andrei Ivanovitch Tientietnikov — Dead Souls character guide

> Andrei Ivanovitch Tientietnikov in Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Tientietnikov, young Tientietnikov, Andrei Ivanovitch

**First appearance:** 0014-part-ii-i

## Snapshot

A young landowner of means and no purpose, whose melancholy idleness makes Chichikov's restless scheming look almost like vitality.

## Who they are

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.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/chapters/part-ii-i)

Lives in lethargy on his decaying estate, regrets his lack of achievement, recalls his school days and his failed civil service career, and nearly falls in love with Ulinka.

### [Chapter II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/chapters/part-ii-ii)

Mentioned as the neighbor supposedly writing a history of the Generals of 1812.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters/tientietnikov
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dead_souls_se/characters