# Demons — Character guide

> Key figures in Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

- [Pyotr Stepanovitch Verhovensky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/pyotr_verhovensky.md): Pyotr Stepanovitch arrives in town and quickly assembles a secret quintet of restless, half-committed men who believe they are serving a great cause. He keeps them deliberately in the dark, issuing orders while dodging e
- [Stepan Trofimovitch Verhovensky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/stepan_verhovensky.md): Stepan Trofimovitch has spent two decades as Varvara Petrovna's cherished ornament, a cultivated talker who believes himself a great thinker in exile. He once poured his tears and secrets into the boy Stavrogin, and now 
- [Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch Stavrogin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/nikolay_stavrogin.md): Stavrogin returns to his provincial town after years abroad and immediately becomes the gravitational center of every faction, though he claims to want nothing. He endures insults with an eerie self-mastery that unnerves
- [Varvara Petrovna Stavrogin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/varvara_stavrogin.md): Varvara Petrovna has spent twenty-two years coddling Stepan Trofimovitch, defending his reputation as poet and thinker, and expecting slavish gratitude in return. Her adoration of her son Nikolay is even fiercer and more
- [Ivan Shatov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/ivan_shatov.md): Shatov was educated on Varvara Petrovna's charity, expelled from university, and drifted through Europe before returning to town sullen and penniless. He abandoned socialism abroad and now clings to a passionate, half-fo
- [Alexey Kirillov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/alexey_kirillov.md): Kirillov speaks to Stavrogin without irony about moments when time stands still, about eternal life here rather than hereafter, and about the suicide he has already decided upon. He is kind to his landlady's crying infan
- [Liputin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/liputin.md): Liputin is a provincial functionary who has insinuated himself into both the governor's circle and the secret revolutionary cell, playing each against the other while collecting gossip like currency. When Stavrogin publi
- [Yulia Mihailovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/yulia_mihailovna.md): Yulia Mihailovna arrives in the provincial capital determined to elevate its society through a lavish public fête, but her efforts breed mockery and resentment among the local families she means to impress. She surrounds
- [Lizaveta Nikolaevna Tushin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/liza_tushin.md): Lizaveta Nikolaevna Tushin is a wealthy, headstrong young woman whose childhood lessons with Stepan Trofimovitch left her with a taste for grand ideas and romantic intensity. She is engaged to the steady, devoted Mavriky
- [Andrey Antonovitch von Lembke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/andrey_von_lembke.md): Andrey Antonovitch von Lembke governs the province with good intentions and a fatal lack of decisiveness, deferring to his wife Yulia Mihailovna's social schemes while the town's tensions mount around him. He is a man of
- [Mavriky Nikolaevitch Drozdov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/mavriky_nikolaevitch.md): Mavriky Nikolaevitch Drozdov is a modest, dutiful officer engaged to Lizaveta Nikolaevna Tushin, a match that seems settled until Stavrogin's return unsettles everything. He is neither clever nor ambitious, but his integ
- [Captain Lebyadkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/lebyadkin.md): Captain Lebyadkin is a disgraced former officer living in squalid circumstances with his sister Marya Timofeyevna, surviving on borrowed money and self-aggrandizing monologues. He claims to possess a secret about Stavrog
- [Marya Timofyevna Lebyadkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/marya_timofyevna.md): Marya Timofyevna drifts through the town as Captain Lebyadkin's invalid sister, prone to ecstatic outbursts and strange endearments. Her claim to a secret bond with Nikolay Stavrogin turns polite gatherings into scenes o
- [Karmazinov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/karmazinov.md): Karmazinov arrives in town trailing admirers and self-regard, forever polishing his reputation and his French phrases. His need for aristocratic approval and his fussy condescension make him both comic and quietly sinist
- [Darya Pavlovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/darya_pavlovna.md): Darya Pavlovna, called Dasha, occupies an ambiguous place as both servant and intimate of the Stavrogin household, entrusted with errands no one else will touch. Accused of stealing money meant for Lebyadkin, she answers
- [Praskovya Ivanovna Drozdov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/praskovya_drozdov.md): Praskovya Ivanovna Drozdov moves through provincial society as a woman of means and nerves, alternately doting on her beautiful daughter Liza and trading in the rumors that swirl around the Stavrogins. Her impulsiveness 
- [Sofya Matveyevna Ulitin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/sofya_ulitin.md): Sofya Matveyevna Ulitin travels the roads selling scriptures, a figure of modest faith in a town full of posturing and conspiracy. When she encounters Stepan Trofimovitch, her simple compassion meets his lifelong craving
- [Mr. Gaganov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/gaganov.md): Landowner insulted by Stavrogin's ear-bite, seeks satisfaction.
- [Lyamshin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/lyamshin.md): Nervous and cowardly telegraph clerk in the revolutionary group.
- [Virginsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/virginsky.md): Idealistic but weak-willed civil servant and revolutionary member.
- [Shigalov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/shigalov.md): Theorist who proposes a radical system of total control.
- [Fedka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/fedka.md): Escaped convict and murderer, used as a tool by Pyotr.
- [Ensign Erkel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/erkel.md): Young and devoted army officer, fanatically loyal to Pyotr.
- [Von Blum](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/von_blum.md): Strict German official serving under the governor.
- [Alexey Yegorytch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/alexey_yegorytch.md): Ceremonious butler in the Stavrogin household.
- [Arina Prohorovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/arina_prohorovna.md): Virginsky's wife, a midwife and radical feminist.
- [Nastasya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/nastasya.md): Servant in the Shatov household.
- [Ivan Ossipovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/ivan_ossipovitch.md): Local doctor who attends to various characters.
- [Anisim Ivanovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/anisim_ivanovitch.md): Minor official or servant in the town.
- [Pyotr Pavlovitch Gaganov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/pyotr_gaganov.md): Father of Artemy Gaganov, offended by Stavrogin.
- [General Ivan Ivanovitch Drozdov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/ivan_drozdov.md): Deceased general, father of Liza and Mavriky.
- [Anton Lavrentyevitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/demons_se/characters/anton_lavrentyevitch.md): Minor character, possibly a clerk or narrator figure.

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