Futility · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in Futility by William Gerhardie.
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Nikolai Vasilievich
major
Also known as Nikolai, Nikolai Vasilievich's, II Nikolai Vasilievich, Poor Nikolai Vasilievich
Nikolai Vasilievich is the magnetic, exasperating center of a sprawling household of wives, fiancées, daughters, and hangers-on, all sustained by mines that never pay. He endures endless waiting with a patience that finally snaps in a General's office, where he becomes 'Humanity gone wild in the waiting.' His refusal to abandon hope in the mines—and in his own generosity—drives the family's slow, comic, painful unraveling.
Fanny Ivanovna
major
Also known as Fanny, Ivanovna, little Fanny
Fanny Ivanovna runs Nikolai's household and his finances with weary competence, yet she has no legal claim on either. She pours out her grief to Andrei Andreiech in a torrent of hurt and clear-eyed arithmetic, exposing the mines as worthless and the family as a swarm of dependents. Her fading hold on Nikolai—and her tenderness toward Nina—make her the emotional barometer of the Bursanovs' muddled life.
Nina Bursànova
major
Also known as Nina, Anne, Nina Bursànova
Nina moves through the Bursanov flat in twilight, watching her father and Fanny Ivanovna quarrel and translating the family's tangles for Andrei Andreiech with unnerving composure. She visits her mother in secret, carries messages between warring parents, and speaks of marriage and running away with a detachment that masks real feeling. Her tender heart and watchful irony make her the story's moral and emotional anchor.
Zina
supporting
Also known as Uncle Kostia, the Zina - Uncle Kostia
Zina is the girl at the center of Nikolai's late-life passion, a schoolmate of his own daughter and the object of a courtship that scandalizes the household. Her people urge her to 'stick to him' for the mines and the mortgaged Petersburg house, while Fanny Ivanovna's three sisters put out their tongues at her little sisters. She embodies the family's tangled appetites and the quiet cruelty of its social wars.
The General
supporting
Also known as the General, The General
The General presides over the Kolchak State's bureaucratic machinery, dispensing patience and procedure to petitioners like Nikolai Vasilievich. When Nikolai erupts into abuse, the General resorts to the recognized procedure—'Guard!'—and has him removed with deferential guards. His cold, correct response to human desperation crystallizes the novel's theme of waiting as a form of slow violence.
Kniaz
supporting
Also known as the old Kniaz, Kniaz great
Kniaz lives on Nikolai Vasilievich's belief in the mines, treating each loan as an advance on dividends that never come. He helps sustain Nikolai's faith in return for Nikolai's faith in the shares, a mutual delusion that binds them. His quiet, parasitic presence—sucking sweets in corners, popping his head from behind newspapers—exposes how the whole household runs on credit and credulity.
Andrei Andreiech
supporting
Also known as Andrei Andreiech
Andrei Andreiech moves through the Bursanov circle as the friend everyone confides in, the steady ear for a mother's outrage over spying daughters and a father's perplexed grief at the theatre. His role is to absorb the contradictions of people whose lives are, as one of them admits, hopelessly tangled, and to try to be a friend to all those helpless, charming, kindhearted people. Through his patient attention, the novel's domestic chaos becomes legible and human.
Sonia
supporting
Also known as The real Sonia
Sonia is one of Nikolai Vasilievich's daughters, stranded in the Mohovaya flat where her father and Fanny Ivanovna fight like cat and dog, worse when guests are present. She is sardonic and impatient, mocking Fanny's malapropisms and declaring she is sick of home and will run away by marrying. Her running commentary on the household's quarrels and her father's wish to marry again makes her the family's clearest, most disabused witness.
Eisenstein
minor
Also known as Monsieur Eisenstein, Mr. Eisenstein
A character, possibly a foreigner, involved in the social milieu.
Vera
minor
Also known as Vera
A named female character with limited but notable appearances.
Sir Hugo
supporting
Also known as Whereon, old Hugo, Whereon Sir Hugo
Sir Hugo's presence in the story provokes the narrator into a comic bout of Napoleonic scheming, drawing columns, arrows, and circles to pair off Nina, Sonia, Nicholas, Fanny, and the rest. He is the catalyst for the novel's most revealing set piece: a would-be puppet-master deciding who should marry whom and who should support the multitudinous dependents. His arrival exposes how much of the book's comedy lies in the gap between tidy plans and ungovernable Russian lives.
Baron Wunderhausen
minor
Also known as The Baron, The young Baron, Wunderhausen, no Wunderhausen
A baron with a minor but distinct part in the story.
Magda Nikolaevna Bursànova
minor
Also known as Magda Nikolaevna, Magda, Nikolaevna
A member of the Bursanov family with a limited role.
Stanitski
minor
Also known as Stanitski
A minor character mentioned in the narrative.
Admiral Kolchak
supporting
Also known as The Admiral, little Kolchak, Kolchak
Kolchak hovers over the novel's Siberian chapters as the emblem of a doomed intervention, discussed by Uncle Kostia and the bookkeeper Stanitski while the Allies blunder about firing at villagers they mistake for Bolsheviks. He is impulsive and well-meaning, unfortunate in his generals, and his fate—Omsk fallen, Kolchak shot—punctuates the futility of foreign meddling. Around his name gather the novel's sharpest ironies about politics, uniforms, and the waste of good intentions.
General Bologoevski
minor
Also known as Whereupon the General
A military general with a minor role.
The Russian General
minor
Also known as the Russian General, The Russian General
An unnamed Russian general appearing in the narrative.
Mama
minor
Also known as Mama
The mother figure in the family, a recurring referent.
Madame Olenin
minor
Also known as Madame Olenin
A minor female character with a few mentions.
Nick
minor
Also known as Nicholas, Nicky
A character, possibly a younger relative or friend.
Eberheim
minor
Also known as Eberheim
A minor character with a few mentions.
Mr. Thomson
minor
Also known as Mr. Thomson
A minor character, possibly an Englishman.
Papa
minor
Also known as Papa
The father figure, a recurring family referent.
Cecedek
minor
Also known as Cecedek, Čečedek
A minor character with a distinctive name.
Yuri
minor
Also known as Yuri
A minor character mentioned in the story.
Captain Larkin
minor
Also known as Captain Larkin
An American naval officer involved in the Siberian intervention.
Ward
minor
Also known as Mr. Ward
A minor character, possibly an American.
Professor Metchnikoff
minor
Also known as Professor Metchnikoff
A historical figure mentioned as a character.
Prince Borisov
minor
Also known as Prince, Prince Borisov
A minor aristocratic character.
President Wilson
minor
Also known as President Wilson
A historical figure briefly appearing in the narrative.
General Wrangel
minor
Also known as General Wrangel
A historical White Russian general mentioned.
Holdcroft
minor
Also known as Holdcroft
A minor character with a few mentions.
Chopin
minor
Also known as Chopin
The composer, referenced as a character in the story.
Chekhov
minor
Also known as old Chekhov
The writer, referenced as a character.
Moesei Moeseiech
minor
Also known as Moesei Moeseiech
A minor character with a patronymic name.
Tristan
minor
Also known as Tristan
A mythological figure referenced as a character.
Pàvel Pàvlovich
minor
Also known as Pàvel Pàvlovich
A minor character with a formal name.
Verbitskaya
minor
Also known as Verbitskaya
A minor female character.
Alexei
minor
Also known as Alexei
A minor character with a few mentions.
Denikin
minor
Also known as Denikin
A historical White Russian general mentioned.
