# Nikolai Artemyevitch Stahov — On the Eve character guide

> Nikolai Artemyevitch Stahov in On the Eve by Ivan Turgenev.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Stahov, Nikolai Artemyevitch, Nikolai Stahov

**First appearance:** 0001-ii

## Snapshot

Elena's blustering father, a retired official who keeps a German mistress and mistakes loud authority for moral standing.

## Who they are

Nikolai Artemyevitch presides over the Stahov household with pomposity and casual cruelty, justifying his affair by his wife's ruined health. He cares deeply about appearances and very little about his daughter's actual life. When Elena's choices threaten his respectability, his rage becomes the story's sharpest portrait of respectable tyranny.

## In the story

### [I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/i)

Mentioned as being infatuated with Augustina Christianovna, neglecting his home.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/iii)

Anna's husband, a retired guardsman who married for money, is bored at home, maintains a relationship with a German widow, and prides himself on being a 'frondeur.'

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/vi)

Elena's father is mentioned as critical of her compassion for animals and her 'queer ways.'

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/viii)

Paces the room expressing dissatisfaction with Shubin's disrespect; complains about his treatment and liver, and is revealed to have spent the morning with a German woman, singing 'Do Not Leave Me'.

### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/ix)

Sends a note to Shubin asking him to keep a secret about a promissory note.

### [X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/x)

Nikolai Artemyevitch quietly slips away, leaving Elena alone with Bersenyev.

### [XVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xvi)

Elena recalls that her father reproaches her for loving only cats and dogs, and he looks queerly at her and Insarov when he arrives home.

### [XXI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxi)

Arrives unexpectedly at the end of the chapter.

### [XXII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxii)

Acts unusually self-confident and important; announces Kurnatovsky as a potential son-in-law, displaying his authority and concern for family welfare.

### [XXIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxiii)

Mentions his 'cherished projects' and the inconvenience of staying at the villa.

### [XXIV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxiv)

Greets Kurnatovsky obsequiously; ignores Insarov during the visit.

### [XXVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxvi)

Displeased by Bersenyev's visits and frustrated that his plans for Kurnatovsky are stalled.

### [XXIX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxix)

Paces his study, distressed over Augustina Christianovna's absence; complains about his lack of authority; learns of Elena's secret visit to a student's house.

### [Chapter XXXIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxx)

Furious upon learning of Elena's marriage, threatens to disinherit her and send Insarov to prison.

### [XXXI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxxi)

Enjoys asserting his authority, forbidding Elena from seeing her mother; eventually consents to the marriage after being paid, and publicly dismisses it at the club.

### [XXXII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxxii)

Nikolai Stahov arrives at the last moment to offer his parental blessing and a toast, hiding his own grief behind a facade of duty.

### [Chapter XXXV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/chapters/xxxv)

Mentioned in the epilogue; he has aged, parted from Augustina Christianovna, and now abuses everything foreign.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/characters/nikolai_stahov
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/on_the_eve_se/characters