# Avtonomov — Short Fiction character guide

> Avtonomov in Short Fiction by Vladimir Korolenko.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0001-short-fiction

## Snapshot

A named figure in the exile world whose presence shadows Vasíli Ivánovitch's stories of officialdom and degradation.

## Who they are

Avtonomov belongs to the same milieu of exiles and provincial officials that Vasíli Ivánovitch conjures in his anecdotes, a world of inspectors, bailiffs, and local Jupiters. He is part of the social fabric against which Vasíli Ivánovitch measures his own refusal of a respectable post in Russia and his gradual degradation. His role is to anchor the story's early arc in the dense, hierarchical society of the pre-reform provinces, where every career and every refusal has a cost.

## Relationships

### [The Count](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/characters/the_count)

_professional_

Avtonomov is a servant or estate manager for The Count.

## In the story

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/chapters/ii)

A wandering preacher with a bold, gray-eyed gaze. He speaks of liberty and a wasted life, and leads a small, timid companion.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/chapters/iii)

Preacher who teaches dissenters in the hut; engages in drinking and flirtation with the soldier's wife.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/chapters/iv)

The protector of Ivan Ivanovich, who walks ahead and is occasionally lost sight of in the darkness.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/chapters/v)

A former seminarian and suitor, now a wandering figure with a troubled past; he approaches a house in the cemetery at night, is rejected, and later rejoins the group with lilacs.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/chapters/vi)

Opens the mill sluices, causing chaos; acts cheerfully and calls to the group like a bird.

### [VII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/chapters/vii)

Discarded his decorations; calmly asserts that there are people who do not believe in God and the Saints, provoking Andrey Ivanovich.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/chapters/viii)

Accepts the narrator's hospitality, bathes, dresses in multiple layers, reunites with his sister and brother-in-law, and promises to start a new life.

### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/chapters/ix)

Drunk, unpleasantly bold, speaks grandiloquently, alludes to a soldier's wife, and shows readiness for evil deeds.

### [Chapter X](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/chapters/x)

Found swaying beside the dead little wanderer, drunkenly urging him to get up and continue wandering.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/characters/avtonomov
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_54_se/characters