# Kuzma Thomich — Short Fiction character guide

> Kuzma Thomich in Short Fiction by Vsevolod Garshin.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Kuzma

**First appearance:** 0041-nadejda-nicolaievna

## Snapshot

A timid, eager orderly who reddens with pleasure at being commanded, and whose small vanities flicker even as the world contracts to a clod of earth and an ant.

## Who they are

Kuzma Thomich hovers at the edge of the narrator's world, obedient to the point of blushing when given an order, fussing over a looking-glass and the light. His eagerness to please sits oddly against the larger indifference of the campaign around him. When the narrator falls wounded, it is Kuzma's small human flutterings that linger as a measure of what ordinary life looked like before the grass and the bullets.

## Relationships

### [Mary Petrovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/mary_petrovna)

_family_

Kuzma Thomich and Mary Petrovna are likely married or closely related, sharing a domestic bond.

### [Mary Petrovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/mary_petrovna)

_family_

Kuzma Thomich and Mary Petrovna are likely married or closely related, sharing a domestic bond.

### [Mary Petrovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/mary_petrovna)

_family_

Kuzma Thomich and Mary Petrovna are likely married or closely related, sharing a domestic bond.

## In the story

### [Coward](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/coward)

Dying patient, irritable and in pain, finds solace in Mary Petrovna's care; expresses fear of death and regret.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/kuzma_thomich
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters