# Vassili Petrovich — Short Fiction character guide

> Vassili Petrovich in Short Fiction by Vsevolod Garshin.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Vassili PetrovichтБатАФput

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

## Snapshot

A newly appointed gymnasium teacher who arrives at a provincial town with modest ambitions, counting his roubles and dreaming of the great men his pupils might one day become.

## Who they are

Vassili Petrovich sits on a bench facing the sea, calculating lodgings, board, and tobacco, and imagining himself an old grey-haired teacher visited by famous former scholars. His self-deprecating realism — 'You haven't it in you, friend Vassili Petrovich' — sits uneasily beside his genuine hunger to kindle 'the spark divine' in boys. He matters because his quiet, unglamorous idealism offers the story a counterweight to the grander failures unfolding around him.

## Relationships

### [Kudriasheff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/kudriasheff)

_professional_

Kudriasheff and Vassili Petrovich are colleagues or employer-employee, working together in a formal capacity.

### [Simon Ivanoff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/characters/simon_ivanoff)

_rivalry_

Simon Ivanoff and Vassili Petrovich are competitors, frequently in conflict over resources or status.

## In the story

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

Cynical and surly, tells the narrator the story of a surgeon who committed suicide to escape war's horrors.

### [The Meeting](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/the-meeting)

A new teacher in town, he dreams of his fiancée Lise and his future career, then reunites with his old friend Kudriasheff.

## Links

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