# Captain Ventzel — Short Fiction character guide

> Captain Ventzel in Short Fiction by Vsevolod Garshin.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Ventzel, Only Ventzel, Staff - Captain Ventzel, this Ventzel

**First appearance:** 0003-coward

## Snapshot

A rawboned, restless-eyed staff-captain whose courteous manner and quiet 'here we are all alike' unsettle the soldiers' stories that precede him.

## Who they are

Captain Ventzel sits sipping tea laced with rum in Zaikin's tent, bowing courteously to a student and asking questions with thin-lipped precision while the other officers joke and splutter around him. The soldiers' uncomplimentary talk about him lingers in the narrator's mind, yet his calm courtesy contradicts it, leaving his true nature unresolved. He matters because he embodies the gap between rumor and encounter that runs through the regiment's early scenes.

## In the story

### [An Incident](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/an-incident)

An officer who intervenes during the incident.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/ii)

Engages in literary discussion, recites poetry, and expresses cynical views about the common soldier.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/iii)

Orderly officer who beats fallen soldiers with his sword scabbard to enforce discipline; confronts the narrator.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/iv)

Sent off under arrest by the General after the river crossing.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/v)

Shouts and swears at the soldiers, adjusting their belts and shirts before the Emperor's train passes.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/vi)

Ventzel is described as the best company commander in terms of feeding and training, but his brutal beating of a soldier for smoking sparks hatred among the men.

### [VIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/viii)

Moodily questions the narrator about his thoughts on the dead, leading to a confrontation about the humanity of fallen soldiers.

### [IX](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/ix)

Leads his company in repeated charges, loses 52 men, and is found sobbing in his tent afterward.

### [The Action at Aislar](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_56_se/chapters/the-action-at-aislar)

Present during the action at Aislar, involved in the military engagement.

## Links

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