Short Fiction · Character

Samoilenko

A doctor and travelling companion whose boundless joy at returning home spills out in gifts, telegrams, and endless talk of his beloved wife and daughter.

supporting

Also known as Samoilenko

First appearance: a slav soul

As a supporting figure in Short Fiction, Samoilenko is not background color—the story leans on what they do once the chapter opens.

Listed as stage-manager for the performance.

In the storyIIIOpen this moment free

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Samoilenko is a man returning after five years in Manchuria to a wife he calls Sannochka and a daughter he last saw as a toddler. His exuberance is almost childlike — he tips conductors royally, presses jade and ivory trinkets on near-strangers, and sends reply-paid telegrams ahead to announce himself. His unspent love and his inability to contain it make him both comic and touching, a portrait of longing that quietly frames the story's darker meditations on devotion and loss.

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See Samoilenko in a slav soul

Character Web

7 connections

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Relationship types

Other

Character groups

Historical and Professional Figures
Spies, Priests, and Performers
Officers and Society Women

+2 more in the full Character Web

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Narrative arc

Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.

Setup
Escalation
Breaking point
Aftermath
Closing

This is the story's dramatic climax because Vera Nikolayevna, who has previously dismissed Zheltkov’s love as…

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In the story

Samoilenko appears across 7 companion beats. Open any chapter in the free preview to see the notes beside the text.

III
Listed as stage-manager for the performance.
V
Stage-manager acting in a heroic part, wearing golden armour; he haughtily renames the narrator 'Vassiliev' and directs him in the performance.
VII
The manager who harshly coaches the narrator and becomes his persistent enemy.
VIII
Reprimands the narrator for sleeping in the theatre, calling it the temple of art.
IX
Mentioned as having tried to teach the narrator a gesture.
XI
Jealously follows the narrator and fines him five roubles for laughing backstage.
XIII
Torments the narrator, insults him during rehearsal, and is struck by the narrator. Later reconciles.

Chapter companion notes

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See Samoilenko in a slav soul

See Samoilenko in III