# Samoilenko — Short Fiction character guide

> Samoilenko in Short Fiction by Aleksandr Kuprin.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Samoilenko

**First appearance:** 0031-a-slav-soul

## Snapshot

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.

## Who they are

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.

## In the story

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

Listed as stage-manager for the performance.

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

Stage-manager acting in a heroic part, wearing golden armour; he haughtily renames the narrator 'Vassiliev' and directs him in the performance.

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

The manager who harshly coaches the narrator and becomes his persistent enemy.

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

Reprimands the narrator for sleeping in the theatre, calling it the temple of art.

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

Mentioned as having tried to teach the narrator a gesture.

### [XI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_se/chapters/xi)

Jealously follows the narrator and fines him five roubles for laughing backstage.

### [XIII](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_se/chapters/xiii)

Torments the narrator, insults him during rehearsal, and is struck by the narrator. Later reconciles.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_se/characters/samoilenko
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_se/characters