# The Village — Character guide

> Key figures in The Village by Ivan Bunin.

- [Tikhon Ilitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/tikhon_ilitch.md): Tikhon Ilitch clawed his way from serfdom to prosperity, and now his wealth sits heavy on him — childless, aging, estranged from his brother Kuzma, and drinking mountain-ash cordial alone while trains roar past Durnovka.
- [Kuzma](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/kuzma.md): Kuzma Krasoff, grey-haired from hunger and austere thinking, drifts through bazaars and eating-houses hunting for any clerkship that will buy him bread, his entire estate a chest and a ponderous umbrella. He calls himsel
- [Syery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/syery.md): V Syery sits idle all winter, cold and hungry, regaling neighbours with the tale of two noble years spent at a priest's house near Eletz — a story everyone has heard and no one believes. At Rusanoff's he refuses to haul 
- [Deniska](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/deniska.md): Deniska slouches through Tikhon's lecture about marriage and merchandise with a melancholy smile, mentally noting that rearing children sounds like rearing chickens or pigs. When Tikhon proposes the Bride, Deniska preten
- [Akim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/akim.md): Akim belongs to the small circle of villagers — with Menshoff and Syery — whose faces and habits Kuzma studies with a stranger's amazement, trying to read the peasant world he came from but no longer fits. He is part of 
- [Ivanushka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/ivanushka.md): Ivanushka lost his entire family in the cholera year of '92, and though his railway-guard son lives five versts away, he prefers to beg, striding bareheaded through farmyards where even the sheep dogs leave him alone. He
- [Yakoff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/yakoff.md): Yakoff is a Durnovka peasant drawn into Tikhon Ilitch's orbit just as the village simmers toward rebellion over wages. He claims his son's wife tried to kill him with a cigarette stuffed with ground bones, yet his evasio
- [Nastasya Petrovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/nastasya_petrovna.md): Nastasya Petrovna works in Tikhon Ilitch's household after autumn brought her disgrace and Rodka's death, her mother gone begging and the cottage locked. Taciturn and shy, she sleeps behind a partition near Kuzma, whose 
- [Rodka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/rodka.md): A villager, possibly a servant or laborer, with repeated mentions.
- [Odnodvorka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/odnodvorka.md): A female character, possibly a peasant, mentioned in village context.
- [Makarka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/makarka.md): A minor character, likely a servant or peasant.
- [Old Balashkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/old_balashkin.md): An elderly figure in the village, possibly a relative or neighbor.
- [The Farmhand Koshel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/koshel.md): A farmhand working in the village, with a few appearances.
- [Menshoff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/menshoff.md): A minor character, possibly a local resident.
- [Oska](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/oska.md): A young boy or servant, occasionally mentioned.
- [The Priest](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/the_priest.md): Local clergy, appears in religious and community scenes.
- [Makar Ivanovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/makar_ivanovitch.md): A character with a few mentions, possibly a relative or acquaintance.
- [Consumptive Mitrofan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/consumptive_mitrofan.md): A sickly character, possibly a villager, with limited appearances.
- [Vaska](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/vaska.md): A minor character, likely a servant or peasant.
- [The Bride](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/the_bride.md): A bride in a wedding scene, possibly symbolic or specific.
- [Donka the Goat](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/donka_the_goat.md): A goat, possibly a pet or livestock, with a few mentions.
- [The Gipsy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/the_gipsy.md): Nickname for a member of the Krasoff family, possibly a servant.
- [Shaggy Buyan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/shaggy_buyan.md): A dog or animal, possibly a pet, with a few mentions.
- [Duck-Headed Matty](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/duck_headed_matty.md): A character with a distinctive nickname, possibly a servant.
- [Grey Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters/grey_man.md): A mysterious figure, possibly symbolic or a stranger.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_village_se/characters