# Fyódor Dólokhov — War and Peace character guide

> Fyódor Dólokhov in War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Dólokhov, Mr. Dólokhov

**First appearance:** 0010-vii

## Snapshot

A penniless officer with a duelist's calm and a gambler's cruelty, admired by boys and feared by men who owe him money.

## Who they are

Dólokhov moves through Petersburg drawing rooms and army camps with the same cold, deliberate nerve, whether ruining a man at cards or riding past a sentinel on a night raid. He is capable of real tenderness — he kisses young Pétya in the dark without mockery — and of calculated destruction. His presence keeps the novel's glamour and its violence uncomfortably close together.

## In the story

### [Chapter XV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace/chapters/xv)

Mentioned as the source of Rostov's terrible gambling loss, a debt that haunts him and motivates his desire for atonement.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace/characters/fyodor_dolokhov
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/war_and_peace
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