Character guide

Viéra Pavlovna

major

Also known as Viéra Pavlovna Rozalskaïa, Viéra Pavlovna Lopukhóva, Viéra Kirsánova, Viéra Pavlovna Kirsánova, Viérotchka, Viérka

Viéra Pavlovna builds a life on her own terms: a sewing cooperative, pupils, evenings of music with her husband Dmitri and his friend Kirsánof. The passages show her days filling with walks to the shop, stories told to the girls, opera, and long evenings where the three sit together far longer than before. What begins as rational arrangement quietly becomes something she did not plan for, and the novel's early-middle arc turns on whether her self-command can survive her own heart.

Dmitri Sergéitch Lopukhóf

major

Also known as Lopukhóf, Dmitri, Monsieur Lopukhóf

Lopukhóf rescues Viéra from her mother's plans by marrying her, then lives with her in a strange, scrupulous arrangement that puzzles their landlady. When Kirsánof's visits grow frequent and charged, Lopukhóf sees what is happening before either of them admits it, and his calm, almost clinical generosity becomes the story's most unsettling force. His refusal to act selfishly is precisely what drives the early-middle plot toward its famous rupture.

Aleksandr Matvéitch Kirsánof

major

Also known as Kirsánof, Aleksandr

Kirsánof is the new man in miniature: a doctor who observes rather than cures, respected by students, beloved by hospital servants, and welcomed nightly into the Lopukhófs' home. The passages catch him in the moment he goes silent mid-conversation, then leaves early, and later confronts Lopukhóf with angry eyes and a forbidden subject. His honesty and his discipline collide with a desire he cannot reason away, making him the hinge on which the novel's central triangle turns.

Marya Alekséyevna

supporting

Also known as Marya Alekséyevna Rozalskaïa, Alekséyevna

Marya Alekséyevna runs a pawn shop, a household, and a campaign to marry Viéra to the highest bidder, and the passage catches her mid-calculation when Julie and Serge arrive at her shabby stairs. She is delighted by the word 'spouse,' loud enough for Viéra to hear, and instantly converts her rage into a truce when a colonel's uniform enters the room. Her mixture of greed, performance, and genuine blindness to her daughter's inner life makes her the pressure that Viéra must escape.

Rakhmétof

supporting

Also known as the terrible Rakhmétof, Mr. Rakhmétof

Rakhmétof appears at the edges of the Lopukhófs' orderly life, the man whose name Marya Alekséyevna invokes with dread and whose discipline makes ordinary virtue look soft. The passages place him near the rescue of Viéra and in the orbit of the household whose strange, brother-sister marriage the landlady cannot decipher. He matters less as a plot agent than as a measuring rod: when the novel asks what a human being might be, Rakhmétof is the answer it refuses to soften.

Katerina Vasílyevna

supporting

Also known as Katerina, Kátya, Miss Pólozova

Katerina Vasílyevna moves through her father's frivolous house surrounded by flatterers and fortune hunters, her imagination fixed on Geneviève and Miss Nightingale rather than on the marriage market. The Sólovtsof episode leaves her asking whom she can believe, and her charitable giving only deepens her sense that money cannot fix the poverty it creates. Her seriousness and her wealth make her a natural friend for Viéra and a quiet counterweight to the novel's more programmatic characters.

Mademoiselle Julie

supporting

Also known as Julie, Julia, Julie Le Tellier

Julie arrives at the Lopukhovs' as a woman of the world, but within hours she is wrestling Vera on the sofa, weeping over virtue, and ordering breakfast offhand. Her worldly talk of dissipated lives both embarrasses and fascinates the sheltered Vera, who watches her like a doctor studying a beautiful face disfigured by disease. Yet Julie's genuine enthusiasm for the sewing workshop—and the customers she brings—makes her an unlikely ally in Vera's first bid for independence.

Charles Beaumont

supporting

Also known as Mr. Beaumont, Beaumont, Charlie, James Beaumont

Beaumont appears in the industrial world as the London firm's conscientious purchaser, inspecting books and enduring endless Russian negotiations with the patience of a man who has survived the siege of Troy. His refusal of hospitality, his clipped personal history of Canadian emigration and Crimean cotton plantations, and his uncanny familiarity with the people he meets all mark him as a man with something carefully withheld. To Polozov and the factory directors he is simply a foreign businessman; to the reader, his arrival signals that the novel's moral accounting is not finished.

Pavel Konstantinuitch Rozalsky

minor

Also known as Pavel Konstantinuitch, Konstantinuitch

Vera's father, a weak-willed clerk dominated by his wife.

Mikhaïl Ivanuitch Storeshnikof

minor

Also known as Storeshnikof, Monsieur Storeshnikof

A wealthy but dull suitor pursued by Vera's mother.

Anna Petrovna

minor

Also known as Petrovna

A minor character, possibly a servant or neighbor in the Rozalsky household.

Masha

minor

Also known as Poor Masha, the indefatigable Masha

Vera's loyal maid and assistant in her sewing cooperative.

Nástenka

minor

Also known as XV Nástenka

A young woman whose story of love and sacrifice is told within the narrative.

Serge

minor

A minor character, possibly a friend or acquaintance of the main circle.

Pólozof

minor

Also known as IX Pólozof

Katerina's father, a wealthy retired businessman.

Matrióna

minor

Also known as Matrióna Stepanóvna

A servant in the Rozalsky household.

Feódor

minor

A servant or minor functionary in the story.

Jean Sólovtsof

minor

Also known as Sólovtsof

A minor character, possibly a suitor or acquaintance.

Alekséi Petróvitch

minor

A minor character, possibly a doctor or official.

Mrs. Mertsálova

minor

Also known as Mertsálova

A friend of Vera's, part of the progressive circle.

Mertsálof

minor

Husband of Mrs. Mertsalova, a fellow progressive.

Rachel

minor

A famous actress mentioned in the narrative.

Claude Bernard

minor

Also known as Claude, Bernard

French physiologist referenced in theoretical discussions.

B

minor

An initial used as a placeholder for a character.

D

minor

An initial used as a placeholder for a character.

Sasha

minor

A minor character, possibly a child or young relative.

Nikítin

minor

A minor character, possibly a student or colleague.

Mosolof

minor

A minor character, possibly an official or acquaintance.

Natasha

minor

Also known as Natalia Andréyevna

A minor female character, possibly a friend of Vera.

Piotr

minor

A servant or minor male character.

Nikitushka Lomof

minor

Also known as Lomof

A barge-hauler mentioned as a symbol of raw strength.

Stepan

minor

A minor servant or worker character.

Nastasia Borísovna

minor

Also known as Nastasia Borísovna Kriukova

A minor character, possibly a singer or acquaintance.

Sáshenka Pribuitkova

minor

Also known as Sáshenka

A minor female character in the progressive circle.

Adèle

minor

A minor female character, possibly a friend of Julie.

Ivan Ivanovitch Shuválof

minor

Also known as Shuválof

Historical figure mentioned in passing.

Nekrásof

minor

Also known as Nikolaï Alekseyevitch Nekrásof

Russian poet referenced in the text.

Gogol

minor

Also known as N. V. Gogol

Russian writer mentioned in the narrative.

Boccaccio

minor

Italian author referenced in the text.

Dickens

minor

English novelist mentioned in passing.

Pushkin

minor

Russian poet referenced in the narrative.

Napoleon

minor

Also known as Napoleon the Great

French emperor mentioned as a historical comparison.

Newton

minor

Scientist referenced in theoretical discussions.

Karamzin

minor

Russian historian and writer mentioned in passing.

Peter the Great

minor

Also known as Peter

Russian tsar mentioned as a historical figure.

Mrs. Beecher Stowe

minor

American author mentioned in the narrative.

Miss Nightingale

minor

British nurse referenced in the text.

Bosio

minor

Also known as Angiolina Bosio

Italian singer mentioned in passing.

Mr. Lotter

minor

Also known as Lotter

A minor character, possibly a business acquaintance.

Zakhártchenko

minor

A minor character, possibly an official.

Ruzanof

minor

A minor character mentioned in the narrative.

Ivanof

minor

Also known as the kollezhsky sekratar Ivanof

A minor official character.

Filantyef

minor

Also known as the natchalnik Filantyef

A minor official or police character.

Daniluitch

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant or worker.

Agrafyéna Antonovna

minor

A minor female character, possibly a housekeeper.

Geneviève

minor

A minor female character, possibly a friend of Julie.

Mikhaïl Ivanovitch

minor

A minor character, possibly a variant of Storeshnikov.

Professor N.

minor

Also known as N.

An unnamed professor referenced in the text.

Baruina

minor

A minor female character, possibly a landlady.

Fyedka

minor

A minor servant or worker character.

Aniuta

minor

A minor female character, possibly a worker.

Mishka

minor

A minor servant character.

Alósha

minor

A minor character, possibly a child.

Simon

minor

A minor character, possibly a servant.

Berthe

minor

A minor female character, possibly a friend of Julie.

de Merrick

minor

A minor character, possibly a foreigner mentioned in passing.

Kátenka

minor

A diminutive form of Katerina, possibly a child or servant.

Nádinka

minor

A minor female character, possibly a variant of Nastenka.

Pauline

minor

Also known as Paulina

A minor female character, possibly a friend or acquaintance.

Maman

minor

French for 'mother', used as a term of address.

Papa

minor

French for 'father', used as a term of address.

Mámenka

minor

Russian diminutive for 'mother', used by characters.

Golubtchik

minor

Russian term of endearment, used as a form of address.

Starikashka

minor

Russian pejorative for 'old man', used as a term of address.

Mílenki

minor

Russian term of endearment, used as a form of address.

Akh

minor

An exclamation used as a character name in the NLP output.

Da

minor

Russian for 'yes', used as a character name in the NLP output.

Nu

minor

Russian interjection, used as a character name in the NLP output.