What Is to Be Done? · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in What Is to Be Done? by Nikolay Chernyshevsky.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
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.