Punin and Baburin

Characters

• Piotr Petrovitch — the narrator, looking back on his youth: At twelve he lives with his formidable grandmother; three times in thirty years his path crosses Punin and Baburin’s.
• Nikander Vavilitch Punin — a homeless reciter and lover of verse: A plump, rapturous old man kept by Baburin; he chants Heraskov aloud and dies in poverty.
• Paramon Semyonitch Baburin — a clerk, a republican, and Punin’s protector: Stern and incorruptible; he defends Yermil, loses his post, is exiled, and dies in the year of the manifesto.
• Musa Pavlovna Vinogradov — Baburin’s ward and later his wife: A proud fair-haired girl; she runs off with Tarhov, returns to Baburin after her fall, and follows him to Siberia.
• Vladimir Nikolaitch Tarhov — the narrator’s fellow student: A cheerful fellow who dabbles in verse; he wins Musa, abandons her, and goes into the army.
• the grandmother — the landowner with whom the narrator grows up: A stern, wrathful old woman with a lorgnette and amber beads; she has Yermil deported over a single look.
• Filippitch — the grandmother’s old footman: He walks on tiptoe, keeps his lips pressed shut against his breath, and quails before his mistress.
• Yermil — a house-serf boy, son of the late majordomo: Deported to a settlement for looking ‘like a wolf’; his fate makes Baburin speak out against the mistress.