Taras Bulba characters

Appears from the start

An aging Zaporozhian Cossack colonel whose life is organized around Orthodox faith, comradeship, and war. Blunt, physically imposing, and scornful of comfort, he welcomes his sons home from their schooling by testing Ostap in a fistfight, then decides almost at once to take both young men to the Sich.

Appears from the start

Taras's elder son, newly returned from the Kyiv academy. Proud, direct, and strong, he answers his father's mockery with his fists and earns Taras's immediate approval. He is ready to exchange his years of study for life among the Cossacks.

Appears from the start

Taras's younger son, also newly home from the academy. He does not join Ostap's fistfight with their father, but Taras expects both brothers to prove themselves in Cossack life and takes them away together the next morning.

Appears from the start

Taras's unnamed wife and the mother of Ostap and Andriy. Gentle and accustomed to long separations from her husband, she has barely a night with her sons after their years away at school before Taras takes them to the Sich.

First appears in chapter 2

A young Polish noblewoman whom Andriy first sees while studying in Kyiv. The daughter of a governor, she playfully receives him after he slips into her room, leaving a powerful memory that he carries away from the city.

First appears in chapter 3

A seasoned Cossack chosen as the new Koschevoi, or elected leader, after Taras helps turn the Sich against the previous officeholder. He is cautious about breaking sworn peace but readily organizes the host once news supplies a cause for war.

First appears in chapter 4

A Jewish trader whom Taras recognizes during violence at the Sich and saves by recalling an old acquaintance. Quick-thinking and resourceful, Yankel attaches himself to the Cossack forces as a supplier.

First appears in chapter 5

A Tatar servant of the Polish noblewoman. Starving and exhausted, she finds Andriy outside besieged Dubno and asks him to bring food through a hidden underground passage for her mistress and the people trapped within the city.

First appears in chapter 10

A loyal Cossack comrade who finds Taras gravely wounded after the battle near Dubno. He refuses to abandon him and undertakes the difficult journey needed to carry him away from Polish pursuit.