The House of the Dead characters

Appears from the start

A former nobleman serving ten years of hard labor in a Siberian prison after being convicted of killing his wife. His notes record the routines, punishments, cruelties, and relationships of prison life from the perspective of a newcomer isolated by class and temperament.

Appears from the start

The unnamed acquaintance who introduces Alexander after his release from hard labor and later obtains the dead man's papers. His frame narrative presents the prison memoir as a document discovered among those papers.

Also known as Akim Akimitch

First appears in chapter 2

A former military officer imprisoned among the common convicts. Exact, rule-bound, and unusually concerned with order and propriety, he helps Alexander understand the prison's arrangements during his first days.

First appears in chapter 2

The prison commandant, notorious among the convicts for violent rages, arbitrary discipline, and an unnerving watchfulness. His authority makes every encounter with him dangerous.

First appears in chapter 3

A huge and feared convict who smuggles liquor into the prison and can become murderously violent when drunk. Even hardened prisoners avoid him during his outbreaks, though collective force eventually restrains him.

First appears in chapter 4

A gentle young Tatar prisoner from the Caucasus who shares quarters with his brothers. His openness and lack of malice distinguish him within the crowded barracks and draw Alexander toward him.

First appears in chapter 5

A meek convict who attaches himself to Alexander and performs domestic tasks for him in return for small payments. His anxious dependence reveals the informal bargains and inequalities that develop even among prisoners.

First appears in chapter 7

A quiet, unpredictable convict who frequently approaches Alexander with abrupt questions, then disappears as soon as his curiosity is satisfied. His contained intensity makes Alexander suspect that he is capable of sudden and extreme action.

First appears in chapter 8

A small, energetic convict whose account of defying a brutal officer becomes one of the prison's many personal histories. He tells his story without presenting himself as either hero or victim.

Also known as Isai Fomitch

First appears in chapter 9

An elderly Jewish convict whose habits and religious observances draw amused attention in the barracks. At the crowded public bath he endures the heat with extraordinary enthusiasm, becoming a vivid figure in Alexander's memory.

Also known as Baklouchin

First appears in chapter 9

A lively convict who tells Alexander how romantic jealousy and a confrontation with a rival led to his sentence. He has a sociable manner and a strong talent for performance.

First appears in chapter 15

A prisoner who relates the long history of his disastrous marriage to Akulka. His story of suspicion, abuse, and violence exposes how wounded pride and communal gossip can harden into irreversible cruelty.

Also known as Akoulka

First appears in chapter 15

Shishkov's wife, whose reputation is attacked by a rejected admirer before her marriage. Trapped between gossip and her husband's possessive suspicion, she becomes the central figure in the prisoner's account of the crime that brought him to Siberia.