Nikolai “Kolya” Ivanov Krasotkin Character Analysis

The thirteen-year-old son of Anna Fyodorovna Krasotkin and the provincial secretary Krasotkin, who died "almost fourteen years before"—that is, before Kolya was born. Kolya is a prankster who enjoys causing trouble everywhere he goes. He becomes notorious for lying down under the rails while a train rides over him. When he meets Alexei Fyodorovich, he is two weeks away from his fourteenth birthday. He is a school boy who declares himself a socialist and who probably gets some of his political ideas from Rakitin, whom he talks to often. He is rude, arrogant, and inclined to view others as less intelligent than he. He enjoys humiliating other people and drawing attention to himself. The only person whose opinion he respects is Alexei Fyodorovich, who treats Kolya like the mature equal the boy wants to believe he is. Kolya is short and regards his face as “disgusting,” though the narrator explains that he is actually quite handsome with fair, freckled skin and “small but lively gray eyes.” His cheekbones are broad, and his lips are small and very red. His nose, too, is small and upturned. He is friends with Smurov, though Kolya is two years ahead of him. He also befriended Ilyusha Snegiryov, who later turns on Kolya and stabs him in the leg with a penknife. Ilyusha and Kolya reunite when the former contracts tuberculosis and Kolya visits him at his bedside. He brings Zhuchka, Ilyusha’s former dog. Ilyusha’s death, as well as Alexei’s encouragement of kindness, softens Kolya’s attitude by the end of the novel.