Ulinka

Ulinka is the daughter of General Alexander Dmitrievich Betrishev and the woman who promptly challenges her father’s dismissive view of Andrei Ivanovich Tientietnikov. Though her appearance in the narrative is brief, she is more than a silent figure at the General’s house: she corrects the story on which his judgment rests, revealing both her loyalty to Tientietnikov and her readiness to speak directly in his defense.

Entrance and Identity

Ulinka enters when a door to the adjoining room opens and she appears in the doorway. The narrator describes her as fair and striking enough to make Chichikov stare in amazement, while noting that she looks too thin and fragile. Her father introduces her as his “little pet,” then turns the conversation to Chichikov and Tientietnikov. The scene first presents her through Chichikov’s astonished gaze, but she quickly takes command of the discussion herself.

Defense of Tientietnikov

The General tells Ulinka that Chichikov has supplied interesting news: Tientietnikov is not the fool they had thought him, and is working on a history of the Russian Generals of 1812. Ulinka immediately questions the premise. She asks who ever supposed Tientietnikov a fool and explains that her father had accepted Vishnepokromov’s account, although Vishnepokromov was himself both foolish and good-for-nothing. Her intervention does not merely praise Tientietnikov; it identifies the unreliable source that shaped the General’s opinion and makes that opinion look careless.

Relationships and Narrative Role

Ulinka’s brief exchange establishes a contrast between the General’s earlier judgment and her more attentive defense of Tientietnikov. She speaks familiarly enough to dispute her father in front of a visitor, and the General responds with further good-natured argument rather than silencing her. Her words also confirm the importance of Tientietnikov’s work to the scene: his history of the Generals of 1812 gives Chichikov a means of reopening the subject and softening the General’s hostility.

The narrative offers no further account of Ulinka’s actions or of what becomes of her. After the discussion, her father tells her to leave while he prepares for luncheon. Chichikov’s prolonged bow delays him until she has disappeared, replaced in the doorway by a bewhiskered butler carrying a silver soap-dish and hand-basin. Her exit closes the encounter almost as quickly as it began, leaving her defense of Tientietnikov as the scene’s defining act.