Koska Nekhvalenykh

Koska Nekhvalenykh is a quarrelsome, heavy-handed young man from Ermolaï whose presence in a crowded hiding place reveals both the immediate peril after a recruiting-office riot and the way political suspicion makes ordinary disorder dangerous. Under a village warehouse, he becomes an urgent voice of caution, then proposes flight to the forest for himself and three others—a decision that leads out of the village and toward the Forest Brotherhood.

Identity and Introduction

Koska appears among the young men who have fled through back yards and crawled under a barn. The space below the floor is already crammed with people from two villages; some are drunk, sick, or asleep, and the air is foul and still. The last arrivals have blocked the opening with stones and earth to conceal their refuge. In this darkness and confinement, Koska is distinguished by his quarrelsome temperament and forceful manner, but also by his alertness to the danger outside.

He is not simply another fugitive from the recruiting office. The account identifies him as a bully from Ermolaï, while showing him huddled with Terentii and Goshka and aware that Goshka’s family is under suspicion. His place in this small group is practical rather than formal: he watches for the searchers, tells the others to stay still, and tries to understand who may be endangered and why.

The Hideout and the Search

When Terentii and Goshka whisper in panic, Koska orders them to lower their voices. Colonel Strese’s men, he says, are prowling up and down the village street; they have reached its end and are coming back. He warns that their noise could expose everyone in the barn and threatens to strangle the person who gives them away. The threat is rough, but its immediate purpose is to keep the fugitives silent while the search passes.

The shelter offers little protection beyond concealment. People have been vomiting and defecating in the cramped space, and Koska warns Terentii not to move lest they smear themselves with the mess. The stench, darkness, and closeness of the sleepers make concealment a physical ordeal as well as a tactical necessity. After the searchers have moved away, Koska checks whether Terentii heard them; Terentii answers in a changed voice, registering how nearly the danger has overwhelmed him.

Explaining the Suspicion

Koska distinguishes the reasons for different people’s fear. Terentii, he points out, has no real reason to hide: he had merely heard Goshka yell for everyone to hide and crawled into the barn. Goshka, by contrast, has reason to fear the authorities because his whole family is in trouble and under suspicion. Koska connects that suspicion to relatives working at the railway yards in Khodatskoie, suggesting how family association can draw a household into political scrutiny.

He also identifies the object of Strese’s search: people from Pazhinsk who have come from outside the village. The barn thus shelters a mixed company whose members are not equally implicated. Some have run away impulsively, while others fear that their companions or connections may be treated as politically compromising. Koska’s account makes the pursuit larger than a hunt for the riot’s instigators: in a climate where hooliganism can be labeled reactionary in one zone and Bolshevik in another, even association becomes a source of danger.

From Riot to Flight

Asked how the trouble began, Koska recounts the disturbance at the recruiting office. The men had been lined up naked, waiting for the doctor. When Sanka Pafnutkin’s turn came, he refused to undress, objecting to showing his private parts to everyone. After the clerk politely told him to take off his clothes, Sanka struck him in the jaw and overturned the office table by its leg, sending the inkstand and army lists crashing to the floor. Koska’s compressed telling identifies Sanka as the initiator, while recalling the affront and the abrupt escalation that made the office a scene of violence.

Colonel Strese’s response transforms the disorder into a manhunt. He demands Pafnutkin, Riabikh, and Nekhvalenykh, dead or alive, and also orders the pursuit of Galuzin, casting suspicion on the shopkeeper’s political speeches and alleged sheltering of political criminals. He threatens to hang Galuzin if there is anything against him. Koska hears the searchers move away, but their departure does not restore safety: Strese has named the fugitives and made clear that a local disturbance may be answered with political accusations and exemplary punishment.

The Forest as a Temporary Refuge

After the searchers have passed, Koska tells Terentii that the only place for the two of them, Sanka, and Goshka is the forest. He presents the move as temporary, only until the authorities calm down, and leaves open the possibility of returning. The proposal gives the frightened group a direction when the barn can no longer feel like a safe refuge.

Koska’s decision marks the narrative passage from the recruiting-office uprising to the flight that opens the episode of the Forest Brotherhood. He is not shown planning a permanent life outside the village or articulating a political program; his stated aim is to evade the immediate search. That limited, practical choice nevertheless places him among the fugitives whose path leads toward the forest, where a local riot becomes part of a wider story of political violence and armed flight.