Strelnikov’s suicide

Strelnikov’s suicide occurs the morning after he has spent the night with Yurii Andreievich at Varykino. It ends their last encounter abruptly: after speaking of Lara and the family life he had hoped to reclaim, Strelnikov leaves the house and takes his own life nearby. Yurii, who expects to share coffee with him, discovers him only after waking and going to the well.

The night before

After an intense exchange about Lara, the two men stand and look out through separate windows. Strelnikov then approaches Yurii, takes his hands, and presses them to his breast. He apologizes for touching on matters dear to Yurii and asks permission to continue questioning him, pleading that he not be left alone. Their physical closeness and the plea mark a striking departure from the distance associated with Strelnikov’s public identity.

Strelnikov describes six years of separation and self-restraint. He had believed that, once freedom was won, he would be free to return to his family; now, he says, his calculations have come to nothing. He expects to be arrested the next day and fears that he will be shouted down, cursed, and prevented from defending himself. His confession gives the night a double character: he is speaking both as a revolutionary whose political hopes have collapsed and as Lara’s estranged husband, still imagining a possible return to family life.

The morning discovery

Yurii sleeps unusually well, falling asleep as soon as he lies down. Strelnikov spends the night in the adjoining room. Yurii’s brief dreams return him to childhood, including an image of his mother’s watercolor falling from the wall; on waking from that dream, he momentarily associates a sound with Strelnikov before settling back into sleep. The passage follows Yurii’s consciousness through rest and confusion rather than presenting the death in advance.

Waking late with a headache, Yurii remembers that Strelnikov is in the house and calls to him as Pavel Pavlovich. When no one answers, he assumes Strelnikov is still asleep. He finds the fur hat on the table but not its owner, and supposes that he has gone for a walk without it. Yurii turns to ordinary household tasks: he lights the kitchen range, picks up a bucket, and sets out for the well. Only a few yards from the door, he finds Strelnikov lying across the path. He has shot himself.

Consequence and narrative significance

The discovery makes the conversation’s references to arrest and family separation into a final farewell, although Yurii does not understand this when he wakes. The planned coffee never takes place; Strelnikov has left without waking him or announcing what he intends to do. The reversal is conveyed through the gap between Yurii’s mundane expectation—that his guest is asleep or out walking—and the fact he encounters on the path.

The scene also closes the possibility Strelnikov had voiced of reaching Lara through Yurii. In the night’s conversation, he imagines Yurii may see her one day and speak for him; by morning, that anticipated reunion has become impossible. The narrative’s restrained sequence—from a night of intimate speech, through Yurii’s restorative sleep, to a practical errand and sudden discovery—places the death against the continuing routines of domestic life, without turning it into a public spectacle.