Byelovzorov

Byelovzorov is a hussar who courts Zinaïda Alexandrovna Zasyekin with gifts, marriage offers, and declarations of extreme devotion. Unlike the poet Meidanov or the ironic Doctor Lushin, he makes his attachment plain and practical: he tries to please Zinaïda, presses his claim as a suitor, and ultimately leaves the circle around her. His uncertain later whereabouts give his story a quiet but consequential place in Vladimir Petrovitch’s recollection of first love.

Identity and Introduction

Byelovzorov first appears as a young hussar visiting the household of Zinaïda and her mother. He is flaxen-haired and curly-headed, with a rosy face and prominent eyes; his spurs and sabre announce his military bearing before he speaks. His strongly built frame is shown in a new, tightly buttoned uniform. These concrete details establish him as a conspicuous presence among the young men who gather at the house, but his importance comes less from his appearance than from the unambiguous force of his devotion.

His courtship is introduced through a gift tailored to Zinaïda’s expressed wish. Having learned that she wanted a tabby kitten with long ears, he obtains one and presents it to her. The gesture makes his attentiveness visible: he remembers a particular desire and acts on it. Zinaïda thanks him, examines the kitten closely, and then has it taken away when it has had enough. The exchange hints at the imbalance in their attention: a gift can secure a moment of her interest, but does not make the giver the center of it.

Courtship and Devotion

When the kitten is removed, Byelovzorov asks for Zinaïda’s hand in return. She offers both hands, and while he kisses them she looks over his shoulder at Vladimir Petrovitch. The small encounter brings together Byelovzorov’s direct approach and Zinaïda’s control of the social scene. He treats the gesture as a personal reward; she can grant it while also directing her attention elsewhere, leaving the young Vladimir unsure whether to speak, laugh, or remain silent.

The narrator’s later account places this gift and gesture within a recurring pattern. Byelovzorov repeatedly offers to marry Zinaïda and suggests that the other men around her lack serious intentions. He would make a profound sacrifice for her, in the narrator’s assessment, and Zinaïda sometimes addresses him with a possessive nickname. His proposals therefore reflect more than passing flirtation: he imagines a lasting bond and presents himself as ready to commit. Yet the evidence records his offers, not an agreement from Zinaïda, and his devotion does not secure a settled relationship.

Among Zinaïda’s Admirers

Byelovzorov is one of several men whose feelings Zinaïda can awaken and unsettle. The narrator describes her as taking pleasure in stirring hope and fear among her admirers and keeping them under her influence. Byelovzorov’s part in this group is distinctive because he is less defined by literary performance or verbal irony than by forceful attachment and the repeated prospect of marriage. His devotion places him at once close to Zinaïda and vulnerable to her ability to regulate the terms of their encounters.

The contrast with the other men clarifies his position. Meidanov turns his admiration into poems and readings; Lushin combines knowledge of Zinaïda with caustic speech and reluctant submission to her games. Byelovzorov, by contrast, makes his intentions explicit and offers himself as a serious suitor. The narrator sees each admirer as serving a different place in Zinaïda’s circle, though Byelovzorov’s practical hopes do not make him less susceptible to her influence. His earnestness is not a guarantee of reciprocity.

Competition and the Game

Byelovzorov’s courtship also enters the household’s playful contests. During one game, after Vladimir has won a lot, Byelovzorov abruptly offers him a hundred roubles to sell it. The request turns romantic rivalry into a tangible transaction: rather than accept the result of the game, he tries to acquire the prize from the boy who has won it. Vladimir answers with an indignant look, and Zinaïda responds by clapping her hands while Lushin praises the boy. Byelovzorov’s offer thus gives Vladimir a public opportunity to resist him and win approval within the group.

The incident does not establish that Byelovzorov intends anything beyond buying the lot, but it shows how visibly he reacts when the game gives Vladimir a moment of distinction. His offer is blunt and immediate, in keeping with the directness of his courtship. The scene also helps explain why Vladimir remembers the older suitor as a rival, even though the boy’s own feelings are more often shaped by Zinaïda’s attention than by any sustained contest with the men around her.

Separation and Narrative Significance

In a later conversation with Vladimir, Lushin reports that Byelovzorov has been lost to view and that there is no news of him; people say he has gone to the Caucasus. The account is explicitly uncertain, and no confirmed explanation or later fate is supplied. His disappearance nonetheless marks a change: the once prominent suitor who brought gifts and repeatedly proposed marriage is no longer present in the household’s circle.

Lushin uses this absence as a warning to Vladimir. He presents Byelovzorov’s departure as a lesson in the need to break away from an emotional attachment in time, and contrasts the hussar’s fate with Vladimir’s apparent escape from a similar snare. For Vladimir, the report does not end the story of Zinaïda; he thinks he will not see her again, but soon learns that he is destined to meet her once more. Byelovzorov’s narrative function is therefore twofold: he is a suitor whose devotion demonstrates the power Zinaïda holds over her admirers, and his disappearance becomes a measure by which another young man is urged to understand the costs of remaining bound to unreturned or uncertain love.