Aksutka Bousovkin

Aksutka Bousovkin is the small daughter of the exiled prisoner Bousovkin, a convict traveling with the gang to Siberia. After her mother died of typhus in Tomsk, her father carried her all the way from that city, wrapped in a shawl, until a violent incident with the convoy officer separated them. The child becomes a symbol of the innocent suffering embedded in the penal system, and her care is taken up by the political prisoners, especially Mary Pavlovna and Katerina Maslova.

Identity and Background

Aksutka is a very young girl, described as having flaxen hair and a sweet, childish voice. She is the daughter of Bousovkin, a prisoner exiled by his Commune, and her mother died of typhus during the journey from Tomsk. From that point, her father carried her with him, keeping her wrapped in a shawl as the gang marched. She knows no other life than the road and the halting stations, and she calls her father "daddy" with the trusting familiarity of a child who has only him.

The Incident with the Convoy Officer

One morning, as the gang prepared to leave a halting station, the convoy officer ordered Bousovkin to be manacled. Bousovkin explained that he could not carry the child if his hands were chained, but the officer, already in a bad temper, struck him in the face and shouted abuse. The officer then ordered a soldier to take the girl away. Aksutka screamed desperately, her face turning red, as she tried to disengage her arms from the shawl. Mary Pavlovna stepped forward and asked to carry the child, and after a moment the officer allowed it. But the girl would not go to Mary Pavlovna; she only came to Maslova, who offered her a rusk. Maslova took her into her arms, and the child quieted. From that moment, Aksutka stayed with the women.

Life Among the Political Prisoners

After the incident, Aksutka was placed in the care of the political prisoners. Mary Pavlovna and Rintzeva made her new clothes out of Rintzeva's own petticoats, and the girl prattled happily about the "nice red ones." She slept with the women and called Mary Pavlovna and Maslova her caretakers. When her father came to see her in the political prisoners' room, she ran to him, calling out "Here's daddy come!" in her ringing voice. He asked to leave her with the ladies, and the inspector agreed. The child adapted quickly, showing the resilience of the very young, but her presence was a constant reminder of the cruelty that had orphaned her and the violence that had torn her from her father's arms.

Narrative Role and Significance

Aksutka is a minor but powerful figure in the novel's indictment of the penal system. She is one of the "little ones" whom Christ said should not perish, yet she is forced to march with convicts, sleep in stinking cells, and witness brutality. Her innocent face, asleep on the leg of a criminal in the foul passage of a halting station, haunts Nekhludoff as the most dreadful image of all. Through her, Tolstoy shows that the system does not merely punish the guilty but destroys the innocent—children who have committed no crime and cannot defend themselves. Her rescue by Maslova and Mary Pavlovna also marks a turning point in Maslova's moral recovery, as she steps into the role of protector and nurturer.