Fedoroff

Fedoroff is a convict condemned for murder and robbery, whom Nekhludoff repeatedly observes during the long march of the prisoner gang to Siberia. He is a peasant whose father was unlawfully deprived of his house, and who later, while serving as a soldier, suffered greatly because he fell in love with an officer's mistress. Fedoroff had a fascinating, passionate nature that longed for enjoyment at any cost, and he had never met anybody who restrained himself for any cause whatever, nor heard a word about any aim in life other than enjoyment. He became the leader of a band of robbers, and with them murdered an old man, an official. Nekhludoff sees him as a richly endowed natural character who was neglected and crippled like an uncared-for plant, and whose story exemplifies how society sinned against its criminals rather than the reverse.

Appearance and First Encounters

When Nekhludoff first sees Fedoroff among the convicts, he recognizes him in the crowd of prisoners. Fedoroff tosses his head backwards as a sign that he has recognized Nekhludoff, but does not bow, considering it not the thing. Later, in the crowded bachelors' room of a halting station, Nekhludoff notices Fedoroff again, this time keeping a miserable lad with a swelled appearance and raised eyebrows beside him. Fedoroff is part of the noisy crowd of men in wet garments, busy with the prisoner appointed to buy provisions paying off debts with little tickets made of playing cards. When Nekhludoff passes through the passage, Fedoroff and the others follow him with looks of ill-will.

Nekhludoff's Analysis of Fedoroff's Character

Nekhludoff classifies Fedoroff among the fifth class of convicts: persons who had been far more sinned against by society than they had sinned against it. These were castaways, stupefied by continual oppression and temptation, whose conditions of life seemed to lead on systematically to those actions which are termed crimes. Fedoroff, like the inveterate thief Okhotin, had apparently never met with any one whose morality was above that of a policeman, and had got into a band of thieves when quite young. Nekhludoff distinctly sees that both these men were richly endowed by nature, but had been neglected and crippled like uncared-for plants. He finds in them no trace of the criminal type written about by the Italian school, but only sees people who are repulsive to him personally, just in the same way as some he has met outside the prison, in swallow-tail coats wearing epaulettes, or bedecked with lace.

The Effects of Prison Life

Nekhludoff notices the effects of prison life on all the convicts he knows, including Fedoroff. After two months among the convicts, even Taras, Theodosia's husband, strikes Nekhludoff by the want of morality in his arguments. The prison system, Nekhludoff concludes, is purposely invented for the production of depravity and vice, condensed to such a degree that no other conditions could produce it, and for the spreading of this condensed depravity broadcast among the whole population. Ordinary, simple men with a conception of the demands of the social and Christian Russian peasant morality lose this conception, and find a new one, founded chiefly on the idea that any outrage or violence was justifiable if it seemed profitable. After living in a prison, these people become conscious with the whole of their being that, judging by what is happening to themselves, all the moral laws, the respect and the sympathy for others which church and the moral teachers preach, is really set aside, and that, therefore, they, too, need not keep the laws. Fedoroff is one of these men, a product of the system that Nekhludoff now sees as a terrible evil.

Narrative Role and Significance

Fedoroff serves as a concrete example of Nekhludoff's developing critique of the criminal justice system. He is not a monster but a man whose natural gifts were twisted by circumstances beyond his control. His story, along with that of Okhotin, helps Nekhludoff understand that the so-called criminal type is not a biological reality but a social product. Fedoroff's presence in the gang, his handsome appearance, and his charismatic nature make him a particularly poignant illustration of how society destroys the very people it claims to punish. Nekhludoff's analysis of Fedoroff's character is part of his broader investigation into the astonishing institution called criminal law, which he now sees as a system that systematically depraves and destroys human beings.