Kuzma Kuzmitch Samsonov

Kuzma Kuzmitch Samsonov is the merchant who acts as Grushenka’s protector and an established business figure with dealings connected to Fyodor Pavlovich’s timber interests. When Dmitri Karamazov, desperate for money, seeks him out with an elaborate scheme, Samsonov turns the encounter into a humiliating dead end: he refuses to see Dmitri and sends him toward a supposed opportunity that is no real rescue. His cold amusement makes him a small but consequential agent in Dmitri’s mounting desperation.

Identity and Position

Samsonov is introduced through his relation to Grushenka: he is her protector, and Dmitri sees access to him as a possible route to the money he urgently needs. Samsonov’s position gives him the power to entertain or dismiss Dmitri’s proposal, but the evidence presents no sympathy or practical assistance from him.

The Failed Appeal

Dmitri decides to approach Samsonov with what he calls a scheme, hoping to obtain the entire sum he requires at once. The plan appears to him both fantastic and practical, a measure of how urgently he is searching for a way out. When Dmitri arrives, Samsonov refuses to receive him. Even after Dmitri persists and sends his name up again, Samsonov questions the messenger about his appearance and whether he is drunk before maintaining his refusal.

The Lyagavy Diversion

Instead of meeting Dmitri, Samsonov directs him toward Lyagavy, a peasant engaged in the timber trade. Lyagavy’s business had involved haggling with Fyodor Pavlovich for a year over the copse at Tchermashnya, without reaching agreement. Dmitri mistakes this connection for a possible opening and responds to the prospect with sudden gratitude, addressing Samsonov as his salvation. But the apparent business lead does not amount to help: Samsonov has sent him on a false trail.

Character and Narrative Function

Only after the catastrophe does the full character of the episode become clear. Samsonov later admits, laughing, that he had made a fool of Dmitri. The retrospective disclosure turns what might have seemed like a failed negotiation into a deliberate humiliation. Described as cold, spiteful, sarcastic, and susceptible to violent antipathies, Samsonov treats Dmitri’s need not as a serious appeal but as an occasion for mockery. His brief intervention therefore sharpens the contrast between Dmitri’s urgent hope and the indifference of a man who could have chosen to receive him.