Anatole Kryltzoff

Anatole Kryltzoff is a consumptive young revolutionary condemned to hard labor, whose story of witnessing the execution of two innocent prisoners transforms him into a dedicated terrorist and whose death in a Siberian prison mortuary becomes a final, devastating emblem of the system's cruelty.

Identity and Background

Kryltzoff was the only son of a rich landed proprietor in the south of Russia, raised by his mother after his father's early death. He excelled at the gymnasium and university, finishing first in the mathematical faculty in his year, and was offered a choice of remaining in the university or going abroad. He hesitated, torn between a girl he loved and the prospect of taking part in rural administration. His entry into revolutionary activity began almost accidentally: fellow students asked him for money for a common cause, and he gave it from a sense of comradeship and vanity, not knowing it was revolutionary. Those who received the money were caught, a note was found proving he had given it, and he was arrested and imprisoned.

The Execution That Made Him a Revolutionary

In prison, Kryltzoff met two neighbors in adjacent cells: Lozinsky, a Pole, and Rozovsky, a Jew of about seventeen who looked fifteen, thin and small with black, sparkling eyes and a fine singing voice. Both had been caught with Polish proclamations and arrested for attempting to escape from the convoy. They were tried and condemned to death. Kryltzoff and the other prisoners assumed the sentence was only meant to frighten them and would not be confirmed. One evening a watchman told Kryltzoff that carpenters had arrived and were putting up the gallows. The prison fell into a deathly silence; no one tapped the walls or sang. At dawn, Kryltzoff heard doors opening and footsteps. The inspector, pale and downcast, passed his cell. Lozinsky was led out, a handsome young man with a fine Polish face, broad shoulders, and curly fair hair. He stopped at Kryltzoff's window, asked for a cigarette, and said, "It is cruel and unjust. I have committed no crime." Then Rozovsky appeared, his childish face red and moist, his trousers too wide, trembling all over. He asked about cough medicine. The assistant called out, and Rozovsky ran, then shrieked and sobbed. They were both hanged. A watchman told Kryltzoff that Lozinsky did not resist, but Rozovsky struggled for a long time, so they had to force his head into the noose. The watchman said, "It was not at all frightful. After they were hanged they only shrugged their shoulders twice, like this." Kryltzoff repeated the watchman's words and tried to smile but burst into sobs instead. "From that time I became a revolutionist," he said.

Revolutionary Activity and Arrest

Kryltzoff joined the Narodnaya Volya party and became head of a disorganising group whose object was to terrorise the government into giving up power. He travelled to Petersburg, Kiev, Odessa, and abroad, and was everywhere successful. A man in whom he had full confidence betrayed him. He was arrested, tried, kept in prison for two years, and condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted to hard labor for life. He went into consumption while in prison.

Life on the March and Relationships

On the Siberian march, Kryltzoff was among the political prisoners. He was in love with Mary Pavlovna Schetinina, but knowing how she regarded this kind of love, he hid his feelings under the guise of friendship and gratitude for her tenderness in attending to his wants. He was often irritable, especially with Vera Doukhova, whose artificial tone and nervousness irritated him. He was also a fierce opponent of Novodvoroff, whom he disliked and considered ambitious rather than principled. When Novodvoroff argued that the masses could only be the object of revolutionary activity, Kryltzoff flared up, accusing him of the same despotism as the Inquisition. He was the only one among the political prisoners who openly expressed a desire for violent destruction of the authorities, saying, "Not to argue, but for all to unite—to destroy them—that's it." When Nekhludoff objected that they were also human beings, Kryltzoff replied, "No, they are not human, they who can do what they are doing." He spoke of bombing them "as if they were bugs, until they are all exterminated."

Illness and Death

Kryltzoff's health deteriorated rapidly on the march. He wore felt boots and sat doubled up, shivering, his arms folded in the sleeves of his cloak. He coughed violently and spat blood. When news arrived that the revolutionary Neveroff had hanged himself in a lunatic asylum in Kazan, Kryltzoff became agitated and delivered a bitter speech about how the best men were being destroyed. He began coughing worse than before, and a stream of blood rushed from his mouth. Mary Pavlovna brought valerian drops, but he pushed her away. He was placed on a cart with a pillow under his head, and Mary Pavlovna sat by him. He whispered to Nekhludoff about "the problem of the three bodies," comparing the relations between Nekhludoff, Katusha, and Simonson to the mathematical problem of the sun, moon, and earth. He died in the prison infirmary. Nekhludoff found his body in the mortuary, lying with a small, pointed beard sticking upwards, a firm, well-shaped nose, a high white forehead, and thin curly hair. The face was quiet, motionless, and terribly beautiful. Nekhludoff thought, "Why had he suffered? Why had he lived? Does he now understand?" and felt that there was no answer, nothing but death.

Narrative Role and Significance

Kryltzoff's story serves as the most concentrated indictment of the Tsarist system's cruelty within the novel. His transformation from a gifted, hesitant student into a dedicated terrorist is directly caused by the judicial murder of two innocent boys, making him a living example of how state violence creates revolutionaries. His death in the prison mortuary, surrounded by the corpses of other convicts, is the final, devastating image of the system's waste of human life. He represents the revolutionary who has been broken by the system but never repents, and his fate contrasts with Nekhludoff's spiritual awakening, showing that for some, the only possible response to injustice is not forgiveness but destruction.