Matrona Kharina
Matrona Kharina is the aunt of Katerina Maslova, a village midwife and illicit spirit-seller who played a crucial role in the fate of Maslova's infant child. She embodies the harsh, pragmatic, and morally compromised survival strategies of the rural poor, and her testimony to Nekhludoff reveals the brutal reality of how illegitimate children were disposed of in Tsarist Russia.
Identity and Background
Matrona Kharina is a village woman who lives at the end of the village in a brick cottage, with her hut beyond it. She is the aunt of Katerina Maslova, and it was to her house that Maslova came when her confinement was drawing near, after being turned out by Nekhludoff's aunts. The foreman of the Panovo estate describes her as a woman who keeps a secret pot-house, an illicit trade in spirits, which he knows about but tolerates out of pity for her age and grandchildren. When Nekhludoff first approaches her hut, she is in a bad temper because she cannot manage to get the warp right on her loom, and is afraid of any stranger coming in due to her illegal business. Her initial reaction is cross and suspicious, but upon recognizing Nekhludoff as the master, she immediately shifts to a fawning, obsequious tone, calling him "my honey," "my precious," and "our benefactor." This rapid change reveals her as a woman who has learned to survive by flattering those in power while secretly breaking the law.
Role in Maslova's Story
Matrona Kharina is the central figure in the story of Maslova's baby. When Maslova came to her, the confinement was easy, but the midwife had a case of fever in the village and infected Katusha. The baby boy had to be sent to the Foundlings' Hospital, where, according to the old woman who took him there, he at once died. When Nekhludoff later seeks out Matrona to learn the child's fate, she provides a detailed and chilling account. She explains that she christened the baby properly and sent it to the Foundlings' because she thought Maslova was dying and did not want to let an innocent soul languish. The baby was taken by a woman named Malania, who made a business of transporting infants. Malania would keep and feed babies until she had three or four, then take them all at once to Moscow in a special double cradle, with their feet together and heads apart so they would not knock against each other. She would put pap in a rag into their mouths to keep them quiet. Matrona states that Malania kept Maslova's baby for about a fortnight, and it began to sicken in her house. When asked if it was a fine baby, Matrona replies, "Such a baby, that if you wanted a finer you could not find one. Your very image," she adds with a wink to Nekhludoff. The baby died on the journey to Moscow, and Malania brought a certificate, "all in order." This account, delivered with a matter-of-fact tone, reveals the systematic, unfeeling disposal of unwanted children as a routine business, and Matrona's role as a cog in that system.
Moral and Thematic Significance
Matrona Kharina represents the moral compromises forced upon the poor by extreme poverty. She is not a villain in the conventional sense, but a woman who has internalized the brutal logic of her world. She sells spirits illegally, she lies to the authorities, and she participates in a system that treats infants as disposable cargo. Yet she also presents herself as having acted out of a kind of practical charity, christening the baby and paying to have it sent away rather than letting it starve. Her conversation with Nekhludoff is laced with a cynical, worldly wisdom. She speaks of Maslova's downfall with a mixture of pity and blame, saying, "Eh, sir, who has not sinned before God? who has not offended against the Tsar?" and then immediately criticizes Maslova for not submitting to her master. She embodies the voice of a peasant morality that has been twisted by centuries of oppression, where survival trumps all other considerations. Her testimony is a key piece of evidence in Nekhludoff's moral awakening, forcing him to confront the concrete, horrifying consequences of his own actions, not in the abstract, but in the fate of his own child, disposed of by a woman like Matrona as a matter of routine business.
