Karakterler

Butler

A young Russian officer. He views life on the Russian front in the Caucasus through a romantic lens; he finds being a soldier, overcoming perils, and life in uniform poetic. Having previously lived in St. Petersburg, he lost everything due to gambling debts and joined the war. He harbors a naive admiration for Hadji Murat and Dagestani culture; in his heroism, he finds the virtues of the hero he has envisioned for himself. He develops a modest cross-cultural friendship with Hadji Murat.

Tsar Nicholas I

The Russian Emperor of the era. He is the novel's most powerful background figure and represents not just authority, but serves as proof of how absolutist power turns a person into someone arrogant, ruthless, and disconnected from reality. The final word on decisions determining Hadji Murat's fate belongs to him. He legitimizes his own cruelty under the guise of the state's survival and virtue. While ordering the destruction of villages in the Caucasus and the exile of innocent villagers, there is not a trace of mercy in his mind; on the contrary, he fancies himself a supreme figure carrying the welfare of the entire world on his shoulders.

Eldar

One of Hadji Murad's most loyal and favorite disciples who never left his side even when he was a naib. He is a strong, agile, handsome young man at the beginning of his youth. He feels such loyalty that he would sacrifice his own life for a single glance or command from his master. He is like an extension of Hadji Murad's will through his actions rather than his words. He takes part in every adventure, including Hadji Murad's crossing to the Russian front, with oceanic obedience. In the end, he dies an honorable death fighting beside his master.

Hadji Murat

Hadji Murad is one of the legendary warriors of Chechnya and Dagestan, a former Avar naib. He fought for the freedom and honor of his people and plagued Russian forces for years. However, he was ousted due to a leadership rivalry and blood feud with Imam Shamil, and his family was taken hostage. His entire life is shaped by the desire to rescue his mother, wife, and children (especially his son Yusuf) being held as hostages. To this end, he seeks refuge with the Russian Empire, which he hates, only to realize that they intend to use him merely as a pawn. Refusing to bow to the deceptions and intrigues around him, Hadji Murad embarks on a final, suicidal escape and dies fighting in a manner worthy of his legend.

Ivan Matveyevich (Alekseyev)

Major and company commander of the Kurinsky Regiment. A veteran who has been on the Caucasian front for years and tries to endure the hardness and boredom of the front by drinking and laughing boorishly with those around him. He lives unmarried with Marya Dmitriyevna. He views conflicts, blood, and horror as if they were just part of a routine. He is comfortable enough to spend from the company treasury, but is a fearless soldier on the front.

Marya Dmitriyevna

The unofficial wife of Major Ivan Matveyevitch (though treated as his wife). Principally the daughter of a medical officer, Marya is one of the rare characters who can run a household in a small fortress in the middle of a front line and remain loving and motherly amidst military savagery and destruction. In the middle of all that coarse military environment, she preserves her own honor, purity, and compassion. She approaches Hadji Murad and even Butler with mercy; at the end of the novel, she is the voice of conscience, looking at Murad's severed head with disgust and branding the Russian soldiers as 'murderers'.

Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov

The son of the commander-in-chief of Russian forces in the Caucasus and one of the important political actors in the region (according to the work, both his father and he are important in Caucasian politics; his representative at the fort is Prince Vorontsov). He is an educated and refined diplomat who has seen Europe. He finds Hadji Murat's defection to the Russian side useful for drawing out his potential military knowledge in defeating Shamil. However, he can never grasp Hadji Murat's true, profound grief at a philosophical level; for him, everything is a move in a grand military chess game played for the victory of Russia and his own prestige.

Shamil

The Imam who united the Caucasian highlanders in the lands of Dagestan and Chechnya to resist Russian expansionism. He is intelligent and politically equipped, but equally ruthless and authoritarian. Shamil viewed Hadji Murat's growing power and influence as a threat to his own leadership, hence he declared him a traitor and took his family captive. He maintains absolute control over the people through strict Sharia rules, intimidation, and religious charisma. He never shies away from disposing of former allies to protect his power.