person
Lushkov
also: Лушков, the beggar, the ragged man
A destitute former choir singer, dismissed for drunkenness, who begs from Skvortsov with a fabricated story about being a dismissed village schoolteacher; caught in the lie, he is set to chopping firewood and, over two years of casual work, gets sober and finds steady employment as a notary's clerk. He credits his reform not to Skvortsov's tirade but to the cook Olga's compassion.
Reading notes
- The Beggar §38 Lushkov
The beggar's real surname, given only here, after two years of casual charity work have earned him enough of Skvortsov's trust to be asked -- and to answer honestly.