Marya Vasilyevna Voinitskaya

Widow of a privy councillor, mother of Voinitsky and of the late Vera Petrovna (Serebryakov's first wife), and so grandmother to Sonya and mother-in-law twice over to Serebryakov. An intellectual of the old radical-progressive stripe, absorbed in pamphlets on the emancipation of women and in unwavering, uncritical devotion to her son-in-law Serebryakov's scholarly reputation; she rebukes Voinitsky repeatedly for his hostility toward the professor, including during his Act Three outburst, siding with Serebryakov even as her son unravels in front of her.