Countess Lidia Ivanovna

Also known as: Countess Lidia / Lidia Ivanovna / the countess · Family: society · Role: countess · First appears: PART ONE · Chapter 31

Countess Lidia Ivanovna was Karenin’s friend and the center of one of the Petersburg society circles through which Anna was closely connected to him. She was also friends with Anna, and in chapter 32 described to Karenin the letter she had received from Pravdin, a well-known Panslavist. In time, however, she withdrew from Anna: she declined to settle in Peterhof, stopped visiting her, and hinted to Karenin that Anna’s intimacy with Betsy and Vronsky was unsuitable. Karenin defended his wife and thereafter avoided the countess.

After Karenin’s trouble, Countess Lidia Ivanovna took him under her special protection, supported him in the affair, and helped turn him into an ardent adherent of a new interpretation of Christian doctrine. She assumed responsibility for organizing and managing his household and caring for Seryozha, telling the child that his father was a saint and his mother was dead. When she learned that Anna and Vronsky were in Petersburg, she sought to prevent Karenin from seeing Anna; after Anna asked to see Seryozha, the countess refused, telling him, “Say that there is no answer,” with Karenin’s consent. She sent Seryozha a birthday present, while Nadinka, her niece, was being brought up in her house; later, Seryozha learned that his mother was alive but was considered dead to him because she was deemed wicked.

By chapter 147, Countess Lidia Ivanovna considered her attachment to Karenin her genuine love, unlike her earlier passions for figures including Komissarov and Ristitch-Kudzhitsky. Later she lost her heart to Jules Landau, also called Count Bezzubov, whose influence extended over her household and Karenin’s affairs. She received visitors and discussed matters involving Stepan Arkadyevitch, Madame Borozdina, Pomorsky, and Marie Sanina, while Landau’s presence delighted her. She was also named alongside Ivan Ivanovitch Ragozov and Madame Stahl as having declared war on the Turks.