Who He Is
Trudolyubov is one of the two school friends whom the underground man meets at Simonov's house. He is a military man, tall, with a cold face, and the narrator describes him as quite honest, but deferential to any success and capable of talking only about promotions. A distant relative of Zverkov, and that, observes the narrator, gives him a certain weight among the colleagues (ch. III of Part Two). The narrator says he always held him in no regard, but treated him, if not politely, in a tolerable way. In Simonov's room, however, none of those present notices him, and they treat him like the most common of flies, as they did not even do at school.
Trajectory
In ch. III of Part Two he is the first to do the sum of the farewell dinner, three paying guests at seven rubles each, and to remind everyone that Zverkov does not pay. When the narrator suddenly offers to join the list, it is he who recalls that the narrator has always been at odds with Zverkov, mocks the lofty justifications with which he asks for a place, and closes the discussion by saying that if the man wants so badly to go, let him go. It is a mixture of dry courtesy and impatience, not hostility.
In ch. IV of Part Two he is the one who asks the question that exposes the narrator, who had been waiting a long time for it, and, on learning that no one had warned him of the change in time, defends him, in his way: he finds the lack of notice a discourtesy, not intentional, and tells the narrator that he is too soft. The narrator calls this defense naive, and it is the only time Trudolyubov takes his side; minutes later, when the argument with Ferfichkin heats up, it is he who reminds the narrator that he invited himself alone and must not spoil the group's harmony. Seated to his left, he examines him with curiosity when he hears him answer rudely, and says, seriously, that earning so little is poverty. It is Trudolyubov who raises the first toast, to the old days and the future, and who grows impatient when the narrator leaves his glass full. At the end of the crooked toast he bangs the table with his fist, and afterwards calls the narrator drunk and asks that he be left alone; when the narrator, instead of leaving, asks Zverkov for pardon and friendship, it is he who closes it: enough, let's go. He leaves the room singing a silly song.
In ch. V of Part Two, in the midst of the rush toward the slap, the narrator imagines him hitting him, because he is the strongest.
Themes Embodied
Trudolyubov is, in Part Two, the man of action from Part One seen up close: honest, undistinguished according to the narrator, untroubled about his own place, deferential to success, and for that reason capable of treating the narrator without rancor and without attention. What he wants, as far as one can see, is for Zverkov's farewell to run in harmony, and for that reason he complains about the narrator when he spoils it (ch. III of Part Two, ch. IV of Part Two). What he knows is who has weight in the group. Where he is mistaken, if he is: he takes the intruder for one more difficult guest when he is on the point of bursting with shame. Two readings of the defense he makes of him on the matter of the hour: the honesty of someone who recognizes a discourtesy and says it, or the courtesy of someone who protects the good order of the table, which lasts as long as the order lasts. The link to the theme is Action and Inaction: he is the kind of man whose tranquility the narrator envies (ch. III of Part One) and whose treatment of him as nothing he cannot bear.
Relationships
- The underground man: the colleague who treats him as the most common of flies and who, once, defends him (ch. III of Part Two, ch. IV of Part Two).
- Zverkov: the distant relative and admirer, from whom he receives the weight he has in the group (ch. III of Part Two, ch. IV of Part Two).
- Simonov and Ferfichkin: the two with whom he decides and pays for the dinner (ch. III of Part Two).