Nikita Antonovich Rovnev

Nikita Antonovich Rovnev is a convicted murderer serving time in the Sakhalin Penal Labor Camp. When Leonid Galkin is thrown into a high ranking administration position at the prison, he finds that the majority of the officials under him are corrupt, so he takes up well behaved prisoners to help him with his work instead. Nikita happens to be his favorite of those prisoners. 

Nikita grew up the son of a wealthy landowner. He was a sickly child, asthmatic with a recurring cough. He went to school in Saint Petersburg for a short period which made his lungs considerably worse, leading him to start taking laudanum. Not long after he started to abuse it and got addicted. When he ran out of money in the city he returned home to work for his father. He worked under an overseer who treated him poorly. Under the influence of laudanum he snapped and fatally wounded the man with an axe. 

When it comes to romance, Nikita has not found much luck. He is not known to be charming. He generally avoids eye contact and conversation. But, in spite of all this, Svetlana, a free woman living on Sakhalin, thinks he is something to behold. If her husband knew, however, there would be an issue.