Kashkin Character Analysis in For Whom the Bell Tolls

Kashkin is a Russian soldier who worked alongside Pablo and Pilar’s guerillas before Robert Jordan. He was an experienced dynamiter, like Jordan, and earned a great deal of respect from the guerillas after successfully blowing up a train. Jordan knew him as a fighter and reflects that “there was something wrong with [him] evidently and he was working it out in Spain”: the two had a friendly relationship, though Jordan was forced to shoot him after he was wounded in action. Jordan realizes that he did not feel much emotion about this killing (perhaps because it was a mercy killing and not outright murder).

Kashkin Character Timeline in For Whom the Bell Tolls

The timeline below shows where the character Kashkin appears in For Whom the Bell Tolls. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Violence, Cowardice, and Death Theme Icon

...at Arevalo,” and that there was a foreigner with him. Jordan recognizes the foreigner as Kashkin, and says that he was killed in April. (full context)

...packs and gives Pablo some cigarettes. Pablo says that “the other with the rare name,” Kashkin, had the same kinds of cigarettes. As the men drink wine, Pablo asks how Kashkin... (full context)

Robert Jordan says that Kashkin was crazy to have talked about asking for his own death. Pablo asks Jordan if... (full context)

...Estremadura, and that he has come to take the place of the “other blond one,” Kashkin. He says that he will learn this area quickly, since he has a good map... (full context)

...and greets Robert Jordan kindly. Jordan tells her that he is an explosives expert like Kashkin, though he has come to blow up a bridge this time, not a train, and... (full context)

...short and dark-haired. One of the brothers says that Jordan’s cigarettes are like the ones Kashkin had, and Jordan asks him if they were at the train. The other brother replies... (full context)

Pilar says that the last dynamiter sent to the group, Kashkin, was “very nervous,” and Robert Jordan admits that he shot him when he was injured... (full context)

The Eternality of the Present Theme Icon

...wants to take her to see the Marx Brothers at the Opera. Jordan recalls that Kashkin was the first to take him to Gaylord’s, to meet Karkov, “the most intelligent man... (full context)

...the book that he will write someday. She asks him if he likes Russians, since Kashkin was a Russian, and Jordan says that he thought he was “very beautiful and very... (full context)

...Pilar says that Robert Jordan is “deaf” and “cannot hear music,” and that she foretold Kashkin’s death. Jordan insists that she saw only “fear and apprehension” in his face, not death,... (full context)

...that he is “very rare”: very different from the last dynamiter who worked with them, Kashkin. Jordan says that there is one difference between them: he is alive, and Kashkin is... (full context)