A young student that Alyosha thinks of as his friend, but who secretly dislikes Alyosha. Irritable and sarcastic, he does not believe in God and likes to use fashionable philosophical theories, saying that he is a socialist and saying things that Nietzsche said. He is annoyed by Alyosha's real purity and tries to introduce him to Grushenka, hoping that she will shake his religious faith.