What is the name of the protagonist in Leskov's 'Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District'?

The protagonist in Leskov's 'Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District' is Katerina Izmailova. More fully, she is Katerina Lvovna Izmailova, a merchant's wife whose dissatisfaction and isolation drive the novella's tragic plot.

Katerina lives in provincial Russia and feels trapped in an unhappy marriage and an empty household. After her husband leaves on business, she begins an affair with Sergei, a farmhand. Their relationship becomes increasingly destructive, leading to murder, exposure, arrest, and exile to Siberia.

Leskov published the novella in 1865 in Fyodor Dostoevsky's magazine Epoch. Its title alludes to Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, but Katerina is not simply a Russian copy of Shakespeare's character. Leskov uses her story to examine gender restrictions, boredom, desire, violence, and the social world of nineteenth-century merchants.

The name can appear in different transliterations, including Ekaterina Izmailova or Katerina Lvovna Izmailova. These refer to the same central character. Natasha Rostova and Sonya Marmeladova, by contrast, belong to Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' and Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment'.