One Night in Winter

List of Characters

Major characters are underlined; historical characters are marked with an asterisk*

Constantin Romashkin, scriptwriter and poet, married to:

Sophia ‘Mouche’ Gideonovna Zeitlin, film star

Serafima Romashkina, 18, their only child

Sashenka Zeitlin, Sophia’s cousin, arrested 1939, fate unknown

Hercules (Erakle) Satinov, Politburo member, Central Committee Secretary, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, married to:

‘Tamriko’, Tamara Satinova, English teacher at School 801

Mariko Satinova, 6, their daughter

Satinov’s sons by an earlier marriage in Georgia:

‘Vanya’, Ivan Satinov, pilot, killed 1943

David Satinov, 23, pilot

‘George’, Georgi Satinov, 18

Marlen Satinov, 17, School Komsomol Organizer

Colonel Losha Babanava, Comrade Satinov’s chief bodyguard

Valerian Chubin, Comrade Satinov’s aide

Genrikh Dorov, Chairman, Central Control Commission, and Minister of State Control, married to:

‘Dashka’, Dr Daria Dorova, Minister of Health, cardiologist

Their children:

Sergei Dorov, 20, army officer

‘Minka’, Marina Dorova, 18, schoolfriend of Serafima

Demian Dorov, ‘the Weasel’, 17, Organizer of Young Pioneers

‘Senka’, Semyon Dorov, ‘the Little Professor’, 10

‘Nikolasha’, Nikolai Blagov, 18

Ambassador Vadim Blagov, his father, diplomat

Ludmilla Blagova, his mother

Rosa Shako, 18, schoolfriend of Serafima

Marshal Boris Shako, her father, Soviet Air Force Commander

Elena Shako, her mother

Vladimir Titorenko, 17

Ivan Titorenko, his father, Minister of Aircraft Production

Irina Titorenka, his mother

Andrei Kurbsky, 18, a newcomer to the school

Peter Kurbsky, his father, Enemy of the People, arrested in 1938, sentenced to twenty-five years ‘without right of correspondence’

Inessa Kurbskaya, his mother

Kapitolina Medvedeva, Director (headmistress) and history teacher

Dr Innokenty Rimm, Deputy Director, political science/Communist morals teacher

Benya Golden, Russian literature teacher

Tamara Satinova, English teacher (see Satinov family above)

Apostollon Shuba, physical education teacher

Agrippina Begbulatova, assistant teacher

Josef Stalin,* Marshal, General Secretary (Gensec) of the Communist Party, Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the Master, the Instantsiya

‘Vaska’, Vasily Josefovich Stalin,* 24, his son, air force officer, ‘Crown Prince’

Svetlana Stalina,* 19, his daughter, student

Vyacheslav Molotov,* Foreign Minister, Politburo member

Lavrenti Beria,* secret policeman, Minister of Internal Affairs (NKVD/MVD) 1938–45, Deputy Chairman of Council of Ministers, Politburo member

Georgi Malenkov,* Politburo member

Andrei Vyshinsky,* Deputy Foreign Minister

‘Sasha’, Alexander Poskrebyshev,* Stalin’s chef-de-cabinet

Vsevolod Merkulov,* Minister of State Security (MGB)

Victor Abakumov,* Chief of Military Counter-intelligence (SMERSH: Death to Spies), then Minister of State Security (MGB)

Marshal Georgi Zhukov,* Deputy Supreme Commander

Marshal Ivan Konev*

Marshal Constantin Rokossovsky*

Colonel Pavel Mogilchuk, investigator, Serious Cases Section MGB

General Bogdan Kobylov,* ‘the Bull’, MGB

Colonel Vladimir Komarov,* investigator, SMERSH/MGB

Colonel Mikhail Likhachev,* investigator, SMERSH/MGB

Averell Harriman,* US Ambassador to Moscow

Captain Frank Belman, diplomat, deputy military attaché, interpreter