Red Sky at Noon

Main Characters

Historical characters are marked with an asterisk

The Prisoners of Madyak-7

Benya Golden, writer, sentenced to 25 years

Jaba Leonadze, the Brigand-in-Power, Vor v Zakone, the Boss, a Georgian

Ramzan Ulibnush, ‘Smiley’, Chechen Criminal

‘Deathless’, Russian Criminal

Kuzma Prishchepa, ‘Speedy’, young Criminal, Don Cossack

Little Mametka, ‘Bette Davis’, Georgian Criminal

Dr Kapto, the ‘Baby Doctor’

Tonya (Antonina) Makarova, his nurse and assistant

Nyushka, ‘Bunny’, nurse

Yevgeny Melishko, ‘the General’, ex-prisoner

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Mogilchuk, NKVD officer, Head of the Special Unit

Captain Vladimir Ganakovich, Politruk, Political Officer

Captain Leonid Zhurko, officer

Sergeant Pantaleimon Churelko, ‘Panka’, Don Cossack, veteran of World War 1

Garanzha, ‘Spider’, Zaparozhian Cossack

Ismail Karimov, ‘Koshka’, ‘the Cat’, Uzbek

Major Ippolito Bacigalupe

Fabiana Bacigalupe, nurse, his wife

Cesare Malamore, Consul (Colonel) of Blackshirts (Voluntary Militia for National Security)

Major Count Scipione di Montefalcone, Savoy cavalry officer

Konstantin Mandryka, Chief of Schuma auxiliary police (Schutzmannschaft: ‘protection team’)

Bronislav Kaminsky,* deputy to Mandryka, Chief of Schuma, later commander of the SS Sturmbrigade Kaminsky (Russian National Liberation Army), Waffen-SS Brigadeführer, Iron Cross

SS Obersturmführer Oskar Dirlewanger,* convicted rapist/murderer, commander of the Nazi penal battalion known as the ‘Poachers’ Brigade’ and the Sonderkommando Dirlewanger, later Oberführer, Iron Cross

Josef Stalin,* Supreme Commander, Chairman of the State Defence Committee, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars, People’s Commissar of Defence, General Secretary of the Communist Party, ‘the Supremo’, ‘the Instantsiya’

Hercules Satinov, Soviet leader, member of the State Defence Committee, colonel general

Lavrenti Beria,* head of NKVD Security Organs, member of the State Defence Committee, Commissar-General of State Security

Svetlana Stalina,* daughter of the Leader, schoolgirl

Vasily Stalin,* son of the Leader, colonel in the air force, later general

Lev Shapiro, ‘the Lion’, journalist, screenwriter, war correspondent for Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper