Sashenka

CAST OF CHARACTERS

The names of historical figures are marked with an asterisk.

The Family: the Zeitlins

Sashenka (Alexandra Samuilovna) Zeitlin, schoolgirl at the Smolny Institute

Baron Samuil Moiseievich Zeitlin, St. Petersburg banker and Sashenka’s father

Baroness Ariadna (Finkel Abramovna) Zeitlin, née Barmakid, Sashenka’s mother

Gideon Moiseievich Zeitlin, Samuil’s brother, journalist/novelist

Vera Zeitlin, his wife, and their two daughters,

Vika (Viktoria) Zeitlin and

Mouche (Sophia) Zeitlin, actress

The Family: the Barmakids

Abram Barmakid, Rabbi of Turbin, Ariadna and Mendel’s father

Miriam Barmakid, Ariadna and Mendel’s mother

Avigdor Abramovich “Arthur” Barmakid, Ariadna and Mendel’s brother who left for England

Mendel Abramovich Barmakid, Ariadna and Avigdor’s brother, Bolshevik leader

Natasha, a Yakut, Mendel’s wife and Bolshevik comrade

Lena (Vladlena), only daughter of Mendel and Natasha

The Zeitlin Household

Lala, Audrey Lewis, Sashenka’s English governess

Pantameilion, chauffeur

Leonid, butler

Delphine, the French cook

Luda and Nyuna, parlormaids

Shifra, Samuil’s old governess

St. Petersburg, 1916

Peter de Sagan, Captain of Gendarmes, officer of the Okhrana, penniless Baltic nobleman

Rasputin,* Grigory the “Elder,” peasant healer and the Empress’s “friend”

Anya Vyrubova,* Empress’s close friend and Rasputin supporter

Julia “Lili” von Dehn,* Empress’s close friend and Rasputin supporter

Prince Mikhail Andronnikov,* well-connected influence-peddler

Countess Missy Loris, Ariadna’s American friend, married to Count Loris, St. Petersburg aristocrat

Boris Sturmer,* Premier of Tsarist Russia, 1916

D. F. Trepov,* penultimate Premier of Tsarist Russia, 1916

Prince Dmitri Golitsyn,* last Premier of Tsarist Russia, 1916–17

Alexander Protopopov,* syphilitic politician and the last Tsarist Minister of the Interior

Ivan Manuilov-Manesevich,* spy, con man, journalist and fixer for Premier Sturmer

Max Flek, Baron Zeitlin’s lawyer

Dr. Mathias Gemp, fashionable doctor

The Bolsheviks and Others, 1939

Vladimir Illich Lenin,* Bolshevik leader

Grigory Zinoviev,* Bolshevik leader

Josef Vissarionovich Stalin,* né Djugashvili, nickname “Koba,” a Georgian Bolshevik, later General Secretary of Communist Party, Premier and Soviet dictator

Vyechaslav Molotov,* né Scriabin, nicknamed “Vecha,” Bolshevik, later Soviet Premier and Foreign Minister

Alexander Shlyapnikov,* worker and midranking Bolshevik in charge of Party during February Revolution of 1917

Hercules (Erakle Alexandrovich) Satinov, young Georgian Bolshevik

Tamara, Satinov’s young wife

Mariko, Satinov’s daughter

Ivan “Vanya” Palitsyn, worker, Bolshevik activist

Nikolai and Marfa Palitsyn, Vanya’s parents

Razum, Vanya’s driver

Nikolai Yezhov,* “the Bloody Dwarf,” secret police chief (People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs—NKVD), 1936–8

Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria,* a Georgian, Stalin’s secret police chief (People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs—NKVD), 1938 onward

Bogdan Kobylov,* Georgian secret policeman, Beria’s chief henchman, “The Bull”

Pavel Mogilchuk, NKVD investigator, Serious Cases Section, State Security, and author of detective stories

Boris Rodos,* NKVD investigator, Serious Cases Section, State Security

Vasily Blokhin,* NKVD executioner, Major, State Security

Count Alexei Tolstoy,* writer

Ilya Ehrenburg,* writer

Isaac Babel,* writer

Klavdia Klimov, deputy editor of Soviet Wife and Proletarian Housekeeping

Misha Kalman, features editor, Soviet Wife and Proletarian Housekeeping

Leonid Golechev, NKVD commandant of Special Object 110, Sukhanovka Prison

Benjamin (known as “Benya”) Golden, writer

The Vinsky Family of the North Caucasus

Dr. Valentin Vinsky, a Russian doctor in the village of Beznadezhnaya Tatiana Vinsky, his wife

Katinka (Ekaterina Valentinovna), their daughter

Bedbug, Sergei Vinsky, Valentin’s father, a peasant

Baba, Irina Vinsky, Valentin’s mother, a peasant

The Getman Family of Odessa

Roza Getman, née Liberhart, widow from Odessa

Pasha (Pavel) Getman, Roza’s son, a billionaire oligarch

Professor Enoch Liberhart, Roza Getman’s father, Professor of Musicology at the Odessa Conservatoire

Dr. Perla Liberhart, Roza Getman’s mother, teacher of literature at Odessa University

Moscow, 1990s

Maxy Shubin, historian of Stalin’s Terror

Colonel Lentin, Russian secret policeman, KGB/FSB, the Marmoset

Colonel Trofimsky, Russian secret policeman, KGB/FSB, the Magician

Kuzma, archivist in KGB/FSB archives

Agrippina Begbulatov, archive official

Apostollon Shcheglov, archivist