# My Disillusionment in Russia — Character guide

> Key figures in My Disillusionment in Russia by Emma Goldman.

- [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/unknown_narrator.md): She arrives possessed by hope, determined to become an active part of revolutionary reconstruction, and instead finds reality grotesque and unlike the great ideal that bore her there. Each day adds a new link to the fata
- [Nestor Makhno](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/nestor_makhno.md): Makhno never sits across from the narrator; he reaches her through a friend in hiding, a man with a baby asleep in a dreary room who talks in subdued voices about the Ukrainian peasantry and the Makhno movement. That fri
- [Angelica Balabanova](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/angelica_balabanova.md): The narrator finds her huddled on a sofa in a small, cheerless room, gracious as an old friend, ordering the inevitable samovar. Where others recite the old refrain, Balabanova admits that life itself is mean and limited
- [Lenin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/lenin.md): From her first interview the narrator reads him as a man who knows exactly what he is about and will stop at nothing to achieve his ends. He swims with the tide when the cry for Soviet power sweeps Russia, then issues sl
- [Peter Kropotkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/peter_kropotkin.md): In two days at his household the narrator learns more of his personal life than in all the years she had known him: the drawings of great merit, the piano he played with unusual ability. He lies on his couch as if peacef
- [Maria Spiridonova](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/maria_spiridonova.md): The narrator zigzags through back streets to a top-floor room where Spiridonova sits before a desk piled with letters, having escaped from a Kremlin prison. Told she had broken down into hysteria, the narrator instead fi
- [Lunacharsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/lunacharsky.md): Bolshevik Commissar of Education, encountered in cultural and political contexts.
- [Lisa Zorin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/lisa_zorin.md): Lisa Zorin is a schoolteacher of about twenty-five, poorly clad but neat, who tells Goldman plainly that provincial authorities outdo Moscow in arbitrariness and that the glowing reports of falling illiteracy are exagger
- [Maxim Gorky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/maxim_gorky.md): Famous Russian writer who interacts with the narrator in Petrograd.
- [Jack Reed](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/jack_reed.md): American journalist and communist who appears briefly in the narrative.
- [Zinoviev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/zinoviev.md): Bolshevik leader and chairman of the Petrograd Soviet, encountered by the narrator.
- [Trotsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/trotsky.md): Bolshevik military leader, mentioned and occasionally seen in political settings.
- [Alexander Berkman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/alexander_berkman.md): Alexander Berkman is Goldman's closest comrade, the companion with whom she entered Russia possessed by hope and with whom she measured each new link in the fatal chain of disappointment. He shares her anarchist ideals a
- [Karl Radek](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/karl_radek.md): Bolshevik official and propagandist, met during political discussions.
- [Fanya Baron](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/fanya_baron.md): Anarchist woman who becomes a friend and later a victim of persecution.
- [Louise Bryant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/louise_bryant.md): American journalist and wife of Jack Reed, met in Russia.
- [Lev Tcherny](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/lev_tcherny.md): Anarchist intellectual and poet, encountered by the narrator.
- [Ravitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/ravitch.md): Anarchist woman active in the movement, met in the Ukraine.
- [Bill Shatov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/bill_shatov.md): American anarchist working in Soviet Russia, a friend of the narrator.
- [Krasnoschekov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/krasnoschekov.md): Bolshevik official in the Ukraine, met during the narrator's travels.
- [Alexandra Kollontai](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/alexandra_kollontai.md): Bolshevik feminist and diplomat, briefly encountered.
- [Wetoshkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/wetoshkin.md): Bolshevik official involved in trade union affairs.
- [Sasha Kropotkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/sasha_kropotkin.md): Son of Peter Kropotkin, present at his father's funeral.
- [Alexander Blok](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/alexander_blok.md): Russian poet, mentioned in cultural discussions.
- [Chicherin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/chicherin.md): Bolshevik Commissar for Foreign Affairs, met briefly.
- [Kaplun](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/kaplun.md): Bolshevik official involved in cultural matters.
- [Petrovsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/petrovsky.md): Bolshevik official in the Ukraine.
- [Korolenko](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/korolenko.md): Russian writer and humanitarian, visited by the narrator.
- [Madame Breshkovsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/madame_breshkovsky.md): Elderly Socialist Revolutionary, met in passing.
- [Emma Goldman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/emma_goldman.md): Emma Goldman is the narrator and an anarchist activist who arrives in Russia possessed by the hope of finding a people wholly consecrated to revolutionary reconstruction, and who had fervently hoped to become an active p
- [Volin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/volin.md): Anarchist theorist and activist, met in the Ukraine.
- [Grigoriev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/grigoriev.md): Ukrainian ataman who briefly allied with Makhno.
- [Denikin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/denikin.md): White Army general, mentioned as an enemy of the Bolsheviks.
- [Joffe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/joffe.md): Bolshevik diplomat, briefly mentioned.
- [Kalinin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/kalinin.md): Bolshevik figurehead, met in passing.
- [Doctor Pervukhin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/doctor_pervukhin.md): Doctor who treated the narrator during illness.
- [Mr. Kaplan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/mr_kaplan.md): Jewish acquaintance met in the Ukraine.
- [G. Maximoff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/g_maximoff.md): Anarchist writer and activist, met briefly.
- [Mark Mratchny](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters/mark_mratchny.md): Anarchist comrade, encountered in Russia.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/my_disillusionment_in_russia_se/characters