# The Bolshevik Myth — Character guide

> Key figures in The Bolshevik Myth by Alexander Berkman.

- [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/unknown_narrator.md): He comes to Soviet Russia exultant, ready to ignore doctrinal differences and work for the Revolution, and finds himself instead learning its daily texture: surrogat tea, thin soup, and the anxious glance at an empty cha
- [Nestor Makhno](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/nestor_makhno.md): To peasants of the South he is their truest friend, one of their own; to Moscow he is a bandit and counterrevolutionary; to the anarchists at the communal table he is the Revolution's last living expression. He proclaims
- [Lenin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/lenin.md): The narrator arrives believing Lenin's own assertion that he and his followers are ultimately anarchists, that political power is only a temporary means. That faith is the premise of the whole journey, and every requisit
- [Chicherin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/chicherin.md): He turns night into day in a cold office, shawl slipping onto his papers, snapping at a clerk over a confused draft and then snatching it away to retype himself. He asks the narrator how soon revolution might come to Ame
- [Zinoviev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/zinoviev.md): He belongs to the tier of Bolshevik leadership the narrator encounters as the Revolution's public face, invoked with the easy familiarity of comrades who preside over meetings and circles. Around him cluster the small hu
- [Peter Kropotkin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/peter_kropotkin.md): He looks tired and weak, exhausted by the mere presence of visitors, and the narrator fears he may not live long under such conditions. That the Ukraine's anarchists and even Makhno must smuggle him provisions is a quiet
- [Karakhan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/karakhan.md): Soviet diplomat and deputy to Chicherin.
- [Alexander Berkman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/alexander_berkman.md): An anarchist veteran of the American movement, Berkman returns to revolutionary Russia only to watch the Bolsheviks strangle the revolution he came to serve.
- [Emma Goldman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/emma_goldman.md): Berkman's fiery companion, Goldman laughs easily and grieves hard, measuring the Revolution by the fate of imprisoned comrades like Spiridonova.
- [Trotsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/trotsky.md): Bolshevik leader and founder of the Red Army.
- [Radek](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/radek.md): Bolshevik politician and journalist.
- [Kamenev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/kamenev.md): Bolshevik leader and chairman of the Moscow Soviet.
- [Lunacharsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/lunacharsky.md): People's Commissar for Education and culture.
- [Angelica Balabanova](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/angelica_balabanova.md): Italian socialist and Comintern official.
- [Bertrand Russell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/bertrand_russell.md): British philosopher visiting Soviet Russia.
- [Yossif](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/yossif.md): Known as the Emigrant, Yossif is a beloved Ukrainian anarchist organizer whose sunny idealism curdles into militant faith in Makhno's peasant uprising.
- [Moishe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/moishe.md): A Jewish character encountered by the narrator.
- [Dr. G⸺](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/dr_g.md): A doctor who appears in the narrative.
- [Tovarish Karus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/tovarish_karus.md): A Bolshevik official encountered by the narrator.
- [The Chekist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/the_chekist.md): A member of the Cheka secret police.
- [Tovarish Drozdov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/tovarish_drozdov.md): A Bolshevik official or comrade.
- [Liza Zorin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/zorin_liza.md): A woman encountered by the narrator.
- [Lena](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/lena.md): A woman encountered by the narrator.
- [Burov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/burov.md): A character in the narrative.
- [Ethel Bernstein](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/ethel_bernstein.md): An American woman visiting Russia.
- [Bakaiev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/bakaiev.md): A Bolshevik official.
- [Gallina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/gallina.md): A woman encountered by the narrator.
- [Mr. Berkshire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/mr_berkshire.md): A British visitor to Russia.
- [Novikov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/novikov.md): A Bolshevik official.
- [Mme. Lunacharskaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/lunacharskaya.md): Wife of Lunacharsky.
- [The Colonel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/the_colonel.md): A military officer encountered by the narrator.
- [Big Samuel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/big_samuel.md): A Jewish character encountered by the narrator.
- [Semyon Petrovitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/semyon_petrovitch.md): A character in the narrative.
- [Bianki](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/bianki.md): A character in the narrative.
- [Fanya Baron](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/fanya_baron.md): An anarchist woman encountered by the narrator.
- [N⸺](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/n.md): A character whose name is redacted.
- [Little Vera](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/little_vera.md): A young girl encountered by the narrator.
- [Rostchin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/rostchin.md): A character in the narrative.
- [Krestinsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/krestinsky.md): A Bolshevik official.
- [Lansbury](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/lansbury.md): British Labour politician visiting Russia.
- [Petlura](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/petlura.md): Ukrainian nationalist leader.
- [Kalinin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/kalinin.md): Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee.
- [Maria Spiridonova](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/maria_spiridonova.md): Left Socialist Revolutionary leader.
- [Henry Alsberg](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/henry_alsberg.md): American journalist and relief worker.
- [Bukharin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/bukharin.md): Bolshevik leader and theorist.
- [K⸺](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/k.md): A character whose name is redacted.
- [Tchaikovsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/tchaikovsky.md): A character in the narrative.
- [Skoropadsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/skoropadsky.md): Ukrainian hetman during the civil war.
- [Askarev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/askarev.md): A universalist thinker encountered by the narrator.
- [Astrov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/astrov.md): A character in the narrative.
- [Sergei](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_bolshevik_myth_se/characters/sergei.md): A character in the narrative.

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